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Sankharas and stream of consciousness

When ignorance and craving underlie our stream of consciousness, our volitional actions of body, speech, and mind become forces with the capacity to produce results, and of the results they produce the most significant is the renewal of the stream of consciousness following death. It is the sankharas, propped up by ignorance and fueled by craving, that drive the stream of consciousness onward to a new mode of rebirth, and exactly where consciousness becomes established is determined by the kammic character of the sankharas.

— “Anicca Vata Sankhara”, Bhikku Bodhi

Viparinama Dukkha

I’ve found some very interesting definition of viparinama dukkha. I’ll save it here for later reference. Irrelevant to the fact is his definition correct or not (I’d say its more likely sankhara dukkha), I’m pretty sure this feeling is very familiar to the most of us. -df

Thus, from the experience of social conditions there arises both physical and psychological suffering. But more fundamental still is that profound sense of unease, of anxiety or angst,which arises from the very transience (anicca) of life (viparinama-dukkha). This angst, however conscious of it we may or may not be, drives the restless search to establish a meaningful self-identity in the face of a disturbing awareness of our insubstantiality (anatta).Ultimately, life is commonly a struggle to give meaning to life — and to death. This is so much the essence of the ordinary human condition and we are so very much inside it, that for much of the time we are scarcely aware of it. This existential suffering is the distillation of all the various conditions to which we have referred above — it is the human condition itself…

…the anxiety, the profound sense of unease felt by the individual in his naked experience of life in the world when not masked by busyness, objectives, diversions and other confirmations and distractions. 

— “Buddhism and Social Action: An Exploration”, Ken Jones

Importance of the conceptual understanding

“Confusion over what is meant by ego can arise here, with many mistaking egolessness for abandonment of the theoretical/ metapsychological/structural ego. Egolessness, in this case, is confused with the absence of repression, or with liberation from psychological defenses, a view which often encourages the release of buried sexual or aggressive longing. This can be thought of as a “primal scream” version of egolessness, perpetuated by insufficient conceptual preparation for meditation, and vulnerable to becoming a kind of self-righteous hedonism. The need for an appropriate conceptual framework at this stage is clear. ”

— “Psychotherapy without the Self: A Buddhist Perspective”, Dr. Mark Epstein M.D.

Importance of both mindfulness and concentration

“Refusing to progress either on the path of concentration, by focusing the mind on a single object, or on the path of mindfulness, by moving from attention to content to attention to process, the meditator can be caught up in a fascination with psychological material without moving toward any resolution of conflict. Rorschach studies of experienced meditators showed no diminution of internal conflict, but only a marked “non-defensiveness in experiencing such conflicts” (Brown & Engler, 1986, p. 189), a rather paralyzing combination in someone who refuses either to seek therapeutic help in working through the conflict or to let go of the content of the conflict as demanded by the meditative path. Alternatively, there are those who find that meditation both reveals to them their need for therapeutic work and facilitates that work by decreasing their defensiveness. ”

— “Psychotherapy without the Self: A Buddhist Perspective”, Dr. Mark Epstein M.D.

(Also clearly marks an importance of “letting go”, accepting “as is” is only the half of the deal  -df)

Mindfulness // Bare attention

“Preliminary practices of meditation, just like beginning psychoanalysis, require the meditator to take his or her own experience as the object of awareness. In Buddhist terms, the attentional strategy is called “bare attention,” while in psycho-analytic terms it is called “evenly suspended attention” or free association. Both require what Freud called the suspension of judgment and the giving of “impartial attention to everything there is to observe” (1909, p. 23). In Buddhist terms, bare attention is defined as “the clear and single-minded awareness of what actually happens to us and in us at the successive moments of perception” (Nyanaponika, 1962). In psychodynamic terms, this self-contemplation is defined as a therapeutic split (Engler, 1986) in the ego (Sterba, 1934), in which ego takes itself as object. As Freud commented in his New Introductory Lectures, We wish to make the ego the object of our study, our own ego. But how can that be done? The ego is the subject, par excellence: how can it become the object? There is no doubt, however, that it can. The ego can take itself as object; it can treat itself like any other object, observe itself, criticize itself, do Heaven knows what besides with itself…. The ego can, then, be split; … The parts can later on join up again. (Sterba, 1934, p. 80)”

— “Psychotherapy without the Self: A Buddhist Perspective”, Dr. Mark Epstein M.D.

