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BEARING WITNESS

NEWSLETTER FOR WESTERN SOCIALLY ENGAGED BUDDHISM - MARCH 2010
DHARMA & MENTAL HEALTH ISSUE

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BUDDHIST MENTAL HEALTH WORK

   Going to Pieces: Interview with
      Mark Epstein

   John Makransky
   Mental Health and Buddhism
   Mindfulness in Mental Health
   The Great Heart Way
   Zindel Segal
   Impossible Choices
   Toronto College:
      Buddhism and Mental Health


   References


MENTAL HEALTH
MULTI-MEDIA
New!!

multimedia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8 YouTube Videos
Including: Jon Kabat-Zinn, Mathieu Ricard and Jack Kornfield

5 Podcast Interviews
Including: James Austen and Neuropsychologist and Theravada Buddhist teacher, Rick Hanson


BUDDHIST MENTAL HEALTH WEBSITES
    Mindfulness-Based
      Psychotherapy

    Institute for Meditation and
      Psychotherapy

    Buddhist Psychotherapy
      Collective

    Center for Mindfulness in
      Medicine, Health Care,
      and Society

    Windhorse Integrative Mental
      Health


ZEN HOUSES (ZH)
& INTERN SITES

   Appalachia: 1st ZH
   Greyston: Model for ZH's
   Haley House: Intern Site
   Montague Farm: Mother House ZH

ZEN HOUSE SEMINARY

Bernie Glassman and Greyston (Model for Zen houses)


NOVEMBER 2010 AUSCHWITZ BEARING WITNESS RETREAT

First Auschwitz Bearing Witness Retreat Trailer

The Zen Peacemakers and Bernie Glassman return to Auschwitz for Bearing Witness Retreats on Nov 1-5, 2010. To read descriptions and/or to register, please click here. This retreat includes Youth from Israel, Palestine, Poland, Germany, Switzerland, US and other countries.


Read about the NY Zen Center Contemplative Care Foundations in Buddhist Contemplative Care for the 2010-2011 academic year.


NEWSLETTER
ARCHIVES








chris_queen

Dear Friends,

One of the most beloved stories of the Buddha’s healing power concerns a young woman whose first child dies in infancy. Blinded with grief, Kisagotami runs from house to house with the dead child in her arms, begging the neighbors for medicine. Fearing she has lost her mind, her friends send her to the spiritual teacher, Shakyamuni. Seeing her desperation, the Buddha takes her child and sends her out to collect a mustard seed from each home that has not known the loss of a loved-one.

On her rounds, Kisagotami discovers that every family has experienced the loss of a child, parent, spouse, or sibling, and all are ready to comfort her in her loss. She returns to the Buddha empty-handed but full of understanding and acceptance. The Teacher helps her to bury her child, and she takes refuge as a nun in the Sangha.

This month Bearing Witness focuses on ways the Dharma is being adapted to relieve mental suffering today. While it is true that all Buddhist practice is psychotherapeutic – “I teach suffering and the relief of suffering,” the Buddha said – many teachers and practitioners have found powerful ways to address the stress and violence of life in the twenty-first century.

Some of our commentators are well-known: Jon Kabat-Zinn, Daniel Goleman, and Genpo Merzel have guided thousands of patients, students, and readers to understanding and acceptance in the midst of life crises and mental illness. Other featured healers in this issue – James Bastien, Zayda Vallejo, and Edward Knight – have pioneered in treating persons who have fallen outside our health care system in their struggles with substance abuse, the criminal justice system, and social marginalization.

The Newsletter serves as a clearinghouse for information about western socially engaged Buddhism. Announcements of upcoming events and resources – including those related to Buddhism and Mental Health this month – may be found in the sidebar at the left. Our Directory of Western Socially Engaged Buddhism is among the most comprehensive anywhere: please follow the links to visit many groups and projects. If your group or resources you know about are missing, please write to us with the reference. We will make sure it is added.

The theme for the next issue of Bearing Witness will be “Justice and Activism.” If you are active in this area, please write to us so that we can profile or mention your work.

Please help promote the cause of Socially Engaged Buddhism by sharing this URL with friends, associates, sangha members and groups you think would be interested. Click on the line below, "Send mail using your own address book".

Send mail using your own address book.

Blessings,
Christopher Queen

Editor

Buddhist Mental Health Programs

(Link to More Programs in Left Panel)

Inner Technology
by James Bastien

jim

Six techniques that reduced depression and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for uniformed service patients. ....read more

Center for Mindfulness

jon

The Center for Mindfulness emerged from the first academic medical center-based stress reduction program founded by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn in 1979.....read more

Social intelligence
by Daniel Goleman

daniel_goleman

"The most fundamental discovery of this new science: We are wired to connect.

That represents a double-edged sword: nourishing relationships have a beneficial impact on our health, while toxic ones can act like slow poison in our bodies." ....read more

Working at the Margins
by Zayda Vallejo

zayda

A native of Colombia describes overcoming obstacles teaching contemplative practices to African-American and Latina women with histories of addiction and trauma.

"In the beginning of every class, the women almost universally strongly resisted the meditations focused on awareness of breath....read more

Beyond Sanity and Madness
by Genpo Merzel

genpo

The Big Mind process uses the format and some of the techniques of Voice Dialogue, a therapy developed by Drs. Hal and Sidra Stone, to address and speak from different aspects, or voices, of the self. One of its goals is to make us aware of the very insubstantiality of the self. ....read more

Crazy Wisdom
by Edward Knight

ed_knight

Ed Daigu Knight is Vice President of a national behavioral health managed care organization. He is a person living with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. He has also been diagnosed with anxiety disorders, mania and depression. He manages his extreme mental and emotional states with Zen and small amounts of one psychiatric medication. . . ....read more

THE FIRST SYMPOSIUM FOR
WESTERN SOCIALLY ENGAGED BUDDHISM

August 9 to 14, 2010
at the Mother House of the Zen Peacemakers in Montague, MA

Attendance is Limited for this Historic Event.
Register Now!

$600 Fee Includes Tuition, Continental Breakfast and Lunch.

A Major Gathering of
Western Socially Engaged Buddhist Activists, Academics and Sponsors.

A Concluding Banquet to Honor Robert Aitken & the Pioneers Who Followed

To read more about the Symposium, link here

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PRESENTERS (partial)

PANELS (partial)

WORKSHOPS (partial)

Mirabai Bush
Enkyo O'Hara
Honoring the Pioneers
Arts for Social Change
Melody Chavis
Reggie Ray
Social Entrepreneurship
Chaplaincy
Bernie Glassman
Richard Reoch
Politics
Conflict Resolution
Joan Halifax
Matthieu Ricard
Challenges for Soc. Eng. Bud.
Trauma
Stephanie Kaza
Alan Senauke
Mental Health
Funding for Soc. Eng. Bud.
Jon Kabat-Zinn
Peter Senge
Compassionate Care
Being with Dying
Peter Matthiessen
Robert Thurman
Environment
Prison Ministry
Fleet Maull
Anne Waldman
Special Ministries
Community Development
Mayumi Oda
Jan Willis
Zen Houses
Street Ministry

The event is sponsored by the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation, the Lenz Foundation and the Zen Peacemakers. Tricycle: The Buddhist Review is the exclusive media partner.