Meditation and Psychotherapy

When describing the differences between meditation and psychotherapy, Jack Kornfield has remarked, “the best of modern therapy is much like a process of shared meditation, where therapist and client sit together, learning to pay close attention to those aspects and dimensions of the self that the client may be unable to touch on his or her own” (p.245). I also believe that the practice of group meditation, while not necessarily therapeutic, is pointing to the intricacies of the self. Many times, I sense that my stay in the Buddhist group is a kind of unearthing of “unfinished business”. While mindfulness helps me to expose sources of vexation and to stay with them, analysis of these areas show me the places where I am “stuck” or unable to go forward. This leads me to wonder, with the exception of those who have no serious childhood or existential issues, is meditation in itself ever “enough” to deal with one’s emotional difficulties? Kornfield warns that “many students of Eastern and Western spirituality have been led to believe that if they experience difficulties, it is simply because they haven’t practiced long enough or somehow have not been practicing according to the teachings” (p.248).

I see meditation as a process of inquiry, not a kind of blanket “solution” to the problems faced when one is practicing mindfulness. When I am inquiring into vexations, I am seeing them for what they are and attempting to hold them long enough that I am not trying to explain them away. By refusing to short-cut to any easily defined solution, I am respecting the conditions of the mind: not forcing them to go away or be replaced by an easy thought, and not indulging those conditions at the same time. But I am also susceptible to receiving help from different sources, as well as being open to different ways of approaching difficulties. “Sitting with” one’s difficulties is indeed an important and crucial step, but this does not mean that I only sit with them and they will magically go away! They need to be seen as coming from the mind, for sure, but this also necessitates a sensitive examination of the sources of suffering. Otherwise, how can I be able to compassionately care for the situations of others, if I am simply telling them that “everything is created by the mind?” Something more is often needed to bridge a person’s felt experiences with Buddhist ideas and concepts.

Kornfield, J. (1993). A Path with a Heart: A Guide Through the Promises and Perils of Spiritual Life. Toronto: Bantam Books.