Events

Today's topic is: 'Person,' it is said. 'Person.' What kind of experience is it, to be a person?

We resume our study of Gendlin's Philosophy of the Implicit this week.

We begin our 2022's conversations, on this day. The topic today  is 'Human Nature.'

Reading Gendlin's Experiencing and the Creation of Meaning.

Dates: 23 January to March 13, 2022

The course is a course on how felt meaning functions in awareness, and how to harness this natural functioning in our meditation and mindfulness practice. It's also a course on the heart of 'awareness.' It's open to people who have some experience with meditation and or Gendlin's Focusing process. Contact Christopher at <christopher at wholebodymindfulness dot com>

Felt meaning is another way to say 'felt sense.' The body always 'senses' its situation, and bringing our attention to this bodily felt meaningfulness brings us into a  natural order, dispelling the divisiveness of having only social meanings to rely upon. This process of pausing and bringing into view the 'whole' of our situation, such that the whole of us carries forward, this is called 'Focusing.' (On the analogy of bringing something into focus.)

This course will qualify participants for a Level 1 Focusing certificate recognisable by other qualified Focusing trainers. For this purpose you can take the list on this page as representing the core content/skills which you will learn in this course.

In the course, these skills will be presented in relation to and via: the four traditional areas of Buddhist mindfulness and sitting meditation. The four traditional areas of mindfulness involve direct awareness of: our physical body; its feeling-tones; 'cheart-mind' (body-environment interaction); and concept for conducting of our experiencing in the spirit of freedom.

In the first session (23rd January), we will: Experience ‘Clearing a Space’ and explore the nature and qualities of ‘Experiential Space’ as a foundation for developing and fully realizing 'heart-mind.'

The course will run from 23 January to March 13. (That's seven weeks, but with an extra session for checking in at the end of the seven weeks.)

Cost: There is no fee. The course is offered on a 'dana' (donation) basis, as per Buddhist custom.

In the second week of the course Felt Meaning in Mindfulness Meditation we'll experience how felt meaning functions, and practise inviting a 'felt sense' to form. This will give a foundation (to use in our succeeding sessions) for directly refering to felt meaning in support of the development of wisdom and compassion. In early Buddhist teachings this development is called 'development of the heart-mind' ("citta-bhavana").

Eugene Gendlin coined the now-popular (and often misused) term 'felt sense' in the period of the turn from the 1950s to the 1960s. We'll distinguish a 'felt sense' as Gendlin meant it from other conscious experiences found in meditation.

Our fortnightly Philosophy of the Implicit group will continue our reading of Experiencing and the Creation of Meaning

This session we'll practice basis skills in Focusing-style listening, the effortless listening style. It's primarily a practice of co-Presence.

Today we will activate our body's felt meaning in an inquiry into how the phrase 'I know' works in us. The session will invite an unfolding, experiential inquiry into the levels of experience we call 'mind.' All welcome, regardless of previous experience (or lack of it) with our particular approach. Language will be kept as experience-near as possible.

Thoughts can bring fragmentation of the whole, but those thoughts are still connected to the whole. How this relates to difficult personality conditions? How to manage our own trauma states? How to engage with another in these fragmented states?

This course is a nine-week Mindful Inquiry (Dhammavicaya) course, starting on the 3rd April 2022. Each session will be held at 4:00 PM Sydney time. The experiential component of this course will be based on Gendlin's Thinking at the Edge (TAE) process.

The TAE skills-learning will be done in the context of formulating for ourselves a vision of the whole of the Early Buddhist teachings. Over the weeks, we will, each in our own way, articulate our understanding of the early Buddhist teachings, those presented in the Pāli Nikāyas. This course is open to people who have no idea at all of the Buddhist teachings, because the topics are (despite the technical language displayed below) sufficiently about human experiencing to be relevant to newcomers.

The topics planned are:

Cost: Dana, as per Buddhist custom.

Eligibility: Anyone in our Kalyanamitta group can come. Others can apply to me for inclusion - christopherATwholebodymindfulnessDOTcom. If you have done the 7-week Focusing course, that helps; but it isn't necessary. In fact, I believe that a newcomer can gain Focusing proficiency during this nine weeks.

This course will make a great preparation for our study of Sue Hamilton-Blyth's insightful vision of early Buddhism, which follows on in the next course.

We will begin this course with an inquiry into 'occurring into implying.' Whatever we think, say, or do is an occurring into our implying forward. This is a big part of how karma works: How the intentional present 'feeds' the 'implicit' present - which includes changing all he past which informs the present.

