Putting Aside My "Problems"

 From the previous blog entry, I mentioned how Master Sheng Yen has distinguished between psychotherapy, which is intended to "root out" problems by understanding and analyzing their core elements, and Chan, which simply re-frames situations as not having "problems". It might be interesting to ask at this stage, how can this be done, particularly if a person has not cultivated meditative practice deeply, or for a very long time? Secondly, does this entail that Chan and psychotherapy are somehow incompatible with each other?
   Part of the answer to these questions has to do with the emphasis in both disciplines. Since psychotherapy aims at self-understanding, it has a tendency to focus around issues of the self and inner life. Even when one's family complexes and situations are identified and surfaced, they are couched in terms of internal dynamics that happen to an individual. Often, little concern may be given to the social dynamics of the problem itself. For Chan practitioners, on the other hand, the emphasis is away from self-analysis and toward acting in the interests of others. Notes Sheng Yen, "When you see the vexation and suffering that torments others, you can try to help them resolve their problems and end their suffering. In this process it will be easier to put your own problems aside for the sake of others" (p.12). This means that we can sometimes (if not always) be able to see our own suffering as a window to understand the suffering and vexation that plagues others. For example, if I am a person prone to irritation or impatience, I can use this emotion to better understand (yes, even be patient) toward people who have similar tendencies or experiences. I don't come to them with an attitude of judgment or superiority. Rather, I am able to express a solidarity with their suffering, which is more akin to empathy.
     I don't necessarily at all feel that these two approaches (Chan and psychotherapy) are incompatible. They seem to be like two wings on a bird. Without the Chan view of seeing all problems not as problems, it's easy for psychotherapy to go to a place of proliferating "solutions" or "fixes", without considering that the framing of the problem itself as a problem is a desire that becomes part of the suffering itself. It's easy for this to become a game of "looking for the root cause" when in fact there can be many interlocking conditions that manifest and even change in a small period of time. On the other hand, a Chan approach that lacks an analytic component (or a psychoanalytic one) might end up bypassing emotions that one must necessarily go through in order to transcend clinging to those emotions. Without the analysis or ability to reflect on one's patterns of vexations, Chan practice can become a convenient way to avoid deeper or subconscious patterns of the mind. For this reason, I consider the psychoanalytic approach to neatly complement Chan.

Sheng Yen (2013). Tea Words Volume II. Elmhurst NY: Dharma Drum Publications