Three-part Lecture Series: Mindfulness - A Buddhist Practice Takes Therapy by Storm

3 December 2013

The subject of mindfulness meditation is continuing to thrive in the West today.  Reflecting this is, for instance, a number of large international conferences that have in the past few years taken place in Germany - “Meditation und Wissenschaft” in 2010 and 2012 in Berlin and the “International Achtsamkeitskongress” in 2011 at the University of Hamburg.  The latter conference was followed by a collected volume of articles that summarised this development in its title: Mindfulness: A Buddhist Concept Finds Its Way Into Science. The Hamburg conference marked the first time in which the Buddhist roots of the word “mindfulness” played a major role at the event.  In Berlin, discussion centered around Western scientific research in the field, as well as around its transferences and applications. Another example of the mindfulness-trend in the sciences is a growing wealth of studies and books focusing on the subject.  These are being written by therapists, psychologists, doctors, neuroscientists, meditation researchers, religious studies experts, as well as educators. At the same time, a similar tendency in various disciplines employing interreligious concepts is also emerging, especially in areas such as Esotericism, health improvement concerning diet and popular forms of yoga, as well as other religions, particularly Christianity.In light of the increasing scientific importance of the concept of mindfulness, major media has also begun to take note. This event will mark a further step towards the integration of mindfulness and meditation in mainstream Western society. In a new series of lectures on the topic of mindfulness at the Numata Center for Buddhist Studies at the University of Hamburg, these two fundamental facets of the modern mindfulness-trend will have their say on the subject; namely, the Buddhist “root” and its Western “branches”.

[ 03.12.2013 ]
A History of Mindfulness
Bhante Sujato

Bhante Sujato is an Australian Buddhist monk. He was ordained in the Thai forest tradition, and for the past 20 years has been living in forest monasteries meditating and studying the Buddha's teaching. He is a teacher and an author, who specializes in the study of the earliest teachings of the Buddha that are common to all traditions. His books includes A History of Mindfulness, which examines the Satipatthana Sutta and related literature from a comparative and historical perspective, and White Bones Red Rot Black Snakes, a detailed study of the feminine in Buddhist mythology.

[ 07.01.2014 ]
 Die ursprüngliche Achtsamkeit: Die frühbuddhistische Vipassana-„Bewegung“ − was sie ausmacht!
Hans Gruber

Hans Gruber is an Indologist, author and Vipassana-expert. He presents an overview of the diverse contemporary movement of “Vipassana“ (profound insight), which forms the foundation of the Western mindfulness-boom.  This movement, along with its underlying concept, will be examined with respect to its practical and theoretical aspects. It will also be explained why in this context we are not dealing with a loose group of distinct teachings centering around mindfulness in early Buddhism, but rather a uniform "movement" defined by certain distinctive features that give way to a coherent structure.

[ 21.01.2014 ]
Mitgefühl, das Herz der Achtsamkeit
Dr. Christine Brähler

Dr. Christine Brähler is a Psychotherapist in private practice in Munich. She is also part of the research staff at the University of Glasgow, as well as a coach in the new popular mindfulness-based programs “Mindful Self-Compassion“ (Christopher Germer & Kristin Neff; www.centerformsc.org) and “Mindfulness-focused Therapy“ (Paul Gilbert). In her lecture, she will present the Buddhist origins of these programs, which combine Buddhist meditation with  evolutionary, social, and neurosciences. Dr. Brähler will also survey the concept of compassion from a Buddhist and scientific perspective while describing compassion-based approaches, as well as preliminary research results.