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From: Ellen-Marie Silverman
Date: 13 Oct 2006
Time: 08:36:27 -0500
Remote Name: 64.12.116.65
Winton: OK. Let me respond to this query by saying that you seem to have been drawn to a description ("exhuberant acceptance")of my interpretation of a personal mediation experience of Pema Chodron included in her instructional CD, "Getting Unstuck." I included this anecdote because I think it highlights the role and value of acceptance of sensation, thought, and feeling in personal growth and shows the influence of belief on that process, since the focus of the paper is on the role of belief in behavior. Acceptance of what is, practiced in meditation and infused into everyday life, is a cornerstone of Buddhist mediation technique most accessibly described by Pema Chodron, Jack Kornfield, Thich Nhat Hanh, Sharon Salzberg, and Jon Kabat-Zinn, all of whom have written extensively and have prepared high quality audio and/or video material. Being a 20+ year practioner but not a teacher of meditation, I encourage you to learn what you seek from any of them or other sources that you esteem. BTW, although a key tenet of Buddhism is "no-self," the practice of acceptance leads to what we commonly call "self-acceptance," a signature acceompishment in personal transformation. In a paper I prsented at last year's ISAD Conference, "Shenpa, Stuttering, and Me," I describe this process applied to my personal work with my stuttering in some detail; you may want to take a look at it. It can be accessed through The Stuttering Homepage website. Thank you for your interest in the paper "Mind Matters" and taking the time to clarify for me just what that intrest is. Ellen-Marie Silverman