Buddhist Philosophy and Psychology
Here is something to ponder on. What are reality, existence and the relation between the two? Any answers out there?
We will be looking at that age-old conundrum. By the way, there are some answers!
Abstract
A 5-day course where we investigate how we perceive existence, our reality. Reality is many things. Can we change our reality or/and can we change ourselves? The answer will become clear during the week, here is a hint though! It is by changing our perception of existence that reality in itself changes. This is moving from a “victim” to becoming a responsible actor in life’s great flow.
content retreat
Unlike a Western approach that manages to distinguish the discipline of philosophy from psychology and vice versa, in the view of Unity in Duality, it is quite impossible to answer the question: “What is existence?” without questioning: How and what do I perceive? And how does that relate to what exists? What is the functioning of the different types of perception? Do I have a part in creating my problematic realities or are they inflicted on me from the environment? Could I possibly participate in changing my reality/experience, become less projective, and even transform myself for personal or even spiritual development?
If we ask why is an event within the same family experienced by everyone differently? From the Eastern inner-science tradition, we would get the answer: because each of us has a say in how our reality unfolds. There is no fixed experience, reality always being relational. There are as many realities as people living the event. We could ask further: how do we construct our reality? This is the fundamental question we will begin to answer because only then can we truly:
Deal with the distressing aspects of our normal experience; we could reduce sources of daily stress; no longer live as a “victim” of your experienced environment; become a responsible actor of his/her own life.
This approach is above all experiential, and we will endeavour during these days to perceive how we build our reality through exercises and practices accessible to all for deepening our exploration.
Tibetan psychology, psychotherapy and personal development UD are based on the three interdependent units of body and mind, subject and object as well as energy/potential-field and matter. Without “body” there is no “mind” functioning; without “energy or potential-field” there is no “matter” or “form existence” unfolding and continuing its existence; without a “subject/perceptive capacity” there is no perception of anything and no real experience, the “object” appearance being entirely dependent on the “subject” perception.
Experientially, we will reach some understanding of this, and we will see how our experiences don’t exist out there, independently. We will also explore the possibilities of radically altering the experience of ourselves in order to become more harmonious, more open and more flexible. Indo-Tibetan Tradition, UD, holistically place psychology in close relation to their philosophical foundation. Tarab Tulku XI has developed this system, which we present as Unity in Duality (UD) and which has its origin in the ancient Indo-Tibetan knowledge and insight. It has now evolved into a system perfectly adapted to respond to the personal as well as spiritual problems that we encounter in our modern societies