Since the invasion of Tibet by Chinese forces in the early 1950’s, and the resulting exodus of persecuted Buddhist monks and scholars, interest in Buddhism has grown steadily in the West.  Brought to America by refugee priests in exile, such as Chögyam Trungpa who founded the Buddhist university Naropa in Boulder Colorado, curiosity has flourished and books and writings are abundant.  I’m often asked in my counseling practice about Buddhism and it’s related disciplines of meditation and yoga.  What does Buddhism have to do with psychotherapy?  I’ve been an amateur scholar of Buddhist thinking and a practitioner of these disciplines since graduate school.  I know I am more peaceful and happy as a result.  And more resilient during adversity.  And while I do not teach any of these directly in my therapy practice, they have long been the philosophical and spiritual center of my quest to help others.  Buddhist thought and practices have formed an “arena” of my mind and heart in which I’ve come to understand pain and joy in vastly more effective ways.  I love helping others find similar relief from disappointment, anxiety and depression.

“Life is difficult” insists the late psychologist and author Scott Peck, in the iconic ’70’s book “The Road Less Traveled”.  Peck equated the experience of enduring pain and hardship with the crossing of a desert.  “Do it wisely”, he maintained, “or you’ll have to do it all over again.”  He called it “smart suffering”.  He implored us all to “stay awake” during tough experiences, as opposed to “falling asleep” (or masking our pain with drugs, alcohol, excess food, casual sex and other “compensations”).  I was drawn to Peck’s analogies for within them lay the ancient wisdom of Buddhism.  From the First Noble Truth we learn that life contains suffering.  For generations of Americans brought up to believe in consumerism, leisure and comfort, this is a sometimes radical and hard to fathom concept.  There’s a notion in many minds that life is all happy times, good feelings and wellness, interrupted randomly by “bad” things that bring illness, depression and death.  The Buddha sought to correct this misinterpretation.  He offered that pain is an inevitable part of living.  He offered that disciplining the mind through mediation and “right living”, we might avoid unnecessary suffering that comes from arguing with reality and denying the wholeness of experience.  He taught that we needn’t be enslaved by our peripatetic “monkey” minds.  The simple discipline of meditation could bring the mind gradually to a clear and peaceful state in which we could more directly experience life, ourselves and others.  That in the midst of noise, trouble and hard work, it was imminently possible to experience calmness in one’s heart.  More on this later.

Namaste,

John