Online Course - Buddhism & Psychology: Spiritual Awakening NOT Spiritual Bypassing - Six Week Series

Transcending Confusion Without Avoiding Your Life
Cosponsored by The Nalanda Institute
Audio is delivered within two days after the live class session in mp3 format, and may be streamed from this website or downloaded to listen to at your convenience.
Last day to sign up: Monday, April 1, 2013
With Shastri Ethan Nichtern, Dr. Jeffrey Rubin, Dr. Miles Neale
From the White House to Wall Street, from celebrity yoga teachers to professional athletes, it seems no one is immune to the Icarus syndrome. Overlooking our human limitations in an attempt to reach spiritual perfection can have dire consequences. As a culture we have lost touch with how to live meaningfully, choosing to satisfy our grandiose ambitions, egocentric desires, and primal urges rather than cultivate integrity and moral accountability. Buddhism offers contemplative maps and methods to achieve transcendence while psychotherapy monitors and greets our humanness; together we hope to forge a comprehensive and integrative model. How can we realistically strive for awakening while keeping an honest eye on our blind spots? How do we strategically maximize our innate potential without unknowingly overlooking our shadow? What can we learn from exploring the triumphs along with the despairs of human experience? In this six-part series of dialogues we will explore the six Paramittas (transcendent virtues) of Mahayana Buddhism, which teach us about living a life of integrity and wakefulness. We will balance each lecture by considering potential pitfalls relevant to each virtue and ways that Western psychotherapy and meditation practice, conceived differently, can help us avoid spiritual bypassing. Through meditations, readings, and clinical examples, we hope to reframe the work of spiritual practice as an opportunity to accept and transform all that we are.
March 4: Generosity with Ethan Nichtern and Jeffrey Rubin
March 11: Ethics with Jeffrey Rubin and Miles Neale
March 18: Patience with Ethan Nichtern and Miles Neale
March 25: Diligence with Ethan Nichtern and Jeffrey Rubin
April 1: Meditation with Jeffrey Rubin and Miles Neale
April 8: Wisdom with Ethan Nichtern and Miles Neale
Recommended Reading:
Rubin, J. (2013). Meditative Psychotherapy: The Marriage of East and West
Nichtern, E (2007) One City: A Declaration of Interdependence
Other readings as PDF's available after signing up for course
Ethan Nichtern is IDP's Founder and heads its Secular Buddhist Studies Program. He's also a Shastri in the Shambhala tradition and the senior teacher in residence for the New York Shambhala community. Ethan is the author of the novel Your Emoticons Won't Save You, and the nonfiction book One City: A Declaration of Interdependence. He teaches and lectures around the world and is based in New York City. Visit his website for more info: www.ethannichtern.com
Jeffrey B. Rubin, Ph.D is a practicing psychotherapist and teacher of meditation in New York City and Bedford Hills, New York. The author of the new ebook, Meditative Psychotherapy, and the critically acclaimed The Art of Flourishing, Psychotherapy and Buddhism; The Good Life; and A Psychoanalysis for Our Time, Dr. Rubin has taught at various universities, psychoanalytic institutes, and Buddhist and yoga centers. A Dharma Holder in the White Plum Sangha and Red Thread Zen Circle and the creator of meditative psychotherapy, Dr. Rubin is considered one of the leading integrators of the Western psychotherapeutic and Eastern meditative traditions. He runs private study groups on dreams and meditation and meditation and psychotherapy. He lectures around the country and has given workshops at the United Nations, the Esalen Institute, the Open Center and the 92nd Street Y. A blogger for Huffington Post, Psychology Today, and Elephant Journal, his pioneering approach to psychotherapy and Buddhism has been featured in The New York Times Magazine. His website is drjeffreyrubin.com

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Home Study Prices*
$45 Full Price
IDP member prices for those who joined April 1, 2013 or later
$36 Basic Members
$31.50 Sustaining Members
FREE for Full and Endowing Members - contact caitlin@theidproject.org to register
IDP member price for those who joined before April 1, 2013 - will be honored through August 2013
$27 Global Members or Higher
*Can't afford it?
It is our full intention to accommodate the financial needs of anyone who has a genuine commitment to practice and study. Reduced Payment Options and Work-Study are always available. Please contact caitlin@theidproject.org to make alternative arrangements.
Secular Buddhist Studies Program
The Secular Buddhist Studies Program at The Interdependence Project offers a foundation in Buddhist meditation, psychology, philosophy, and ethics from a secular perspective, inclusive of multiple traditions and bodies of teaching. Register for this dynamic program here.
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