THE DEEP CENTRE for Diversity Ecology Ethics Practice offers Courses and Retreats in Mindfulness Practice CONNECTION EMPOWERMENT LIBERATION
What is Mindfulness? It is awareness that arises by the purposeful cultivation of paying attention moment-to-moment non-judgmentally. It is approaching one s experience with an orientation of curiosity and acceptance regardless of valence and desirability. John Teasdale, one of the founders of Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy defined it in this way: The essence of mindfulness is to be fully aware of our experience in each moment equally open to whatever it has to offer and free of the domination of habitual automatic cognitive routines that are often goal-oriented and, in one form or another, related to wanting things to be other than they are. What is it based on? It is based on the premise that the mind and body are intimately interconnected. It utilizes techniques to optimize this relationship for improved health and well-being. It teaches mindfulness-based skills that can be integrated into daily life to reduce stress, manage pain, enhance sleep, strengthen positive qualities, and improve overall quality of life.
What evidence is there for its efficacy? Jon Kabat-Zinn founded the Centre for Mindfulness over 30 years ago at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He created the programmes MBSR Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, and MBCT Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy. Population-based research studies have shown that the practice of mindfulness is strongly correlated with well-being and health. Programmes based on the practice have been widely used in schools, prisons, hospitals, veteran centres, and the health benefits have been clinically documented for the last 30 years. What are the effects of this form of meditation? Mindfulness Meditation helps us on many levels, from simple relaxation to freedom from suffering and full liberation of heart and mind. It allows us to: defuse stress and experience greater calm explore the mind-body relationship connect to our feelings expand our sense of who we are, beyond our fears and self-judgment find genuine happiness discover inner resources and awaken our capacity for insight and wisdom
transform our worldview from one of isolation and confusion to one of broaden our perspective and deepen our courage, based on seeing connection, clarity, compassion, and transformative collaboration. things just as they are While the practice has its source in the Buddhist tradition of insight meditation it is now established in many secular institutions and national healthcare systems. It is recognized as a practice both empirical and pragmatic that facilitates a deeper connection with our thoughts, feelings and emotional states that liberates us from habitual forms of reactivity and the limitations of conditioned patterns of thinking and negative behavioural routines. To engage with this programme of inquiry and meditation does not require any previous experience of meditation. What Mindfulness is Not. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious. Carl Gustav Jung. It is not a recipe for being happy all the time. It is about bringing non-judgmental awareness to the present moment, whether a thought/emotion is pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. It is not a technique for relaxation or some elusive spiritual goal. It is about purposeful attentiveness of what is, moment-to-moment, and nurturing awareness of the embodied nature of consciousness. It is a Way of Being that addresses our shared Human Condition through directly experiencing how we are moment-to-moment.
It is not a cult. Though its historical roots lie in traditional forms of eastern meditative practice it has developed in ways applicable to the secular context of contemporary society and is backed by scientific medical analysis and the latest findings of neuroscience and brain research. It is not passive sitting and navel-gazing. Mindfulness can, and indeed should, be practiced while performing daily tasks. It is not a Cure-all. Healing takes place by coming to terms with things as they are. It is not resignation but acceptance that transforms our relationship to the pain, despair, anger, or grief that afflict us. What do we do in a Practice Session? In a practice session we become mindful of our senses, and our inner world of thoughts and emotions. We learn to be aware of thoughts, sensations, feelings, and emotions without identifying with the personal story they arise from. It is a particular kind of attentiveness needed to comprehend the attitude in the mind with regard to present experience as it arises. It is an awareness we bring non-judgmentally to the inclination of the mind in relation to experience and the actual nature of our motivations that brings clarity to our actions. This becomes the ethical dimension of the practice.
We are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness. Thich Nhat Hanh Let the mind come forth without fixing it anywhere. Diamond Sutra The Four Foundations of Mindfulness THE BODY: Breathing: focusing on the in-breath and out-breath. Grounding in the body: experiencing the whole body, awareness of bodily sensations. Awareness of identification with bodily form. FEELINGS: Experience of feelings that arise in the present moment: sadness, melancholy, gratitude, joy, or happiness. Experiencing whatever arises without clinging or suppressing. MIND: Observation of mental formations, such as thoughts, ideas, without identification with the story. Paying attention not to the content of thought but the phenomenon of thought as thought. You are not a thinker who has thoughts, rather thinking happens. ETHICAL ASPECT: Contemplation of the impermanence and transiency of all mental phenomena. Inquiry into the nature of causality, into the self as a mental construct, and letting go of habitual patterns of reactivity, leading to a realization that liberates both heart and mind into clarity and wisdom.
Courses and Retreats An eight-week course divided into modules based on the Four Foundations. Two hours per week with suggested daily practice sessions at home, and a half day retreat (4 hours) in the final week. Total 18 hours. This course can be tailored to suit corporate clients, as well as the particular needs of institutions in the health and educational sectors. For more information please visit the website below and click on Mindfulness Courses in the Menu Page. Course Fee per individual 25,000 Ksh Individual counselling per hour 3,500 Ksh Nature Connection Retreats From time to time we will organize longer nature retreats at remote locations far from the noise and stress of urban living. In these exclusive places retreatants will have the opportunity for deep immersion in natural surroundings while learning the art of mindfulness practice. Imagine a weekend at the coast, in the Aberdares, or on the shores of Lake Victoria on remote Mfangano Island where amidst the beauty and variety of nature you can reconnect with the heart of silence and your own deepest nature, revitalizing mind and body and realizing the non-dwelling mind. The cost of these special retreats will be periodically published online to include transport, food and accommodation. Website: www.deepractice.com Contact: +254-722-599187 info@deepractice.com
David Beatty was born in the UK. He has worked as a photographer and occasional writer, travelling extensively on three continents, reporting on development projects and environmental stories in Asia and Africa. His interest in mindfulness practice and its transformative potential began with his fascination with Indian thought and culture in the 1970s. In 1981 he undertook a long retreat on a Buddhist hermitage island on a lagoon in southern Sri Lanka where he learned the foundations of mindfulness as practiced within the Theravada Buddhist tradition. Later this method was adapted to form the basis of the eight week Mindfulness Course. In 2013 he founded D.E.E.P. a Centre for Diversity, Ecology, Ethics and Practice to address some of the challenges of socio-ecological transformation towards sustainability. He has trained as a Permaculture Designer with the PRI Kenya (Permaculture Research Institute). Last September 2016 he was invited to give a talk at the Inter-Faith Youth Forum on Social Justice, Peace and the Environment at the Catholic University in Karen He currently teaches Mindfulness Practice holding weekly sessions on Saturdays at 11.00 am at Aromatics Spa, 101 Manyani East Road, off James Gichuru Road. His approach nurtures not only personal well-being but fosters a greater awareness of our human-ecological predicament, focusing particular attention on the ethical aspects of the practice to encourage new socioecological models of sustainability.