Chasing Elephants : Healing Psychologically With Buddhist Wisdom [Paperback]

Diane Shainberg (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0970158505 | ISBN-13: 978-0970158505 | Publication Date: February 1, 2001 | Edition: 1

The phrase "Chasing Elephants" means looking for reasons or answers outside of ourselves. When we no longer look for external solutions, we can discover how things naturally unfold.

Editorial Reviews

Review

" ... I highly recommend this to all those on the path of liberation." -- -- Lama Surya Das, Author, Awakening the Buddha Within,

"... For it shows that love, spiritual practice, and self-discovery are essentially the same path, coming together in the Now of Not-knowing." -- -- Roshi Bernie Glassman, Author, Instructions to

"... Therapist or client, spiritual student or curious beginner -- read this book and learn how to heal." -- -- Kenneth Porter, M.D.,

"Chasing Elephants reveals the source of love from which healing arises. ..." -- -- Judith Sarah Schmidt, Ph.D.,

... I hope professionals and lay people alike will mine this rich resource." -- -- Pat Enkyo O'Hara Sensei, Village Zendo

From the Publisher

Ms. Shainberg is a practicing psychotherapist, ordained Zen Buddhist priest, and director of the Mani center for integral psychotherapy and study in NYC.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: Asti Rahman Books; 1 edition (February 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0970158505
• ISBN-13: 978-0970158505
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,537,044 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended addition to Buddhist study reading lists, January 11, 2001

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chasing Elephants : Healing Psychologically With Buddhist Wisdom (Paperback)

Diane Shainberg draws upon her experiences as a practicing psychotherapist and a Zen Buddhist priest-teacher to integrate the practice of western psychological healing with Buddhist spiritual precepts in Chasing Elephants: Healing Psychologically With Buddhist Wisdom. Shainberg aptly demonstrates that rather than searching for health through external solutions, we can look to our own internal potentials for healing and transformation. A very welcome and highly recommended addition to both Buddhist studies and psychology oriented self-help reading lists for the non-specialist general reader, Chasing Elephants offers a series of specific practices for psychological healing to initiate and be maintained.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Going Home: Psychological and Spiritual Liberation Joined, January 6, 2001

By 

Francine Rainone (Binghamton NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chasing Elephants : Healing Psychologically With Buddhist Wisdom (Paperback)

Written with grace and wisdom, this book points the way to a new, more powerfully liberating form of psychotherapy. Many people who enter therapy reach a limit beyond which the insights gained from talking do not substantively transform their lives. Many people who practice a spiritual discipline find that interpersonal problems can be as difficult for them as for anyone else. This book provides concrete hope for all of them, and everyone else.

The book describes the root of human suffering and provides a remedy for suffering. By rigidly acting according to our ideas of who we are, and how the world should be, we cut ourselves off from our lived experience. Our lives pass us by without our noticing what is actually going on, moment to moment. Dr. Shainberg believes the way back to our lives is through our bodily sensations. Through personal stories, case histories and detailed instruction she provides an eloquent message of hope: all that you need to heal lies within and can be accessed with the proper help.

The structure of the book is like a symphony. Early themes, some borrowed from other sources and some original to the atuhor, are repeated throughout, and each time their motifs appear we hear them differently, and more profoundly.

I recommend it to anyone interested in learning how to live with less suffering.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must for Anyone in a Healing Profession, December 10, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Chasing Elephants : Healing Psychologically With Buddhist Wisdom (Paperback)

This book is part poetry, part case studies, part how-to. Everybody tells you to accept your feelings, but almost nobody tells you how. This book tells you how and gives you the experience of healing when you do. Then it helps you to help others do the same in a healer/client situation.

I have just completed four years of healing school and have recommended this book as required reading to the school and anyone who intends to have anything to do with clients. Whether you are simply massaging someone or talking to them, the minute you agree to be in relationship, there is a psychotherapeutic aspect, and I think it is crucial that all healers be educated. This book has educated me. Doing Dr. Shainberg's exercises on myself, I have experienced the melting and shifting that takes place when I fully allow feelings, and I have begun helping others to have this experience as well.