The Art and Science of Mindfulness and Meditation

The Blissful Brain - Mindfulness and Meditation workshop

Meditation Workshop Birmingham

The Art and Science of Mindfulness & Meditation workshop – The Blissful Brain

at Newland House, Edgbaston, Birmingham

On Sunday 26th February 2017, 9 30am to 4 00 pm

Cost £20 including vegetarian buffet lunch and all refreshments

*SORRY the workshop is now FULLY BOOKED.

This workshop will be an exploration of the Science and Practice of Mindfulness and Meditation.

At this workshop we shall:

  • Explore a few various types of mindfulness and meditation practices practised throughout the different cultures of the world
  • The Blissful Brain - Mindfulness and Meditation workshopLook at the differences in types of meditation related to levels of awareness
  • Look at how the brain seems to be pre-wired to enable and benefit from the practice of meditation as discovered from recent studies in neuroscience
  • Look at the effect meditation has had on long term mantra based  meditators
  • Look at the effect meditation has on health in general
  • Explore the spiritual/psychological reasons to practice meditation
  • We will also practise a few different types of mindfulness and meditation practices throughout the day

The practices will include:

  • a mindful awareness exercise
  • a spoken guided meditation
  • and a simple Indian breath/sound (mantra) based technique

 

Who?

This workshop is being delivered and led by David Nock who:

  • has been studying practical philosophy for 33 years
  • practicing mantra based meditation for 38 years
  • studied various other types of meditation practices
  • and has a keen interest in the positive effect meditation has on humanity

David has run this workshop quite a few times now and it is always a peaceful, stilling and enjoyable experience.

Where?

School of Philosophy Midlands, Newland House, 137-139 Hagley Road, Birmingham B16 8UA

When?

9.00am For refreshments, tea, coffee and biscuits

9:30am-4.00pm Workshop start and finish times

Sunday February 26, 2014.

What?

The cost is £20 for the day and will include refreshments and a full beautiful vegetarian buffet lunch.

If you have any questions in advance please feel free to call 0121 454 2540.

 

Sorry the workshop is now fully booked

How our introductory courses work

A tutor presents philosophical ideas, and leads a discussion based on what arises in the group. Being practical rather than academic, the emphasis is on personal knowledge and experience. Students are encouraged neither to accept nor reject the ideas put forward, but to test them in practice for themselves, in the light of their own experience.

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This popular course is practical rather than academic and draws on sources of wisdom from East and West, past and present.

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THE TRUE NATURE OF HAPPINESSS

click each title below for more details

How do we seek happiness?  True happiness and unity: ‘May all be happy’ as an intent.  Tolstoy: happiness through serving one’s neighbour.  Observation, the conscious perceiver and the present moment.

Is happiness natural?  Analogy of light bulbs.  Relationship between happiness and law.

Bentham, Mill. Gandhi’s criticism and an alternative view to utilitarianism.  The art of listening: practical exercise

Hedonism, Epicurus and Plato. Plato suggests two categories, necessary and unnecessary pleasures. Introduction to the Upanishads: finding satisfaction in oneself.

Divine goods: wisdom, self-control, justice and courage. Human goods: health, beauty, strength and wealth. Are these the way to happiness?

Introduction to Marsilio Ficino, renaissance philosopher.  Key phrases inscribed on academy walls. Rejoice in the present. Richard Jefferies

Introduction to Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching. Tea ceremony.  Exploring effortless action. 

Introduction to Patanjali and the 8-fold system of yoga, meditation, contentment.  What about ambition? Finding happiness in work: 2 principles for finding happiness in work.

Two more principles for finding happiness in work. Practical exercise to discover more about the principles of work in action.

The connection between wisdom and happiness. Marcus Aurelius; you don’t need much to live happily. Review of the term.

Discover the Wisdom Within Course

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These opening sessions consider how philosophy can help us enjoy richer, less stressful lives.

What is practical philosophy?

‘What would a wise person do here?’

Philosophy means the love of wisdom. Our course is intended to show how philosophy can help us enjoy richer, less stressful and more useful lives. This opening two sessions consider these aims, and introduces simple exercises in mindfulness and the application of wisdom you can practise in daily life.

You can download or listen to the Awareness Exercise, introduced in week one here. To download, right-click, choose ‘Save link as…’ and save the MP3 wherever you want.

You can also download a PDF of the Awareness Exercise

Who or what am I?

What is my potential?

Who am I, really? My body? My emotions? My strongly held beliefs? My soul? Possibly all of these? Possibly none?

Such questions have preoccupied philosophers down the ages. We look at practical ways to explore who we really are and how to tap our true potential.

What is our state of awareness?

Why does it fluctuate during the day?

Often the most notable quality of wise people is their alertness to the subtleties of a situation. They are awake, perceptive and curious.

We look at deeper levels of awareness, and consider how we may become more awake to ourselves, our surroundings, and the events we meet.

Living in the now, mindfulness.

What is the potential of the present moment?

We review our own experience of attention through a model featuring attention centred, captured, open and scattered, and how these each relate to the past, present and future.

We examine the extraordinary brightness and freedom naturally available in the present moment. A straightforward practice is introduced.

 

 

Plato’s views on justice.

What does it mean to live justly?

According to Plato, justice and injustice do not start ‘out there’. They begin within us. For justice to prevail, Plato suggests that we must learn to avoid being ‘tyrannised’ by our passions and fears to the extent they overrule our reason.

We discuss the practicality of Plato’s ideas on justice in our daily lives.

The Vedic model of three fundamental energies.

Sometimes we seem not to have enough energy, or the wrong kind. A wise person can act consistently despite these varying conditions.

We consider how to recognise differing energies, how to gain and conserve them and how to use them wisely.

What is reason? How can it enrich our lives? We look at guidelines for Socratic dialogue and how to use them. Developing reason in decision-making and action are also discussed, with practical applications. Obstacles to reason are considered. Everyone has the faculty of reason and we can all use it and develop it. 

What is beauty?

Is there such a thing as absolute beauty?

Beauty has the capacity to open the heart and bring delight. In this session we discuss our direct experience of beauty in its different form: of the sensory world, of thought, of feelings, of the inner nature, and of conduct.

We consider Plato’s idea of there being ultimately one beauty – beauty absolute – ‘not knowing birth or death, growth or decay’.

 

Looking for the common thread in life.

What is the effect of finding unity?

When we look around, we see enormous diversity in nature. The wise person looks for the unifying factor: that which allows all this apparent diversity to be seen as part of a single whole.

Seen in this way, life then has the best chance of being led freshly and openly.

 

 

What is truth?

How does the desire for truth show itself?

Practical philosophy is about discovering the truth of things – not theoretically, but in our own experience.

In this final session we look back and ask ourselves how our search for truth has fared as the term has progressed. We discuss what has been discovered and how, in our own way, we may continue to develop it in our daily lives.

 

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