Last week we explored 'implying,' 'occurring into implying,' and 'kamma' (or, in Sanskrit: karma). This week we'll explore some more about karma, in the context of Mindfulness; that is, in the context of 're-recognizing' & 'versioning' as Core Processes of Experiencing. Bring a pen and paper for one of the exercises we will do.

Today we'll write a paragraph expanding on what we've done in previous weeks. We'll playfully string unusual sentences together from our last meeting, and notice how they interact and bring new concepts to light. And we'll look for instances in our life, bringing them into contact with our previous felt exploration to see how they contribute to the exploration.

More detail to come. The TAE step works further with instances of karma in our life. It reads as follows: "Step 7: Allow the facets to contribute detailed structure."

More details to come. I love this step. It involves looking at one instance of the working of karma in your life through the lens of another instance. It can bring to light fresh understanding, and new ways of speaking about our instances. Formally it is: "Step 8: Cross the facets."

Today we do step 9 of the Thinking at the Edge process which we've been exploring. We're finishing the first module of TAE, the second part being theory building (which we don't have time for in this course). In a sense, though, you can see that you've been all along building your own understanding, and finding words for it, and making some proto-theory for yourself.

Today we bring all that we've been doing in this course together, to enjoy where we've come to in this inquiry. We'll speak and write freely about how you see karma working in your life.

In the three-week break before our next course, the 'I' of the Beholder course, we'll have 'conversations' about the inner life and it's transformation. Any topic is welcome. These weeks will be a time for sharing where we are deepening at our leading edge.

In this session, we'll explore the art of trusting body-environment interaction. We'll explore releasing our grip on the senses during meditation; enjoying the body-en space which is without the inside-outside division; and learning to allow  the 'orderly chaos' of the body's 'implying.'

Starting 28 August, this is an 8-week series exploring a coherent model of the Early Buddhist teachings. I intend it as a kind of 'Buddhadharma for the Confused' course, suitable for meditators of all levels. It finishes with an extra Sunday session on 23 October.

This is a course for moderns who are puzzled by the inconsistencies in the Buddhadharma. Buddhism provokes in readers a lot of puzzling ideas, such as: Does Buddhism really teach that the deepest truth is ‘nothingness’? Is there really no self? Am I really just the impersonal workings of mere conditions? Why would I give up my selfishness? Did the Buddha really mean that consciousness has to end? Why would I want that?! How does karma work? Do I have to believe in karma, to become enlightened? What is enlightenment, anyway? If freedom is to ‘go beyond’ right and wrong, doesn’t that leave us rudderless in daily society?

This course is intended as a course which will show how the Early Buddhist vision as a whole makes sense of personal experiencing – how being intimate with your experience as a precise identity, the particular person you are on planet Earth in these extraordinary times, can be the path of spiritual freedom, of ultimate freedom while living. We can appeal to our first-person experience to verify the Early Buddhist vision, and from here we can sort out which of those questions (if any) are useful for a fulfilling life, and which are irrelevant. Which can never be definitively answered, and which can be settled in one's own bodily experience. And, which need re-framing?

As always, in my courses, bodily-felt experience is the touchstone. I will invite participants to consult their bodily-felt meaning of the Buddhist concepts, and to experience the vision in terms of a 'process orientation.' If you have some 'Focusing' experience, this course is made for you. If not, you will learn, as we proceed, to use your body's 'felt sense' for insight.

I am basing the course on Sue Hamilton-Blyth's book Early Buddhism: A New Approach - 'I' of the Beholder. Participants do not need to have read the book, however. I'll send out excerpts from the chapters, beforehand, to facilitate the conversation.  (However, I do recommend that you read this book, when you get the chance, if you want to make sense of Early Buddhism.)

We will not be slavishly adopting Dr. Hamilton-Blyth's conclusions, however. Instead, we will seek, where possible, to confirm them in our experience (or disconfirm them) - and also to carry her approach forward to its next steps, wherever possible. I recommend that our individual purpose be to generate out of this content a coherent vision of the path of human transformation that contributes to our happiness and the happiness of others.

Each week there'll be a half-hour presentation on a chapter of Sue Hamilton-Blyth's book Early Buddhism: A New Approach - 'I' of the Beholder. In support of participants' experiential learning, each week there will be awareness experiments to do as we go about our daily lives.

FOR THE FIRST WEEK, the conversation is about: Chapter Three: The Focus on Experience. Each week, after the short introductory talk, then we'll have a conversation generated by the content as presented that week.

