Some of Zen philosophy and human mental health

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Most people do things without any clear view of life. They just do things in a makeshift way, like plastering their shoulder when it feels stiff.

To be born as a human being is a rare thing, something to be grateful for. But being born as a human being is worthless if you spend your whole life in a mental hospital. It is worthless if you worry about not having money. It is worthless if you become neurotic because you cannot get a prestigious job. It is wothless if you weep because you lose your girlfriend.

Sawaki Rôshi

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That is possible, and that will not create any trouble-psychological trouble to you. If-if you have a kind of wisdom, you know, you do not-I-I'm not trying to control my anger, you know. But I know, you know, I shouldn't be angry, you know. My wisdom tell me, you know, you shouldn't be angry for one year or two years [laughs]. And it may be foolish to be angry. Then I don't be angry. And when you say it is difficult to control, to me it sounds like you-you want some help, you know [laughs]-help of psychology or psychiatrist or teacher. But he-they will not help you. Buddhism will not help you [laughs]. You must help yourself. Hai.

Shunryu Suzuki Roshi

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Ed Knight, praktyk Zen, mówi o sobie, że zmaga(ł) się z lękiem, głosami itp, manią, depresją i uzależnieniami.

A psychiatrist who was fired shortly after I came, for being too friendly to us, had mentioned I might flood with uncontrollable emotion just talking about the painful events in my life. So I figured I could flood and flip out if I paid attention. Psychologists call this abreaction and fear that we will get psychotic. This kind of professional distrust has kept many people from recovering. But some of us (labelled treatment resistent) pursue recovery and gain it often inspite of prejudgement.

To meditate thus involved the fear of losing control of my mind and body. This is a very basic primitive fear. But living my life with so much pain was worse. So how could i deal with flooding? Meditation needs to be I found carefully applied to mental health dharma recovery. Practitioners who use it to overcome mental “symptoms” need to be empowered to teach. I am not the only one who has pursued this path.

Indeed “psychiatric symptoms” which are most frequently numbed are an enlightened path. There is great controversy in the Buddhist and Yoga communities about whether to allow psychiatrically labeled people in their midst. To deny this is to deny the dharma to me. Either everything is liberating or not.

My path of zen dharma recovery includes not only anxiety but”hearing voices” and other hallucinations, mania, depression and addictions. Life has been good to me. God has given me many knots to untie. He has made me brave enough to pursue mindfulness against all the opposition and oppression and now to teach mental health zen dharma recovery to others in many venues. By Abwoon’s grace, this wisdom path has brought mental health recovery to many. The following is a talk I frequently give. I wrote it down for the desperate mother of a young lady labelled with borderline personality disorder. BPD is mostly a labelling of the angry reactions to abuse or some other form of trauma. The mother had seen all medications fail and make her daughter’s condition much worse. (This is not unusual but goes of course unrecorded. People are left to fend on their own.) She asked for help so I wrote out some of the basic teachings I offer in workshops on using zen in mental health recovery. I am the steward of a Zen Peacemaker Circle, The Healing Circle and a senior student of Ken Tetsuji Byalin of the Staten Island Zen Community. I also am a mentor with the Prison Dharma Network of a person in a psychiatric unit of a high security prison. My websites are www.professored.com and www.psychosisdharmacommunity.net Currently I am manualizing a mindfulness-based peer mental health training at UCLA with a team of psychiatrists on an NIMH grant. It will be piloted in the fall of 2011. I am also manualizing a mindfulness-based mental health peer training called Transforming Disempowerment at Nathan Kline Institute in NY state. Here is what I wrote to the mother.

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Everyone Comes to Meditation Practice for the Wrong Reason: A Conversation with Psychoanalyst Barry Magid

Barry Magid is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst practicing in New York City, and the founding teacher of the Ordinary Mind Zendo, also in New York. He is the author of Ordinary Mind and Ending the Pursuit of Happiness. His newest book is entitled Nothing is Hidden: The Psychology of Zen Koans.

The article: http://www.mattbieber.net/magid/