MARK EPSTEIN, BUDDHISM, PSYCHOTHERAPY, AND EGO

I like reading Mark Epstein. He is a psychiatrist and Buddhist who writes with remarkable sensitivity, compassion, humility, and depth. He identifies the ego as the source of many of our problems:

·       Ego is the one affliction we all have in common. Because of our understandable efforts to be bigger, better, smarter, stronger, richer, or more attractive, we are shadowed by a nagging sense of weariness and self-doubt. Our very efforts at self-improvement orient us in an unsustainable direction since we can never be certain whether we have achieved enough. (All the quotes are from Epstein’s Advice not Given: Getting over Yourself)

The ego can be life-dominating. We spend our lives trying to prove that we are a “somebody” and spend a massive amount of energy trying to hide this endeavor from ourselves and others. This pertains even to those who have “arrived”:

·       People with a strong sense of self still suffer. They may look like they have it all together, but they cannot relax without drinking or taking drugs. They cannot unwind, give affection, improvise, create, or sympathize with others if they are steadfastly focused only on themselves. Simply building up the ego leaves a person stranded. The most important events in our lives, from falling in love to giving birth to facing death, all require the ego to let go.

However, Epstein believes that he has found an answer for this stubborn addiction:

·       But there is no reason for the untutored ego to hold sway over our lives, no reason for a permanently selfish agenda to be our bottom line. The very ego whose fears and attachments drive us is also capable of a profound and far-reaching development. We have the capacity, as conscious and self-reflecting individuals, to talk back to the ego.

Epstein believes that by gaining awareness of our situation, through both or either psychotherapy and Buddhist meditation, we can begin to correct ourselves:

·       They learn to make sense of their internal conflicts and unconscious motivations, to relax against the strain of the ego’s perfectionism.

However, a very basic question remains: “Do these means of self-awareness give us accurate self-knowledge, and does this knowledge penetrate deeply enough?” Epstein seems to think so. He claims that the practice of mindfulness is a mirror into the soul:

·       This image of the mirror is central to Buddhist thought. A mirror reflects things without distortion. Our consciousness is like that mirror. It reflects things just as they are. In most people’s lives, this is taken for granted; no special attention is given to this mysterious occurrence. But mindfulness takes this knowing consciousness as its most compelling object.

It might be compelling, but is this form of self-awareness any more profound than the awareness that we are hungry, tired, or angry? I don’t mean to denigrate this kind of awareness, but I doubt that it can penetrate deeply enough to the roots of the ego. Nevertheless, Epstein believes that this kind of awareness is adequate:

·       Without such consciousness, we remain pushed around by impulses and held in check by unrecognized defenses. But when we are able to see the extent of our own fears and desires, there is something in us, recognized by both Buddha and Freud, which is able to break free. Taking responsibility for what is going on inside of us gives hope.

Is there any evidence that this “gives hope,” or are we simply flattering ourselves with a false assurance that we know ourselves and can “break free?” Epstein seems to admit that this question is not easily satisfied by snap answers:

·       We have to both trust and mistrust the mind, often at the same time. This takes practice.

However, what type of practice will enable us to determine if we are deceiving ourselves? Or that we have attained freedom rather than dissociation from ourselves and our humanity?

I am suspect for a number of reasons. For one thing, we suppress material that is highly threatening to our mental stability and sense of self. Why then should we expect that it would be easy to confront this material through psychotherapy or meditation?

Instead, my experience with psychotherapy showed me that the therapist is just as invested as I am in keeping certain things repressed or denied if they come to the surface. For what if I told the therapist, “I am a horrible person, and I don’t deserve to live.” He would help me explore the reasons why I might feel this way, but as a giving person, his goal is to prove me wrong.

What if I confided that I had murdered an entire village of women and children in Vietnam, and without any regret? He might tell me that “others would have also cracked under such pressure,” and that I had to learn to forgive myself. However, he would not consider the possibility of objective guilt, and perhaps I did deserve to die for what I had done. Perhaps he might try to lesson my feelings of guilt by telling me, “You were just following orders, and you need to learn to forgive yourself?”

However, is this tactic covering the problem or exposing it? And does mere self-awareness provide the answer to our problems? Instead, it seems that deep self-awareness is the last thing that we want. Thoughts of our moral inadequacies and the punishment we know we deserve for them are highly threatening. Perhaps this is why it is not enough to be wildly successful and why we also need to constantly convince ourselves that we are morally deserving, worthy, and entitled. This is why it doesn’t matter how much money or power we have accrued. We still feel threatened when our character is maligned by even by a charge that we had wrongly cut into line. This should point us to the understanding that there is an unresolved issue deeper that ego.

