Customer Reviews

Ordinary Mind: Exploring the Common Ground of Zen and Psychotherapy

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Real meditation practice takes place "out at the edge of the darkness," Barry Magid writes in his not-so-ordinary book, ORDINARY MIND. "That's where we have to work. What is that edge? It's the boundary of where we feel comfortable, where the difficulties start. And that boundary is always clearly marked by anxiety or anger or fear: whatever we don't want to face. That's where we need to sit" (p. 74). Magid is no stranger to the cushion. Not only is he a psychoanalyst who has been practicing Zen meditation for the past twenty-five years (p. 1), he is also the founding teacher of New York City's Ordinary Mind Zendo (p. 4). In his book, Magid demonstrates how therapy and meditation practice can work together "like one foot forwarded and the other behind in walking" (p. 5). "What we do in Zen practice," he writes, "what we do in therapy, is watch how we go about facing--and even more important, avoid facing--our life as it is" (p. 160).

While Magid's observations may not be "groundbreaking" (John Welwood, for instance, has covered the same territory in books such as TOWARD A PSYCHOLOGY OF AWAKENING), they are indeed fascinating. Therapy and meditation practice share some common ground. Both create long-term relationships with a therapist or a teacher, respectively. Both create "a setting for the eliciting and working through of intense fantasies and affects." Both train us "to stay with, tolerate, and explore thoughts and feelings normally felt to be too painful or frightening to endure" (p. 103). "Through both psychoanalysis and Zen practice we strive to come back to ourselves," Magid says, "to re-own what has been split off, and to embrace what we have warded off. Then we are who we are; each moment is what it is" (p. 166).

Based on my own experience with Zen and shamatha-vipashyana (mindfulness-awareness) meditation styles, I found that Magid's observations are frequently reminiscent of the late Tibetan Buddhist Chogyam Trungpa's teachings. For instance, Magid's observation "that we lead lives so confined and constricted that we can hardly begin to imagine what true freedom is like" (p. 41) echoes Trungpa's MYTH OF FREEDOM. Perhaps Magid would agree that, just as psychoanalysis may be integrated with Zen meditation, it could also be integrated with other schools of meditation including shamatha-vipashyana Buddhist practice.

Magid's excellent book will appeal to the reader interested in uncovering the painful and hidden material of his or her life through therapy, meditation, or both so as to alleviate suffering, and to live a more meaningful life "as it is."

G. Merritt

What I found most interesting, and also most valuable, about Barry Magid"s work is his ability to bring together the insights of his psychotherapy practice to the clarity of his role as a zen teacher into one seamless presentation. In fact, the major theme of Ordinary Mind, that there is no sharp boundary between psychology and spirituality, is so well made that the reader will surely have to question any prior assumptions about what psychology is and what spiritual practice is. I particularly liked Magid's thoroughness in clarifying the normally fuzzy thinking that occupies the borderland between psychology and religion.
But this is not just an intellectual polemic. Using a combination of honest examples from his own life, the wisdom of the Zen koan, and not least of all, humor, he repeatedly returns to how these issues inform our everyday life as we live it. Time and again he brings us back to the essential point that must be addressd in any approach to living a less self-centered life, whether the approach be that of psychology or spirituality. And that point is that the real satisfaction that all of us are looking for must come from the increasing ability to move away from our false pictures of what life is and what spirituality is, and instead move toward a direct experiencing of our life as it is.

Magid uses classical koans, clinical material, and the thinking of cutting-edge psychoanalysts like Stolorow, Eigen, and others to lucidly explore the commonalities and divergences of Zen practice and the psychotherapeutic enterprise.

In particular, I found his thoughtful examination of self at once
evocative and refreshingly straightforward. His examination of the issues of boundaries in both clinical and zen teacher-student relationships is intelligent and realistic. And his comments on transference and its relationship to a Buddhist conception of ego are of particular interest.

In psychoanalytic circles lately there has been a growing interest in Zen and Buddhist psychology. I believe that Zen students and mental health professionals alike will be in Magid's debt for a long time to come.

Although the title of this text implies that this is a work best suited to professionals, I was delighted to find just the opposite. This is a book clearly presents some of the most basic aspects of Zen meditation written from a personal and inspiring perspective. It makes it possible for even the beginner to understand the rewards and challenges of just sitting meditation.
As a previous reviewer said ..."this is not just an intellectual polemic. Using a combination of honest examples from his own life, the wisdom of the Zen koan, and not least of all, humor, he repeatedly returns to how these issues inform our everyday life as we live it."
In addition this work includes a nicely written index making it possible to revisit those areas that made you think on your first read.

