Event – Scott Tusa, Buddhist Teacher
Scott Tusa is a Buddhist teacher based in Brooklyn, New York. Ordained by His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, he spent nine years as a Buddhist monk. He currently teaches meditation and Buddhist psychology nationally and supports Tsoknyi Rinpoche’s Pundarika Sangha as a practice advisor. He trained in Buddhist philosophy and meditation with some of the greatest living masters since his early twenties.
Both events will be held at Chicago Mindful Psychotherapy – 5537 N. Clark Street
Friday, October 26, 6-8pm
$20 suggested donation (additional $20 for CEUs for mental health professionals)
The Heart of Compassion: Looking Towards, Finding Ease
“If your everyday practice is to open to all your emotions, to all the people your meet, to all the situations your encounter without closing down, trusting that you can do that – then that will take you as far as you can go. And then you’ll understand all the teachings that anyone has ever taught.” Pema Chodron
“Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.” Soren Kierkegaard
THE HEART OF COMPASSION
Life doesn’t always go the way we want. Rather than bypassing its challenges when they come up, meditation offers us an opportunity to look towards in order to find true contentment. Contentment does not come from ignoring suffering, but rather happens when we are able to meet and be curious about our fuller human experience.
Eventually the kindness and space we can provide towards our own suffering becomes the kindness and compassion we can express towards others. In this evening talk, and through periods of meditation, experiential learning, and discussion, we will explore how to meet life’s challenges with more awareness, compassion, and ease.
Saturday, October 27 12-4pm
$75/$95 for CEUs
“Awakening Together: The Practice of Relational Awareness” A Half- Day Meditation Intensive
“Be kind to yourself as you proceed along this journey. This kindness, in itself, is a means of awakening the spark of love within you and helping others to discover that spark within themselves.”
Tsoknyi Rinpoche
“We are here to awaken from our illusion of separateness.”
Thich Nhat Hahn
RELATIONAL AWARENESS
There are many ways to approach the practice of meditation. On the Buddhist path meditation is a tool to uncover the true peace of our own inner awakened nature.
Rather than a “self-help” technique or a limited transactional method, Buddhist meditation aims to cultivate a relational awareness. One where the development of our own inner peace connects into a responsibility and altruism towards others.
Through a combination of experiential learning and meditation, this half-day workshop will explore the intersections of core Buddhist principles and our everyday lives, where integrative meditation practices meet the world around us.
OBJECTIVES
Learning to connect with the root of meditative awareness
Understanding the limitations of “self-help” meditation
Working with “overactive judgment” and distinguishing between reacting and responding
Connecting meditative awareness into our relationships and the world around us
Learning how to connect meditative awareness into compassionate action
