We love our emotions when they’re pleasant but not when they’re difficult. Time and time again we struggle with a host of painful emotions, such as fear, heartbreak, sadness, anger, resentment, and disappointment.
Buddhist wisdom teaches that we needn’t feel trapped on an emotional roller coaster, up one moment and down the next. Through meditation and contemplation, we can transform our experience and our relationship to our emotions.
In this seventh annual What the Buddhists Teach program, copresented by Shambhala Sun, three outstanding Buddhist teachers—Anyen Rinpoche, Polly Young-Eisendrath, and John Tarrant—explore the nature of emotions and how to work with them in our everyday lives. During the weekend we learn to:
- Cultivate a sense of calm and spaciousness, allowing us to get off the emotional roller coaster and experience emotions with greater ease
- Make friends with even our most negative emotions
- Transform the inner dialogue that accompanies difficult emotions
- Recognize the impermanent and empty nature of our emotions
- Apply helpful Buddhist techniques to work with powerful emotions on the spot
The retreat combines presentations, meditation, and discussion, and draws on the wisdom of three major Buddhist traditions: Vipassana, Zen, and Tibetan Buddhism. It offers an invaluable opportunity not only to reflect on the hold that emotions have over our lives, but also to experience the relief that naturally arises when we understand their nature and begin to let them go.
This program is suitable for people who are new to Buddhism as well as for experienced Buddhist practitioners. It is also useful for assisting helping professionals in dealing with their own work-related emotional issues and burn-out, and in helping their clients use these skills to deal more effectively with emotional difficulties.
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