A monk within the Karma Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, Choden (aka Sean McGovern) completed a three year, three month retreat in 1997 and has been a practicing Buddhist since 1985. He is originally from South Africa where he trained as a lawyer and learned meditation under the guidance of Rob Nairn, an internationally renowned Buddhist teacher.
Choden is now involved in developing secular mindfulness, compassion and insight programmes drawing upon the wisdom and methods of the Buddhist tradition, as well as contemporary insights from psychology and neuroscience. He is an honorary fellow of the University of Aberdeen and teaches on their Postgraduate Study Programme in Mindfulness (MSc) that is the first of its kind to include compassion in its curriculum. He is also a recognised teacher of the University of West Scotland and teaches on the MSc Teaching Mindfulness and Compassion.
He co-wrote a book with Paul Gilbert in 2012, entitled ‘Mindful Compassion’ that explores the interface between Buddhist and Evolutionary approaches to compassion training. In 2016 he completed a one year retreat focused on the foundation practices of Tibetan Buddhism.
Choden has also co-written 2 other books: The Mindfulness Based Living Course (2018) with Heather Regan-Addis and From Mindfulness to Insight (2019) with Rob Nairn & Heather Regan-Addis.
I have just completed delivering the 6 day Mindfulness Based Living Course teaching skills retreat and seen a new cohort of embodied mindfulness teachers committed to sharing the benefits of compassion based mindfulness with their communities. It was a wonderful week working with my friends and colleagues Choden, Barbara Reid and Alan Hughes – what…
Reflecting on the Mindfulness Association Conference last week – feelings of warmth and happiness flood my body and a smile appears on my face. I’m sitting here looking through all the photos that I took over a few days – and again I see laughter and happiness reflected in the images before me. So I…
The mindfulness conspiracy. It condemns all mindfulness practitioners/teachers as being obsessed with happiness and acquiescence to the causes of inequality, environmental degradation and oppression. In essence the article is all conjecture – it is based on opinion and without evidence. So, I invite you to consider a few points that I think may cause more…
Heather Regan-Addis, lead tutor, author and head of the Mindfulness Association, shares her experience whilst teaching students studying the MSc Studies in Mindfulness on their retreat on Holy Island.
I have had a bit of a rocky patch over the last several months. Full of self-doubt and fear. But the good news is that I have had an insight or indeed two insights. Last week I was with the first years of the University of Aberdeen’s MSc in Studies in Mindfulness at their five day…
I am on the beautiful Holy Isle this week delivering the year end retreat for the first years of the University of Aberdeen’s MSc in Studies in Mindfulness. There can be no better place on the planet to practice mindfulness! It is a pilgrimage to get here. A wonderful journey, at each stage meeting up…
I have been struggling this week to write my blog. More often than not the words fall out of me and the blog writes itself. I have an alarm on my phone that sounds on Sunday at 9am and I drop the question in ‘What to write about this week?’ It goes off again at…
Mindfulness is being in the moment, knowing we are in the moment, and knowing what is happening in the moment, both around us and within our own mind. It is a faculty which, if developed, leads to a ongoing growth of our human potential. The moment we knowingly observe our thoughts or behaviour, we are…