Mindfulness One Year Training
Category: Meditation
Dates: April 30, 2010 - May 3, 2010
Venue: Samye Ling
Course Leader: Rob Nairn
Price: £80
Tutors: Choden, Clive Holmes and Heather Regan-Addis
The one year training in mindfulness is now fully subscribed.
We are re-running the very successful mindfulness training led by Rob Nairn. It will consist of five modules: four weekends at Samye Ling and a concluding retreat on Holy Isle.
The purpose of the training is to equip people with skills in mindfulness that can be applied in different life and work situations. The weekend modules will focus on learning progressive skills in mindfulness and practicing these skills, while the retreat module will focus on learning to teach mindfulness. We will issue a certificate of completion at the end of the one year training provided that students have attended each of the four compulsory modules.
Each module will cover the following themes:
- Module One (April 30 - May 3, 2010) will define mindfulness and show that it is a faculty within the mind that is largely dormant, but which can be developed through regular practice. We will learn to recognize the unsettled mind and begin to settle the mind. We will then introduce the core practices of body scan, grounding, resting and using a mindfulness support.
- Module Two (August 27 - 30, 2010) will explore the wandering mind and show how our minds are enmeshed in patterns of preference and grasping that limit us and close us down. We will also look at how to avoid suppression, namely using the mindfulness support as a subtle method of avoiding the full range of our internal experience.
- Module Three (November 19 - 21, 2010) will look more closely at acceptance - learning to accept our experience as it unfolds and learning to accept ourselves as we are. We will also focus on developing kindness towards ourselves, which then becomes the basis for compassion towards others.
- Module Four (February 4 - 6, 2011) During the preceding weekends students will have had the opportunity to practice the core elements of MBSR/MBCT, namely body scan, mindful movement, mindful sitting and the three minute breathing space. This weekend will develop an understanding of how to integrate these practices into an eight week MBSR/MBCT programme. This module is optional.
- Module Five (May 28 - June 4, 2011) During the concluding retreat on Holy Isle there will be teachings on the notion of observer and undercurrent - identifying that one part of our mind is a flow of experience from the past that we cannot stop or change (undercurrent), while another part of our mind observes this autonomous flow. We learn that when we meditate we place our focus on the observer as this is where change takes place. We will also impart basic teaching skills, learning how to conduct inquiry and how to lead practices.
Rob Nairn will be the lead teacher on each of the modules except for modules three and four as he will be in Southern Africa then. These modules will be led jointly by Choden, Clive and Heather. In module four we will be joined by Barbara Reid who trained at the Centre for Mindfulness Research at Bangor University in Wales.
Module one and two will run over bank holiday weekends. They will begin at 7pm on the Friday evening and will finish at 12.30pm on the Monday. Modules three and four will start on Friday evening at 7pm and will finish on Sunday afternoon at 5pm. Module five will begin on the evening of Saturday, May 28 and will finish on the evening of Friday, June 3 with guests departing from Holy Isle the next morning.
If you intend to enroll for the training you will need to attend module one. It will not be possible to join the training after the first weekend unless you can show that you have received these teachings in another context.
Course fees are £80 per weekend at Samye Ling and £150 for the concluding retreat on Holy Isle. For details of how to book for the Holy Isle retreat visit: www.holyisle.org