An Irish psychologist who visited India last year has invited her teacher to share his wisdom. Anne Dempsey reports
Last year Dublin psychologist Pauline Beegan spent a month in India studying health and healing with a young Lama, and while there encountered Lu-Jong, a series of meditation and exercises based around core teachings of Tibetan medicine and Buddhist philosophy. She began to feel really well and arrived at a healthy weight which was an unlooked for bonus. She kept in touch with her mentor, the Venerable Lama Lobsanc Thamcho Nyima, and this week welcomes him here to present a number of talks and workshops for the public.
He is a Buddhist monk, doctor of Tibetan medicine and recognised reincarnation Lama. In 2002 he established a Buddhist Medical Centre in India for meditative and healing techniques, the Irish trip providing an opportunity to experience the nature of the centre's courses. As well as teaching Lu-Jong, and a method of hand healing, he will work on aspects of death and dying, and lecture on the links between Tibetan Buddhism and western psychotherapy.
Lu-Jong, meaning "healing body movement", was developed in the remote mountain areas of Tibet where the hermits had to develop their own techniques for self-healing. A whole assortment of body movements arose, each working on various meridians, reflex zones and specific organs. Anyone who attends the Lu-Jong workshops and wants to learn more can continue training at Dublin's Shambhala Training Centre. Established by a number of Irish people 10 years ago, it offers meditation training, including Lu-Jong.
Cork-born Mark Duggan is a founder member of the centre. A systems analyst, he learned Lu-Jong under a different Tibetan teacher when living in America. "The Tibetan tradition is not a monolith, there are different schools rather than one tradition handed down, so . . . it's bottom up rather than top down, but all based on the same world view," he explains.
The practice has been likened to yoga, and has common cause with practices that aim to restore and maintain health by unblocking the body's energy channels. Using Lu-Jong means knowing which movements are appropriate in given circumstances, including a number of specific healing exercises.
Both yoga and Lu-Jong also concentrate on directing and channelling our breathing, but the exercises he demonstrates at the Shambhala Centre are stronger, speedier and more forceful than the gentle stretching postures of yoga.
There are 12-24 core movements in the Lu-Jong protocol depending on the school. With names like Circling the Firebrand, The Dignified Dance, The Threatening Lunge, some sound a bit fierce, but the opposite is the case, the aim being to achieve emotional strength through meditation not attack. "Lu-Jong doesn't stand on its own but comes out of a meditative tradition. Becoming a warrior in the Shambhala tradition means developing the courage to meet life's challenges with openness and strength. The meditation aspect is the core of the whole thing," says Duggan.
Meditation, as he explains it, is a tool which helps us face whatever life brings. "Life can be painful for everyone. Through meditation we can transform the power of events in our lives. Instead of trying to ward off pain, we can go through it, get to know it, and so be freed from it. So you can learn to feel good about feeling bad!
"The warrior tradition is about entering the pain, processing it, meeting it. People come to us to learn meditation thinking it will detach them from life, that they will go immediately to the bliss! That doesn't happen. Being a warrior doesn't mean being unafraid. It means facing the fear."
EVENTS & CONTACTS
The Venerable Lama Lobsanc Thamcho Nyima will talk on Death and Dying, Friday, April 1st, Trinity College, Dublin 7-9pm, cost €10.
Workshop on death and dying, Saturday and Sunday, April 2nd and 3rd, Bray, Co Wicklow, 10.30am-4pm, cost €100
Lecture on Tibetan Buddhism and Western psychology Monday, April 4th, Trinity College, Dublin €10
Workshops on Lu-Jong Mountain Body Movement, Monday and Tuesday, April 4th and 5th, 10am- 4pm, Bray, Co Wicklow €80
Workshop on Tsa-Lung-Hand Healing, Wednesday, April 6th, Raheny, 10am-4pm, €50
To book phone Pauline Beegan 01-8338366/086-8058471, beegan@gofree.indigo.ie