Set against the mesmerizing backdrop of Ladakh in the Himalayas, Samsara begins as a yogi, Tashi, is carried out of a mountain cave and gently roused from a deep meditative trance. Once he has been brought back to the monastery that has been his home since age five , the accomplished young Buddhist monk is groomed to teach. Unexpectedly, though, a stream of incessant sexual fantasies and desires arise, propelling him to take the first hesitant steps toward a different kind of fulfillment - a path with new and unfamiliar terrain. This stirring film by Indian director Nalin Pan has taken audiences' breath away, both with its glorious cinematography and a startling eroticism.



The Wild Parrots Of Telegraph Hill
Saturday, November 3, 2007, 7pm   
Featuring Mark Bittner, Judy Irving, Connor, Mingus, Picasso, Sophie, Pushkin, Sonny, Tupelo
Directed by Judy Irving (2005) 
Runtime: 83 minutes

When musician Mark Bittner comes to San Francisco in a bid for a new life, his efforts to connect end in isolation, frustration and homelessness. Living on the street, he begins to notice a flock of wild parrots - cherry-headed conures, along with one blue-headed loner he names Connor - whose ancestors escaped their cages and made Telegraph Hill their roost after being imported in the 19th century. The more carefully and patiently he observes them, the closer they venture to him, until he has become not only one of the world's leading experts on parrot behavior, but also a member of their community and privy to their loves, losses, conflicts and triumphs. Wild Parrots is a wondrous documentary by Judy Irving with an ending that "makes you feel like you could fly out of the theater" (San Jose Mercury News).



After The Wedding
Saturday, December 8, 2007, 7pm   
Starring Mads Mikkelsen, Rolf Lassgård, Sidse Babett Knudsen, Stine Fischer Christensen, Christian Tafdrup
Directed by Susanne Bier (2007)
Runtime: 119 minutes

Jacob, a Danish expatriate and the dedicated manager of a small orphanage in India, reluctantly returns to Copenhagen hoping to raise enough money from wealthy businessman Jorgen to stay afloat. When his benefactor offhandedly invites him to a family wedding, a surprise encounter uncorks an emotional tsunami that capsizes Jacob’s plans and transforms his understanding of love and compassion. After The Wedding is an utterly absorbing film, unprecedented in the way it applies a razor-sharp intelligence to its almost melodramatic passions.



The Burmese Harp
Saturday, January 5, 2008, 7pm   
Starring Rentaro Mikuni, Shôji Yasui, Jun Hamamura, Taketoshi Naitô, Kô Nishimura
Directed by Kon Ichikawa (1967)
Runtime: 116 minutes

In Burma at the end of WWII, a young Japanese soldier is separated from his company and presumed dead. Disguising himself as a Buddhist monk to avoid suspicion as he goes in search of the British prison camp where his platoon awaits repatriation, he is unprepared for the compelling new perspective his robes provide. Kon Ichikawa's The Burmese Harp is one of the treasures of world cinema, an unforgettable parable of selflessness, compassion and unexpected spiritual awakening.



The Girl In The Cafe
Saturday, February 2, 2008, 7pm   
Starring Bill Nighy, Kelly Macdonald, Meneka Das, Anton Lesser, Paul Ritter
Directed by David Yates (2005) 
Runtime: 95 minutes

Lawrence, a painfully shy economist, meets the mysterious, laconic Gina in a cafe and impulsively invites her to attend the G8 summit in Reykjavik, without any inkling at all that her tenderness, insight and fierce honesty are about to upend his life - and possibly the world order. Written by Richard Curtis (Four Weddings & A Funeral, Love Actually), The Girl In The Cafe is both a quietly stirring love story and a soft-spoken but uncompromising call for justice.



The Three Burials Of Melquiades Estrada
Saturday, March 8, 2008, 7pm   
Starring Tommy Lee Jones, Dwight Yoakum, Barry Pepper, January Jones
Directed by Tommy Lee Jones (2006) 
Runtime: 121 minutes

After a callow young border guard accidentally shoots a Mexican ranch hand, the dead man’s friend and foreman Pete (Tommy Lee Jones) kidnaps the guard and wrangles him to help take his friend’s body home for burial. Directed brilliantly by Jones, Three Burials is the entertaining, picaresque tale of a spiritual odyssey both grisly and hilarious, gravely overseen by the Zen-like Pete, in which none of the characters end up where they started or thought they were headed.



