to Sacred The Relationship - psychod.compsychod.com/PsychothpvsSacredTrad.pdf · Story characters:...
Transcript of to Sacred The Relationship - psychod.compsychod.com/PsychothpvsSacredTrad.pdf · Story characters:...
1
The Relationshipof Psychotherapy to Sacred Traditions
The Relationshipof Psychotherapy to Sacred Traditions
3
Human’s Perception Is Cloudedand Distorted
• Samsara: Buddhist :false world ofappearances
• Shadows: Plato’s cave
• Defenses: psychoanalysis
• Veils: Islam & Sufism
• Blind and deaf: Christianity
4
Humans Are Divided Inside
• Sub-personalities: psychotherapy
• Small ‘I’s’: Gurdjieff, the Fourth Way
• Story characters: Sufi teaching stories
• Fragmentation and the failure to takeresponsibility for oneself
5
Self Knowledge Is the Key toBecoming Whole Again
• Finding lost parts of oneself
• Re-integrating the disowned elements, theshadow of one’s self
• Healing the division between the ‘I’ and the‘not-I’
6
Accepting the Whole Self …
• Making the unconscious conscious is painful• Psychotherapy: a systematic exposure of self-
defeating ways of thinking-feeling-behaving;learning how to label-tolerate-express emotions
• Sacred: the confession of sins• Sacred: accepting WHATEVER arises in
meditation• Prayer: the inner voice of conscience
7
Humans Possess InnerResources
• Psychology: advanced states offunctioning (thinking, feeling, behaving)
• Sacred traditions:– The essence
– Connecting with the Divine
– Capacities of perception
– Immortal life
8
Much Human Suffering-pain IsUnnecessary
• Product of ignorance and blindness
• Confusions resulting from inner divisionsand the deceits attempting to appearcoherent (‘ego, intellectualization,persona’)
• Product of significant habitual behavior
9
Teacher: Regular PersonalContact
• Teacher
• Priest
• Guide
• Guru
• Therapist
• Leader
• Similar experiences• Seen, understood,
accepted AT LEASTSOME aspects of self
• Escaped from somefragmentions, distortions
• Can perceive thesearcher objectively &help him/her to be moreobjective abouthim/herself
11
Sacred Traditions Begin FromThese Ideas…
• An ordered intelligent universe
• Hierarchy
• Levels are reciprocally dependent
• Humans are low down on the scale ofbeing
• Humans serve purposes beyondthemselves
12
Sacred Traditions & Human’sPurpose
• There is Service to God– the Truth underlying appearances– an inner voice or conscience– awaken get free from blindness
• And there is…• Service to Caesar: the ordinary world of
appearances– natural appetites and desires– illusions of power and freedom– our fantasies re: selves & humankind
13
Human Development
Sacred Tradition– Awaken
– Fulfill another task
– Submit to a differentinfluence
– Make connection withheaven - living on earth
– A higher energy sourcebecomes available
– Ordinary life is changedtoward Sacred service
Psychological Tradition– Humans are at the center
of things
– Ordinary desires taken atface value & basis foraction
– No concept of a secondpurpose
– Becomes an elaboration ofthe illusion itself
14
How to Begin Developing
Sacred Tradition– By recognizing the role of
the sacred traditions
– From disillusionment withone’s ordinary life & self &knowledge
– Coming to disbelieve (anddisidentify) from ordinarythought and emotion
– Opening to a deeper partof oneself (essence)
Psychological Tradition– By recognizing the validity
of psychological practices– By recognizing the pain of
self-defeating behavior– By strengthening our
ordinary self– By improving the ordinary
self according to ideas ofthe ordinary self
15
The Knowledge Comes From…
Sacred Tradition
– A manifestation of thehigher levels aboutwhich they tell us
– Transmitted by achain of individuals
– Have always existed
– Deteriorate as theyspread
Psychological Tradition– Progressive
development sinceMesmer, 19th centuryhypnotists, Janet,Freud, etc.
– The employment ofthe scientific methodregarding humanfunctioning
16
Relationship: Student & Teacher
– Sacred Tradition• - Teacher is in
some part of hisbeing an actualmanifestation of ahigher level
• - The hierarchycontinues toteacher’s teacher,etc.
Psychological Tradition- Difference in authoritybetween self and client- The difference changesin the course of thetreatment- Transference isdissipated
17
Views of Consciousness
– Sacred Tradition• - Our consciousness is
very fluctuating,illusory
• - Extraordinarypersistent effort isneeded to steady it, letalone increase it
• - Like bike light dynamo
Psychological Tradition- We already
possessconsciousness
- Some of our partsneed to be found
- The light is burningalready
19
Religion
…that which takes you toGod is religion -- whateverstands between you andGod is “the world”
• Sheikh Ibrahim Gazua-Ilah
20
Worship? Law? Reality?
What is worship?
To realize Reality.
What is the sacred law?
To do no evil.
What is reality?
Selflessness.
• Sheikh Abdullah Answari
21
Prayer
“Prayer consists,” he said,“in hearing the complaintsof the aggrieved andassisting them; in helpingthe needy and theoppressed; in feeding thepeople and setting freethe captives fromcaptivity.”– Gharib-Nawaz
22
Love
The possible love relationship between human beingsmust now include, and even be principally constituted by,the help that one human being can give another toward the aim of inner self-development.
To love one’s neighbor is to regard him/her as a being containing the spark of divinity… who is, at the same time, inneed of help in order to actualize his/her possibility.
-- Joseph Needleman
23
References
• Skynner, A. C. R. (1976). The relationshipof psychotherapy to sacred tradition. In. J.Needleman & D. Lewis, (Eds.) On the wayto self-knowledge. ( 204-241). New York,NY: Knopf.