Event

Laura Bridgman

Discovering the Heart's Guidance - Going beyond the Inner Critic
This critical inner voice is a concept used in popular psychology to refer to a sub-personality that is judgmental and demeaning. It is usually experienced as an inner commentary attacking us, saying that we are bad, wrong, inadequate, worthless and guilty, producing feel-ings of shame, deficiency, and doubt. It is a major obstacle to the path because it doesn't allow us to simply be as we are; according to its narrative we always 'should' be another way, so we reject certain as-pects of our body and mind and disallow what is here in our field of awareness. So the rigidity and judgement of the inner critic makes it difficult for us to go deeply into ourselves.
Through meditation and inquiry exercises we will contemplate the conditioning of the inner critic and how it impacts us. We will also ex-plore the alternative to this critical voice - a compassionate, wiser guiding quality within our hearts.
Laura will give talks and guided meditations, and make space for questions and comments during this day - long practice. There will al-so be two inquiry exercises in pairs where you will contemplate spe-cific questions related to this topic.

Laura Bridgman
Laura ordained as a nun with Ajahn Sumedho in 1995, and was resi-dent at Amaravati and Chithurst monasteries for eighteen years until she moved out to live as a solitary nun in 2010. Over the past ten years she has spent extended periods of time with the Burmese teacher Sayadaw U Tejaniya. In 2015 Laura left the monastic tradition to pursue the Diamond Heart (Ridhwan) spiritual path alongside her Vipassana practice. There is much overlap as this path incorporates several fundamental Buddhist principles and practices.