In one of his first teachings the Buddha offered The Four Noble Truths. The first of these truths states that all of us at some time or other will experience suffering, be it a vague sense of discontent or serious illness. Our world, after all, contains trouble as well as happiness.
Please don't look at this fact from a personal perspective; it is not about your dissatisfaction with work or my aches and pains. Rather it's a fundamental insight into the nature of life.
The First Noble Truth also advises us to deeply understand the nature of suffering. Doing so we realize that at minimum all of us know sadness, fear, and discontent. We also become aware of how these feelings come and go. They are impermanent. Grounded in these insights, the actions we take in response to suffering are likely to arise from wisdom.
9/19/2007
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The Psychotherapist's Corner
A meditation-inspired psychotherapy offers people a way of understanding their problems as well as a way of healing them... This full day retreat offers an opportunity to engage in learning mindfulness psychotherapy.
"The approach to working with others that I advocate is one in which spontaneity and humanness is extended to others."
---Chogyam Trungpa Rimposhe
Confusion, though uncomfortable, is a healthy state of mind. That's because it creates a great need for calm and clarity.
Psychotherapists can teach depressed people to become aware of their internal talk. This leads to the insight that thoughts are simply thoughts - nothing more. It also teaches that the person is bigger than his or her thoughts or the depression that comes with them. The result is a greater capacity to cope.
Meditation is a method for moving beyond the isolating tendency of the thinking mind.
Whether in a psychotherapy office or sitting on a cushion, we are practicing awareness. In the psychotherapy office our awareness is trained on the past and on the future. In meditation it is trained on the experience of awareness itself.
Narcissism is a double-edged sword; individuals suffering from narcissism either idealize or devalue themselves and others. Buddhist psychology blunts both sides of this sword by declaring that there is no solid and lasting self. Meditative exercises allow individuals to personally discover that they are ever changing, impermanent, and in the flow of life.
Meditation increases the psychotherapist's capacity for single pointed awareness. Relating in this way to a person who comes for help is an act of deep caring. It heals.
Strange how people come into our offices feeling guilty for trouble that is well beyond human control.
Letting go is a skill that can be taught.
"The approach to working with others that I advocate is one in which spontaneity and humanness is extended to others."
---Chogyam Trungpa Rimposhe
Confusion, though uncomfortable, is a healthy state of mind. That's because it creates a great need for calm and clarity.
Psychotherapists can teach depressed people to become aware of their internal talk. This leads to the insight that thoughts are simply thoughts - nothing more. It also teaches that the person is bigger than his or her thoughts or the depression that comes with them. The result is a greater capacity to cope.
Meditation is a method for moving beyond the isolating tendency of the thinking mind.
Whether in a psychotherapy office or sitting on a cushion, we are practicing awareness. In the psychotherapy office our awareness is trained on the past and on the future. In meditation it is trained on the experience of awareness itself.
Narcissism is a double-edged sword; individuals suffering from narcissism either idealize or devalue themselves and others. Buddhist psychology blunts both sides of this sword by declaring that there is no solid and lasting self. Meditative exercises allow individuals to personally discover that they are ever changing, impermanent, and in the flow of life.
Meditation increases the psychotherapist's capacity for single pointed awareness. Relating in this way to a person who comes for help is an act of deep caring. It heals.
Strange how people come into our offices feeling guilty for trouble that is well beyond human control.
Letting go is a skill that can be taught.
2 comments:
Thanks for these thoughts. They remind me of the insightful motto of a suicide prevention group in California that said they were in the business of helping people not make permanent solutions to temporary problems. That always stuck with me. Best wishes, Anneliese
Yes, the person who thinks about suicide assumes that his or her awful pain will last forever; that it cannot change. I do understand that this perception can guide one's choices. But closer observation tells us that life is ever-changing. And if you learn to meditate on pain you can become aware of how it ebbs and flows like the waves at the ocean's edge. Does that direct awaremess make the pain go away? No. For those who are skillful, however, it reduces suffering.
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