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Questioned some years after his enlightenment about his penchant for delivering bad news, Buddha said that he could no longer abide by the traditional Sanskrit principle of only saying what was true and pleasant. He marched to a different drum, he maintained, and would speak of what was “true and beneficial even if it was disagreeable.” To illustrate his point, he pointed to a baby on the prince's lap.

What if the infant put a stick or a pebble in his mouth? Wouldn't the prince pull it out even if it were likely to cause the baby some distress? Wasn't that what a doctor sometimes had to do? Not to mention a mother? But he added one caveat. He would speak the beneficial, if disagreeable, truth only if he “knew the time to say it.” As is the case with good therapists today, tact was a major concern of the Buddha.

The great promise of the Buddha's teachings was that suffering was only his First  Truth. By the time he got to Truths Three and Four (the End of Suffering and the Eightfold Path to its relief) he had filled his listeners with new hope. Trauma, he insisted, did not have to be the last word. Acknowledging the traumas in our lives is important; learning how to relate to them is crucial.

Today's workshop will explore how to make the inevitable traumas of life into  opportunities for growth of spiritual awareness. Periods of meditation and visualization will alternate with talk and discussion.

Saturday, June 2, 10AM–5PM 
General:$100 / Members:$90   click here to register

Friday, June 1, 7-9PM  (click here for Friday's event detail)
General: $25/Members:$22.50   click here to register

Package Discount for Friday & Saturday: General: $115/Members: $103.50  click here to register

Presenter:

Mark Epstein, M.D. is a psychiatrist in private practice in New York City and the author of a number of books about the interface of Buddhism and psychotherapy, including Thoughts Without a Thinker, Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart, Going on Being, Open to Desire and Psychotherapy Without the Self. He received his undergraduate and medical degrees from Harvard University and is currently Clinical Assistant Professor in the Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis at New York University.

Sharon Salzberg is cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Barre, Massachusetts. She is one of America's leading meditation teachers and authors. For more information about Sharon, please visit: www.SharonSalzberg.com.

Robert Thurman is Professor of Indo-Tibetan Studies at Columbia University, President of Tibet House U.S., a popular lecturer on Tibetan Buddhism, the translator of many philosophical treatises and sutras, and author of numerous books including the national bestseller, Inner Revolution: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Real Happiness; Anger, the fifth book from a series on the Seven Deadly Sins, offered by The New York Public Library and Oxford University Press. His most recent book is titled Why the Dalai Lama Matters: His Act of Truth as the Solution for China, Tibet, and the World, published by Atria Books/Beyond Words.

See above.