Jenny Wilks has practised Buddhist meditation for many years and has an MA in Indian religions. She has taught on retreats and dharma gatherings since 2005, is a regular teacher at the Barn retreat centre at Sharpham in Devon, and has been teaching at Gaia House since 2008. Jenny trained as a clinical psychologist; she leads mindfulness-based therapy groups in healthcare settings and for the general public and teaches and supervises on the MBCT diploma course at Exeter University.
Mindfulness is often described as non-judgmental. This talk considers what this means and how it relates to the capacity to distinguish between skilful and unskillful mind-states and behaviours.
Through the practice of mindful awareness we come to see how we construct our experience of the world, and can free ourselves from the limitations imposed by our subjective assumptions and preferences.
An outline of Insight Meditation in the context of basic Buddhist teachings, including some thoughts about what we can learn from the different emphases of some other traditions.
An exploration of what the practice of mindfulness consists of, with reference to traditional and contemporary definitions and the Buddhas teaching in the Satipatthana Sutta, with the aim of clarifying what is really meant by this widely-used term and why it is a practice that can free us from suffering.