Don't let the title of this book fool you into thinking that this is solely a precise academic discourse on the relationship of Zen and psychotherapy.

This is a solid, discerning book of Zen for everyday life. Barry Magid has a warm, gentle, no BS style like his own teacher, the loved Charlotte Joko Beck. He has the capability to take big wisdom and intelligently share it with his readers in an accessible, heartfelt and encouraging way:

"..this is like looking into a mirror: without any effort, our face naturally appears. Whatever we experience, whatever doubt or difficulty we feel, is simply who and what we are in that moment"

This is one of those books that does not leave the spot next to the bed. I find myself reading this over and over and am softer and kinder for it. This book shines!

This book is one of the most engaging books on Zen that I have had the good luck to discover. In addition to providing a concise discussion of the relationship between the foundational notions of modern psychoanalysis and the day-to-day work of Zen practice, Magid provides a lively discussion of twelve famous koans. Not only does Magid use his experience as a psychoanalyst to inform his view of Zen practice, he uses his experience of Zen practice to elucidate concepts in psychoanalysis. Best of all, he has written a book that is intelligent, engaging, and practical!

This book gives a very clear and understandable explanation of many Buddhist as well as psychotherapeutic concepts. It is serious reading, but not too difficult; it is not necessary to be an expert in either subject. I read it twice and gained considerable insights. I have bought several copies to give to my children and grandchildren (college-age), and I recommend it without reservation.

Magid does an excellent job comparing psychoanalysis and Zen practice. Obviously they're not perfect fits, but he does a very good job of revealing their common ground. He draws upon 30 years of experience in both practices. The book is a bit dense at times with some of the psychological terms, but nothing too difficult. I found his analytical models for the two schools of Zen to be fascinating and revealing: bottom-up (Soto Zen) and top-down (Rinzai). For that alone, the book is worth the price and the read.

This book, for the experienced practictioner of meditation is excellent.

For someone trained in psychology, it is a bridge across both disciplines

with fresh insights about each. I recommend this book for anyone seriously engaged in the inner journey of awakening.

I'm a Soto Zen practitioner with a very high interest in how the many schools of psychology may fit with contemplative practices. So I was drawn into exploring this book.

The the understanding of this author is based completely on Joko Beck. Whose teachings I still enjoy. But students of her tend to be very biased towards a yin approach. And love to tear apart the more yang, or Rinzai approach. Truly, the author is seen as biased towards a yin approach towards psychotherapy too. I also was not too impressed with the extremely short list of schools of psychotherapy this author draws from. But he did present Self Psychology in a way that sparked my interest.

I have known Soto practitioners who have been able to see the validity of the more yin Soto approach compared to the more yang Rinzai approach as equally valid, just different.

There seems to be few minds that can see that there is a time an place for yin vs. yang practices. That lets say that I'm self-defeating now, that I hurt myself and everyone around me in some way and cannot make it through the day. Should I sit on a couch and go through a slow "working through" of all my resistances and distortions of reality? Should I sit for 30+ years in zazen and hope that I can learn to be with my self defeating self eventually, when I'm viscerally suffering now? And if I have worked with a therapist who can help me more quickly live day by day, should I stop and forget about any slow "working through?" Or prematurely think that I'm cured and forget any sitting practice?

It is notable that Joko Beck and her students dislike mystical, abstract, spiritual descriptions of practice and truth. They just tend to go too far and present their understanding in a way that makes Zen to be just a secular philosophy of mindfulness of experience. Not that there is some abstract reality higher or lower than the secular. I'm just talking about their presentation of Zen. And the majority of what is discussed in the book is Zen. I would've like much more about his school of psychology.

The last "gripe" I have, and these are all just small gripes that came up to me when reading this book, is that I keep coming across books that present eastern contemplative practices to the psychological world. Is there anyone out there who can present the need for the contemplative schools to have an understanding of modern psychology? There is still the notion floating out there that the eastern practices work on some all encompassing or higher level of the mind than psychology. There is still a great need for western psychologists to present a psychological understanding as equally valid for practice.

Overall a 3 star book to my experience, maybe it will be a 4-5 one in yours.