This group will invite reflection and discussion about the nature of character from Buddhist and psychoanalytic perspectives In a sense, the Buddhist path is the development of positive character through conscious adoption of virtue (the paramitas) and diminishment of the hindrances thereto. Psychoanalysis inherits a medical model which diagnoses "character disorders" while, until recently, little specifying what positive character might be. The two perspectives on character well may meet in the common ground of interpersonal relations, that is, in the test of character being how we treat one another.

With a focus on couple relationship, we will explore psychoanalytic and Buddhist perspectives in our lives and our work:

a) Is the Buddhist experience of “no-self” in conflict with the psychoanalytic imperative to discover and follow our true feelings and desires?

b) Can encountering “the other” in a relationship put one in touch with the Buddhist experience of “inter-being”?

Drawing on Shinzen Young’s Vipassana approach to working with feeling states and Carl Jung’s model of psychological complexes, this group will address the relational suffering that arises from our emotional habits, especially those rigid and repetitive patterns that interfere with our seeing ourselves and other as we are. There will be plenty of opportunity to ask questions about meditation and psychotherapy, as well as your personal concerns.

Buddhism traditionally devotes considerable attention to the process of dying, approaching it with presence of mind and viewing it as an opportunity for growth. Buddhist teachers in this country have been in the forefront of the hospice movement. Psychoanalysis has not, by and large, focused on the personal or interpersonal experience of dying. But psychoanalysts and patients, teachers, and students may have to confront sudden or gradual death of one member of their dyad. This group will address the complex feelings that arise when we are confronted with mortality and the ways that these two traditions enrich our understanding and experience of the end of our lives.

How can language (“say whatever comes to mind”) and silence (central to many forms of Buddhist meditation) both be liberating? How can they both be confusing, entrapping us further in neurosis and samsara? We will explore the ways that Buddhism and psychoanalysis, each mistrustful of conventional ways of speaking, cure physical and mental suffering.

Romantic relationships can be an expression of longing to surrender to what is most real inside ourselves. Falling in love seems to offer an opportunity to come into connection with our true selves and to feel whole. Yet soon after the early excitement wears off, we may find ourselves in difficulties, deadlocked in rigid versions of self and other, divided and alienated from the sense of self we experienced when we first fell in love. This experiential workshop will offer participants an opportunity to explore meditatively roadblocks to the sense of openness that can appear in our maturing love relationships. These relationships challenge us to know and explore our deeply held negative versions of ourselves that blind us to our own open presence. Participants will have the opportunity to share their experiences and raise questions.

In everyday relationships, whether intimate, clinical, or social, three fundamental practices seem to be transformative: not knowing, bearing witness, and responding compassionately. We will explore these practices adapted from the Tenets of the Zen Peacemaker Community, from psychotherapeutic and Buddhist perspectives. As a married couple and as Buddhist clinicians, these practices serve as basic organizing principles for our own lives.

Western psychotherapy tends to emphasize the importance of personal responsibility and agency in the change process. This emphasis is characteristic of some strands of Buddhism as well, that emphasize the importance of self-effort. There are other strands of Buddhism that emphasize the importance of surrendering to what arises or is provided. In this breakout group we will examine the subtle dialectic between will and surrender in psychological and spiritual transformation as well as the similarities and distinctions between surrender and submission.

At some point in our meditation practice or psychotherapy an impasse presents itself. This experience of being “stuck” can be taken as a failure on our parts, when, in truth, it may be the outcome of successful inner work. What do we do when we reach such an impasse? We will explore the experience of stuckness and factors that contribute to it. We will examine the roles, contributions, and responsibilities of both teacher (therapist) and student (client-patient) in understanding the origins of the stuckness and in helping work through it. Participants are invited to bring questions about personal experiences.

There’s a basic human tendency to get stuck in oppositional or dualistic thinking: for example, haves and have-nots, doers and done to, active and passive, delusion and enlightenment. Sometimes, what passes for change is simply a reversal of roles, moving from one side to the other.

