Psychology & Religion, Spirituality, Psychotherapy, Characteristics & Qualities - Self-Improvement, Emotions - Psychology, General & Miscellaneous Buddhism

Going on Being

Name: Going on Being
Author: Mark Epstein
ISBN: 9780767904605

by Mark Epstein

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Overview

The bestselling author of Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart combines a memoir of his own journey as a student of Buddhism and psychology with a powerful message about how cultivating true self-awareness and adopting a Buddhist understanding of change can free the mind.

Before Mark Epstein became a medical student at Harvard and began training as a psychiatrist, he immersed himself in Buddhism through experiences with such influential Buddhist teachers as Ram Dass, Joseph Goldstein, and Jack Kornfield. The positive outlook of Buddhism and the meditative principle of living in the moment came to influence his study and practice of psychotherapy profoundly. Going on Being is Epstein's memoir of his early years as a student of Buddhism and of how Buddhism shaped his approach to therapy, as well as a practical guide to how a Buddhist understanding of psychological problems makes change for the better possible.

In psychotherapy, Epstein discovered a vital interpersonal parallel to meditation, but he also recognized Western psychology's tendency to focus on problems, either by attempting to eliminate them or by going into them more deeply, and how this too often results in a frustrating "paralysis of analysis." Buddhism opened his eyes to another way of change. Drawing on his own life and stories of his patients, he illuminates the concept of "going on being," the capacity we all have to live in a fully aware and creative state unimpeded by constraints or expectations.

By chronicling how Buddhism and psychotherapy shaped his own growth and showing how change is possible by opening up our own capacities for self-awareness, Mark Epstein has written an intimate chronicle of the evolution of spirit and psyche, and a highly inviting guide for anyone seeking a new path and a new outlook on life.

About the Author:
Mark Epstein, M.D., is also the author of Thoughts Without a Thinker: Psychotherapy from a Buddhist Perspective. A psychiatrist and consulting editor to Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, he lives in New York City.

About the Author, Mark Epstein

Mark Epstein, M.D., is also the author of Thoughts Without a Thinker: Psychotherapy from a Buddhist Perspective and Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart: A Buddhist Perspective on Wholeness. A psychiatrist in private practice, he lives in New York City.

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Editorials

From Barnes & Noble

Dr. Epstein's 1999 bestseller, Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart, convinced skeptics that the principles of Buddhist meditation and psychotherapy are compatible. In this subtle and intimate study, he explains how he discovered in psychotherapy a vital interpersonal parallel to meditation, and in Buddhism, a solution to the paralysis of analysis.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Psychiatrist Epstein revisits territory he explored in his earlier books, Thoughts Without a Thinker and Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart. Borrowing his title and his inspiration from the British child analyst D.W. Winnicott, Epstein sets out to elucidate how Buddhist meditation can work with psychotherapy to guide people off the rocky shoals of "psychological emptiness" and into the deep flowing water of being. As in his earlier work, Epstein demonstrates a keen ability to link Buddhist ideas and practice with Winnicott's insight about the sense of psychological well-being that comes with the primal experience of "the uninterrupted flow of authentic self." Here, however, Epstein also describes his own liberation from inner emptiness, offering a memoir about his encounter with Buddhism as a Harvard student in the early 1970s. As a structuring device, he attributes different aspects of his growing Buddhist understanding to his encounters with three extraordinary teachers: Ram Dass, Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield. Alas, Epstein's admirers will hunger for more meat on the bones he lays out with such care. Part of the problem is the way that Epstein breaks narrative momentum by recapping material that has appeared in more potent form elsewhere, both in his earlier books and in classics like Ram Dass's Be Here Now and Kornfield's A Path with Heart. Lucid writing and truly useful ideas abound, although the talented Epstein travels a well-worn path here. (Mar.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Epstein, author of Thoughts Without a Thinker and Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart, continues to connect Buddhism and psychotherapy in his latest book. This particular work follows Epstein's days as a medical student all the way to meetings with Buddhist mentors such as Ram Dass, Joseph Goldstein, and Jack Kornfield. Going on Being is a wonderful introduction into the world of Buddhism and includes examples of the many positive ways that this philosophy can change a person's life. One such experiment deals with a technique called "mindfulness," or the practice of just watching and listening to your mind and body, and thereby learning valuable insight into your own psyche. Part personal journey, part mystical path, all of it good, this program, narrated by the author, will be thoroughly enjoyed; highly recommended. Marty D. Evensvold, Arkansas City P.L., KS Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.