At the moment of awakening,

The Buddha exclaimed:

“Wonder of wonders!

All living beings are

truly enlightened and

shine with wisdom and virtue.

But because their minds

have become deluded and

become attached to a self,

they fail to understand this.”

 --Kegon Sutra

 

One of the exciting developments of psychoanalysis is the identification of attachment styles. We all come into this world with essential attachments to our parents and caretakers. Infants cannot survive on their own so the relationship with the one who feeds and cares for us is necessary for our ability to develop the means to care for ourselves. This leaves a powerful impression and becomes a frame of reference for our experiences in the world. At the heart of these changes is our true self, that part of our mind that is aware of the thoughts and feelings linked to the experiences that can define who we are. To understand this and allow our truly enlightened mind to shine we can consider all of our thoughts and feelings with a genuine curiosity that is not driven by guilt, shame, or anger.

 The mind is all sky,

The heart utterly empty,

And the perfect moon

Is completely transparent

Entering western mountains.

--Saigyo

 

The Zen concept of emptiness can be misleading. To be utterly empty is to be utterly open to life's moment-to-moment experience. I have been listening to many people this past week. They come into their sessions afraid and angry about the election. We sit together and step into their fears with boundless minds to deepen their understanding of the strong feelings they are experiencing. We focus on self-care and self-advocacy while acknowledging the uncertainties we all face in this time of transition. By opening that space for the transparent and perfect moon of our self-awareness we can enter this uncertain time with loving-kindness and compassion for ourselves and others.

 The teaching of the one vehicle that reveals the true nature holds that all sentient beings without exception have the intrinsically enlightened true mind.

From time without beginning it is permanently abiding and immaculate.

It is shining, unobscured, clear and bright ever-present awareness.

It is also called Buddha-nature, and it is also called “tathagata-garbha."

 From time without beginning deluded thoughts cover it, and sentient beings by themselves are not aware of it.

 

Tsung-mi

 

I think about Emily Dickinson and how hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul. When someone sits in my office or lies down on the analyst couch, I believe that their intrinsically enlightened mind will be realized as they tell me about their life and their struggles to cope with the demands of this world. Our conversation follows the links that bind their assumptions to the meanings they hold about themselves. We create our inner world from the beginning of our life. As infants, we learn but do not have the capacity to understand how we learn. Our strategies for survival emerge as our needs are met or frustrated by those who care for us. Over time those strategies reside as a basic assumption about ourselves and others. Critical life events become mileposts in our life’s journey. They initiate points of change that can distance us from our true mind.  When someone embarks on the journey of psychotherapy or psychoanalysis. I sit with them, and we travel through those basic assumptions that cloud their enlightened true mind. Thoughts about themselves become points of interest, and I help them to sit with their anger, fear, and shame with a curious and unencumbered mind. Possibilities emerge where certainties are held firm, and their unobscured and ever-present awareness allows for a more integrated and balanced identity.

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all -