Matthew Brensilver, PhD, served as a Buddhist chaplain at USC for four years and teaches about the intersection of mindfulness and mental health at UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Center and with Mindful Schools. Matthew was trained by Noah Levine and teaches at Against the Stream. He is currently in the Spirit Rock/IMS teacher training program and regularly offers retreats at Spirit Rock and the Insight Retreat Center. He spent years doing research on addiction treatment at the UCLA Center for Behavioral and Addiction Medicine and continues to be interested in the unfolding dialogue between dharma and science.
Meditation practice cultivates a diverse set of attentional, emotional and introspective skills.
Central to the practice of mindfulness is the stabilization of attention. But before our attention stabilizes, practice can be overstimulating.
This talk will explore the process through which the mind comes to rest. In developing this steadiness, equanimity (the capacity to fully permit the flow of both pleasure and pain) is a vital skill.
We will see how concentration and equanimity reinforce each other and support a deeper understanding of ourselves. And how this stability, in turn, makes space for the heart to respond with joy and compassion.
