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Buddhist psychology : page 2 : quotes sites books.......
| Lodi
Gyari,
emissary of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Washington, who has known
Richard
Gere for twenty years, says that Gere is extraordinarily happy to have
come into the dharma, because his path is so exceptionally difficult.
"You see all these very famous people, and they are the most unhappy. They suffer so much because of their self-importance, because of their ego. "And there’s Richard, so very happy because he’s Richard Gere - he’s famous. But at the same time he can really lead a life that is free from what many of his peers in Hollywood suffer from on a daily basis." [from article: Richard Gere Knows What Counts, Shambhala Sun, Nov 2002] |
 |
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| When
we start out on a spiritual path we often have ideals we think we're
supposed
to live up to. We feel we're supposed to be better than we are in some
way.
But with this practice you take yourself completely as you are. Then ironically, taking in pain - breathing it in for yourself and all others in the same boat as you are - heightens your awareness of exactly where you're stuck. Instead of feeling you need some magic makeover so you can suddenly become some great person, there's much more emotional honesty about where you're stuck. Pema Chodron - from shambhala.org article: Pema Chodron & Alice Walker in conversation audiobook: Pema Chodron & Alice Walker In Conversation on the Meaning of Suffering and the Mystery of Joy |
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The basic notion of lojong is that we can make friends with what we reject, what we see as "bad" in ourselves and in other people. At the same time, we could learn to be generous with what we cherish, what we see as "good." If we begin to live in this way, something in us that may have been buried for a long time begins to ripen. Traditionally this "something" is called bodhichitta, or awakened heart. It's something that we already have but usually have not yet discovered...
The basic message of the lojong teachings is that if it's painful, you can learn to hold your seat and move closer to that pain. Reverse the usual pattern, which is to split, to escape. Go against the grain and hold your seat.
Lojong introduces a different attitude toward unwanted stuff: if it's painful, you become willing not just to endure it but also to let it awaken your heart and soften you. You learn to embrace it...
Whether it's pain or pleasure, through lojong practice we come to have a sense of letting our experience be as it is without trying to manipulate it, push it away, or grasp it. The pleasurable aspects of being human as well as the painful ones become the key to awakening bodhichitta.
**Pema Chodron. Start Where You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living
*related pages:**depth psychology.......the shadow self.~ ~ ~ ~
| Anger is a sign that
something needs
to change. ... Learning to use anger is no easy task. Yet the
alternative
-- letting anger use us -- makes us prisoners of our own minds. Anger
is
not the enemy, and we're not helpless in the face of it. It is only an
energy -- one that, with practice, we can harness for our good. ....**Mark
Epstein**[O,
The Oprah Magazine, Oct. 2002]
**Going on Being: Buddhism and the Way of Change: A Positive Psychology for the West - by Mark Epstein |
 |
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Self importance is like a prison for us, limiting us to the world of our likes and dislikes. We end up bored to death with ourselves and our world. We end up very dissatisfied......Pema Chodron **The Places That Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times
~ ~ ~ ~
As a Buddhist I have learnt that what principally upsets our inner peace is what we call disturbing emotions. All those thoughts, emotions, and mental events which reflect a negative or uncompassionate state of mind inevitably undermine our experience of inner peace. All such negative thoughts and emotions as hatred, anger, pride, lust, greed, envy, and so on have the effect of disturbing our inner equilibrium.
The Dalai Lama - from foreword to book: Emotional Alchemy
There are things you can't develop in yourself if you just meditate apart from people. ... You have to get out there where people annoy you and injure you. Then you have to take and tolerate that injury.
As the Dalai Lama would say, If there's no enemy, then you can't develop tolerance. And if there are no people who need gifts, then you can't develop generosity.
from "Robert Thurman Doesn't Look Buddhist" by Rodger Kamenetz,The New York Times Magazine, May 5, 1996
..
..Prof. Thurman is President of Tibet House
**book: Robert Thurman. Inner Revolution :
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Real Happiness
~ ~ ~ ~
In 1964, pianist Terry Riley excited -- and horrified -- music lovers with his seminal "In C", a structured improvisation full of repetition and tonal permutations that one critic described as "music like none other on earth." The piece launched the minimalist movement, paving the way for composers such as Philip Glass and Steve Reich.
