Amida Events

2008: September 19-21: Introductory Retreat

Learn the basics of Pureland practice and find out what it means to practise.
This introductory retreat is open to all. We will introduce some basic concepts found in the Amidist approach to Pureland Buddhism and spend some time practising together. Amida retreats are friendly, informative, and replenishing. This will be a good time for those interested in taking time out from a busy or stressful life to relax, chant, explore one's faith and spirituality and experience life in a Buddhist community. Please arrive Friday evening if possible.

2008 October 4-5: Meet Amida

A Weekend Introducing the Work of the Amida Trust & Community

This is a good general introductory weekend for all who would like to be involved with the Amida Trust as students, volunteers, community members or Buddhist practitioners. The course covers the formal and informal organisation, philosophy, principles and practicalities of the Trust, the Amida Order, Amida-shu, its project work, educational programmes, artistic and cultural activity. You will find out what goes on, who is who and how it all works. This course is one of the best ways to start or deepen involvement with the work of the Trust and Amida-shu. Attenders in previous years have gone on to a variety of projects and roles within the Amida network.

2009 April 10-13: Easter Arts

Developing the Spirit through Art as Practice

April is the cruelest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain."
- T.S.Eliot

Spirituality and art share much in both being explorations of inspiration. The Other Power of spirituality and the Artist's Muse are forces that establish traditions of expression through human activity that is "for its own sake" yet speaks of the deepest meanings of which people are capable. Thus much of the greatest art is religious art, the world's spiritual literature includes some of its greatest poetry and prose, even secular art speaks of an influence that goes beyond the mundane, and art itself in all its diversity is a language of the Spirit. One does not have to be highly talented to participate in this. One of the aims of Amida Trust is to make it possible for ordinary people to participate, not merely be a passive audience. To this end the Trust sponsors pandramatics, poetry days, and a range of workshops. Easter is the time of rebirth after winter darkness. Let us meet together and have a collective flowering. Different participants may be drawn to different modalities of work, but all can stimulate and inspire one another.

During these four days we shall have opportunities to practice arts including:

Plastic Arts: Painting, collage, craftwork, construction of art works, flower arranging, etc.

Performance Arts: using the pandramatics approach to improvisation

Verbal Arts: Poetry, writing, scripting, etc.

Each day will include periods for creative work, seminars on method and meaning, and gatherings for sharing. The aim is to establish a creative community for the four days. Participants are, of course, also welcome to arrive early or stay longer if they wish to extend the time they devote to this work. The art room is always available.

This workshop counts half credit for psychotherapy students, ie full attendance gives you two days of staff contact
hours plus one day peer learning and costs you two days attendance fees.

2008 November 7-9: Retreat: "Exile & Return"

A weekend retreat gathering, Friday evening 7pm (or meal at 6) to 3.30pm Sunday. It is traditional in Pureland Buddhism to hold a retreat in the autumn in memory of the exile of Honen Shonin and other founders of Pureland in Japan. From about the year 1200 onward the traditional Buddhist temples in Japan began to be more and more alarmed by the spread of the nembutsu teaching throughout the land. In 1204 they petitioned for the abolition of the nembutsu practice. In 1207, Honen Shonin, then 75 years old, was exiled and his leading disciples were all exiled to different parts of the country. This actually eventually led to the dissemination of the nembutsu through Japan and to its becoming the largest school of Buddhism in the country. The bannishment was repealed a couple of years later and Honen eventually returned to the capital where he died in 1212. At this retreat we will remember these formative events and also look at the themes of exile, return and refuge and of keeping faith through difficult times as they manifests in our own lives. A time to practice together, share experience, learn about the tradition and celebrate our connections as a sangha.

