The Buddhist Path as Therapy

Amber Larson and Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; Ven. Thanissaro, "Healing Power of the Precepts" (Noble Strategy); Mary Loftus (Psychology Today, Sept. 5, 2013); Sunny

Fairness or martyrdom? When virtue becomes a vice (Jeff Riedel/psychologytoday.com)

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Virtue becomes a vice? (PT)

The Buddha was a kind of doctor [referred to in some sutras as a "master physician"], treating the spiritual ills of living beings [human and devas, also referred to as "the teacher of gods and humans].

The path of practice he taught was like a course of therapy for suffering (disappointed) hearts and minds. This way of understanding the Buddha and his teachings or Dharma dates back to the earliest texts, and yet it is also very current.

Buddhist meditation practice is often advertised as a form of healing, and quite a few psychotherapists now recommend that their patients try (mindfulness based) meditation as part of their treatment.

 

After several years of teaching and practicing meditation as "therapy," however, many of us have found that meditation on its own is not enough.

Psycho Mike (Suicidal T.)

In my own experience as a Western monk and abbot of Wat Forest Monastery in California (Thai Theravada), I have found that Western meditators tend to be afflicted more with a certain grimness and lack of self-esteem than any Asians I have ever taught.

Our psyches are so wounded by modern civilization that we tend to lack the resilience and persistence needed before concentration (serenity) and insight practices can be genuinely therapeutic.

 

Other teachers have noted this problem as well and, as a result, many of them have decided that the Buddhist path is insufficient for our particular needs. To make up for this insufficiency they have experimented with ways of supplementing meditation practice, combining it with such things as myth, poetry, psychotherapy, social activism, sweat lodges, mourning rituals, and even drumming.

The Buddha's full course

The problem, though, may not be that there is anything lacking in the Buddhist path, but that we simply haven't been following the Buddha's full course of therapy.

 

The Buddha's path consists not only of mindfulness, concentration, and insight practices, but also of virtue (sila), beginning with the Five Precepts. In fact, the precepts constitute the first and most basic step on the Buddhist path.
 

Balance? (Jeff Riedel/PT)

There is a tendency in the West to dismiss the Five Precepts as Sunday-school rules bound to old cultural norms that no longer apply to our modern society. But this misses the role the Buddha intended for them: They are part of a course of therapy for wounded minds/hearts. In particular, they are aimed at curing two ailments that underlie low self-esteem, regret and denial.

 

When our actions do not measure up to certain standards of behavior, we either regret the actions or, worse, engage in one of two kinds of denial -- either denying that our actions did in fact happen or denying that the standards of measurement are actually valid. These reactions are like wounds in the mind... More

(Sunny and the Sunliners) Self-esteem low? Depressed after a bad relationship? "It's Okay," says Sunny. "Ha, ha, ha/ It's all right/ I've been hurt before/ It's all right/ You don't love me anymore/ Maybe someday/ I'll find a way without you/ Ha, ha, ha/ Who am I kidding?/ It's okay/ Baby, I can see/ It's okay/ But, but would it make you happy?/ Maybe someday/ I'll find a way without you./Ha, ha, ha/ Someday, it won't be long/ You're gonna find yourself all alone/ It's okay/ Baby, I can say see/ It's okay/ I will set you free..."

Love, Sexuality, and Awakening: Retreat

Ven. Amma Thanasanti Bhikkhuni (awakeningtruth.org) and Dr. Sharon Beckman-Brindley (metta.org); Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Fragrant blossoming lotus flower, the symbol of opening (tvladusi/flickr.com)

 

Dr. Beckman-Brindley, Ven. Thanasanti

The theme of this retreat is our relationship with various facets of love as part of a path of Buddhist awakening. "Love" includes a broad range of experience -- from a sense of friendliness and compassion, to appreciation toward ourselves, to the desire to release our masks and defenses and rest in a shared intimacy with others [a loss of self and merging with someone or something larger].

Sometimes in our daily life, this shared intimacy is expressed through romantic sexual involvement. [Other times it is sought diving within through asceticism and spirituality.] Ultimately, resting in love, we can embody an unconditional love that has no expectations, where love is an essential quality of "being" rather than a state or circumstance we long for [a trait rather than a temporary state].

 

Time for reflection (true-enlightenment.com)

This will be an eight precept retreat in which we refrain from killing and harming, and from stealing, any sexual activity, incorrect speech, and/or substances which cloud the mind. There will be two meals and an evening snack. We will begin the week using the Foundations of Mindfulness in silent practice. After a few days of silence, we will introduce sessions of Insight Dialogue to explore the theme.

It runs from Saturday May 23-30 in Loveland, Colorado, at Sunrise Ranch within easy access of Denver Int'l airport, yet secluded from the bustle of city life, in the Rocky Mountain foothills. Program contact: Katherine Wolfe (wolfalohalani@gmail.com). More 
 
ELIGIBILITY: This retreat is suitable for anyone self-identified as a woman who has a regular meditation practice and has done a seven-day mindfulness retreat.

DONATION: The teachings are offered on a dana basis (the Pali word for "generosity," the Buddhist practice of giving to one’s capacity).

SCHOLARSHIP: Dana has played an essential role in the Buddhist tradition. In the spirit of this tradition, Awakening Truth does not want cost to be an obstacle to participation and so, are committed to offering financial assistance to those who need it. If you cannot attend the retreat due to cost, please contact the retreat committee: 720-295-1321 or awakeningtruth.retreats@gmail.com.

SPONSORED BY: Awakening Truth, a 501(c)3 organization based in Colorado with the intention of supporting Buddhist nuns, bringing the teachings into the modern world and building a training monastery for [blended-Theravada] Forest Tradition bhikkhunis.