But Riley continued to evolve, devoting himself to the study of classical raga vocals of north India. "The highest point of music for me is to become in a place where there is no desire, no craving, wanting to do anything else," Riley has said. "It is the best place you have ever been, and yet there is nothing there."
So it is fitting that Riley recently completed a piece NASA commissioned for the Kronos Quartet that incorporates sounds from outer space.
[AARP The Magazine March-April 2003] / portrait by Betty Freeman from terryriley.com
**Four Musical Minimalists : La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Philip Glass by Keith Potter
**articles:
Creative Silence by Thomas Merton
Richard Gere Knows What Counts [Shambhala Sun, Nov 2002]
Mind and Life Institute
"an independent, not-for-profit organization devoted to fostering a creative dialogue between the Buddhist tradition and Western science."Shambhala Sun "the magazine about waking up, bringing a Buddhist view to all the important issues in modern life."
Tricycle.com: The Buddhist Review Online
A. H. Almaas. Diamond Heart Book Two: The Freedom to Be
A.H. Almaas. Diamond Heart, Book IV
"This is what I call then the integrated identity. Personality, Essence, Supreme, body, mind, are all one identity operating without a split. Then you are simply ordinary. You are not someone who is working on himself. You are someone who is just living. You do what you do without feeling that there is something wrong with you, that some part of you needs to be rejected. It cannot be that there is one part of you that works on another part of you. That is artificial. ... You don't exist as a package of different things. Your mind makes these separations, and sets up all situations so that this part is always struggling with that part. But when you are unified, you see that your system functions naturally-what needs to be digested will be digested; what needs to be eliminated will be eliminated. When this happens naturally, there is no disharmony. This is health. it is the normal, ordinary state for a human being." [excerpt]Stephen Batchelor. Buddhism Without Beliefs: A Contemporary Guide to Awakening
Tara Bennett-Goleman. Emotional Alchemy: How the Mind Can Heal the Heart [foreword by the Dalai Lama]
Pema Chodron. Comfortable with Uncertainty: 108 Teachings
Tibetan Buddhist nun Pema Chödrön offers short, stand-alone readings designed to help us cultivate compassion and awareness... More than a collection of thoughts for the day, Comfortable with Uncertainty offers a progressive program of spiritual study. Inspired by the Buddhist tradition of the 108-day retreat, the book leads the reader through essential concepts, themes, and practices on the Buddhist path. Comfortable with Uncertainty does not assume prior knowledge of Buddhist thought or practice, making it a perfect introduction to Chödrön's teaching. It features the most essential and stirring passages from Chödrön's previous books, exploring topics such as lovingkindness, meditation, mindfulness, "nowness," letting go, and working with fear and other painful emotions. [Shambhala Publications review]Pema Chodron. The Places That Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times
Pema Chodron When Things Fall Apart : Heart Advice for Difficult Times
[Amazon.com Philosophy and Religion Editor's Recommended Book:]Much like Zen, Pema Chodron's interpretation of Tibetan Buddhism takes the form of a nontheistic spiritualism. In When Things Fall Apart this head of a Tibetan monastery in Canada outlines some relevant and deceptively profound terms of Tibetan Buddhism that are germane to modern issues. The key to all of these terms is accepting that in the final analysis, life is groundless. By letting go, we free ourselves to face fear and obstacles and offer ourselves unflinchingly to others. The graceful, conversational tone of Chodron's writing gives the impression of sitting on a pillow across from her, listening to her everyday examples of Buddhist wisdom.Lama Surya Das. Awakening to the Sacred : Creating a Spiritual Life from Scratch
"...author is the most highly trained American lama in the Tibetan tradition. In this elegant, inspiring book, he integrates essential Buddhist practices with a variety of other spiritual philosophies and wisdom traditions, to show you how to create a personalized spiritual practice based on your own individual beliefs, aspirations, and needs. Through reflections on his own life quest, thoughtful essays, and entertaining stories, Surya Das examines the common themes at the heart of any spiritual path, including faith, doubt, love, compassion, creativity, self-inquiry, and transformation."Arthur J. Deikman. The Observing Self: Mysticism and Psychotherapy
"Imagine that our awareness is a pond connected by a narrow outlet to the ocean. At the mouth of the outlet there is a standing wave -- the survival self -- that blocks the ocean currents from entering the pond. As the survival self subsides, more and more of the ocean currents can gain access to the pond which then begins to resonate with the ocean. The pond then 'knows' the ocean by resonating with it, in part becoming it." [Deikman is clinical prof. of psychiatry, UC San Francisco Medical Center]Mark Epstein. Going on Being: Buddhism and the Way of Change: A Positive Psychology for the West
