Spiritual Psychology

[Scott]

Dr. George Steinfeld speaks about his work in the field of analytic psychotherapy and his evolution while working with clients. Breaking out of the box of standard clinical thinking Dr. George tried new approaches to help his clients. He also spoke about his battles to change the way mental health patients were treated and after much time and effort won an award for his work.

Dr. George worked in the prison system where he met Swami Satchidananda on one of the trips outside the prison which inspired him to teach yoga to the prison inmates.

He then studied Ram Dass and meditation and integrated that into his interaction with clients.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOarherOPx8

Full Interview with Dr. George Steinfeld - Spiritual Psychology (http://www.spectrumradionetwork.com/Archive/george-steinfeld-spiritual-psychology.html)

Dr. George Steinfeld, Ph.D. has been practicing psychology in Connecticut for over forty years.? He is highly trained in human behavior and is an approved clinical supervisor in marriage and family therapy.

Dr. Steinfeld takes a holistic approach in helping to relieve suffering in the quickest and most effective way possible.? He has worked in mental hospitals, child guidance clinics, prisons (addicted inmates) and has his own private practice.

Dr. Steinfeld has over forty professional publications and has given many local, state and national presentations.

Contact info:
George Steinfeld docgeorge25@aol.com

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Ram Dass

http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn179/Nazrudin/RamDass.jpg


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3ixRqOauq4

Ram Dass Quotes

* I would say that the thrust of my life has been initially about getting free, and then realizing that my freedom is not independent of everybody else. Then I am arriving at that circle where one works on oneself as a gift to other people so that one doesn't create more suffering. I help people as a work on myself and I work on myself to help people.

* Working on our own consciousness is the most important thing that we are doing at any moment, and being love is a supreme creative act.

* I’m not interested in being a “lover.” I’m interested in only being love.

* Our rational minds can never understand what has happened, but our hearts.. if we can keep them open to God, will find their own intuitive way.

* Psychedelics helped me to escape.. albeit momentarily.. from the prison of my mind. It over-rode the habit patterns of thought and I was able to taste innocence again. Looking at sensations freshly without the conceptual overly was very profound.

* I am embarrassed to admit what drew me to psychology. I didn't want to go to medical school. I was getting good grades in psychology and I was charismatic and people in the psychology department liked me. It was as low a level as that.

* The stroke caused me to lose faith, and it was a cold, cold place, and I suddenly realized it was fierce grace.. that turned my life around.

* Do what you can on this plane to relieve suffering by constantly working on yourself to be an instrument for the cessation of suffering. To me, that's what the emerging game is all about.

* You give up not meditating. It's called meditation action. There's no way out of it. Meditation means to be constantly extricating yourself from the clinging of mind.

* We are all affecting the world every moment, whether we mean to or not. Our actions and states of mind matter, because we are so deeply interconnected with one another.

* The most important aspect of love is not in giving or the receiving: it’s in the being. When I need love from others, or need to give love to others, I’m caught in an unstable situation. Being in love, rather than giving or taking love, is the only thing that provides stability. Being in love means seeing the Beloved all around me.

[Scott]

Ram Dass interviews Thicht Nhat Hanh


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZKrl5n79hY

Ram Dass interviews Thicht Nhat Hanh at the State of the World forum, September 1995

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Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh

Often referred to as the most beloved Buddhist teacher in the West, Thich Nhat Hanh's teachings and practices appeal to people from various religious, spiritual, and political backgrounds. Nhat Hanh offers a practice of "mindfulness" that is beneficial for people of all faiths, by helping us resist and transform the speed and violence of our modern society. His life and teachings have deeply influenced millions of people, including scores of luminaries in different fields: politician Jerry Brown, civil rights champion Martin Luther King, Jr., eco-activist Joanna Macy, and Catholic mystic Thomas Merton - to name a few.

Thich Nhat Hanh (pronounced "tik not hahn") was born in central Vietnam in 1926 and joined the monkhood at the age of 16. In Saigon in the early 1960's, he founded the School of Youth for Social Services (SYSS), a grass roots relief organization that rebuilt bombed villages, set up schools and medical centers, resettled homeless families, and organized agricultural cooperatives. Rallying some 10,000 student volunteers, the SYSS based its work on the Buddhist principles of non-violence and compassionate action. Despite government denunciation of his activity, Nhat Hanh also founded a Buddhist University, a publishing house, and an influential peace activist magazine in Vietnam.

Thich Nhat Hanh has been living in exile from his native Vietnam since the age of forty. In that year of 1966, he was banned by both the non-Communist and Communist governments for his role in undermining the violence he saw affecting his people. A Buddhist monk since the age of sixteen, Thay ("teacher") as he is commonly known) earned a reputation as a respected writer, scholar, and leader. He championed a movement known as "engaged Buddhism," which intertwined traditional meditative practices with active nonviolent civil disobedience. This movement lay behind the establishment of the most influential center of Buddhist studies in Saigon, the An Quang Pagoda. He also set up relief organizations to rebuild destroyed villages, instituted the School of Youth for Social Service (a Peace Corps of sorts for Buddhist peace workers), founded a peace magazine, and urged world leaders to use nonviolence as a tool. Although his struggle for cooperation meant he had to relinquish a homeland, it won him accolades around the world. When Thich Nhat Hanh left Vietnam, he embarked on a mission to spread Buddhist thought around the globe. In 1966, when Thay came to the United States for the first of many humanitarian visits, the territory was not completely new to him: he had experienced American culture before as a student at Princeton, and more recently as a professor at Columbia. The Fellowship of Reconciliation and Cornell invited Thay to speak on behalf of Buddhist monks, and he offered an enlightened view on ways to end the Vietnam conflict. He spoke on college campuses, met with administration officials, and impressed social dignitaries. The following year, Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., nominated Thich Nhat Hanh for the same honor. Hanh's Buddhist delegation to the Paris peace talks resulted in accords between North Vietnam and the United States, but his pacifist efforts did not end with the war. He also helped organize rescue missions well into the 1970's for Vietnamese trying to escape from political oppression. Even after the political stabilization of Vietnam, Thich Nhat Hanh has not been allowed to return home. The government still sees him as a threat -- ironic, when one considers the subjects of his teachings: respect for life, generosity, responsible sexual behavior, loving communication, and cultivation of a healthful life style.


He has written more than one-hundred titles, including books of prose, poetry, and prayers. Most of his works have been geared toward the Buddhist reader, yet his teachings appeal to a wide audience. For over the last two decades, Thich Nhat Hanh has visited the United States every other year; he draws more and more people with each tour, Christian, Jewish, atheist, and Zen Buddhist alike. His teachings and philosophy is not limited to preexistent religious structures, but speaks to the individual's desire for wholeness and inner calm. In 1993, he drew a crowd of some 1,200 people at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC, led a retreat of 500 people in upstate New York, and assembled 300 people in West Virginia. His popularity in the United States inspired the mayor of Berkeley, California, to name a day in his honor and the Mayor of New York City declared a Day of Reconciliation during his 1993 visit. Clearly, Thich Nhat Hanh is a human link with a prophetic past, a soft-spoken advocate of peace, Buddhist community, and the average American citizen.

Here is an inspiring poem by Thich Nhat Hanh. May it help to bring peace to all our hearts.

Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh Interview


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEVmZTGTB6A