free buddhist audio

Here is the second part of Paramabandhu’s excellent exploration of the lessons Buddhist techniques around meditation and mindfulness training can bring to the field of mental health – especially to problems with depression and addiction. Drawing on many years of experience as a consultant psychiatrist and Dharma teacher, here he takes questions on his previous talk and elaborates on the general theme. There’s a wide range of material opened up – and considerable detail about how we can actually go about applying these techniques to whatever challenges we face in your own lives. Essential listening.

Please note – the questions in this recording were made at very low levels. We’ve amplified and clarified where possible – but the general sound quality drops noticeably at these points. However, they are all now audible and, in almost all instances, questions are repeated by Paramabandhu before he answers.

Talk given at San Francisco Buddhist Center, 2006

Contents

01 Question-and-answer session – two books to reference on mindfulness; working with depression – discrepancy monitor and rumination

02 Knowing what you can and cannot change – considered action

03 Difficulty doing mindfulness work when actively depressed; noticing subtle shades of pleasant and unpleasant

04 Can mindfulness initiate depression? Stepping out of patterns of thinking; difference between rumination and ’staying with’; body awareness

05 Over-active mind; 12 step program – something to actually do; expectations and suffering; having your experience – the truth as sometimes uncomfortable

06 Letting go of what you don’t have; relationship break-up; staying with unpleasant experience and not compounding it – the Buddha in the ‘Dart Sutta’

07 Not identifying with one feeling; sexual addiction; recovery from addiction and mindfulness practice

08 Rumination in the body; working with internal sensations; using metaphors to work with your mind

09 Psoriasis and mindfulness

10 What is meditation? A brief introduction and exercise – the ‘Three Minute Breathing Space’

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 Mindfulness For Just About Everything (Part 2) [00:33:14m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

A note to say we have just added to the transcription archive, Vishvavpani’s collection of thoughtful essays and articles on Buddhism in the West in general, and the FWBO in particular. These are worth some time – dealing, as they do, with many of the thorny issues that have arisen in these early phases of the development of the FWBO as an attempt to articulate the Buddha’s teachings for our very different age. Vishvapani’s is a sympathetic and honest voice, and he addresses his subject matter with an exemplary forthrightness and an appropriate lack of certainty.

This is a timely and invaluable talk from Paramabandhu. Drawing on many years of experience as a consultant psychiatrist and Dharma teacher, he invites us to consider the lessons Buddhist techniques around meditation and mindfulness training can bring to the field of mental health – especially to problems with depression and addiction. The talk evokes the Buddha in the Satipatthana Sutta to explore the four traditional foundations of mindfulness and discuss their potential use in therapeutic contexts. It is a kindly and empowering expression of practical hope, whose message applies to us all as we struggle to overcome whatever it is that holds us back from greater freedom in our lives.

Part 2 of this podcast will feature a question-and-answer session based on the material

Talk given at the San Francisco Buddhist Center, 2006

Contents:

01 Contemporary interest in mindfulness; brief therapeutic history of meditation since the 1960s; the Buddha as behavioural therapist – the obese king, Kisa Gotami and her baby

02 John Kabat-Zinn and mindfulness-based stress reduction; other therapies based around mindfulness

03 Mindfulness in Buddhist tradition; the Satipatthana Sutta; sati and sampajanya; analogies for mindfulness; the four foundations of mindfulness – an analysis of technique in practice

04 Four aspects of mindfulness in therapeutic context; i clocking what’s going on – being on automatic pilot

05 ii Sitting with your experience; Rumi’s poem ‘The Guest House’; the kindly aspect of awareness; body awareness and mental proliferation

06 iii Perspective; cognitive behavioural therapy and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy – the implicit and the explicit; not taking our thoughts so seriously; iv choice – mindfulness of purpose

07 Taking awareness deeper; freedom; Kotita’s ‘Song of Realization’

To help us keep this free, please think about making a donation.

 

 Mindfulness For Just About Everything (Part 1) [00:39:37m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is a quick note to let you know we’ve posted a newly indexed version of Vidyamala’s talk, ‘Dying to Live’. Previously only available as one long file, this is now accessible as 12 separate, detailed tracks thanks to the sterling efforts of Hilary Saltburn, the first volunteer to complete a talk on our behalf. Many thanks to her – and please do think about helping out in this way. It’s invaluable as a way to support the site!

We’ll be upgrading the blog software today. This may cause some disruption to our service, but we’ll do our best to get everything back to normal as soon as we can.