The list of the weeks' topics follows the names of the chapters, in this order:
Week 1 - Chapter Three: The Focus on Experience.
Week 2 - Chapter One: Setting the Scene: The 'not-self' character of experience; and, the five 'aggregates' (the five primary sentient processes of body, feeling-tones or sensations, perceptions, intentionality, consciousness).
Week 3 - Chapter Two: The Indian Context.
Week 4 - Chapter Four: The World of Experience.
Week 5 - Chapter Five: The Experience of Subjectivity and Objectivity.
Week 6 - Chapter Six: The Structure of Experience.
Week 7 - Chapter Seven: The Limits of Experience.
Week 8 - Chapter Eight: A World of Metaphor: Continuity, Death and Ethics.
And, the ninth and closing session (23 October) will be focussed on the book's postscript: On What is a human being?

Last week, we emphasized that if you place human experiencing, as well as a new language theory, at the centre of the model of Buddha's teachings, then a lot of the contradictions, and oddities of the Early Buddhist teachings dissolve, and a coherent model of human liberation emerges. This week, we begin to see in detail how the Buddha saw 'experiencing' and the 'knower' of experiencing.

As always, in my courses, bodily-felt experience is the touchstone. I will invite participants to consult their bodily-felt meaning of the Buddhist concepts, and to experience the vision in terms of a 'process orientation.' If you have some 'Focusing' experience, this course is made for you. If not, you will learn, as we proceed, to use your body's 'felt sense' for insight.

FOR THIS SECOND WEEK, the conversation is about: Chapter One: The 'not-self' character of experience; and, the five 'skandhas' (or five primary sentient processes). After the short introductory talk, then we'll have a conversation generated by the content as presented.

The list of each weeks' topics:
Week 1 - Chapter Three: The Focus on Experience.
Week 2 - Chapter One: Setting the Scene: The 'not-self' character of experience; and, the five 'aggregates' (the five primary sentient processes of body, feeling-tones or sensations, perceptions, intentionality, consciousness).
Week 3 - Chapter Two: The Indian Context.
Week 4 - Chapter Four: The World of Experience.
Week 5 - Chapter Five: The Experience of Subjectivity and Objectivity.
Week 6 - Chapter Six: The Structure of Experience.
Week 7 - Chapter Seven: The Limits of Experience.
Week 8 - Chapter Eight: A World of Metaphor: Continuity, Death and Ethics.
And, the ninth and closing session (23 October) will be focussed on the book's postscript: On What is a human being?

This week: Week 3 - Chapter Two from Sue Hamilton-Blyth's I of the Beholder: The Indian Context.

Last week, we looked at two main things about human experiencing as presented by the early Buddhist literature. We talked about how the Buddha saw 'experiencing' in terms of five particular sentient processes (that is, the khandhas/skandhas - body, feeling-tones or sensations, perceptions, mental tendencies, and conscoiusness). It is these we need to understand to be free. We also looked at how he addressed a particular obstacle to meditating on the skandhas - that is, views to do with the 'self' or the 'knower' of experiencing.

FOR THE THIRD WEEK, the conversation is about: Chapter Two: The Indian Context. I will give introductory talk in which I will go more deeply into the historical and cultural material (a little of which I introduced last week). In particular look at the implications of the cultural context of the Buddha's time, for how we understand his teaching of 'the Middle Way.' In particular we will think together about the difficulties of relating teachings which arose from that cultural context to our modern Western situation.

Future weeks' topics:
Week 4 - Chapter Four: The World of Experience.
Week 5 - Chapter Five: The Experience of Subjectivity and Objectivity.
Week 6 - Chapter Six: The Structure of Experience.
Week 7 - Chapter Seven: The Limits of Experience.
Week 8 - Chapter Eight: A World of Metaphor: Continuity, Death and Ethics.
And, the ninth and closing session (23 October) will be focussed on the book's postscript: On What is a human being?

As always, in my courses, bodily-felt experience is the touchstone. I will invite participants to consult their bodily-felt meaning of the Buddhist concepts, and to experience the vision in terms of a 'process orientation.' If you have some 'Focusing' experience, this course is made for you. If not, you will learn, as we proceed, to use your body's 'felt sense' for insight.

Reference: Sue Hamilton-Blyth, Early Buddhism - A New Approach: the I of the Beholder.

• Christopher Ash, 8 September 2022.

This week: Week 4 - Chapter Four: The World of Experience, from Sue Hamilton-Blyth's I of the Beholder.