Buddha would have answered that we have to live according to our moral nature, and that if we fail to, we will experience the effects of our negative karma. However, what if the effects of this “karma” are even more disastrous than Buddha was able to perceive? What if our moral failure had sentenced us to a perpetual sense of threat and doom? And what if it is this threat that has driven our ego into overdrive to prove our worthiness in the face of this overwhelming threat?

It also seems that we need to go a little deeper with our questioning. What kind of wisdom runs the karma wheel to ensure that we really receive what we deserve? It seems that this kind of justice would have to be administered intelligently.

It also seems that we are also aware of our need for forgiveness, however misplaced it might be. After the war, a Nazi was being medically attended to by a Jew. The Nazi begged for his forgiveness, even though this attendant hadn’t been directly affected by the Holocaust.

Why was forgiveness so important to this Nazi who was facing death? Did he know something that the West has long suppressed, because it represents too much of a threat? Jesus had highlighted this most basic conflict:

·       “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.” (John 3:19-20)

As lovers of the darkness and the lies we spin about ourselves and our worthiness, we hate anything that might expose our real condition. We are guilty as charged by our conscience! Consequently, we flee from the light and anyone who might shed that light. As a result, I have never heard anyone say, “I am seeing my psychologist because I want to learn the truth about myself.” Instead, we seek help for the reduction of our painful symptomology.

Perhaps psychotherapy and meditation do reveal some important things about us, but I doubt that these can penetrate to the real source of the problem – our moral corruption – and certainly cannot rectify the problem. Ultimately, our problem is moral and relational. We have to confess our sins and receive forgiveness, not a self-generated forgiveness.

If this is true, the ego isn’t the problem but the mechanism trying to cover and compensate for the problem. Besides, the ego is deceptive. It is like jello, which can take disguised forms, as in the practice of self-improvement, the pursuit of a virtuous life, or even through religious practices, all used to inflate our sense of our worthiness. It is not that such practices are wrong, but they are deceptively used to cover the real problem – our alienation from God.

Epstein understands that the ego cannot be eliminated. Instead, it must be understood and properly channeled. But how? From my experience and the experience of millions of others, the underlying moral problem must first be adequately addressed rather than denied or drugged. It is the source of alienation from real self-knowledge and from our Creator, as many religions attest. We know that something is terribly wrong with us, and this sends our ego into obsessive overdrive to prove otherwise – that we are worthy by virtue of our attainments and social approval.

Biblical wisdom tells us that, fundamentally, we have to be reconciled to our righteous Creator who proved His love for us by dying for our sins:

·       “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

It is this love alone that has enabled me to face myself and then to stand against the assaults of guilt and shame, despite my unworthiness.

MONISM, BUDDHISM, HINDUISM: THEIR PHILOSOPHY AND HISTORICAL EXPERIENCE

Buddhism and Hinduism have become fantastically popular in the Western world. In fact, we hardly read a negative word about them.

Interestingly, it is not the religion of the people of the East that has been adopted here but a monistic form of it, which asserts that there is only one reality. It is either a matter of the god within us (panentheism) or the god who is us (pantheism). This means that we too are god and the material world is just the world of illusion. If so, we should not have any attachments to this world. Instead, our goal should be to transcend this world so that we can embrace our oneness with the one reality – god.

This ideal is expressed in many ways. In the Bhagavad-Gita, Lord Krisha says:

• “You have grieved for those who deserve no grief… Neither for the living nor the dead do the wise grieve.”

Why do not the wise grieve? Because the “wise” understand that they are just grieving for the passing illusion, while the transcendent has no place for grieving. A Buddhist Doctrine communicates the same ideal:

• On desire depends attachment; on attachment depends existence; on existence depends birth; on birth depends old age and death, sorrow lamentation, misery, and despair. Thus does the entire aggregation of misery arise.

Misery and grieving are the result of attachment to this illusory world. By transcending this world, with its various attachments, grief and misery are also transcended, and that’s the goal of life.

This goal is attained through enlightenment. While the Hindus attempted to reach enlightenment through the two extremes of self-depravation and self-gratification, the Buddha taught that it was attainable through a Middle Way. In the Tripitaka, he was alleged to have preached:

• “These two extremes, monks, are not to be practiced by anyone who has gone forth from the world. What are the two? That conjoined with passions and luxury, which is low, common, vulgar, and useless; and that conjoined with self-torture, which is painful, ignoble, and useless. Avoiding these two extremes, the blessed one has gained the enlightenment of the middle path, which produces insight and knowledge, and leads to calm, to higher knowledge, to enlightenment and nirvana. What, monks is the middle path? It is the noble eightfold path…Now this is the noble truth of pain: birth is painful, old age is painful, sickness is painful, death is painful…In short the five components of life are painful…Now monks, this is the noble truth of the cause of pain: the craving that ends to rebirth, combined with pleasure and lust…”

In any event, both Hinduism and Buddhism preached a message of renunciation of the things of this world – work, commitments, enjoyments, and even family and friends. However, does such a renunciation reduce who we are as human beings?