Zen meditation can open us to oneness beyond duality. In psychoanalysis, we may find ourselves caught in these oppositions or polarities. The therapeutic concept of a “third” space means finding a joint “dance” or fluidity that includes both sides. Is Zen meditation limited by being a solitary one-person practice? Does psychoanalysis stop short of the dimensions of preverbal oneness? We will explore psychoanalysis and Zen in their divergent methods for transcending dualities. We hope our discussion will also illuminate some common ground in these two practices.

How do we misuse the idea of non-attachment to support avoidance in relationships? What is the impact of anatta on genuine intimacy? How do our ideas about being “spiritual” shape or mishape our relationships? And when does therapy become a hindrance? Can therapy avoid reinforcing our sense of self and our stories? Through case presentation, group discussion and real-life examples, this group will address these and others of interest to attendees, and propose more wholesome ways to engage Dharma practice and therapy.

The goal of the student-teacher relationship in Buddhism is transmission of the Dharma from teacher to student. The goal of the patient-therapist relationship in psychoanalysis is facilitation of the patient’s healing by the analyst. The process in both relationships moves through repeated experiences of obstruction and impasse -- enacting unconscious forces -- towards a clarity of awareness that is open to feeling and accepting self and other. In both relationships, a “third” element or energy appears that transcends the boundaries of self and other, and carries the relationship towards its goal. Drawing on psychoanalytic concepts of transference, countertransference, and enactment and “the analytic third,” the group will discuss these common elements and explore their connections to healing.

Buddhism and psychoanalysis have a good deal in common as well as compelling differences. While we are interested in the commonalities, we will particularly focuse on the differences that help us better understand the challenges of a conversation between the two. Both fields are concerned with self-knowledge. Yet each presents different views of what optimal self-knowledge is. Each has its own perspective on human relationships, the physical body, its energies, and the horizon of human potential. Buddhism assumes a love for reality, understood as one's deepest nature. Experiencing this healing reality, and helping others experience it, is a central purpose of Buddhism. The goals of psychoanalysis are relief from distress and symptoms, the development of loving human relationships and the actualization of potential for personal creativity or productivity. Engaging in either approach involves the unconscious. How do these somewhat conflicting, often overlapping, goals speak to each other? What can traditional Buddhist perspectives, rooted in Asian culture, say to or learn from the postmodern intellectual climate of psychoanalysis? And how can the wisdom of Buddhism enhance contemporary psychoanalysis? Above all, how will an awareness of this conversation heighten an appreciation of our own lives? Come join us in this exploration.

Returning to the present moment connects us to a direct experience of ourselves as opposed to some set of verbal notions about ourselves. Buddhist practice emphasizes the experience of the individual meditator while relational psychotherapy has been most interested in moments between people. Alongside these practices of experience there are ideas and understandings that both direct experience and are enhanced by it. This workshop will consider the contrasts and similarities between these two practices of experience and ways of understanding. William James said there are two kinds of people: those who divide things and those who don’t. He implied an equality of wisdom in his irony. There is a wisdom to keeping the differences between Buddhist practice and psychotherapy crisp and there is a wisdom in recognizing deep common ground. We hope to make space for both.

Bringing Buddhist practice into our lives; into the way we relate to other people and care for ourselves -- or don't -- is one of the greatest challenges most practitioners grapple with. In this discussion group we will explore what gets in the way and what facilitates bringing practice into daily life.

Addictions and compulsive behaviors come in a multiplicity of forms – such as alcoholism and drugs, shopping, eating, sex, gambling as well as addiction to our thoughts and beliefs. This is prevalent and pernicious in our culture. Psychotherapists are called upon to be in a therapeutic relationship with both the patient AND the symptom (the compulsive self). This group will explore the Buddha's teachings on mindfulness and one's capacity to be in the present moment along with untangling and healing the relational impasses both within the patient‘s conflicting self states and within the therapeutic dyad. We will discuss the use of 12 step programs as an adjunct modality. Participants are invited to share their questions, personal experiences, case histories and to experience mindfulness meditation. NO prior meditation background required.

Buddhism has traditionally been anxious about romantic love and sex in practice relationships. Psychoanalysts have been concerned with how to open up the experience and analysis of romantic and sexual feelings in treatment without violating professional boundaries. What can these two traditions learn from one another about these powerful experiences as they arise in the context of psychoanalytic treatment and spiritual practice?