Buddhist Practice on Western Ground : Reconciling Eastern Ideals and Western Psychology

Rating:
Summary: The Cross of Culture
Review: Does a culture of conformity really make it easier for an individual to conform to a set of stringent rules? Do we Americans live in a culture of conformity or individualism, or a sort of conformist individualism? How does conformism relate to a heightened sense of communalism? These questions arise after reading Aronson's book, which is part scholarly, part insight born of practice. Stephen Batchellor has commented on about the work-in-progress quality which characterizes Buddhism in the West, a progress that may take several generations before flowering into its own identifiable and viable tradition. I would submit that all spiritual practices are continually works-in-progress, as cultures shift, collide, and collude. It could even argued that Buddhism is here in our land largely because of the U.S. dropping an atom bomb on Hiroshima. (To think of Buddhism as a sort of fallout is chillingly ironic.) This may seem to be a grotesque oversimplification, as years of colonialism brought the study of Eastern religion west, however it was really at the very end of World War 2 that the atom bomb made both a horrible wound and an opening in the heart of the West, a comingling of blood that happens in war. Wave after new wave of Asian immigrants to both Europe and America made the dissemination of Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam inevitable.
Aronson himself came to Buddhism in the Sixties, when there was a great interest in altered states of mind, and meditative practices were rumored to bring about these states. Aldous Huxley's Doors of Perception was essential reading. The meditative practices of Eastern religion were laced with the scent of patchouli, sitar theme music and other pop baggage. To take a dharma practice seriously at that time one would have had to commit to a subculture which was not accepted institutionally in the United States. It still happens that the pop media sneers at Richard Gere and Jerry Brown. To practice Buddhism as a Westerner one is often faced with non-comprehension and sometimes negative attitudes of partners, coworkers, and family members who may say things like, "But I WANT to desire things", or "I wouldn't WANT to lose my ego." It appears to a many people that the Western Buddhist is engaged in a discourse with an exotic discipline out of a sort of petulant rejection of his own traditions, or that she is a cultural hobbyist or tourist, or that he is just consuming yet another New Age product in a catalog of useless self help tools.
These may seem like shallow concerns, but they reflect important misunderstandings that come up in everyone's practice as our community infuses us. The issues of translation which Aronson examines make this book an essential read for anyone who engages in a meditation practice and particularly for therapists who utilize the modalities of Buddhist practice in working with clients. Aronson expressly delimits his exploration to a discussion of how Americans in particular respond to meditation , what sort of expectations for personal growth are realistic from a dharma practice, and where the many pitfalls lie.
Having worked for years as a translator for Eastern teachers and their Western students, Aronson has seen first-hand a wide range of non-comprehension and misinterpretation, in the areas of both language and culture. I was very moved when he speaks of finding out that he has lost his tenure at a university stateside while on a retreat in Tibet, and realizing that there was no way he could ever communicate the personal devastation brought by such an event to his teacher. To begin with, there was no word for "career" in Tibetan. In another chapter, he describes succumbing to a severe panic attack after years of practicing, retreats, and spiritual commitment. The breakdown was a turning point, when he realized that his meditation had not only been useless in "curing" him of his psychological problems, it had actually exacerbated them in some ways. Meditation can fail to alleviate the sort of misery that is born, he maintains, from our Western customs and ideologies. Certain neurotic patterns we tend to experience as Westerners, Aronson says, relate to the value we place on the need to have a unique personal identity, a pride which is often nationalistic, and to particular rituals of intimacy in both parenting and partnering: these are not going to simply go away by meditating. Many patterns will in fact become more ingrained, amplified, or solidified. A shy, self-involved person, for example, who has issues with self-esteem, may find temporary solace in a meditation practice and may become quite adept at concentration and the necessary commitment to being alone in their room...but without intervening directly with their reactive patterns of withdrawal and despair--through conventional Western psychotherapy, Aronson maintains--this person will come to a point where spiritual progress will reach a dead stop.
Aronson structures his book according to those major themes of Dharma practice which are also addressed in Western psychology: the notion of the self, the ego, pride, self assertion, dealing with anger, love, and attachment. He is at his most trenchant when observations like what follows:
Shatideva wrote:" 'If I give, what shall I enjoy?' Such concern for one's own welfare is fiendish. 'If I enjoy, what shall I give?' Such concern for the welfare of others is divine." Such spontaneous spiritual fullness is not readily accounted for in traditional models of psychology, which base their approach on the biological sciences, with a bias toward considering developmental issues related to infancy and childhood. From such sources have come need-based models of human behavior, with Freud emphasizing instinctual drive and its gratification as the primary engine of human bonding...To date, mainstream psychologists do not have a model of graceful, spontaneous spiritual fullness that is not driven by deficit or sublimation...A different set of principles seem to be operative in the deeply realized. Their secure attachment does not stem from having found what they need in the external world. Rather they interact with others out of fullness and inner expansion."
As Western Buddhists perhaps this is the crux of what it means to be going against the flow. The aspiration of a Dharma practice both leapfrogs and flies head on into our deepest of cultural tendencies. This notion of a need-based model of human behavior arose not only in the context of the biological sciences, but of capitalism, that need-based economic model which has now become the engine of a global culture with disasterous ramifications socially, politically and environmentally. It is this global capitalism which has granted certain of us the privileges of being affluent Westerners with the leisure time to explore and consume culture. But the process of the Dharma taking root in our hearts and the changes that begin to come over us as we practice mindfulness, is something far more mysterious. Aronson's book honors that mystery even as he exposes the mythic structures that define how we regard what comprises our selves.


