Practice Library

The Inner Causes of Distress and Well-being: Insights from Buddhist Psychology

A two-day seminar in eight parts with Lama Alan Wallace on the inner causes of distress and well-being in Buddhist psychology.

All kinds of events lead to happiness for some people and unhappiness for others, and we are not all influenced in the same way by our circumstances. That suggests the inner causes within our own minds have a more dominant role in our distress and well-being than external events do. Why else would some people fall into depression while living in very fortunate circumstances, and others keep a sense of well-being in the face of dire adversity? Over this two-day course, Lama Alan Wallace discusses the different kinds of happiness and unhappiness, those that arise in response to external events and those generated solely from within the mind. He then goes on to how we can identify the inner causes of distress and learn to remedy them, and identify the inner causes of genuine well-being and learn to cultivate them, in order to find inner freedom, peace, fulfilment and meaning in our lives. The eight parts are the talks, guided meditations and question sessions from the weekend, filmed at the Park Plaza in Leeds in 2019.

What this course covers

• Why the same circumstances leave one person content and another distressed
• Happiness that depends on events, and happiness generated from within
• Identifying the inner causes of distress and their remedies
• What makes a desire afflictive
• Ignorance and the reified sense of self
• Settling body, speech and mind, and observing the space of the mind
• Catching an emotion before it speaks, and cultivating loving kindness

Sessions

1. D1S1 - Hedonia, Eudaimonia and Where the Causes Lie 76 minutes
2. D1S2 - Tension, Agitation, Dullness, and Stillness Amid Turbulence 85 minutes
3. D1S3 - Relaxation Before Stability, and What Makes a Desire Afflictive 115 minutes
4. D1S4 - Materialism as a Learned Delusion, and Innate Self-Grasping 59 minutes
5. D2S1 - Substantial Causes, and the Telescope of Introspection 110 minutes
6. D2S2 - Observing Thoughts and Emotions, and the Substrate Consciousness 54 minutes
7. D2S3 - Awareness of Awareness, Dying Lucidly, and Loving Kindness 85 minutes
8. D2S4 - Four Questions on Flourishing, and What Free Will Means 75 minutes