"The genius of Tulku Urgyen was that he could point out the nature of mind with precision and matter-of-factness of teaching a person how to thread a needle and could get an ordinary meditator like me to recognize that consciousness is intrinsically free of self ... I came to Tulku Urgyen yearning for the experience of self-transcendence, and in a few minutes he showed me I had no self to transcend ... Tulku Urgyen simply handed me the ability to cut through the illusion of the self directly, even in ordinary states of consciousness.  This instruction was, without question, the most important thing I have ever been explicitly taught by another human being.  It has given me a way to escape the usual tides of psychological suffering - fear, anger, shame - in an instant. "

Sam Harris

Posts tagged with 'focusing'

Mindfulness: the missing facet 'describe', and meeting at relational depth with self & others - practice

8th November 2011

I wrote yesterday on "Mindfulness: the missing facet 'describe', and meeting at relational depth with self & others - theory" . Today I'd like to take this into a practical example. On Sunday evening seven of us met in what we call "The enquiry group". I've described these get-togethers before …

emotions psychotherapy mindfulness friendship focusing intimacy meditation empathy authenticity

Mindfulness: the missing facet 'describe', and meeting at relational depth with self & others - theory

7th November 2011

God guard me from those thoughts men think in the mind alone; he that sings a lasting song thinks in a marrow bone. William Butler Yeats There are good reasons for viewing "mindfulness" as made up of five facets - see, for example, the post "A better way to measure …

emotions psychotherapy mindfulness friendship focusing intimacy meditation empathy authenticity

Antonio Damasio’s “Self comes to mind”: emotions and the body 2

3rd January 2011

I wrote an initial blog post last month on "Antonio Damasio's 'Self comes to mind': overview". I commented that I wanted to think a bit more about three of the areas covered in the book - "Emotions and the body", "Memory and the autobiographical self" and "Mindfulness, protoself, core and …

emotions cbt mind-body psychotherapy mindfulness focusing neuroscience consciousness attention

Antonio Damasio’s “Self comes to mind”: emotions and the body 1

20th December 2010

I wrote last week about "Antonio Damasio's 'Self comes to mind': overview" saying that I wanted to think a bit more about three of the areas covered in the book - "Emotions and the body", "Memory and the autobiographical self" and "Mindfulness, protoself, core and autobiographical self". I mentioned that …

emotions cbt mind-body psychotherapy mindfulness focusing neuroscience consciousness attention

Four aspects model & some associated evidence for relaxation, meditation & imagery

13th September 2009

Relaxation, meditation, mindfulness, hypnosis, imagery and other associated methods form a complex, loosely interlinked field. The "Four aspects of helpful inner focus" model, that I've put together to help me make more sense of this territory, looks like this: For a downloadable copy of this diagram click here. There is …

emotions ptsd flow mindfulness focusing meditation relaxation hypnosis autogenics

Checking in with Larry - next morning

6th July 2008

This is a continuation of yesterday's blog about regular check-ins/life planning with my great friend Larry. And now it's Sunday morning around 7.00am. Yesterday we went out to the 'hut' at Carbeth knowing that there was a good chance that the owner, Gerry, might in fact be using it himself. …

relationships personal autonomy writing friendship focusing goals