Saturday, March 15, 2014
9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
at the Insight Meditation Center
108 Birch St.
Redwood City, CA
This workshop will explore ideas and experiences of emptiness. We’ll begin by considering Buddhist concepts of emptiness from early Buddhism through the later Mahayana and beyond. Then we’ll take a brief look at echoes of emptiness in later eastern and western philosophies and religions before examining emptiness in the work of contemporary artists and practitioners.
Central to the day will be investigation of our own experience and ideas of emptiness. Hopefully we’ll discover how emptiness is far from the quality of lack often ascribed to it, and how a such a transformed understanding may enrich our daily lives and well-being. The day will include teaching, discussion and sitting.
Please bring a bag lunch. This workshop is offered on a donation basis. Pre-registration is not required.
Gay Watson has a PhD in Religious Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. She trained as a psychotherapist with the Karuna Institute in Core Process, a Buddhist inspired psychotherapy. She is the author of Beyond Happiness, Deepening the Dialogue Between Buddhism, Psychotherapy and the Mind Sciences (2008) and A Philosophy of Emptiness (2014).