Mark Epstein. Thoughts Without a Thinker: Psychotherapy from a Buddhist Perspective
"Drawing upon his own experience as therapist, meditator and patient, Mark Epstein, a New York-based psychiatrist trained in classical Freudian methods, attempts to integrate Western psychotherapy and the teachings of Buddhism. Repressed memories, painful emotions, narcissism and destructive energies can all be uprooted through Buddha's teaching on suffering, delusion, wisdom and non-attachment. Epstein argues that in recognizing his or her self-created mental suffering, a patient can overcome neurotic behaviors and even overcome a deeply ingrained negative sense of self."Francesca Fremantle. Luminous Emptiness: Understanding the Tibetan Book of the Dead
"Space is emptiness and luminosity: luminous emptiness," Fremantle says. "Because it is empty, nothing exists, yet because it is luminous, everything arises from it." Though this description might seem elusive--and, indeed, it is this language that makes Eastern religions hard for many Western critics to grasp--it describes a state of spiritual bliss with abstract language that forces the reader to let go of a rational, linear thought process. A British scholar of Sanskrit and Tibetan, Fremantle helped translate the Tibetan Book of the Dead in the 1970s with her teacher, Chogyam Trungpa, to whom this book is dedicated. Fremantle is a student of Indian Buddhism--the purest form of which, according to her, is practiced in Tibet. ... Luminous Emptiness" provides interested seekers with a journey through the Tibetan Book of the Dead, and Fremantle is an expert guide. [from review by Ruth Andrew Ellenson, LA Times, March 9 2002]Natalie Goldberg The Long Quiet Highway: A Memoir on Zen in America and the Writing Life [audio]
"Natalie Goldberg is a poet, teacher, writer, and painter who has been a student of Zen Buddhism for 25 years. .. On this 8 1/2 hour presentation, she spells out the meaning of writing as a spiritual discipline. Also included is a never-before-published interview in which she describes her relationship with Katagiri Roshi, the Zen teacher who helped her learn to live in the present moment... Goldberg uses writing as a tool to keep her senses alert and as a means of understanding her experience. "Our life is a path of learning. So wake up before we die." [Review Copyright by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat. Reprinted with permission from SpiritualityandPractice.com]Natalie Goldberg Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within
"Natalie Goldberg studied meditation with Zen master Katagiri Roshi at the Minnesota Zen Center for many years. Then one day, knowing of her interest in creativity, he said: "Why don't you make writing your practice? If you go deep enough in writing, it will take you everyplace." [Review Copyright by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat. Reprinted with permission from SpiritualityandPractice.com]Natalie Goldberg Wild Mind : Living the Writer's Life
Daniel Goleman. Destructive Emotions: A Scientific Dialogue With the Dalai Lama
[Publishers Weekly:] In May 2001, in a laboratory at the University of Wisconsin, a Tibetan Buddhist monk donned a cap studded with hundreds of sensors that were connected to a state-of-the-art EEG, a brain-scanning device capable of recording changes in his brain with speed and precision. When the monk began meditating in a way that was designed to generate compassion, the sensors registered a dramatic shift to a state of great joy. "The very act of concern for others' well-being, it seems, creates a greater state of well-being within oneself," writes author Goleman (Emotional Intelligence) ... The timely theme of the dialogue was suggested by the Dalai Lama to Goleman, who took on the role of organizer and brought together some world-class researchers and thinkers, including psychologist Paul Ekman, philosopher Owen Flanagan, the late Francisco Varela and Buddhist photographer Matthieu Riccard.Thich Nhat Hanh. Peace Is Every Step : The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life
"The heart of creativity is an experience of the mystical union... Those who speak in spiritual terms routinely refer to God as the creator but seldom see 'creator' as the literal term for 'artist.' I am suggesting you take the term creator quite literally. You are seeking to forge a creative alliance, artist to artist, with the Great Creator."Zara Houshmand, et al. Consciousness at the Crossroads: Conversations With the Dalai Lama on Brain Science and Buddhism
Jeremy Hayward, PhD & Francisco Varela, PhD. Gentle Bridges: Conversations With the Dalai Lama on the Sciences of Mind
[Ingram:] In 1987, Hayward, Varela, and several other Western scientists were invited to India to discuss the interface between the cognitive sciences and Buddhist psychology with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Now comes a clear presentation of the themes discussed at that meeting, including the mind and the brain, the self, perception, evolution, artificial intelligence, and much more.