In “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance,” Robert M. Pirsig’s main character, Phaedrus, studying at Benares Hindu University and spiritual searching, asks a question that changes his life:

• But one day in the classroom the professor of philosophy was blithely expounding on the illusory nature of the world for what seemed the fiftieth time and Phaedrus raised his hand and asked coldly if it was believed that the atomic bomb that had dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were illusory. The professor smiled and said yes. That ended the exchange… He left the classroom, left India and gave up.

Phaedrus could not deny the great tragedy. In contrast to this understanding of life as illusion, “Jesus wept” in the midst of human suffering:

• When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, “Where have you laid him [their dead brother Lazarus]?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept. (John 11:33-35; ESV)

Jesus had compassion, even though this tragedy was soon reversed when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. But isn’t compassion a part of Hinduism and Buddhism? Perhaps superficially, but monism represents a denial of our individuality and suffering. These too are part of the illusion.

In “The King of Knowledge,” a very literalistic commentary on the Bhagavad-Gita, Prabhupada, the late head of the Hare Krishna Vishnavite sect of Hinduism characteristically wrote:

• The hospital making business is being conducted by the government; it is the duty of a disciple to make hospitals whereby people can actually get rid of their material bodies, not patch them up. But for want of knowing what real spiritual activity is, we take up material activities.

Monistic thought rules against any compassion, because compassion merely reinforces the illusion of our individual personhood.

How had Hinduism affected its place of birth – India? In “The Book that Made your World: How the Bible Created the Soul of Western Civilization” Indian scholar and Christian convert, Vishal Mangalwadi, wrote about the negative effect of Hinduism on India:

• Our monks did not develop technical aids to improve their eyesight. They took pride in closing even perfectly good eyes in meditation. (108)

If this material world is illusory, then work and technological advancement are counter-productive:

• It is virtually impossible to find a Brahmin guru in traditional India who resembles the apostle Paul – a rabbi who made tents for a living. Brahmins said that manual work was the duty of lower castes, a result of bad karma from their previous births. Mahatma Gandhi was the first Indian leader who used a spinning wheel to try to import the Pauline work ethic into India: “No work, no food.” (109)

Their mis-identification of the problem - along with a disdain for hard work - kept India backward for centuries. Although Gandhi believed in hard work, he disdained technology:

• Gandhi’s idea that technology was evil and that a simple, natural life was morally superior came from British idealists like John Ruskin. Sensitive people like him had become critical of England’s Industrial Revolution because of the exploitation, oppression, and other evils associated with its “dark satanic mills.” Mahatma Gandhi brought this opposition to technology to India. (111)

However, it was technology - and theology that inspired it - that had saved the West. Mangalwadi gives several examples:

• The peasants’ humble wheeled plow generated the economic strength that helped save Europe from colonization by Islam. During the Middle Ages, Islamic forces were able to invade Europe almost at will. Muslims conquered southern Spain and Portugal and invaded France in the eighth century. In the ninth century, they conquered Sicily and invaded Italy, sacking Ostia and Rome in 846. By 1237, they had begun to conquer Russia. Constantinople was captured in 1453, and the battles of 1526 in Hungary and 1529 in Vienna suggested that it was merely a matter of time before the mullahs, caliphs, and sheikhs would rule cities like Rome, Vienna, and Florence. Equipped with a coulter, a horizontal share, and a moldboard, Europe’s new plow increased productivity by tilling rich, heavy, and badly drained river-bottom soil…The net result was the gradual elimination of starvation, the improved health of the people, and a strengthening of the economic foundations of the West relative to Islam. (101-102)

Monism also turns its eyes away from evil and corruption as illusory. Mangalwadi provides an illuminating example from his own country. In 1631, the monsoon failed to come. Consequently, there was a great famine. A British traveler relates the devastation he saw:

• From Surat to this place all the highway was stowed with dead people, our noses never free from the stink of them…women were seen to roast their children…a man or a woman no sooner dead but they were cut in pieces to be eaten. (112)

Mangalwadi reasons:

• My people did not starve because they were stupid, lazy, or unproductive. Instead, immorality killed them! They were taxed 80% of their produce. This left them with little and nothing to store for an emergency. The only way for the people to have any money was to join their exploiters.

Monism failed to identify evil and, consequently, was unable to confront it. Those who want to consider monism must take a look at its historical implications and not just what is currently popular in the West.

CAN MINDFULNESS MEDITATION BE BAPTIZED FOR CHRISTIAN USE?

