A comprehensive collection of essays exploring the interstices of Eastern and Western modes of thinking about the self, this book documents just some of the challenges, conflicts, pitfalls, and “wow” moments that inhere in today’s historical and cultural intersections of theory, practice, and experience.

There is currently a burgeoning interest in the relationship between the Western psychotherapeutic and Buddhist meditative traditions among therapists, researchers, and spiritual seekers. Psychotherapy and Buddhism initiates a conversation between these two modern methods of achieving greater self-understanding and peace of mind. Dr. Jeffrey B. Rubin explores how they might be combined to better serve patients in therapy and adherents to a spiritual way of life. He examines the strengths and limitations of each tradition through three contexts: the nature of self, conception of ideal health, and process of achieving optimal health. The volume features the first two cases of Buddhists in psychoanalytic treatment.

In the past 20 years meditation has grown enormously in popularity across the world, practised both by the general public, as well as by an increasing number of psychologists within their daily clinical practice. Meditation is now used to treat a range of disorders, including, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, chronic pain, and addiction. In the past twenty years we have also learned much more about the underlying neural bases for meditation, and why it works. The Psychology of Meditation: Research and Practice explores the practice of meditation and mindfulness and presents accounts of the cognitive and emotional processes elicited during meditation practice. Written by researchers and practitioners with considerable experience in meditation practice and from different religious or philosophical perspectives, he book examines the evidence for the effects of meditation on emotional and physical well-being in therapeutic contexts and in applied settings. The areas covered include addictions, pain management, psychotherapy, physical health, neuroscience, and the application of meditation in school and workplace settings. Uniquely, the contributors also present accounts of their own personal experience of meditation practice including their history of practice, phenomenology, and the impact it has had on their lives. Drawing on evidence from both research and practice, this is a valuable synthesis of the ways in which meditation can profoundly enrich human experience.

"Psychoanalysis and Buddhism" pairs Buddhist psychotherapists together with leading figures in psychoanalysis who have a general interest in the role of spirituality in psychology. The resulting essays present an illuminating discourse on these two disciplines and how they intersect. This landmark book challenges traditional thoughts on psychoanalysis and Buddhism and propels them to a higher level of understanding.

Mindfulness-Informed Relational Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis: Inquiring Deeply provides a refreshing new look at the emerging field of Buddhist-informed psychotherapy. Marjorie Schuman presents a cogent framework which engages the patient at the levels of narrative, affective regulation, and psychodynamic understanding. Blending knowledge of contemporary psychoanalysis with the wisdom of Buddhist view, she examines how mindfulness can be integrated into psychodynamic treatment as an aspect of self-reflection rather than as a cognitive behavioral technique or intervention. This book explores how mindfulness as a "self-reflective awareness practice" can be used to amplify and unpack psychological experience in psychodynamic treatment. Schuman presents a penetrating analysis of conceptual issues, richly illustrated throughout with clinical material. In so doing, she both clarifies important dimensions of psychotherapy and illuminates the role of "storyteller mind" in the psychological world of lived experience. The set of reflections comprises an unfolding deep inquiry in its own right, delving into the similarities and differences between mindfulness-informed psychotherapy, on the one hand, and mindfulness as a meditation practice, on the other. Filling in an outline familiar from psychoanalytic theory, the book explores basic concepts of Self, Other, and "object relations" from an integrative perspective which includes both Buddhist and psychoanalytic ideas. Particular emphasis is placed on how relationship is held in mind, including the dynamics of relating to one’s own mind. The psychotherapeutic approach described also delineates a method for practicing with problems in the Buddhist sense of the word practice. It investigates how problems are constructed and elucidates a strategy for finding the wisdom and opportunities for growth which are contained within them. Mindfulness-Informed Relational Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis demonstrates in clear language how the experience of Self and Other is involved in emotional pain and relational suffering. In the relational milieu of psychotherapy, "Inquiring Deeply" fosters emotional insight and catalyzes psychological growth and healing. This book will be of great interest to psychoanalytically-oriented clinicians as well as Buddhist scholars and psychologically-minded Buddhist practitioners interested in the clinical application of mindfulness.

Brilliant Sanity: Buddhist Approaches to Psychotherapy and Counseling (Volume 1: Revised and Expanded Edition) brings together influential scholars and practitioners who have studied and practiced at the intersection of Buddhism, psychotherapy, and counseling, including Karen Wegela, Mark Epstein, Han F. de Wit, Ed Podvoll, Jeff Fortuna, Robert Walker, Farrell Silverberg, Chuck Knapp, Dale Asreal, and others. Brilliant Sanity draws particularly from the Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhist traditions that emphasize the importance of individuals being of benefit to others and the world. This revised and expanded edition comes 13-years after the release of the widely successful first edition and includes four new chapters. The majority of the original chapters have been updated drawing upon advances in theory and research. In this new volume, increased attention is given to multicultural and social justice perspectives as well. The introduction and 24 chapters in this new edition are essential reading for students and experienced practitioners interested in Buddhist psychotherapy and counseling.

"We cannot find ourselves, or be ourselves, alone." - from Mixing Minds Mixing Minds explores the interpersonal relationships between psychoanalysts and their patients, and Buddhist teachers and their students. Through the author's own personal journey in both traditions, she sheds light on how these contrasting approaches to wellness affect our most intimate relationships. These dynamic relationships provide us with keen insight into the emotional ups and downs of our lives - from fear and anxiety to love, compassion, and equanimity. Mixing Minds delves into the most intimate of relationships and shows us how these relationships are the key to the realization of our true selves.

Linguistics and modern geometry today enable a connection between psychoanalysis and meditation that can also be experienced in practice. At the centre of such a connection lie the so-called formula-words which contaim several meanings in a single stroke of writing. Exactly in this form the unconscious is built up, which can be awakened, recognized and integrated into psychic life through meditative exercises.

Drawing from original source material, contemporary scholarship, and Wilfred Bion’s psychoanalytic writings, Zen Insight, Psychoanalytic Action: Two Arrows Meeting introduces the Zen notion of "gūjin," or total exertion, and elaborates a realizational perspective that integrates Zen Buddhism and psychoanalysis. Developed by the thirteenth century Zen teacher and founder of the Japanese Soto Zen school, Eihei Dogen, gūjin finds expression and is referenced in various contemporary scholarly and religious commentaries. This book explains this pivotal Zen concept and addresses themes by drawing from translated source material, academic scholarship, traditional Zen kōans and teaching stories, extensive commentarial literature, interpretive writings by contemporary Soto Zen teachers, psychoanalytic theory, clinical material, and poetry, as well as the author’s thirty years of personal experience as a psychoanalyst, supervisor, psychoanalytic educator, ordained Soto Zen priest, and transmitted Soto Zen teacher. From a realizational perspective that integrates Zen and psychoanalytic concepts, the book addresses anxiety-driven interferences to deepened Zen practice, extends the scope and increases the effectiveness of clinical work for the psychotherapist, and facilitates deepened experiences for both the Buddhist and the secular meditation practitioner. Two Arrows Meeting will be of great interest to researchers in the fields of Zen Buddhism and psychoanalysis. It will also appeal to meditation practitioners and psychoanalysts in practice and training.