2008 November 1-2: Spiritual Relationships, Complex Relationships, Healing Relationships

This two day workshop will explore the different types of relationships involved in chaplaincy and other face to face spiritual work. Chaplaincy and other spiritual support work provides opportunities to meet people in many different circumstances. The context is often one in which the person is facing particular changes or life traumas, and may be open to reviewing life and seeking the spiritual dimension in new ways. Meetings may have been requested and planned, or may be casual and informal. They may be in depth or brief, and it is not always clear at the outset what is required. We will look at styles of interaction which are appropriate in different circumstances, at the opportunities to support personal spiritual transformation which emerge in this kind of work. We will discuss the sort of boundary issues which need to be taken into account in the mixed relationships which can exist in the spiritual context and how to avoid some of the pitfalls. This course also carries credit for enrolled psychotherapy students.

2008 November 3-4: Blessings, Weddings and Funerals: Creative Approaches to Personal Ceremony.

Spiritual groups offer ceremonies to the important mark life transitions of their members. In the last couple of decades, interest in the creative use of ritual has grown, and people increasingly seek more personalised events. Some Buddhist groups already have traditional ceremonies to mark rites of passage, but many Western groups are daunted by requests from their members and others. Learning to facilitate personal ceremony is an art which takes practice, resourcefulness and a dramatic presence. Ritual is a language, mastered through experience and repetition. This two day workshop will look at the art of ceremony and creating a special occasion relevant both for those committed to a religious path and to those who have a less aligned sense of the spiritual. It will be practical, suitable for anyone who might take a role in such events, but particularly for those who may be called on to lead them. We will look at resources: readings, music, and chants; and at commonly used elements of a service, including making offerings, creation of the ceremonial space, invocations, symbolic acts, blessings and dedications. We will draw on both Buddhist sources and other spiritual traditions. We will discuss the structuring of anevent, the poetic and metaphoric frame, and the sequencing of elements. We will look at those small details which become so precious to participants. There will be opportunities to practice ceremony and pool resources. This course is an important opportunity for all Vow 22 students but will be useful to Buddhists of any background.

2009: January 24-25: Honen Shonin Retreat

A weekend to celebrate the founder of Japanese Pureland, Honen Shonin

Honen Shonin started a movement that revolutionised Japanese Buddhism, not only in his own school. He took the teachings to the mass of ordinary people and emphasised thei all inclusiveness. He was opposed to elitism and religious criteria that excluded many people. His approach to teaching was very down to earth and his practices simple.

This weekend is both a time to celebrate tradition and what it brings into our lives and to reflect that this tradition has, at its core, a call to new life, new vision and new faith. We can reflect upon our own commitment to a path of practice for the benefit of the ordinary people of the world.

2008 October 11-19: Buddhist Psyology & Psychotherapy: "Hearing the Real Other"

led by Caroline and David Brazier and Gina Clayton

Buddhist psychology suggests that psychological problems arise when we are locked in the deluded worlds that we have created. What we experience is a function of our need to maintain personal stability, and to this end, our minds insulate us from others by distorting perception. We see selectively or unconsciously distort what we see so that our perception fits with our pre-conceptions. The way out of this psychological rigidity is through more direct encounter with others, and the therapeutic relationship can be a forum in which this encounter is explored.

2009 Feb 21-March 1: Buddhist Psychology & Psychotherapy: "Creativity and Focus in Therapy"

led by Caroline and David Brazier and Gina Clayton

Human beings are psychologically healthy when they are creatively engaged and have a sense of purpose. When one's life is engaged in contributing to some greater project, small troubles drop away. This course block explores the way that assisting the client to develop creativity, find purpose and to focus beyond their small world, investing their energy in activity that feels worthwhile, can bring change and growth. Through the active media of creativity, cultural critique and working with body experience, we will explore how healthy engagement with life can be encouraged and facilitated.

