Integrating Buddhism and Psychotherapy June 12, 2008

Integrating Buddhism and Psychotherapy
June 13-15, 2008
Mark Epstein, M.D., and Robert Thurman

Buddhism has been called the most psychological of the world's religions and the most spiritual of the world's psychologies. In this weekend workshop, we will explore the core psychological insight of the Buddha: sunyata -- the absence of absolute self in persons and phenomena. While many people have a sense of fear or apprehension when they first hear of this concept, the actual discovery of sunyata is often likened to the joy of being reunited with a long lost friend or relative. “I was like a mad child long lost his old mother,” begins one famous verse, written by a student of the seventh Dalai Lama and a teacher of the eighth, which goes on to equate voidness with the face of the mother. While psychoanalysis has done much to clarify the sources of dissatisfaction in early childhood experience, Buddhism teaches something equally profound -- how to overcome this dissatisfaction through insight into the true nature of the mother. In this weekend's discussions, meditations, visualizations and lectures, we will show how accessible this discovery can be and how readily it connects to the work of Western psychoanalysts like D. W. Winnicott, whose concept of "good-enough mothering" relates in surprising ways to the Buddhist approach.

Mark Epstein, M.D. is a psychiatrist in private practice in New York City and the author of a number of books about the interface of Buddhism and psychotherapy, including Thoughts Without a Thinker, Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart, Going on Being, Open to Desire and the soon to be released Psychotherapy Without the Self, to be published in Fall 2007 by Yale University Press. He received his undergraduate and medical degrees from Harvard University and is currently Clinical Assistant Professor in the Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis at New York University.

Robert Thurman is Professor of Indo-Tibetan Studies at Columbia University, President of Tibet House U.S., a popular lecturer on Tibetan Buddhism, the translator of many philosophical treatises and sutras, and author of numerous books including the national bestseller, Inner Revolution: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Real Happiness; Anger, the fifth book from a series on the Seven Deadly Sins, offered by The New York Public Library and Oxford University Press. His most recent book is titled The Jewel Tree of Tibet: the Enlightenment Engine of Tibetan Buddhism published by Free Press, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Tuition: $270 Tibet House members: $243

Two-Day Accommodations Fee includes housing and meals. Arrive Friday, depart Sunday.
Room with Queen Bed and Private Bath $395 (per person); $255 Couple (per person)
Room with 2 Twin Beds and Private Bath $285 (per person)
Room with 2 Twin Beds and Shared Bath $265 (per person)
Room in Private House with twin beds and twin bunks. Beds in Private Houses are on a first come first serve basis. We cannot assign beds on registration. $195 (per person)
Commuters - includes facility use and all meals $100

Note: We will assign you a roommate if you do not register with one.

Official Website: http://www.tibethouse.org/component/option,com_jcalpro/Itemid,70/extid,136/extmode,view/