Pain and Suffering: Some years ago I came across and was very impressed by Shinzen Young’s approximate algebraic formulation of the relationship of suffering to actual physical pain and psychological factors (see http://www.shinzen.org for relevant writings or his book, Break Through Pain: A Step-by-Step Mindfulness Meditation Program for Transforming Chronic and Acute Pain). Having a [...]
Background: Notes on an event in a 50+ year attempt to learn and benefit from spiritual practices…. For some years now, I have been trying various meditation techniques from many world traditions, particularly techniques which meditation teacher Shinzen Young has modified in various ways to make more sense to and be more doable by modern [...]
Continue reading about Experiences of Peace – or Was It Resting in the Nature of Mind?
Dr. Charles Tart Mindfulness Dr. Charles T. Tart, Mindfulness, Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, Lecture 5, Part 8 of 18 parts. To start class from beginning, click here. CTT: And that’s the problem with concentrative meditation. With concentrative meditation, some people can develop an enormous amount of concentration power, and they can get rid of pain [...]
Dr. Charles Tart Mindfulness Dr. Charles T. Tart, Mindfulness, Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, Lecture 5, Part 8 of 18 parts. To start class from beginning, click here. CTT: This third method, doing Vipassana meditation on unpleasant sensations and going into them, is a very interesting method. I strongly recommend Shinzen Young’s book, Break Through Pain, [...]
Continue reading about Getting Rid of the “Bigger Hammer” Approach
Dr. Charles Tart Mindfulness Dr. Charles T. Tart, Mindfulness, Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, Lecture 4, Part 7 of 18 parts. To start class from beginning, click here. Student: You can only handle as much pleasure as you can pain. CTT: Sounds like a cool idea. I have no idea whether it’s true or not! Student: [...]
Many times in my life I’ve been presented with some useful truth – and I don’t get it. But if it’s presented to me several times, and/or in several different forms, I may finally understand. Here I’m thinking about the idea, common to all spiritual traditions I know of, that there is something badly wrong [...]
Dr. Charles T. Tart, Mindfulness, Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, Lecture 4, Part 12 of 19 parts. To start class from beginning, click here. Student: What comes to mind is motivation: what brings people to meditation, and the extent to which someone understands the suffering that they’re experiencing, whether it be psychological or physical. I think [...]
Continue reading about Meditation, Motivation and the 5% Success Rate
Dr. Charles T. Tart, Mindfulness, Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, Lecture 4, Part 9 of 19 parts. To start class from beginning, click here. Student: Is that where the subpersonalities come in? And do we maybe need to acknowledge it and then let it go? I wonder. Student: So you have to be somebody before you [...]
Dr. Charles T. Tart, Mindfulness, Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, Lecture 4, Part 3 of 19 parts. To start class from beginning, click here. CTT: So take a minute to look at the comments on your paper. You might not have a response to them. You might. It might also remind you of something that you [...]
Continue reading about “Doc, Doc! It hurts when I think about my body!”