
Enlightenment Therapy - robg
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/26/magazine/26zen-t.html?pagewanted=all
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gruseom
This article is pathological in a fascinating way. I don't mean
psychologically; I'm all in favor of effective therapy for non-productive
suffering. I mean intellectually. It's a disaster of a hodgepodge. You
couldn't ask for a better illustration of the reductio ad absurdum that
Western intellectuals create out of Eastern spiritual teachings:

 _For two decades he lectured on the emergence of Western lay Zen, arguing
against what he saw as the antiemotional bias of monastic Asian Zen in favor
of an approach that integrated psychological experience into meditation
practice. But as a pioneer of Zen in America, he had little success practicing
what he preached._

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AndrewDucker
Interesting. Both Zen and Analysis fascinate me. But I could have done with
more information on the process, and less on the person undergoing it.

But possibly it's all so personal that you can't get more than that.

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Ardit20
So the guy basically got disillusioned with one doctrine and went and took
another doctrine. It's like deeply religious people suddenly realising that
god may in fact not exist and go and seek another religion to see if that may
be correct. Sure it will take some time to shift the perception of life and
their position in it which in turn creates a melancholic view of life. They
simply need to think stuff through, they don't need another doctrine to screw
up reality.

