CBD 2024: iPause Guided practice #4, Healing Imagery: Lovingkindness and Compassion in the Relational Sphere with Pilar Jennings, PhD

In this guided meditation, we will explore the use of visualization and imagery in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Grounded in mindfulness, this mediation will offer participants an opportunity to explore the archetypal imagery used to evoke the sense of a benign and caring mentor that is internalized as a steady resource for inner calm, nervous system regulation, and compassion. No prior meditation experience is needed. Pilar Jennings also is providing the Summit session titled, The Contemplative Clinician: A Buddhist and Psychodynamic Perspective on Oct. 27.

Pilar Jennings, PhD, is a psychoanalyst based in New York City with a focus on the clinical applications of Buddhist meditation practice. She has been working with patients and their families in private practice and through the Harlem Family Institute since 2000. Dr. Jennings is a long-term practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism.  She is a Visiting Lecturer at Union Theological Seminary; Columbia University; a faculty member of the Nalanda Institute for Contemplative Science; and teaches internationally on the intersection of Buddhist psychology and psychoanalysis. Her publications have included “East of Ego: The Intersection of Narcissism and Buddhist Meditation Practice,” “Imagery and Trauma: The Psyche’s Push for Healing,” Mixing Minds: The Power of Relationship in Psychoanalysis and Buddhism (Wisdom Publications; 2010), and a memoir about her entry into clinical work: To Heal a Wounded Heart: On the Transformative Power of Buddhism and Psychotherapy in Action (Shambhala; 2017).