Charles Johnson. Turning the Wheel : Essays on Buddhism and WritingRobert A. Johnson and Jerry M. Ruhl Contentment: A Way to True Happiness
'In Western society we expect everything and, when things don't go as we wish, we are terribly unhappy. In order to shed more light on this contemporary malaise, Johnson and Ruhl dissect Shakespeare's "King Lear." They discuss the importance of reclaiming our shadow, reeling in our projections upon others, heeding the inner fool, letting go of "your way," and walking -- as the Buddhists do -- the razor's edge. Contentment means being who you are -- no more and no less. It also involves the acceptance of imperfections. Once we start on this path, it will lead us to various gifts, including energy, fidelity to the moment, stopping, home, paradox, confusion, forgiveness, and detachment. The capacity to mediate our desires with what is marks the beginning of wisdom. It enables us to realize once and for all that contentment always comes from the inside.' Review Copyright by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat. Reprinted with permission from SpiritualityandPractice.comJon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D. Wherever You Go There You Are
"To Kabat-Zinn, meditation is important because it brings about a state of "mindfulness," a condition of "being" rather than "doing" during which you pay attention to the moment rather than the past, the future, or the multitudinous distractions of modern life. In brief, rather poetic chapters, he describes different meditative practices and what they can do for the practitioner. The idea that meditation is "spiritual" is often confusing to people, Kabat-Zinn writes; he prefers to think of it as what you might call a workout for your consciousness." [Amazon.com review]Dalai Lama, Herbert Benson et al. Mindscience - an East West Dialogue
Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler, MD. The Art Of Happiness: A Handbook for Living
Marvin Levine. The Positive Psychology of Buddhism and Yoga : Paths to a Mature Happiness
Philip Martin The Zen Path Through Depression
"Depression brings to us strong feelings of hopelessness, a sense of worthlessness, and a more insistent awareness of death," writes Philip Martin, who has worked as a psychiatric social worker and case manager.. for 15 years. "Depression is in many ways like suffering from a broken heart." Using meditations and visualizations he has developed as a practitioner of Buddhist psychology, the author cuts a path through this malaise of body, mind, and spirit that afflicts more than 20 million Americans. Depression enables individuals to look more closely at fear, self-disgust, separation, the judging mind, pain, apathy, and the futility of trying to control things." [Review Copyright by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat. Reprinted with permission from SpiritualityandPractice.com]
 |
Silence
has
many dimensions. It can be a regression and an escape, a loss of self,
or it can be presence, awareness, unification, self-discovery. Negative
silence blurs and confuses our identity and we lapse into daydreams or
diffuse anxieties.
