Year One - Inner Dharma
Dharma is a Buddhist word which has the connotation of Truth. It is the truth of the present moment, things as they truly are. This is a state of awareness without the confusion of past experience or trauma colouring the immediacy of the present experience. The first year of the training is devoted to our inner experience of being who we sense ourselves to be. It is about gaining skills in working with our own process. The psychotherapeutic skills which were introduced in the Foundation Course are strengthened and extended, but the emphasis is on the client's position rather than the therapist's. The focus is thus on the psychotherapeutic relationship from the clients perspective. Sessional work is generally conducted in triads where students take on positions of client, therapist and observer. The observer becomes a 'Fair Witness' to the session. The observer's role, in this context, is to give feedback about their own process in relation to the observed session.
The intention of the work during the year is to deeply sensitise ourselves to our human condition. It is both a sensitisation to our conditioned, embodied nature and to the depth of potential wisdom and love within it. This work is aided by a deepening awareness of the cognizing mind and its states, of emotions and subtler feeling states and of the body and its patterning. The emphasis in this work is on receptivity and the ability to tolerate deeper states of present experience. Emphasis is also given to the nature and cultivation of the heart. Within this work there is a natural arising of wisdom and open-heartedness. Meditational and reflective practices are offered throughout the training to support this intention.
In this first year, basic Buddhist theories of personality are emphasised. The interdependent, co-arising nature of our life process is explored within this context. Contemplative practices are taught during the year to support the student's experiential learning. The nature of suffering and the creation of the personality system as an experiential process is the framework of this exploration. Theoretical and practical understandings of perception and the nature of conditioning is another key focus used to explore the personality system. To balance this enquiry, the power of awareness and sustained attention and the nature of the unconditioned mind is also stressed in this year. The cultivation of 'Wise Mind', the inherently enlightened state which is always present within our conditioned process, is the focus of this enquiry. In this process the ability to tolerate deeper states of present experience is cultivated. The mutuality and co-arising nature of our lives
is emphasised in the year and the interdependent nature of our seeming separate life processes is the vehicle for our learning.
In practical terms the year encourages a deepening ability to access the subtler felt senses and feeling tones of experience. A foundation of presence is established and an ability to appreciate these subtler aspects of our process is cultivated. With this foundation, an exploration of prenatal and birth experience and of early character formation, begins the enquiry into our personality system. This exploration entails accessing our earliest experience, the decisions and life statements which arose in relationship to them and the ways they are still active in our lives. Our personality system is seen to be one of patterns of condensed and conditioned experience which become habitual wheels which create our narrow sense of self. These early experiences set the 'tone' of our sense of the world and our general relationship to it. It is the ground from which we perceive, recognise and respond to our experience. It is the ground of our personal embodiment.
Within this context, an understanding of trauma and shock in the human system and how to facilitate the safe processing of them, is an essential part of the work. A 'transmarginal' model of trauma is presented that is based on the work of many specialists in the field. The training therapist is given practical insights into the nature of trauma to help in its safe exploration. The intention of year one is to assist the student to deeply appreciate the ground of their personality system and to tolerate the subtler aspects of their process. Within this there is the possibility to allow ourselves to begin to trust that aspect of our being which is already free and healthy.
Application and Dates
|
