Sumeru News — Buddhist Psychology

The Toronto Centre for Applied Buddhism is happy to announce our upcoming program : Buddhist Mindfulness Psycho-education (on-line) Program: Applying Mindfulness in Dealing with Difficult Thoughts and Emotions for young adults & college students under 30    4 Saturdays: Feb 19 – Mar 12, 2022, 2:00 pm – 4:30 pm   This program will begin with exploring what participants consider as stress, as well as what the Buddha and western sciences say about stress. We will then delve into some Buddhist approaches for dealing with difficult thoughts and emotions. A key Buddhist practice is mindfulness. The program will introduce some...

Introduction to Buddhist Counselling (on-line) Instructed by Linda Hochstetler, MSW, RSW / TA Charles Chiarelli, OCT, BA, BEd 13 Saturdays, September 18 – December 11, 2021, EST 4-6 pm (7 classes) & 4-5 pm (6 tutorials) - 20 hours This module is designed to provide basic Buddhist counselling skills to individuals with little or no clinical experience or training. It is intended to prepare participants to volunteer with Sangha members, friends, and family. No previous training is required. Students will learn the following skills: attending, rapport building, use of silence, paraphrasing, reflecting, showing empathy, focusing the conversation, clarifying, appropriate questioning,...

EMBRACING UNCERTAINTY: Future Jazz, That 13th Century Buddhist Monk, and the Invention of Cultures. An anthropological memoir of the author’s experiences in Japan and other places to explore ideas of uncertainty and undifferentiation as they relate to ethics and culture. The book threads a discussion of jazz improvisation as metaphor for the human experience and the ongoing process of change that is the world. The Zen monk in the subtitle is Dōgen, who figures prominently in the book. John Traphagan is a professor of Religious Studies and Anthropology at the University of Texas Austin. The book is illustrated by Amane...

Coming soon! ISBN 978-1-896559-72-8 (pbk)  /  $19.95 CAD 160 pages, 6.14 x 9.21 in  /  Illustrated (charts + diagrams) About the Book For most people with advancing diseases, there are signs that death will be soon. Diseases have many trajectories, but at a certain stage, the ceasing of life becomes certain, with a predictable sequence. At 21 days, there are usually no more treatment options with any real promise of quality of life. Death is a mystery, and we don’t want to take all the mystery away. However, there are steps we each can take to be fully, effectively present...

Rev. Dr. Monica Sanford has just sent me the table of contents for volume II of her Buddhist chaplaincy textbook, Kalyanamitra: A Model for Buddhist Spiritual Care. We are aiming for editing to be completed in June, which means it will be published this summer, 2021! Here's what will be inside: Kalyanamitra: A Model for Buddhist Spiritual CareVolume II: Praxis Table of ContentsDedication / Acknowledgements / Introduction   Chapter 1: Pragmatic Skills for Every Context           Presence          Not Being Present        Being Present in Meditation & Daily Life          Being Present in Spiritual Care Being Present for Yourself: Reflexivity Listening & Responding           Not Listening   Listening         Responding Appropriately        Responding to Difficulty          Empathy & Compassion           On Being Open-HeartedFour Divine Abodes     Empathic...