Positive silence pulls us together and makes us realize who we are, who we might be, and the distance between these two. Hence, positive silence implies a disciplined choice, and what Paul Tillich called the "courage to be." Thomas Merton - from article Creative Silence (Monastic Interreligious Dialog, August 2001)
|
Yuan Miao. Dancing on Rooftops with Dragons: The Yoga of Joy
Once a renowned film-maker for China Central Television, through her own personal suffering Yuan Miao came to the realization of the preciousness and real power of joy. Through years of material success, religious awakening, intense personal loss and attempted suicide, she was awakened to the mystical possibilities around her, that manifested through her. Yuan Miao's system for the self-cultivation of joy, with all its healing power, stems from many years of practice and the Vajrayana Yoga teachings of her Tibetan Buddhist ancestors. [Amazon.com]Masatake Morita et al. Morita Therapy and the True Nature of Anxiety-Based Disorders (Shinkeishitsu)
Translated from the original 1928 edition of a treatise on anxiety disorders and their treatment based on traditional Japanese and Zen concepts. Shoma Morita (b. 1874) suggested four stages of therapy, from isolated rest through light monotonous work and labor-intensive work to social integration. Editor Peg Levine (psychological medicine, Monash U.) interprets the concepts in light of modern psychology. [Book News]Robert G. Morrison. Nietzsche and Buddhism: A Study in Nihilism and Ironic Affinities
David K. Reynolds. A Handbook for Constructive Living
Matthieu Ricard. The Quantum and the Lotus: A Journey to the Frontiers Where Science and Buddhism Meet // [source of image at top of page]
C. Alexander Simpkins, Phd and Annellen M. Simpkins, Phd. Simple Buddhism: A Guide To Enlightened Living
Jean Smith. Everyday Mind: 366 Reflections on the Buddhist Path
John Snelling. The Modern Mystic: A New Collection of the Early Writings of Alan Watts
John Snelling. Way of Buddhism
Shunryu Suzuki. Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind
Robert Thurman. Inner Revolution: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Real Happiness [Foreword by the Dalai Lama]
"To finish building the free society dreamed of by Washington, Franklin, and Jefferson, we must draw upon the resources of the enlightened imagination, which can be systematically developed by the spiritual sciences of India and Tibet," writes Robert Thurman, college professor, the first Western Tibetan Buddhist monk, and co-founder and president of Tibet House in New York City.Thurman spells out some of the benefits of adapting to the bodhisattva spirit incarnated by Tibetan monk-scholars and lama figures. He envisions a society of enlightened beings who take responsibility for ending the suffering of other beings, who are supreme artists of life, and who are agents of compassion.
Review Copyright by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat. Reprinted with permission from SpiritualityandPractice.com
B. Alan Wallace, Lynn Quirolo. Buddhism with an Attitude
[reader:] "A truly clear and most interesting dicourse on the Seven-Point Mind Training Method of Buddhism. Compared to HH The Dalai Lama and Geshe Kelsang Gyatso's discourses Chekawa's poem, Mr Wallace truly speaks to the Western mind as a both a philosopher and a teacher. However, the book is highly readable and focused without sacrificing intelligence."John Welwood Toward a Psychology of Awakening : Buddhism, Psychotherapy, and the Path Of Personal and Spiritual Transformation
"As a psychotherapist and meditation practitioner, I am continually faced with questions about the relationship between psychological and spiritual work... Over the course of thirty years of considering these questions, I have gone back and forth between two different perspectives — sometimes regarding the psychological inquiry into self as diametrically opposed, even antagonistic, to the spiritual aim of going beyond self, and at other times seeing it as an extremely useful complement to spiritual work. .. Starting in the 1970s I began to perceive... a widespread tendency to use spiritual practice to bypass or avoid dealing with certain personal or emotional 'unfinished business.' This desire to find release from the earthly structures that seem to entrap us—the structures of karma, conditioning, body, form, matter, personality—has been a central motive in the spiritual search for thousands of years. So there is often a tendency to use spiritual practice to try to rise above our emotional and personal issues—all those messy, unresolved matters that weigh us down. I call this tendency to avoid or prematurely transcend basic human needs, feelings, and developmental tasks spiritual bypassing."
**more *books: spirituality*
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related pages: .....Buddhist psychology : page 1......................
............awareness / thinking............ego / narcissism.........nurturing mental health.........
............positive psychology..........spirituality.........
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