Dual orientation of narcissism

“Guntrip (1971) insists that “every personality” hovers “between two opposite fears, the fear of isolation in independence with loss of ego in a vacuum of experience, and the fear of bondage to, of imprisonment or absorption in the personality of whomever he rushes to for protection” (p. 291). These two poles, of grandiosity or omnipotence on the one hand, and emptiness or insufficiency on the other, represent what Lou Andreas-Salome (1962), one of Freud’s great confidants, termed the “dual orientation of narcissism,” that of the “desire for individuality” with its associated feelings of “a ghostlike facsimile of existence” (p. 7) versus the “contrary movement toward conjugation and fusion” that involves “identification with the totality” (pp. 4-5).”

— “Psychotherapy without the Self: A Buddhist Perspective”, Dr. Mark Epstein M.D.

False view on (and fear of) emptiness

“This is also the fundamental danger for the rest of us in progressing on the path of meditation. We are all prone to ignore the falsely conceived self by dwelling in the tranquil stabilization that meditation practice offers. These states, which can become ineffably sublime, offer experiences of oneness far removed from our usual personalities that can be mistaken for emptiness by an untrained practitioner. Yet the ultimate purpose of Buddhist meditation is not to withdraw from the falsely conceived self but to recognize the misconception, thereby weakening its influence. “Without disbelieving the object of this (misconception),” said Dharmakirti, “it is impossible to abandon (misconceiving it)” (Hopkins, 1987, p. 137). There is a deep, tenacious resistance to this disbelief, a kind of clutching that occurs, a fear of an emptiness that is conceived to be as real as the inherently existent I. In the words of Huang Po, “Men are afraid to forget their minds, fearing to fall through the Void with nothing to stay their fall. They do not know that the Void is not really void, but the realm of the real Dharma” (Blofeld, 1958, p. 41). “

— “Psychotherapy without the Self: A Buddhist Perspective”, Dr. Mark Epstein M.D.

Emptiness, depressive personality

“In the depressive personality, emptiness functions as a kind of one step beyond loneliness. Not only is the loved object missed and longed for, but there is an internal void and a feeling of an incapacity for love. There may be a deeply felt sense of unworthiness that attributes the loss of the other to the person’s own badness (Kernberg, 1975); thus depressed persons come to feel that they do not deserve to be loved or appreciated. The therapeutic value of meditation for these people lies in the establishment of contact with a valued internal object through the concentration practices that release feelings of love, joy, contentment, and oneness. This is not a substitute for establishing intimate relationships, but it does reveal to depressed personalities that they are capable of feeling what they thought themselves incapable of. “

— “Psychotherapy without the Self: A Buddhist Perspective”, Dr. Mark Epstein M.D.

Emptiness, schizoid personality type

“The schizoid personality tends to feel emptiness as an “innate quality” (Kernberg, 1975) of their being that makes them different from other people, who they can see have feelings of “love, hatred, tenderness, longing or mourning” (p. 215) that they find unavailable within themselves. The schizoid stance has been seen as a defense against feeling longing for “emotional supplies from a good object” (Stewart, 1985) or as the result of “destructive impulses turned from the object towards his own ego” (Klein, 1946, p. 19). In either case, these people feel disintegrated, rather than anxious, unable to experience emotion, unable to contact others, and most in touch with a “soothing” (Kernberg, 1975), “amorphous experience of indefiniteness and weakness” (Guntrip, 1971, p. 97). Successful meditation for them involves a gradual process whereby contact is first made with the ego ideal through the concentration practices, providing a sense of ontological security to counter their pervasive insecurity and allowing the soothing emptiness to be gradually relinquished. At this point the mindfulness practices can begin to uncover the emotional traces that have been unattended to. The obvious mis-use of meditation here is as a validation and reinforcement of the schizoid view of “no feelings” as an absolute truth. The Zen chant of “No eyes, no ears, no mouth, etc.” can readily serve as a schizoid defense when incorrectly apprehended.”

— “Psychotherapy without the Self: A Buddhist Perspective”, Dr. Mark Epstein M.D.

Emptiness, narcissist personality type

“Emptiness in the narcissist is a result of the void that is created in the internal world of object relations through the constant devaluation of others (Kernberg, 1982). This is a pervasive feeling that can be temporarily interrupted only by admiration from others (Kernberg, 1975), which tends to be all that is sought in intimate relationships.

…

Narcissists are much more likely to subvert the notion of “non-self” or “egolessness,” incorporating that image back into their ideal egos, becoming arrogant about their special understanding and using Buddhist veneration of emptiness as justification for their paucity of meaningful relationships.”

— “Psychotherapy without the Self: A Buddhist Perspective”, Dr. Mark Epstein M.D.