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This weekend workshop has useful tools for Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike. We each have the potential to transform our suffering into happiness, to free ourselves from the prison of our problems. As practiced in Buddhism for more than 2,500 years, the process involves working with, rather than against, our depression, anxiety, and compulsions. We do this by recognizing the habitual ways our minds perceive and react — the way the mind misleads.
Author and psychotherapist Karuna Cayton presents the essence of Buddhist teachings about the nature of mind so that anyone can use them. The practical exercises and inspiring real-world examples he provides show how one can neutralize suffering and step onto the path of a radically liberating self-understanding. The workshop is based on his book of the same name, which is an excellent source for more information about these techniques. We will have copies available for sale in the Kurukulla Center Bookstore.
“Much of Buddhist thought encourages us to embrace our problems like old friends. It even encourages us to seek out our problems as a way to train our minds and to break free from the control of our disturbing (but sometimes unseen) emotions. Great practitioners like the Dalai Lama even claim to enjoy problems because, like our best friends, problems honestly and accurately reflect ourselves back to us. There is no clearer measure of our interior health than the nature of our problems.” ~ Karuna Cayton
An interview with Karuna can be found on the Kadampa Center website .
Please email program@kurukulla.org to register.
About Karuna
My practice is unique and evolved through a circuitous and immensely satisfying route. Over thirty-five years ago, as a young undergraduate majoring in Asian Studies at Evergreen State College, I went to Nepal on the school’s study abroad program. During that time, I became fascinated by the culture, in particular Tibetan Buddhism, and acquired a level of fluency in Nepali.
My understanding of the Buddhist teachings grew through the guiding wisdom of Lama Zopa Rinpoche, a Tibetan Buddhist master, and his late mentor, Lama Thubten Yeshe. After briefly returning to the United States, at the request of Lama Yeshe I returned to Nepal to teach English to the monks at Kopan Monastery and to establish a Western Studies Program.
I stayed for twelve years, until one day, out of the blue Lama Zopa Rinpoche suggested it was time for me to move back to the US. He advised me to study western psychology and use my knowledge of Buddhist psychology to enhance the understanding of its principles within western cultures.
For a full biography visit www.karunagroup.com .
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