2009: May 2 - 10: BREAKING THROUGH DELUSION

led by Caroline and David Brazier and Gina Clayton

Buddhist psychology suggests that we are all caught in fabricated worlds, built as defences against knowing the existential reality of our situation and our feelings of threat which come from our expectations of others' judgement and condemnation. We opt for the reassuringly familiar and see new situations through our habitual templates and mental formations, yet still we are troubled by threatening feelings of inadequacy and guilt. The structuring of our personal worlds is complex and well established. We have been doing it since birth and before. In this course block we will explore the processes of delusion which lie at the heart of mental structures and in particular we will explore the ways that many such feelings revolve around the "need to be right" and our fear of judgement. We will look at ways of challenging these perceptions and reaching a more honest relationship with our humanity. The first weekend will focus on the construction of delusion and the ways in which Buddhist psychology understands the processes of mental formation. The experiential section, which is timed to coincide with the publication of Caroline Brazier's new book on the topic, will explore the role of guilt
in the formation of our mental structures, at ways in which the Western culture of judgement impacts on therapeutic practice, and at alternative ways of working with such factors. The final weekend it will examine therapy's role in the broader context of the human situation and the dire consequences of our delusive behaviours as they threaten all sentient beings.

2-3 May: CORE SKILLS 5: Vedana, Samjna, Samskara
This skills weekend will focus on the Buddhist theory of skandha process explaining how the structures of delusion are created. As we perceive our world, we react and in reacting tap into our habitual patterns of thought and action. We play out familiar roles and invite those around us to do the same. In doing this we proliferate those mental tracks that will lead us to continue to see the world in a deluded way. We will explore how these patterns of response manifest on micro and macro levels in all normal human interaction, and how the therapist can use awareness of this process to break into their rigidities.

May 4-7: FOUR DAY EXPERIENTIAL: Beyond Guilt
A four day experiential group focussing on exploring issues of guilt and shame. Coinciding with the
publication of Caroline Brazier's book on the topic, this workshop will look at the complexity of this topic, exploring the differences between real guilt and felt guilt, and the factors which may be at play in such experiences. In particular it will look at the Western burden of judgmentalism and at ways of moving beyond this into a more productive relationship with our pasts. This group will use action methods and other exercises to explore the way that perception can shift or mislead. We will look at new ways of perceiving old events through various kinds of other-centred work. There will be opportunities to discuss relevance to client work and to explore methods that can be used in the therapeutic setting to disrupt unhelpful perceptual fixities.

May 8 DAY SEMINAR : Bombu Nature and the Therapist
We are all bombu. We are human, and in being so, we are ordinary, unenlightened beings who make
mistakes. At the same time, our clients may have all manner of expectations of us which may artificially high. They may idealise us and look to us for wisdom which they do not themselves hold. As therapists we are expected to uphold standards of behaviour which are exemplary, codified in ethical guidelines, and in our professional models. Thus we are expected to continue to "get it right" and our fallibility is frowned upon from all sides. How does the therapist deal with these high expectations? What happens when things go wrong?
How do we integrate our darker aspects into our professional practice and recognise our ordinariness whilst continuing to provide the level of holding which therapy requires.

May 9-10:CORE SKILLS 6: Green Therapy
Therapy can be seen as taking place in a separate space. The boundaries of the therapy room create a
barrier, bringing therapy into an indoor world focussed on inner processes of the mind. Yet humans exist in a world that is facing ecological crisis. The impact of our lives on the other species of the planet is a story to terrifying destruction. How do we live with the realities of climate change and the destruction of environments? Do these impact on the therapeutic process we engage in, or are we and our clients so preoccupied with personal stories that such global factors are ignored. This weekend in our series on ethical dilemmas asks: What impact does environmental concern have on our work as therapist? Is it something we should be more conscious of? Do therapists have a role in shaping public attitudes on these matters? Is it the ultimate delusion to believe we can reach our human potential whilst ignoring the fate of other sentient beings?

This course block is part of the Psychotherapy Training Programme. All courses are complete in themselves and may be attended by the general public. If you would like to join us for all or part of this course, please contact courses@amidatrust.com. For students registered on one of our longer programmes, course fees are paid as lump sum payments. Costs for those who are not registered students on psychotherapy courses are £60 per day for the public and £36 per day for students with general registration. Accommodation costs are additional. Attendance is subject to the conditions given elsewhere on this site.

For full information on Amida Trust educational programmes please consult http://www.buddhistpsychology.info