“The transformation and healing we are looking for is not outside of us, it is in us. It is like the wave: if it wants to be still, the stillness should not be obtained from the outside, it is in the water itself.”
~ Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh
Thanissaro Bhikkhu
“You all know the old image of the Buddha as a doctor and the Dhamma as medicine. When you come to practice the Dhamma, it’s as if you’re learning to be your own doctor, looking after the illnesses of your own mind.” ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu
(click link to download pdf)
Meditation as Medicine
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Thich Nhat Hanh
“In order to get well quickly we bring a lot of interventions into our body: we take a lot of drugs; we undergo a lot of treatments. But we don’t know how to allow our body to rest. So learning how to allow your body to rest is a very important practice. Love your body.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh
(click link to download doc)
Healing is Possible Through Resting
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Larry Rosenberg
Here is a very helpful discussion by Larry Rosenberg of the need for balance in our lives and in our dharma practice. Larry Rosenberg has been practicing Zen and Insight Meditation for over 30 years. He is the founder and a guiding teacher at the Cambridge Insight Meditation Center, a senior teacher at the Insight Meditation Society, and author of Breath by Breath and Living in the Light of Death.
(click link to download pdf)
Body People-Mind People
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Ed Daigu Knight
Dr. Ed Knight is a personal friend who I met through Facebook. He is a Senior in The Zen PeaceMaker Sangha and a Steward of The Healing Circle, a Zen PeaceMaker Circle. Ed’s dharma name is Daigu Angyo. Along with Will Hall, he founded Psychosis Dharma Community. His dharma teacher is Ken Byalin (Tetsuji). Ed Daigu Knight is a senior student of Tetsuji and a member of the Staten Island Zen Community.
Highly skilled in both meditation and mental health training, Ed is dedicated to helping people dealing with severe mental states such as schizophrenia, depression, mania, severe anxiety disorders, and addiction. Ed has demonstrated that those labeled with (so-called) mental illnesses can overcome the destructive effects of labeling and discrimination.
His creative abilities are directed to researching and developing training material for recovery, rehabilitation, mutual support and independence As a highly skilled health professional and student of Zen, Ed is available for trainings for professionals, family members and the general public. Ed also does recovery coaching through one-on-one phone calls.
The core theme of Ed Knight’s trainings is living independently beyond disability. Ed has shown in his own life, and in the lives of others, that a “disability” may be present but one can learn to relate to it skillfully. Thus one is able to live differently abled. I highly recommend Ed’s website, which has tremendous resources and information for anyone dealing with mental health issues:
Professor Ed — Dr. Ed Knight, Mental Health Recovery Research, Meditation, Dharma, Blog, Book Suggestions
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Very humbling my friend. Very humbling. Gassho! Gassho! Gassho!