Mindfulness is a form of meditation to attain peace and just about everything else. It promises the world, as a "Christianity Today" article suggests:

·       . . . "mindfulness has come to comprise a dizzying range of meanings for popular audiences. It’s an intimately attentive frame of mind. It’s a relaxed-alert frame of mind. It’s equanimity. It’s a form of the rigorous Buddhist meditation called vipassana(“insight”), or a form of another kind of Buddhist meditation known asanapanasmrti (“awareness of the breath”). It’s M.B.S.R. therapy (mindfulness-based stress reduction). It’s just kind of stopping to smell the roses. And last, it’s a lifestyle trend, a social movement and — as a Time magazine cover had it last year — a revolution."

However, can their techniques of clearing the mind to attain peace and self-awareness be of use to the Christian? 

First of all, the practice of mindfulness competes with the Bible, which has its own resources to produce these fruits. Instead of meditating on one's  inner states, Scripture would have us meditate on God's very words:

·       “His delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.” (Psalm 1:2-3)

Our thoughts, hopes, and worldviews are to be set on the things above:

·       “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” (Colossians 3:1-2)

Life is filled with pain and disappointment. Our pains and failures tend to make us feel that we are missing out on something - some technique or spiritual therapy. However, it is when we focus on Jesus, and not on ourselves, that we find the necessary peace, endurance, and hope:

·       “Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.” (Hebrews 12:2-3)

If our meditations/mindfulness are on Scripture and our Lord, no problem! But if they represent placing our hope in something else to deal with our spiritual/emotional problems, then we are wrongly placing our trust (1 Tim. 4:1-3; Gal. 5:1-4; Provide. 3:5-6).

Scripture assures us that it is able to give us everything we need for our spirituality, growth, and service:

·       “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

One respondent lamented that her husband was spending less time praying with the family in favor of mindfulness meditation. He was placing his hope in the wrong thing.

Christ has given us the necessary resources for life. To go beyond Him in spiritual matters, is to place our hope in the wrong thing, as another respondent wrote to a Christian therapist and advocate of mindfulness:

·       "I have used mindfulness-based techniques for a number of years in seeking to combat depression and anxiety. I found the techniques to be quite powerful for that time. I am a discerning, theologically trained evangelical Christian and felt that I approached all psychological treatment with due caution and thought (or so I have judged myself!). 

·       Ultimately, however, I have come to reject this approach to mental health. In recent months I have received healing from my mental and emotional torture in a far more complete way. This has come from a 'renewing of my mind' through the Scriptures, and particularly a proper understanding of spiritual warfare and the role that Satan plays in trying to deceive, accuse and bring fear to those who belong to Christ. This has not been a type of 'super spiritual power encounter' or exorcism or something dramatic, but rather a 'truth encounter'. I have had to repent of many false beliefs about God, about the world and about myself. Many of these beliefs were deep-seated and at the root of my depression and anxiety. 

·       When I practiced Mindfulness, I believe I actually allowed myself to be opened further to deceiving and accusing thoughts (see 1 Tim 4:1). In fact, I can now see how dramatically I had shifted in my theology, in my morality and in my worldview during its use. I have repented of using it, and instead am seeking to take every thought captive to Christ (2 Cor 10:5). Previously, I didn't really take seriously the spiritual realm, and the way the enemy seeks to render Christians weak and unfruitful. This was to my peril. Now I have become aware of Satan's schemes and can resist them. My mind is at peace."

Peace and self-acceptance are the gifts of our God. Although, self examination is important, even necessary (Prov. 20:5; 1 Cor. 11:31), it is important as the needle and thread are to the jacket. They merely restore to us the use of the jacket. Self-examination - and its byproduct, confession of sin - is merely a tool to restore us to our Source and all-sufficient Provider.

Buddhism and the Prospect of Death

Editor of World Magazine, Marvin Olasky, cites Alex Lickerman, former director of primary care at the University of Chicago. He has been a practicing Buddhist for 26 years, but to little avail, when it came to managing his fear of death:

·       “One of the supposed benefits of manifesting the life-condition of Buddha is freedom from all fear. I’ve tried to resolve my fear of death intellectually and come to the conclusion that it can’t be done, at least not by me.”

·       “Whenever I’ve tried wrapping my mind around the concept of my own demise… I’ve unearthed a fear so overwhelming my mind has been turned aside.”

This should not be surprising. Death is a reality so bleak that it can only be faced with denial. A discussion leader informed the group that he derived comfort from the fact that the world is eternal. I responded, “What comfort can you derive if the world goes on, but you don’t?”

He didn’t have an answer, but we do. Our Savior promised us:

·       "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” (John 14:1-3)

We have an eternal home with the One who loves us so much He died for us, even when we were His enemies.