Event Details

Living Unto Death: Dying Into Life With Mark Epstein, M.D. & Robert Thurman, Ph.D.

Co-Sponsor: Tibet House US,

Contact Name: David Bullard, Ph.D.

Website: david@drbullard.com

Phone: 415-239-1584

Date: 8/24/2012

End Date: 8/26/2012

Time: Friday 7:30pm-9:30pm; Sat 9:30am-9:30pm; Sunday 9:30am-noon

CE Hours: 12.000

Death was one of the Buddha''s most prominent preoccupations. He saw death everywhere and never flinched from talking about it. His teachings were full of stories of people coming to him for one reason or another only to have him shake them from their complacency by telling them they had but a short time to live so they had better hurry up and use their precious human births to get enlightened before it was too late. In one Sutra, the Buddha asked a local ruler how he would feel if a huge mountain were to come bearing down on him from the East, crushing all living beings in its path. He conjured the mountain expertly, making the King imagine a gigantic mass moving inexorably toward him, rolling over all things. Then he repeated the question but had the mountain coming from the North, then the South and finally the West. By the time he was finished the poor King, ostensibly secure behind his four-fold fortifications of elephants, chariots, cavalry and infantry, was being crushed from all sides. “This is what death is like,” the Buddha trumpeted. It''s coming, you don''t know from which direction, and you are powerless to stop it. He seemed almost gleeful. Why was this such a profound teaching? Even now the words retain their threatening power. Don''t we know all this already? Is death really such a surprise? The Buddha suggested that we do not really know it, even though we may mouth the words. The tendency toward denial runs very deep. We don''t actually think it can happen to us. Or, rather, we can''t actually imagine it happening to us. And yet the Buddha thought it was critical to wake up to the reality of death, not to treat it as a trauma to be avoided. This weekend''s workshop will make the Buddha''s teachings on death its centerpiece. Through both meditation and discussion we will explore how the Buddha viewed death and why he was not depressed about it. Whether contemplating our own deaths or those of people we are close to, the Buddha''s teachings offer a startling--and refreshing-- alternative to our usual relationship with death.

Notes:Death was one of the Buddha''s most prominent preoccupations. He saw death everywhere and never flinched from talking about it. His teachings were full of stories of people coming to him for one reason or another only to have him shake them from their complacency by telling them they had but a short time to live so they had better hurry up and use their precious human births to get enlightened before it was too late. In one Sutra, the Buddha asked a local ruler how he would feel if a huge mountain were to come bearing down on him from the East, crushing all living beings in its path. He conjured the mountain expertly, making the King imagine a gigantic mass moving inexorably toward him, rolling over all things. Then he repeated the question but had the mountain coming from the North, then the South and finally the West. By the time he was finished the poor King, ostensibly secure behind his four-fold fortifications of elephants, chariots, cavalry and infantry, was being crushed from all sides. “This is what death is like,” the Buddha trumpeted. It''s coming, you don''t know from which direction, and you are powerless to stop it. He seemed almost gleeful. Why was this such a profound teaching? Even now the words retain their threatening power. Don''t we know all this already? Is death really such a surprise? The Buddha suggested that we do not really know it, even though we may mouth the words. The tendency toward denial runs very deep. We don''t actually think it can happen to us. Or, rather, we can''t actually imagine it happening to us. And yet the Buddha thought it was critical to wake up to the reality of death, not to treat it as a trauma to be avoided. This weekend''s workshop will make the Buddha''s teachings on death its centerpiece. Through both meditation and discussion we will explore how the Buddha viewed death and why he was not depressed about it. Whether contemplating our own deaths or those of people we are close to, the Buddha''s teachings offer a startling--and refreshing-- alternative to our usual relationship with death.

Schedule: Fri 7:30pm-10pm Description of bare attention in psychoanalysis and mindfulness Sat 9:30am - 12noon Mindfulness versus concentration-based meditation; Tibetan Buddhist Wheel of Life approach to lessening emotional trauma at the end of life 3:30pm -6pm Buddhist concept of rebirth from clinical perspectives; psychological meaning of "bardo" 7:30pm-10pm "Annihilation anxiety" and clinical and meditative approaches to working with it Sun 9:30am-12noon Psychological underpinnings of fear of death and ways of working to increase peaceful acceptance of death