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#4398 -
The Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
Reconsidering
Psychotherapy: A Nondual Opening To Diversity
by Susan Kahn
In this article, I set
out to address a nondual audience regarding psychotherapy. My
specific aim is to challenge the position that the whole of
therapy can be replaced by a nondual approach. While nonduality
holds the key to overcoming endless cycles of emotional pain, the
notion that there is only one way to address diverse emotional
issues and circumstances, can create a limited, fundamentalist
lens. Instead, nonduality and psychotherapy can complement each
other. Why this is not contradictory is another area of this
article’s focus.
~ ~ ~
People go to nondual
teachers to see through the myth of a separate self and all
duality, and usually with the hope of alleviating their deepest
distress. Nonduality provides the insight to uncover the root of
emotional affliction, the whole painful human misunderstanding,
and then the opportunity to overturn it.
Comparatively,
psychotherapy often misses the primary recognition of
selflessness. However, therapy offers effective methods for
assessing and responding to a diverse range of emotional
difficulties that also need to be considered. This is especially
true in early into middle stages of therapy.
To recognize only one
method as useful or correct, can be a significant liability.
A nondual approach can
potentially overlook important individual difficulties and
practical solutions. On the other hand, psychotherapy can attend
to branches of issues without end. Each needs to consider the
other, even though the function, the job of each, need not be the
same.
The different emphasis
between nonduality and psychotherapy has its place. Nonduality
tends to highlight unity and sameness, while therapy often
addresses diverse individual situations. However, nonduality is
not at odds with diversity, just as the trunk of a tree is not
inherently separate from or at odds with its branches or
blossoms.
While there are valid
criticisms of therapy from a nondual standpoint, there is a lot
to respect within this well investigated, practical field of
study. To reduce psychotherapy to a misguidance, to a belief that
it is an expendable field of practice merely catering to
illusion, can do a great disservice. “Nondual diversity”
recognizes any knowledge as relative and relational, not
absolute, and therefore also values practically.
I have heard the nondual
critique that therapists view their clients as needing therapy
because they see them as “broken.” If this statement
means that there is no separate self to be broken, I see the
point. It is the key point, but does not cover the full range of
considerations. Despite the absence of an independent self, there
are experiences of distress that need to be assessed and
responded to. Symptoms matter, not only for the person that they
appear to, but for families as well. Would we say that medical
doctors are unnecessary because there is no separate physical
body?
If someone is depressed,
it is not always the best initial response to emphasize that
there is truly no one to be depressed. There are various
effective methods, some with a greater nondual emphasis and some
less, depending upon the individual situation. Addressing
emotional affliction is not a “one size fits all”
proposition. If a person is exhibiting self-destructive behavior,
one may not want to bring up selflessness right away. If someone
is experiencing obsessive thinking or compulsive behavior, there
are effective therapeutic strategies to consider. In my opinion,
nonduality would do well to include assessment and referrals as a
part of its practice.
~ ~ ~
Read the entire article
here:
Each Moment
Reveals the Absolute
by Colin
Drake
From birth to death our
life is a series
Of moment to moment experiences.
Comprising thoughts, sensations and mental images
And That which sees these in all of their stages.
A torrent of objects that
come and go
In Awareness, the subject, by which we ‘know’.
The constant conscious perceiving presence,
Neath body and mind, our ultimate essence.
The universal
consciousness is Awareness whilst at rest,
Within which, in motion*, the cosmos is manifest.
So in Awareness all things come and go,
As in stillness all movements ebb and flow.
Awareness is ever silent
and still
Witnessing all vibrations that mill…
Thus It is omniscient and omnipresent,
The substratum from which all things are ‘lent’.
In which they are
perceived and reside,
Omnipotent for into This they subside.
Pure and pristine, by things unaffected,
By whose radiance they are detected.
Thus the properties of
Awareness that we have found
Agree with those, of the Absolute, religions propound
Without the ‘personal’ which the Western ones posit
However, all persons are manifestations of It!
So It does indeed contain
personal qualities,
But these are impermanent, therefore not properties.
Thus when each moment we investigate
The Absolute is revealed, totally innate.
* Cosmic energy for
energy implies (is synonymous with) motion. Modern physics has
shown that all matter is comprised of energy and is thus just a
complex series of movements, or vibrations.
Poetry From
Beyond the Separate Self: A selection of 20 Poems inspired by
chapters of Beyond the Separate Self
Available from http://www.lulu.com/browse/search.php?fListingClass=0&fSearch=Beyond+the+Separate+Self
Paperback version is
$9.60 and the e-book (pdf) is only $4.50!
Wonderful, absolutely
wonderful. -- Cheryl Freeman
That poem is really beautiful! Thanks for sharing it.—Dede
The poetry is succinct and I have used it like a sutra. –
Hugh Tollan
Lovely – Manjari Sunder
I want you to know whatever the reason was you have done
something no one else has been able to, point me to
awakening. - Hanumandass, after reading : Awakening is
Immensely Practical.
Colin Drakes
other books may be explored and ordered at
http://nonduality.com/colindrake.htm