"The genius of Tulku Urgyen was that he could point out the nature of mind with precision and matter-of-factness of teaching a person how to thread a needle and could get an ordinary meditator like me to recognize that consciousness is intrinsically free of self ... I came to Tulku Urgyen yearning for the experience of self-transcendence, and in a few minutes he showed me I had no self to transcend ... Tulku Urgyen simply handed me the ability to cut through the illusion of the self directly, even in ordinary states of consciousness.  This instruction was, without question, the most important thing I have ever been explicitly taught by another human being.  It has given me a way to escape the usual tides of psychological suffering - fear, anger, shame - in an instant. "


Posts tagged with 'autogenics'

What is mindfulness?

28th September 2011

I wrote a couple of days ago - in the blog post "Mindfulness: teaching & learning" - about a day workshop I'm due to co-run this Saturday on "Mindfulness & hypnosis". One of the learning objective for this workshop is "To understand what ‘mindfulness' involves". I find it helpful to …

Antonio Damasio’s “Self comes to mind”: memory and the autobiographical self 1

10th January 2011

"Why shouldn't truth be stranger than fiction? Fiction, after all, has to make sense." Mark Twain I wrote last month about "Antonio Damasio's 'Self comes to mind': overview" saying that I wanted to think a bit more about three of the areas covered in his recent book - "Emotions and …

Life skills for stress, health & wellbeing, introduction to the course

29th May 2010

On Monday of next week I'm due to run the first evening of a new twelve session course that I have been "cooking" for quite a while - see, for example, the post I wrote back in February "Developing a training course: life skills for stress, health & wellbeing". I …

Developing a training course: life skills for stress, health & wellbeing

19th February 2010

Last Spring, I went walking and camping in Glen Affric. Amongst other things, being away on my own in the hills gave me a chance to think creatively. Once I was back I wrote a blog post about developing a next generation stress management course. I said "I've known for …

Autogenic training: eighth session

26th October 2009

Here are the handouts and recordings for the eighth and final session of this basic Autogenic Training course. The initial "Autogenic relaxation training" page introduces the method and gives access to the previous seven lessons in the training sequence. There are two main themes for this last session. One is …

Autogenic training: seventh session

12th October 2009

Here are handouts and recordings for the seventh Autogenic Training session. The initial "Autogenic relaxation training" page gives introductory details of this method. In the face-to-face trainings that I run, I would typically start the two hour class by practising last time's Autogenic Training exercise together - in this case …

Autogenic training: sixth session

21st September 2009

Here are the handouts, recordings, and reflection/record sheets for the sixth Autogenic training session. There are four overlapping themes to this 'lesson'. Obviously a key issue is the next Autogenic Training step - the focus on the abdominal area. I usually initially get trainees to put a hand or both …

Four aspects model & some associated evidence for relaxation, meditation & imagery

13th September 2009

Relaxation, meditation, mindfulness, hypnosis, imagery and other associated methods form a complex, loosely interlinked field. The "Four aspects of helpful inner focus" model, that I've put together to help me make more sense of this territory, looks like this: For a downloadable copy of this diagram click here. There is …

Autogenic training: fifth session

7th September 2009

Here are the handouts and other materials for the fifth Autogenic training session. Start this exercise once you have worked through the first four lessons. Take your time. If you have conscientiously worked your way through to this fifth session, you're doing really well. Congratulations. Don't feel you have to …

Autogenic training: fourth session

24th August 2009

For the fourth Autogenic Training class, I introduce a number of new practices and ideas. These include the next stage in the basic Autogenic Training sequence (pulse & general calmness), beginning to work on application during daily life (1st differential exercise), and a focus on the "Nourishing positive states" aspect …