The Conditioned Mind: Buddhist Philosophy & Western Psychology on How We Think, Feel, & Suffer

• In person at the Paramita Centre of Toronto (1834 Danforth Ave, Toronto, ON M4C 1H8, Canada)
• AND online via Zoom (link to be provided)
• Saturday, June 20, and Sunday, June 21, 9:30 AM to 4:30 PM
• $70 USD, $95 CAD (see details below)

Both Western Psychology and Buddhist Abhidharma begin with the recognition that all beings suffer. The wish to relieve that suffering is what shapes both traditions. They agree on much — both modern Western psychology and Buddhist philosophy resist the notion of a substantial, fixed self. Both diagnose conditioning as deep and habitual, and both view maladaptive/afflicted responses as a source of suffering. Both offer methods for working with the mind that are intended to reduce suffering. Where they diverge is on the ultimate destination.

Western psychology has developed sophisticated, genuinely valuable methods for relieving suffering. It has identified emotional patterns, cognitive distortions, the dynamics of conditioning, and effective treatment approaches. These methods have helped many. But Western psychology, even at its best, takes well-adapted life within ordinary existence as its destination — what the field’s most aspirational language calls human flourishing.

Buddhism sees something deeper and offers something further. As Lama Samten teaches, Buddhism has one goal — happiness — and two paths to attain it: wisdom and compassion, cultivated through training in ethics, in concentration, and in wisdom itself. The deeper diagnosis Buddhism offers reaches the underlying causes of suffering that go beyond the mundane. Buddhism’s further offer is not merely a managed adaptation but the possibility of release, and a methodology that has been refined and tested over more than two thousand years.

Across two days and eight sessions of teaching and practice, this retreat examines what Western psychology offers and where its scope ends; what Buddhism diagnoses more deeply and what it offers further; the nature of mind and the question of consciousness; the gross and subtle self and what an examination of each can disclose; the question of what continues; and how an unraveling of fundamental misunderstanding can serve a life of greater wisdom, kindness, and skill.

The retreat is not therapy and is not comparative religion. It is a sustained contemplative inquiry that integrates teaching with meditation throughout, appropriate for dharma students, mental health professionals with a contemplative interest, and educated lay practitioners with a serious interest in this material.

The Teacher

Les Kertay (Lobsang Tharchin) teaches at Paramita Centres, and is the Director of the Paramita Center Southeast in Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA. Having trained as a teacher with Lama Lobsang Samten and Tenzin Gawa (Jason Simard) in the Gelug tradition of Tibetan Buddhism through the Paramita Centres of Canada, he will visit and offer teachings at the Toronto Center in June. His previous professional background includes clinical and consulting psychology, with extensive experience in workplace mental health, and he draws on both his contemplative practice and his clinical training in this teaching.

Logistics

This is an urban retreat, and no lodging is offered. Snacks, coffee, and tea will be available, but lunch is on your own. You may bring your own lunch or a dish to share, and there is a space to eat the mid-day meal together. Or, you may eat at one of the nearby restaurants.

In-person teaching will be in Toronto at the Paramita Centre on Danforth Avenue. The teaching will also be online via Zoom. Registration is available on the Toronto Center website (https://www.buddhistmeditationtoronto.org/schedule-meditation) and on the Chattanooga Center website (https://buddhismsoutheast.org/upcoming-events/).