TEACHERS

Sharon Beckman-Brindley, Ph.D., is a Senior Insight Dialogue Teacher who teaches Insight Dialogue retreats worldwide. A clinical psychologist, she has served as team leader for Metta’s Relational Insight Meditation Program; she also serves on the Metta Programs Teachers Council. She has practiced vipassana (insight) meditation for over 30 years. Since 2001 she has studied and practiced the Dhamma and Insight Dialogue intensively with Gregory Kramer. She is also a co-founder and a guiding teacher of the Insight Meditation Community of Charlottesville, Virginia and is a graduate of the Community Dharma Leaders Program at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. She also has over 30 years of practice as a psychotherapist, who has led workshops and retreats on meditation and its integration with psychotherapy for over 15 years. She is a stepmother and a grandmother and lives with her husband and their two cats in Charlottesville.
 
Amma Thanasanti Bhikkhuni is a guest in Metta’s Teacher Training program. She has been meditating for over 30 years, a [Theravada or more eccentric American monastic] Buddhist nun for over 20 years, and has been teaching internationally for over 15 years. He work spans rigorous understanding of Buddhist teachings, non-dual meditation, depth psychology, subtle body energies, and the Divine Feminine. She teaches meditation as an art and skill, integrating body, heart, and mind with finesse and compassion. She founded Awakening Truth [whose rainbow motif suggests a particularly welcome climate for lesbians and gays], whose mission is to create a nun (bhikkhuni)'s training monastery and seeks ways for monastics and lay practitioners to work together to support whole-life practice. She is currently based at the Shakti Vihara Hermitage in Colorado Springs.

Nature is cheaper than therapy: Walkabout!

Xochitl, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Tim Martinez, Arroyo Seco Foundation (facebook)

"NATURE. CHEAPER THAN THERAPY." (Sun Gazing/facebook.com)

The shores of Hahamongna "Lake" along JPL and Watershed Park, Pasadena

How the native inhabitants, the Tongva, saw Hahamonga at the head of the LA River

  

Go with the flow. If nature is cheaper than therapy, what could be more therapeutic than a walkabout in spring?

Wisdom Quarterly will join the Dry Riverbed preservationists of the Arroyo Seco Foundation to talk about Tongva culture, engage in environmental activism to save and restore the sacred site, and enjoy what Douglas Adams coined "sand, surf, and suffering" (Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy).

The sun will be up, sand underfoot, surf lapping on the eastern edge of the park (thanks to the recent rains that came mysteriously out of nowhere), and "suffering" is ever present to remind us that enlightenment, nirvana, and freedom beckon.

• Hahamonga Walkabout 2014
• Watershed Park, Pasadena (lower lot)
• March 22, 9:00 am to noon

UCLA Workshop: Mindfulness Based Therapy

Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly; UCLA MARC (marc.ucla.edu)

For 2,600 years Buddhist meditation experts have developed and refined mindfulness practices or "skillful methods" for studying and alleviating human suffering.

• Innovative Treatment Approaches and Clinical Skill for Trauma, PTSD, Anxiety, Depression, and Addictions
• Oct. 3-Nov. 27, 2013, Friday mornings, 10:00 am-1:00 pm

The emerging innovative application and integration of theory and methodologies from classic Buddhist mindfulness practices such as Insight (vipassana), Zen (zazen), and Tibetan (dzogzen) traditions into contemporary therapeutics is a promising development for clinicians and a wide variety of client populations.

• This workshop is designed for mental health clinicians who would like to begin utilizing the practices and princeiples of mindfulness, compassion training, and acceptance-based treatment with their clients
• It outlines how to help clients manage intense and difficult emotions.
• It teaches the mental (heart), somatic (body), and social (environmental) consequences associated with painful mind-brain-body disorders

• ENROLL: uclaextension.edu, (310) 825-7093 or mntlhealth@uclaextension.edu, for complete course information: Reg#Z5118CA, Z5123CA, Z5124CA, Z5160CA.

EXPERTS

Christopher K. Germer, Ph.D., Harvard Medical School and Institute for Meditation & Psychotherapy (IMP), Self-Compassion in Clinical Practice

L. Cozolino, Ph.D., Pepperdine University, The Construction of Consciousness: Neuroscience and Mind-Body Healing

Lobsang Rapgay, Ph.D., UCLA Geffen Medical School

Traditional Tibetan Mindfulness Practices with CBT for Anxiety Disorders

Ronald A. Alexander, Ph.D., Open Mind Training Institute

Mindfulness and Ericksonian Somatic Approaches to Trauma, PTSD, and Depression

Trudy A. Goodman, Ph.D., InsightLA, IMP

Compassion and Generosity: The Efficacy of Altruism in Clinical Treatment -- How Compassion and Generosity Support Mindfulness in Clinical Work

Elisha Goldstein, Ph.D., Private Practice

Mindfulness-Based Psychotherapy: Clinical Applications for Treating Depression and Addictions

Adapting ancient practices for modern life

Coordinators: Ron Alexander, Ph.D. (Wise Mind Open, 2009), co-author of new chapter (Mindfulness and Psychotherapy Handbook, 2014).

Psychologist Jeffrey Hutter, Ph.D., private practice, teaches psychotherapy, Integrative Meditation, and mindfulness training to clients and clinicians; he is also a Clinical Consultant, IMP Mindfulness and Psychotherapy training program.

• Westwood 204 ABC Extension Lindbrook Center
• Oct. 4-Nov. 22, 2013 (5 meetings, except 10-11-13)
• Fridays, 10:00 am-1:00 pm
• Pre-registration required; no enrollment at door.

UCLA professors poached by USC as UCLA students protest fee hikes.