FOR THE FOURTH WEEK, the conversation is about: Chapter Four: The World of Experience. This is a rarely talked-about topic amongst Early Buddhist meditation groups. I’ve mentioned it on many occasions, that is: that your sentient processes are your ‘lived world,’ and that whatever reality is (more on that later), it is mediated by your ‘sentience.’ So, you can’t get outside of that sensitivity to know what is ‘real’ from some ‘objective’ position. What does the Buddha teach about our ‘world within the world’? How important is this point for conducting our life?

I regret that I’m skipping Chapter 3: the Focus on Experience, because of time constraints, but will includes its central points in my presentation of The World of Experience.

Future weeks' topics:
Week 5 - Chapter Five: The Experience of Subjectivity and Objectivity.
Week 6 - Chapter Six: The Structure of Experience.
Week 7 - Chapter Seven: The Limits of Experience.
Week 8 - Chapter Eight: A World of Metaphor: Continuity, Death and Ethics.
And, the ninth and closing session (23 October) will be focussed on the book's postscript: On What is a human being?

As always, in my courses, bodily-felt experience is the touchstone. I will invite participants to consult their bodily-felt meaning of the Buddhist concepts, and to experience the vision in terms of a 'process orientation.' If you have some 'Focusing' experience, this course is made for you. If not, you will learn, as we proceed, to use your body's 'felt sense' for insight.

Reference: Sue Hamilton-Blyth, Early Buddhism - A New Approach: the I of the Beholder.

• Christopher Ash, 11 September 2022.

This week: Week 5 - Chapter Five: The Experience of Subjectivity and Objectivity, from Sue Hamilton-Blyth's I of the Beholder.

FOR THE FIFTH WEEK, the topic includes that: your sentient processes, your ‘lived world' (loka), includes your co-generated process of 'subjectivity and objectivity.’  Sue Hamilton-Blyth writes, “In order for something to be known at all, it is necessary for there to be a subject who is objectifying it. And conversely, objectivity, which one may also understand in terms of all of what is known, is itself entirely dependent on the functioning of a subject.” (Beholder, p.127)

Future weeks' topics:
Week 6 - Chapter Six: The Structure of Experience.
Week 7 - Chapter Seven: The Limits of Experience.
Week 8 - Chapter Eight: A World of Metaphor: Continuity, Death and Ethics.
And, the ninth and closing session (23 October) will be focussed on the book's postscript: On What is a human being?

As always, in my courses, bodily-felt experience is the touchstone. I will invite participants to consult their bodily-felt meaning of the Buddhist concepts, and to experience the vision in terms of a 'process orientation.' If you have some 'Focusing' experience, this course is made for you. If not, you will learn, as we proceed, to use your body's 'felt sense' for insight.

Reference: Sue Hamilton-Blyth, Early Buddhism - A New Approach: the I of the Beholder. (2000) Curzon.

Christopher Ash, 18 September 2022.

FOR THE EIGHTH WEEK, the topic is Chapter Eight: A World of Metaphor: Continuity, Death and Ethics, from Sue Hamilton-Blyth's I of the Beholder. In Week 7 we examined The Limits of Experience.  Buddha would suggest that the recognition of limit of experience sets us free. We have a deeper freedom once we realize the limits of perception and language.  What I will emphasize this week is that the metaphoric nature of language (and our appropriate language practice - with yonisomanasikara - makes us better able to work with the freedom we access at the limit of experience.

"Freedom of choice of action is what makes it possible for the Buddha to state that one is able to improve and change one’s experience. His teachings advocate coming to terms with wherever one is, understanding the history of all of the factors involved in that situation, and accepting that any improvement is entirely in one’s own hands."- from Chapter 8 of Sue Hamilton-Blyth's Early Buddhism: A New Approach (Routledge Critical Studies in Buddhism) (p. 215).

Future weeks' topics:
The ninth and closing session (23 October) will be focussed on the book's postscript: On What is a human being?

As always, in my courses, bodily-felt experience is the touchstone. I will invite participants to consult their bodily-felt meaning of the Buddhist concepts, and to experience the vision in terms of a 'process orientation.' If you have some 'Focusing' experience, this course is made for you. If not, you will learn, as we proceed, to use your body's 'felt sense' for insight.

Reference: Sue Hamilton-Blyth, Early Buddhism - A New Approach: the I of the Beholder. (2000) Curzon.

Christopher Ash, 30 September 2022.

Nature includes the human, humans are nature. What does this mean for community, in body, speech and mind?

