Public Talk: 'Back to Beginnings' 7pm-9pm with Dr. Brion Sweeney

Dr. Brion Sweeney will give a public talk to introduce the TRT method on Friday August 23 rd 7 - 9 pm at the Sanctuary to outline the method. Suggested Donation Euro 20

This will be followed by a one and a half day workshop for those interested to know more, over Saturday 24th Aug from 10am to 4pm and Sunday 25th from 9am to 12.30pm. 

Akong Tulku Rinpoche was a Tibetan lama and meditation master, who was a founding director of Kagyu Samye Ling, Tibetan Buddhist Monastery and Centre for World Peace and Health, in Dumfriesshire Scotland in 1967. Rinpoche was trained as a meditation master and reincarnate lama in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition before fleeing to the West during the Cultural Revolution. He also received training in Tibetan Medicine before he left Tibet. After spending twenty years in United Kingdom Rinpoche began to give his Western students special methods he developed to help his Western students with their meditation and their ordinary/spiritual lives. Slowly these methods coalesced into Tara

Rokpa Therapy which combines traditional Mahayana and Vajrayana methods with Western understandings of the mind. At this stage Rinpoche gathered a number of healthcare professionals to help him

formulate and deliver this unique method of introducing Mahayana Buddhism to the West.

The Back to Beginnings constitutes the first phase of TRT and involves an in-depth exploration of our life to date, as a way of helping us know ourselves better and to live our lives more fully in the present moment.

The methods used in this process include reviewing our lives several times through journaling and through the use of art materials, visualisation practices that have been developed directly from Mahayana tradition, to aid relaxation and help access deeper aspects of our being. In addition, self- massage is introduced as exchange massage with a

partner - all fully clothed. More details can be found on the Tara Rokpa Therapy website tararokpa.org and at:

https://www.tararokpa.org/therapy/wwd/stages/back_to_beginnings.php

Dr. Brion Sweeney is a retired consultant psychiatrist who worked in Ireland in the HSE in Dublin until his retirement in 2012. In addition, he holds a masters degree in psychotherapy from University College Dublin. Brion undertook his own experiential training in Tara Rokpa Therapy under the guidance of Akong Rinpoche who had developed TRT to help people discover and develop their true their potential. He became a Tara Rokpa therapist in 1992 and thereafter worked closely with Akong Rinpoche and other TRT therapists helping to refine Tara Rokpa Therapy. More recently Brion spent three years in retreat under the guidance of Tai Situpa Rinpoche.