Free Medicine: Nonduality and Psychotherapy – A Sufi View
March 18th, 2015Pir Elias AmidonHost: Barry ErdmanAbout The Presentation
The human mind is dualistic in its structure and habits, and for good reasons. Our ability to distinguish self from other, near from far, and safe from dangerous has allowed us to survive and negotiate our way through the uncertainties of embodied life. But interpreting reality solely through our dualistic lens limits our capacity to live fully and feel connected, and makes us subject to suffering: the suffering of self-identification, self-preoccupation, alienation, anxiety about the future, regret about the past, and unease about the present. More clients for psychotherapy!
Awareness, however, is the “field” within which all distinctions of the mind occur, and that field is not dualistic. It is, so to speak, the “God” within. As Rumi tells us, “God is in the look of your eyes, in the thought of looking, nearer to you than yourself…” Helping students or clients glimpse the ground of being that is unconditioned awareness, and then to gradually shift the “default” center of gravity of their self-identification to the field of open awareness, is profoundly healing.
In this session we will experience together a few approaches – such as guided meditation, inquiry, and pointing out – that can help the people we work with realize their intimate identity with the ever-present ground of being. In the process we will get a sense of the “sufi” view of this kind of nondual therapy.
About the Presenter
Elias Amidon is the spiritual director (Pir) of the Sufi Way. Elias teaches and holds retreats on nondual spirituality and Sufism throughout Europe and the United States, and is known for his direct and experiential approach to spiritual realization. He has worked for many years with his wife Rabia in the field of peace and environmental activism in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, and with indigenous tribes on land-rights issues. He is the author of the book The Open Path: Recognizing Nondual Awareness, and co-editor with Rabia of the books Earth Prayers, Life Prayers, and Prayers for a Thousand Years.