This week, the ninth and closing session (23 October) we will focus on the postscript in Sue Hamilton-Blyth's I of the Beholder: What is a human being?

As always, in my courses, bodily-felt experience is the touchstone. I will invite participants to consult their bodily-felt meaning of the Buddhist concepts, and to experience the vision in terms of a 'process orientation.' If you have some 'Focusing' experience, this course is made for you. If not, you will learn, as we proceed, to use your body's 'felt sense' for insight.

Reference: Sue Hamilton-Blyth, Early Buddhism - A New Approach: the I of the Beholder. (2000) Curzon.

Christopher Ash, 17 October 2022.

A Vipassana of Vision course. 30 October, 2020 - December 11, 2020 (Sydney Daylight Savings time).

In Week 1, we'll explore using Douglas Harding's 'Pointing Exercise.'

I'll remind participants how to relate words to experience using Focusing, such that 'bodily-felt meaning' guides the exploration.

This is a practical six-week course exploring Douglas Harding’s Headless Way vision, alongside a study of the Kālakarāma Sutta and the Heart Sutra, and with reference to the writings of experiential philosophy of Eugene T. Gendlin.

The course is six weeks, in seven Sunday sessions start to finish.

The course has a special entry requirement in that participants need to be acquainted with the work of the Kalyanamitta.online group. Exceptions are possible on application,

Today we'll explore an instructions derived from the Bahiya Sutta: "In the seen, just the seen."

Because the Sunday group is taken up with the practice of intra-dependence which we call 'Headlessness,' we will have a standard Kalyanamitta Conversations group on Wednesday nights, until the Headlessness course is finished. Metting time 7:00 - 8:30 PM, Wednesdays, starting 2nd November. Questions about 'headlessness' welcome, too.

Our first conversation for the year. We'll have two open conversation meetings, and then we'll start the Dependent Arising Course. (See the preceding events entry, for a little information. More later.)

Starts, 5th February 2023, a five-week course. This will be a 'Dependent Arising Course,' using the 'Wheel of Becoming' (Bhavacakka) and the Upanisa Sutta.  We'll study the unhealthy patterns of the 12-links, and also the Buddha's suggestions of a different, healthy dependent arising cycle.

On Sunday, if there are volunteers, we'll do the thing we are known for in our group - direct experiential learning through mindful, focusing-oriented, phenomenological inquiry. If there are no volunteers, I'll undertake my own short inquiry into some aspect of Dharma (which can be on a topic of your choosing), and a conversation can follow about the universal aspects of that process.

Christopher is taking a break for two months. We'll resume meetings on January 21, 2024.  Our first two meetings will be open sessions. Any topic welcomed. On our third session (4th February) begins a five-week series on The Psychology of a Healthy Mind.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF A HEALTHY MIND
Selfishness & its Transformations in Self-Knowledge

With our third meeting in 2024 (4th February) we’ll begin a nine-week series on The Psychology of a Healthy Mind. In this course, I want to convey the value of Buddhist psychology to human flourishing, and to do that in very practical terms. For this course, we'll focus on the Buddha's vision of transformation as presented in the Nikayas.

My contention is that, if we have a regular meditation practice and if we are already both awakening and growing in the light of the Buddhadharma, then we are already - in our own way - doing something of what the formal Buddhist psychologies are designed for. The question then is what can we apply from the Buddhist understanding which will have us practising more skilfully, joyfully, and effectively?

We'll understand the meaning of the word 'Abhidharma' and the purpose of the special teachings of the early schools, and the historical development of this branch of Buddhist learning. The purpose of this exploration is to understand ourselves - as we are in our human situation.

The topic for this week will be: "The Nature of Saying and Thinking, from a Spiritual Practice Point of View."

The topic for the evening is: "Depersonalization and the Buddhist Teachings." We'll use Majjhima Nikaya 22 as a background; where the Buddha compares his teaching to a snake, because - like a snake - the teaching needs skillful handling, or it'll bite you. How can we understand the Buddhadharma's concept of 'not-self,' such that we avoid emotional by-passing and depersonalisation.

In this conversation we'll explore the feeling of being oneself. Why is this important? I contend that, at least in the modern world, all wars are a result of mistaken notions of identity, and the 'othering' which follows from this confusion.

What kind of process of experiencing gives us the feel of 'personal identity'? What's it based in? What is its reach and range? What function does it have for us? What's the relationship between 'identity' and 'self'? Is there an ultimate 'identity' of any sort? Why such a strong attachment to our 'identity'?