The Lives Of Others
Saturday, April 5, 2008, 7pm   
Starring Martina Gedeck, Ulrich Mühe, Sebastian Koch, Ulrich Tukur, Thomas Thieme
Directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (2006)
Runtime: 138 minutes

East Berlin, 1984: As Stasi surveillance whiz Gerd Wiesler (the late Ulrich Mühe) monitors the everyday lives of a brilliant playright and his famous actress girlfriend, he begins to awaken to the loneliness, rigidity and enervation in his own life, as well as uncover the real reason his conniving superior has set his sights on the pair. Within the structure of a spellbinding political thriller, The Lives Of Others transmutes itself into an indelible meditation on impermanence and the possibility of freedom within and without.



Zen Noir
Saturday, May 3, 2008, 7pm   
Starring Duane Sharp, Kim Chan, Debra Miller, Ezra Buzzington, Jennifer Siebel
Directed by Marc Rosenbush (2006)
Runtime: 71 minutes

When a Zen monk mysteriously tumbles off his zafu - spoiler: he's dead! - the call goes out to a self-styled private eye whose life seems to be one big hangover. Once he stumbles onto the scene, there are few clues but countless questions: who died...how... why... when...and what the hell is everybody doing, anyway? Our hero's nutty presence in the monastery becomes a source of humor to some of its denizens, irritation and alarm to others, until a nun opens her mouth and the detective begins to fall silent. Zen Noir is not so much a film about Zen as it is a wacked-out Zen riddle, or koan: enigmatic, absurdly funny, and less concerned with the plot's conceits than with the intuitive truth beating within. While a little familiarity with Zen won't hurt - what's with the oranges, grampa?! - none is required for the film's actual subject: the heart's true release. Despite its low-rent feel and campy hilarity, Zen Noir manages to get surprisingly real, and even inspiring.

Chris Germer, PhD is a clinical psychologist practicing in Arlington, a co-editor of Mindfulness and Psychotherapy, and an Instructor of Psychology, Harvard Medical School.  He has over 27 years of experience in meditation and its use in psychotherapy.

Chip Hartranft is the founding director of The Arlington Center and author of The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali: A New Translation with Commentary (Shambhala).  His work bridges the traditions of yoga and Buddhist psychology.

Sara Lazar, PhD, is a neuroscientist in the Psychiatry Department at Massachusetts General Hospital and an Instructor in Psychology at Harvard Medical School.

Bill Morgan, PsyD, a clinical psychologist practicing in Cambridge, has practiced Buddhist meditation for 32 years and leads meditation retreats.

Stephanie Morgan, LICSW, PsyD is in private practice in Manchester-by-the Sea, MA, and has practiced Buddhist meditation for 28 years.

Susan Morgan, MSN, RN, CS is a Clinical Nurse Specialist in private practice in Cambridge, MA.  She has practiced meditation in both Christian and Buddhist traditions for over 15 years.

Lizabeth Roemer, PhD is a clinical psychologist and an associate professor of psychology at University of Massachusetts at Boston. She is co-editor of Acceptance- and mindfulness-based approaches to anxiety: Conceptualization and treatment.

Ron Siegel, PsyD is a clinical psychologist in private practice in Lincoln, MA, a member of the clinical faculty of Harvard Medical School for over 20 years, and a long-term student of mindfulness meditation. He is a coauthor of Back Sense: A Revolutionary Approach to Halting the Cycle of Chronic Back Pain and a co-editor of Mindfulness and Psychotherapy.

Charles Styron, PsyD is a consulting psychologist for Caritas Norwood Hospital, has a private practice, and has been a practitioner and teacher in the Shambala and Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhist traditions for 27 years.  He is also a professional and executive coach.

Janet Surrey, PhD is a founding scholar of the Jean Baker Miller Training Institute and co-director of the Gender Relations Project at the Stone Center, Wellesley College and has authored influential books on relational psychotherapy.  She has been practicing meditation and psychotherapy for 27 years.


REGISTRATION
This course will be taught at a level appropriate for post-graduate training of doctoral-level psychologists. The course will be limited to 50 clinicians. You can register at the door or in advance by contacting the Institute For Meditation & Psychotherapy.

Fee: The fee is $35 per evening session, or $200 for the full program. Sorry, fees for missed sessions will not be refunded. Fee for non-CE participants is $10 per evening session, or $60 for the full program.

Location: Films are screened at the Arlington Center, 369 Massachusetts Avenue, Arlington, MA 02474. The Arlington Center is conveniently located a short 5 min. walk east from Arlington Center, on the Mass Ave bus line.

Special Needs: Please inform us before the program if you have special needs, so we can make the necessary accommodations.

Please refrain from using scented products during the program.