Welcome. This is the website of David Brazier, also known by his Buddhist name Dharmavidya.
- Husband, father, English, only child, born in 1947
- Buddhist: priest with an order to look after:
see Amida Trust and join Friends of Amida - Person of letters:
see Writings, Poetry, Criticism - Pandramatist:
see Pandramatics - Woodsman: 30 acres in France to manage
- Gardener: taking after my mother
- Traveller: always going somewhere
My most recent published book is Love and Its Disappointment: The meaning of life, therapy and art. See also book news
LOVE AND ITS DISAPPOINTMENT: THE MEANING OF LIFE, THERAPY AND ART Publisher: http://www.o-books.com {} Review copies: office1@o-books.net Love and Its Disappointment: The meaning of life, therapy and art" has been found to be lucid and helpful and has excellent endorsements: "compelling..., power house..., brilliant..., convincing..., nourishing..., enlightening..., wise..., insightful..., compassionate... Endorsements & Reviews Julia Samuel, Metanoia Institute Tutor, Honorary Fellow of Imperial College: A compelling book, like a power house of thought that has been building up over a long time and successfully found its voice, as it pulled me the reader along. The clarity of the author's thought is rare indeed. His overall thesis that as loving beings we are inevitably thwarted, and how art and therapy can inform, help and occasionally heal us finds a way of saying what I have felt for a long time. His skill at drawing on other theorists, writers, philosophers, and his own thinking and integrating it into one clear treatise is brilliant. The risk he takes in standing up and banging the drum for love as the main motivation in man is convincing and lays bare our defences against it, and of course its frustration. Robert Wicks, Author of Riding the Dragon (Sorin Books) and The Resilient Clinician (Oxford University Press). Catholic. Professor, Loyola University Maryland: In Love and Disappointment David Brazier calls us to see what is at the core of life in refreshing, vitalizing ways. He offers new insights that seminal thinker Carl Rogers might have offered himself if he were alive today. It is thought provoking, nourishing of the inner life, and ideal reflective material for both professionals and searchers seeking to live "the honourable life". This book is about the possibility of love in a world that fails to really recognize the true import of its motivating force. Brazier's approach not only educates and helps us think differently but also, in Iris Murdoch's words, it " inspires love in the part of us that is most worthy." What more can you ask of a book than this? Nathan Katz, Jewish, Professor of Religious Studies, Florida International University: This is just what we need: a psychology based not on raw sex, or power, or fear, or mystical obscurantism, but on love and beauty. Here a skilled psychologist, artist and priest opens us to hopeful, enlightening and heretofore unanticipated possibilities. It is a book for all of us, professional and lay, western and eastern, sceptical and credulous. Gregg Krech, Buddhist, author of Naikan: Gratitude, Grace and the Japanese Art of Self-reflection; and of other books on Naikan and Constructive Living: Wise, insightful, compassionate observations that teach us that we find love not in ourselves but in that which we are devoted to. Brazier has created a thought-provoking paradigm in which love, art, spirituality and psychotherapy attempt to dance together to the symphony of life's meaning, conducted passionately within the corridor of the human heart. Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Love-Its-Disappointment-Meaning-Therapy/dp/1846942098/ Facebook Promotion: http://www.facebook.com/pages/LOVE-AND-ITS-DISAPPOINTMENT-The-meaning-of-life-therapy-and-art/86982269590 Associated International Conference: "1st International Conference on Other Centered Approaches" 19-21 February 2010, Berkeley, California Associated Weekend Workshop in Narborough, Leicestershire: 19-20 September 2009 Associated Day Presentation in London: 24th October 2009 Conscious TV Interview: http://www.conscious.tv/psychology.html?bcpid=1417325930&bclid=18465828001&bctid=18874696001 Accompanying publications: |
Most of my writing on the internet now takes place on amidatrust.ning.com. Do join me there.
The people I have known personally who have influenced me most in life, apart for my close relatives:
- Nai Boonman, who taught me sammatha meditation
- Chogyam Trungpa, who introduced me to Vajrayana
- Anne Trembath, who taught me psychotherapy and psychiatric social work
- Carl Ransom Rogers, psychologist
- Jiyu Kennett, who taught me Soto Zen
- Mary Midgley, who shared her approach to philosophy with me
- Gisho Saiko, who entrusted me with the hope of bringing Pureland to the West
- Al Bloom, with whom I share many common aims
In conjunction with my wife Caroline, I have devoted much time and energy to the development and presentation of Buddhist Psychology and teach on the Amida professional training programme for therapists. Our approach to therapy, grounded in Buddhist psychology, is called the Other Centred Approach.
There are different sections to this weblog concerned with day to day or longer term matters. Please find your way around by using the "Categories" and the "Recent Posts" sections on the left.
Questions: There is a section in the weblog called "Questions in the Sand". This replaces a previous separate weblog of that name. If you want to address questions to David Brazier about religious or philosophical questions or about faith and practice, send them to him by e-mail to dharmavidya@amidatrust.com with "Questions in the Sand" in the subject line and the answers will appear in this section in due course.
Recent Comments