8th Annual Conference: Public Event
The Eye and Ear of Beholding: Intimate Moments in Painting, Poetry, and Practice
An Evening of Mindfulness Practice, Dialogue and Exploration with
Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD
When
Wednesday, April 7th, 2010, 6:00 – 9:00 p.m.
Location
Crowne Plaza Hotel and Resort, Worcester, Massachusetts
[Click for map]
Event fee
$25
How to Register
Advance registration is required. Please call us at: 508-856-2656
Description
At the end of our year of marking the 30th anniversary of MBSR, Jon Kabat-Zinn once again welcomes back all those who have taken the stress reduction program, as well as the wider UMass and international communities, for an evening of practice and reflection.
It is often said that reality is in the eye of the beholder. As we well know, while we often cannot change the circumstances we find ourselves in, especially when they are most stressful, disturbing, and difficult, we can always, to one degree or another, modulate our relationship with what is unfolding if we can bring non-judgmental present moment awareness to it. And that modulation, in turn, transforms challenges into offerings and gifts; and transforms us as well. A shift in our beholding can save our lives, restore meaning, reduce stress, change our brains, and perhaps slow the effects of stress on aging. Through practice, we can dispel the habitual filters and extend the range of the eye with which we behold what is going on. The same is true for the ear, and all our other faculties of outer and inner knowing.
As the gateway into such moments of intimacy, we will visit some of Claude Monet’s paintings and TS Eliot’s poetry (Four Quartets) and explore them, within a framework of mindfulness practice, as invitations to greater intimacy with our own seeing and our own hearing, and by extension, intimacy with all of the gifts of the present moment when it is fully met. The evening will be dynamical and participatory, including considerable dialogue and collective inquiry.
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