Between Wonder and Doubt: Psychoanalysis in the Goal-Free Zone

This paper examines the experiential dimensions of wonder and doubt as one way to articulate the creative and growth-promoting tensions between the medical/scientific model and the spiritual/mystical model. Both forms of experience, it is argued, function as necessary elements in a psychotherapy that integrates psychoanalysis and spiritual praxes. Fundamental differences between the medical/scientific model and the spiritual/mystical models are examined. The notion of the gap serves to illustrate these diametrically opposed, albeit compatible and necessary, points of view. The multifaceted layers of movement between Buddhism and psychoanalysis typify interacting dynamics between the two disciplines and provide a focal point for discussion. The paper then explores parallels between the Zen Buddhist notion of Satori as explicated in the writings of D. T. Suzuki and Wilfred Bion's notion of O. Theoretical aspects of the discussion provide a backdrop for exploring clinical experience regarding the relationship between acceptance and change, the clinical relevance of the Buddhist notions of gaining idea and basic goodness. The author also explores relationships between presence as actuality and ideal; knowing and not knowing; wonder and doubt. Clinical material supports the theoretical aspects of the discussion.     

唯识心法之认识结构论

本文从现代心理学角度考察了唯识学之心法八识所建构的认识结构。     

Psychological individuation and spiritual enlightenment: some comparisons and points of contact

In his writings on individuation Jung often references Eastern religions and philosophies such as Buddhism, Taoism, and Hinduism. This essay discusses differences and similarities between analytical psychology's concept of individuation, especially in its advanced stages, and enlightenment as expressed in such texts as Zen (Chan) Buddhism's Ten Ox‐Herding Pictures. I advance the argument that important common features can be found while cultural differences must also be respected. There is here a convergence between West and East that can foster dialogue and mutuality.     

Focused attention, open monitoring and automatic self-transcending: Categories to organize meditations from Vedic, Buddhist and Chinese traditions

This paper proposes a third meditation-category—automatic self-transcending— to extend the dichotomy of focused attention and open monitoring proposed by Lutz. Automatic self-transcending includes techniques designed to transcend their own activity. This contrasts with focused attention, which keeps attention focused on an object; and open monitoring, which keeps attention involved in the monitoring process. Each category was assigned EEG bands, based on reported brain patterns during mental tasks, and meditations were categorized based on their reported EEG. Focused attention, characterized by beta/gamma activity, included meditations from Tibetan Buddhist, Buddhist, and Chinese traditions. Open monitoring, characterized by theta activity, included meditations from Buddhist, Chinese, and Vedic traditions. Automatic self-transcending, characterized by alpha1 activity, included meditations from Vedic and Chinese traditions. Between categories, the included meditations differed in focus, subject/object relation, and procedures. These findings shed light on the common mistake of averaging meditations together to determine mechanisms or clinical effects.     

The Gap Between: Being and Knowing in Zen Buddhism and Psychoanalysis

The author discusses various relationships derived from the image of gap, precipice, and abyss with specific emphasis on interacting dynamics between being and knowing as explicated in the Zen Buddhist teachings of Hui-neng and in the psychoanalytic writings of Wilfred Bion. While of significant value to psychoanalysis, it is argued that symbolic meanings can occlude the actuality of the analysand's or of the spiritual seeker's affective experiencing, particularly concerning the human tendency to concretize experiential states engendered through meditation and/or the psychoanalytic encounter. The author draws from Matte-Blanco's explication of symmetrical and asymmetrical perceptual modalities to discuss the fluid nature of spiritual experiencing, paradoxical coexistence of ultimate and relative realities and reciprocal dynamics and identities between states of experiencing that might otherwise appear opposed. The primacy of experiencing for both disciplines, particularly concerning the experiencing subject's momentary state of consciousness, forms a central theme for both Zen and psychoanalysis. Brief clinical vignettes support and illuminate the author's points.     

云门文偃的禅学思想

该文对唐末五代时期“禅宗五家”之一云门宗创始人文偃的禅学思想进行了初步分析,指出了其宗教哲学的客观唯心主义本质,同时也揭示了其“机锋”的反理性、反逻辑、反知识的特点。     

Oscillations: Zen & Psychoanalytic Versions

The author provides a personal and experiential account of Zen Buddhism and psychoanalysis. The notion of oscillations serves as an organizing structure. Drawing from the British psychoanalyst Wilfred Bion and the American Zen teacher Robert Aitken, the notion of suffering, meaning here to permit, is considered as the central motivating force and organizing principle for both disciplines. As a critique of traditional psychoanalytic writing an experiment in dialogue is offered that draws from a variety of writing styles including prose, poetry, free-association, stream of consciousness, traditional teaching stories and case material to discuss various experiential states such as linearity, circularity, resistance, ambivalence, passion, rage and the potential for a mutually supportive dynamic between Zen and psychoanalysis.     

‘The Nowness of Everything’: A mindfulness-based approach to psychotherapy

Current levels of mental distress are of great concern to those of us working in the therapeutic setting. Many people today are discontented and unhappy with their lives. Success fails to bring fulfilment and with alienation from self and others, an inner numbness can become established. When working with troubled individuals or participants of groups, I believe by remaining with a mindfulness-based here-and-now approach, levels of depression, anxiety, narcissistic conceit and acquisitiveness become diminished. At the same time, I feel peace of mind increases when in-the-moment experiences are the focus of attention. It would seem that a mindful approach which involves circumventing client history and concentrating on current feelings and experiences can effectively facilitate psychic change. This paper considers some of the literature of mindfulness, in an attempt to validate my observations and determine if there is a satisfactory evidence base for a mindfulness-based psychotherapeutic approach to the ills of contemporary life.     

Where East meets West: in the house of individuation

The psychological process of individuation as experienced in Jungian work may lead to states of consciousness that resemble advanced spiritual developments across religious traditions and cultures. This is where Westerners may reach a common ground with the East. In the essentials and with respect to the final goal there is little difference among the many ways to the self, even if the cultural features in the landscape are disparate. In late stage Jungian analysis and individuation and in what Erich Neumann calls ‘centroversion’, the personal and the impersonal aspects of the personality accumulate around the ego‐self axis to form a composite identity. In this complex structure the ego does not vanish but is joined to the impersonal archetypal levels of the psyche and identity thus becomes at once individual and archetypal. This is the third stage of conjunction as described by Jung in Mysterium Coniunctionis and it is identical to the type of consciousness depicted in the final scenes of Zen Buddhism's Ten Ox‐Herding Pictures.