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Psychotherapy / Meditation
I came across this interesting article by Jack Kornfield on Buddhanet: Even the Best Meditators Have Old Wounds to Heal
I think that most of us are aware that, as Kornfield points out in this article, meditation practice has its limitations when it comes to helping us to recognize and heal old wounds. He writes about the value many have found in therapy and in meditation, points out the limitations of both and offers some conclusions for our practice.
Although it’s an idea I’ve heard many times before, it always helps to be reminded to “expand our notion of practice to include all of life.” What I found most interesting about this article is Kornfield’s suggestion that we look at our whole life and ask “Where am I awake, and what am I avoiding? Do I use my practice to hide? In what areas am I conscious, and where am I fearful, caught, or unfree?”
Comments
2 comments postedThat article is fascinating. It really has opened my mind to some things I've been using my practice to avoid. Thank you for posting it!
Thanks for the post, JD. I have come to agree whole-heartedy! I remember in my early days of meditation I heard several times "meditation can be theraputic, but it is not therapy". As with just about every other good piece of advice, I heard the words again and again, but it took years to get it.
Recently I have entered a theraputic community, and realized the truth of this message. For ten years I have been meditating and studying dharma off and on (more on than off, in fact) and wondering whay the heck I haven't been experiencing the changes that people talk about. I spent almost a year at Gampo Abbey monestary, being blessed with time to practice and teachings that I would give an arm and a leg for now, and yet I was discontent, paranoid, and in psychic agony the whole time. I came out (smiling of course and thanking people for benefits that I didn't feel), and tried harder and harder to "get it", until my practice and commitment fell to pieces. I vacilated between resentment of the teachers and teachings I had received and the conviction that I must have some horrible karma that was destroying my chances at peace and understanding. I thank goodness for DIY, which has given me a place to come practice as my messed up self, and encouraged me to just be my messed up self, without restriction.
Finally I have entered (with great doubts in the beginning, and I have to admit still many little ones in the middle) a 12 step program and I have gotten the oportunity to actually, thoroughly stare deep down the barrel of ME. For ten years I have been subtly and not so subtly trying to dodge this responsibility, with plenty of support from teachings on egolessness, selflessness, and emptiness. But I finally came to a point of misery and self disgust that left me no choice but to throw that aside and admit I cannot manage this life in any benefitial, joyful way. I need to look at the very personal and seemingly individual trouble that is Me. They say that ego is illusion, but you know they say the same thing about the chair I am sitting on and the keyboard I am using right now. Just as the floor and walls are still ging concerns, whether ultimately real or not, this ego story is still solid and real as long as I am trapped by my karma and delusions to make it so.
Teachings I have received talk about the two accumulations- of merit (good, wholesome, workable habits of body, speech, and mind) and wisdom (knowledge of how it works and tools to be applied to the above)- being absolutely essential to accomplishing real "seeing" of the Dharma. The Buddha himself did not just jump over his problems and leave it all behind, but arose out of thousands upon thousands of lifetimes accumulating a healthy, sane ego (which to my mind is what generating good karma is really all about- making this apparent self as good as it can get). I'm taking my current theraputic path as being a part of that stage of development, and I have tremendous faith that I'm finally getting my butt on the right train.
Of course, therapy itself can be good or bad, and can be a long process that people also have felt they got little from in the end. I guess I am trying to view it as an important stage on the way, that will not bring me ultimate happiness and enlightenment, but may help to set me up for it. So far, so good.
You know, when Buddhism travelled from place to place, it always changed with the needs and knowledge of it's new environment. Politics and geography and social environment gave rise to the mahayana, and to the vajrayana, and to all the many different flavours of dharma that we see around the world. One doesn't have to be wrong for the other to be right! A thai forest monk trying to sit in meditation under a tree in Tibet would most certainly attain frost-bite and death before attaining samadhi. I have often wondered what our Buddhism will look like, when a North American Buddhist lineage takes its rightful place alongside Zen and Karma Kagyu and Vipassana in the histroy books. Maybe this theraputic addition will be part of that? We have certainly seen all around how much meditation and buddhadharma has done to change and improve modern psycho- therapy. I wonder what modern psychotherapy will offer the buddha's dharma.