The Neuroscience of The Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta With Dr Alistair Wilson
Dates:
The course will now take place from 5th March to 30th April 2024 with a week's break for Easter, on 2nd April.
This delay is happening because Alistair has had a relapse of lymphoma and needs some time to recover the energy required to run the course. Alistair and the Mindfulness Centre team are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause and we are also sure that you will understand.
Who is for?
For mindfulness teachers, teacher trainees and others with an interest in Buddhist Psychology and how it intersects with neuroscience and Western psychology. Alsitair will examine the core text of the Buddha's on the Foundations of Mindfulness - the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta.- in the light of what we now know about the mind through neuroscience. This text is the main teaching of the Buddha's underlying the modern mindfulness movement. It is sometimes called the Four Establishments of Mindfulness or more recently it has been referred to as the Four Fields of Mindfulness and consists of all of our experience as embodied human beings.
Draft Course Outline:
Week 1: Introduction to the Buddha's on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness - the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta.
Week 2: Mindfulness of the body, including the neuroscience of somatic awareness
Week 3. Mindfulness of feeling tone, the affective aspect of all of our experience as embodied beings
Week 4. Mindfulness of mind and heart - the dopamine story
Break (2nd April 2024)
Week 5. Mindfulness of thoughts & the nature of self
Week 6. Mindfulness of the Hindrances - how we create our prison
Week 7. Mindfulness of the Awakening Factors - finding liberation
Week 8. Conclusion
More information will follow.
Alistair is a consultant psychiatrist and fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatry in Scotland. He worked as a Consultant Community Psychiatrist within the National Health Service for almost thirty years. He completed training in Cognitive Therapy at Oxford University and graduated with a MSc in Mindfulness Based Approaches with the University of Bangor in 2011. He is trained in Trauma-Focused CBT, Sensory-Motor Psychotherapy and Eye Movement De-Sensitisation Rationale in order to deliver care for those experiencing symptoms of trauma. Since retiring from the NHS in 2014 he has been employed by Combat Stress, a charity providing support to UK veterans experiencing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
Alistair has a long history of delivering MBCT within mental health services in and around Glasgow. He has delivered mindfulness sessions to medical staff and workshops on Mindful Approaches to Trauma in London, Dublin and UMass. He is currently engaged in a series of research projects evaluating the feasibility of Mindfulness Based Approaches in a variety of settings including Oncology, Addiction and Trauma.