Three Doors of Liberation: Mindfulness and Humanistic Psychology

Day of Mindfulness (one-day retreat)
for Health Care and Human Service Professionals
from 9:30 to 16:30 on Saturday July 4, 2015
at Centre on Behavioral Health, The University of Hong Kong

CBH-DOM-2015-July-RegistrationForm-Final.pdf  - Registration is on a first-come, first-serve basis. There are only 60 spaces available.

June 11, 2015

Dear friends,

You are invited to attend a Day of Mindfulness (DOM) for health care and human service professionals, co-organized by HKU Centre on Behavioral Health and Plum Village Mindfulness Academy - Hong Kong. This DOM is part of our “Healthy Body, Healthy Mind” Initiative to integrate mindfulness practices to the physical and mental health fields.

The foundations of this initiative are the teachings and practices of Mindfulness based on the Discourse on Full Awareness of Breathing (Anapanasati Sutta) and the Disco on the Four Establishments of Mindfulness (Satipatthana Sutta), as taught by the Buddha about 2600 years ago. We also studied how the mind works, based on the teachings of Manifestation- Only Psychology, which was systematized in the 4th century by the Indian Buddhist monk and philosopher Vasubandhu of the Yogacara Buddhist School. Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh has used these teachings to form the foundation for meditation practices to help us nourish our body and mind, to develop insight and to help us transform pain and suffering into peace and happiness. Even though the teachings are from Buddhist tradition, the practices are non-sectarian and are open to people of all faith.  

In this DOM, we will look deeply into the teachings on Three Doors of Liberation: emptiness, signlessness and aimlessness and how we can apply them to cultivate peace and happiness. We will see how to relate these teachings into the physiological, psychological and spiritual aspects of our life. What are the meanings of life? Do they only involve eating, sleeping, working, studying, having a family …? How can we get up fresh and energetic in the morning and have joy in our daily activities. We will also look into some main areas of humanistic psychology, how to look at ourselves holistically and bring the best out of us. Among the topics are Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Needs” Pyramid, the inter-being nature of “responsibility and liberty”, different states of consciousness (as discussed in transpersonal psychology) …..

In the day of mindfulness, we will learn the practice of going back to our breath, anchoring our mind in the in-breath and out-breath. We become calm and clear when the mind and body are together in one place, with the help of our mindful breath. We will practice listening to the bell, walking meditation, eating meditation, exercise meditation (mindful movements), and relaxing meditation (total relaxation) … We practice to stop, to slowdown the thinking in our mind via bodily actions.You can find more information about activities of past days of mindfulness at http://pvfhk.org/index.php/en/activities

 A sample programme schedule for the Day of Mindfulness is as follow:

9:30                 Sitting and Slow Walking Meditation (indoor)

10:30               Lecture

12:30               Lunch

13:30               Total Relaxation

14:30               Group Discussion

16:00               Walking Meditation (outdoor)

16:30               Farewell

Location:        Centre on Behavioral Health, The University of Hong Kong
2/F, The Hong Kong Jockey Club Building for Interdisciplinary Research,
5 Sassoon Road, Pokfulam, Hong Kong

香港大學行為健康教研中心

香港薄扶林沙宣道5號2樓

Fees:               HKD200.00 per day (including light vegetarian lunch and tea)

How to register: CBH-DOM-2015-April-RegistrationForm-Final.pdf Registration is on a first-come, first-serve basis. There are only 60 spaces available.

For more information, please contact us at Centre on Behavioral Health, e-mail: bhealth@hku.hk, Tel: (852) 2831 5163.