Rating:
Summary: Psychotherapy at its best meets Buddhist Practice
Review: Dr. Aronson has written a gem. His psychological insights are warming and wonderful. His bridge to Buddhist meditation practice is both unique and invaluable.

Rarely have I seen a psychotherapist who understands and communicates the quality of a successful psychotherapy so well. Coupling that gift with his ease in personal revelations, Dr. Aronson creates a warm holding environment, one that encourages the reader to feel equally comfortable and at ease in looking at his or her own vulnerable feelings. The ability to communicate both the value of a good psychotherapy and to capture its warm essence is very rare.

Dr. Aronson has another gift. As a long-time Buddhist practitioner and professor, he possesses a deep personal knowledge of how the practice is used, and misused, by Westerners. Dr. Aronson captures this by providing a very interesting cross-cultural perspective, picking up strengths and weaknesses as Buddhism has been both transplanted and translated from Asia to the West. He has a unique and invaluable perspective on the way Buddhist teachings are recruited to one's individual neurosis.

Dr. Aronson retranslates Buddhist proscriptions against "anger." He believes the Asian teachers were not admonishing one to avoid an emotional state, but rather to avoid destructive actions. Aronson believes that angry feelings are often helpful, or even necessary for some people to grow, and to become able have an effective meditation practice. This opinion is consistent with his gloss that the advice to avoid anger should be read as avoiding destructive action. This is so because if a person was the victim of destructive actions, or a longer destructive upbringing, hiding or disavowing those destructive actions perpetrated against the person would actually be to collude with one or more aggressors, and that can only done at a high personal cost. The cost could take many forms, including disengaging with the world, having symptoms of depression or guilt, substance abuse, chronic relational problems, etc. In this discussion, we see Aronson capturing therapy at its best.

My only criticism of this book is that its title didn't offer a way to easily capture the imagination of the psychotherapeutic world, as I think psychotherapists, and people interesting in psychotherapy are a natural audience.

I appreciate this wonderful book and encourage others to enjoy fascinating and stimulating book.

Mark Siegert, Ph.D.
Clinical Psychologist, Psychoanalyst

Rating:
Summary: Deep Synergism
Review: I found this book remarkable; it explores the crucial need to pursue new approaches to understand mental distress and to find ways to overcome such suffering.

Dr. Aronson shares with us the gift of his knowledge, experience, and deep compassion helping others. He presents us with a profound and comprehensive portrayal of the differences, similarities and ultimately synergism between Eastern approaches to 'taming' of the mind and Western approaches of 'therapy' of the mind.

In this detailed, nuanced and penetrating analysis he patiently teaches how exploring both of these traditions - Buddhism and Psychotherapy- can help us become aware of and overcome obstacles to our personal and spiritual growth that pursuing only one approach, without the assistance of the other, may lead us to feel mired in the inescapable quicksand of seeming insurmountable barriers.

Dr. Aronson shares tender personal reflections on his own struggles with suffering and how he was able to overcome these obstacles to his personal growth by pursuing both Buddhist teachings and psychotherapy. His discussion about the way in which both of these practices enabled him to expand and enhance his own spiritual growth and his abilities to work in helping others is both courageous and inspiring.

Philip J. Hauptman MD
Psychiatrist
NYC, NY