By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
Menla means Medicine Buddha in Tibetan, but I think the esoteric translation must be "magic." Menla Mountain Retreat Center, located in the Catskill Mountains in New York, is a place unto itself. You arrive at Menla Mountain via a narrow road, which has turned off another small road. A sign at the turn off says "Dead End." Perhaps not coincidentally, you are actually entering a crater created several million years ago, when a meteorite filled with all types of unearthly metals crashed into the site. The magnetic field, which still exists there today, is palpable, and it does a good job of interrupting all types of modern communication systems.
Blog: Being Present in Relationship
Applied Buddhist Psychology, Blog, Depth Hypnosis, Energetic Patterns, Habits, Personal Responsibility, RelationshipsBy Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
It is a common tendency to think that if we just ignore a problem, it will either go away on its own or we won’t feel its effect. Ignoring our problems leads to confusion about what is real and what is true. Unfortunately, one of the most common responses to this state of confusion is to go into denial about the fact that the effect of not being present is causing a problem.Blog: Interdependence
Addiction, Applied Buddhist Psychology, Blog, Depth Hypnosis, Energetic Patterns, Habits, Personal Responsibility, Relationships, Robert ThurmanBy Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
In a recent podcast, Robert Thurman, noted Buddhist scholar, asked, "What would you do if you realized that you would never be able to get off the subway car you were on this morning – that you were going to be with those people for infinity?" For one thing, it would probably change the way we viewed those people. If we are all in a subway car together cruising through eternity, it would probably be a good idea to start figuring out how to get along. I have spent many years trying to help people figure out how to get along through my Depth Hypnosis practice and teaching. Mostly I try to help people figure out how to get along with themselves – because you really can't get along with anyone else until you have yourself figured out.Article: Driving with Bob: One Short Day on Tour with Robert Thurman
Applied Buddhist Psychology, Article, Depth Hypnosis, Robert Thurman, Stanislav GrofBy Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
Venus was rising in the eastern sky as we headed south for the next event where Robert Thurman was presenting a paper. This was to be the third major lecture he would deliver within thirty-six hours, and Bob was full of energy, settling into his computer to finalize the notes for this lecture. As I drove, dawn illuminated the hills and valleys. The clouds on the horizon echoed their undulations. There were no other cars on the road. I had never been to the old mansion where the conference was taking place, and I was a little worried about my navigational skills.Article: Jinpa Means Generosity
Applied Buddhist Psychology, Article, Thupten JinpaBy Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
The morning after Jinpa left, the Tibetan Buddhist monks of the Gaden Shartse Dohkang who had been staying with us for several months, were sitting around our breakfast table with us as they did each morning. But this morning, we were all a bit shell-shocked. As we sat together, we all felt that we were sitting still in the presence of Jinpa. We drank our tea, and I tried to eat the lovingly prepared, cold, very fried eggs. But none of us really had much of an appetite. We were all trying to digest our good fortune at having just spent forty-eight hours of completely unstructured time with Thupten Jinpa.Article: Book Review: A Fearless Heart: How the Courage to Be Compassionate Can Transform Our Lives
Applied Buddhist Psychology, Article, Thupten JinpaBy Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
Dr. Thupten Jinpa’s new book, A Fearless Heart: How the Courage to be Compassionate Can Transform our Lives, is a very important new book. For those of you who may think you do not know who Thupten Jinpa is, you probably have met him without realizing it. He has been His Holiness, the Dalai Lama’s principle English language interpreter and translator since 1987.Article: Reflections on Menla, September 2014
Applied Buddhist Psychology, Article, Robert ThurmanBy Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
Menla means Medicine Buddha in Tibetan, but I think the esoteric translation must be "magic." Menla Mountain Retreat Center, located in the Catskill Mountains in New York, is a place unto itself. You arrive at Menla Mountain via a narrow road, which has turned off another small road. A sign at the turn off says "Dead End." Perhaps not coincidentally, you are actually entering a crater created several million years ago, when a meteorite filled with all types of unearthly metals crashed into the site. The magnetic field, which still exists there today, is palpable, and it does a good job of interrupting all types of modern communication systems.Podcast: Episode 31: Healing Beyond the Conscious Mind
Applied Buddhist Psychology, Applied Shamanism, Depth Hypnosis, Dreams, Integrated Energy Medicine, PodcastArticle: The Future of Buddhism in the West
Applied Buddhist Psychology, Article, Inner Wisdom, Isa Gucciardi, Robert Thurman, Thupten JinpaBy Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
Arnold Toynbee, the noted British historian, remarked that the most important event for the West in the twentieth century was to be its encounter with Buddhism. We in the West are still in the early days of this encounter and there are still many facets of this encounter that have yet to be worked out or made evident. Yet, by examining the challenges that have arisen in this encounter, we may be able to discern the trajectory of the future of Buddhism in the West.Article: The Eightfold Path as an Ethical Compass in the Therapeutic Environment
Applied Buddhist Psychology, Article, Ethics, Inner Wisdom, Personal Responsibility, The Eightfold PathBy Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
Ethics is generally defined as a process of determining right and wrong conduct or as the study of morality. In many traditions, both sacred and secular, there is an effort to come up with a set of principles to govern behavior. In many traditions, there is an emphasis on "what bad thing will happen if you don't do the right thing." The motivator to good behavior is fear. This is an effective method of crowd control when the luxury of understanding personal motivation and intention cannot be understood on a case-by-case basis. But it falls short in creating conditions under which people can learn how to truly trust their motivation and intention in making decisions regarding their conduct.Article: Depth Hypnosis: Where Fierce Compassion and the Path of the Wounded Healer Converge
Applied Buddhist Psychology, Applied Shamanism, Article, Depth Hypnosis, Personal Responsibility, Rites of Passage/InitiationBy Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
Dr. Robert Thurman, noted Buddhist scholar, has stated that the future of Buddhism in the West lies in meditational therapies. One such meditational therapy is Depth Hypnosis. Depth Hypnosis is a therapeutic model that incorporates the wisdom of two very ancient healing and spiritual modalities (Buddhism and shamanism) with two more modern approaches (hypnotherapy and transpersonal psychology) to address emotional and spiritual imbalance.