| British Focusing Teachers Association |
|
| To navigate this site, you can either enable Javascript in your browser, or go via the site map. |
| Focusing and Buddhism |
| Margaret Hannah |
The following is an extract from a dissertation which I completed early in 2004 in order to gain an MA in Psychotherapy, and which is entitled "Focusing: its Use and Context within Core Process Psychotherapy".
For those unfamiliar with Core Process, it is a psychotherapeutic approach which embraces Buddhist teachings. It is taught at the Karuna Institute, near Widecombe in the Moor, Devon, England -- "Karuna" means compassion in Sanskrit. Core Process also adopts some modern western psychological theories, mainly of the client-centred type, which in my view sit comfortably within the Buddhist philosophy.
Focusing is the only "technique" or skill which is taught formally in the Core Process training, and I use it frequently in my work with clients. I hope this section may be of interest to those wanting to investigate Buddhism and/or meditation.
Margaret Hannah, MA
Core Process Psychotherapist
(Accredited UKCP)
2004
Core Process is a psychotherapeutic approach which embraces Buddhist philosophy, and as such accepts the central tenet of the Buddha's teaching, the Four Noble Truths. As Chogyam Trungpa states, these are "the truth of suffering, the truth of the origin of suffering, the truth of the goal, and the truth of the path". He was acknowledging that the human condition inherently involves suffering, that it is possible to understand how the suffering has evolved, to carry an intention to end the suffering, and through contemplative spiritual practice attain the blissful state where suffering no longer exists. Indeed, Core Process is regarded as a contemplative model of psychotherapy. This is because it can be likened to the spiritual practice of vipassana meditation. In this, the intention is to be physically still, to slow the mind and place the attention inward, observing what arises within and letting this pass away. In a therapy session the therapist's role can be seen to replicate the observing part of the meditator, and the material presented by the client as that which arises in the meditator. The non-judgmental contemplation of the therapist of the material allows it to transform and thus pass away. In the vipassana method, the relationship with the body is central.
In Buddhism, the term "Dharma" or "Dhamma" is translated as "spiritual path", or more loosely as "spirituality" or "righteousness". Nyanaponika Thera writes in his "Vision of Dhamma",
"The most concise expression of the Dhamma, its unifying framework, is the teaching of the Four Noble Truths: suffering, its origin, its cessation and the way leading to its cessation" (29, Intro p. xix).
He goes on to emphasise the importance of the teaching of the Satipatthana Sutta in relation to spiritual practice. He writes:
"The teachings of the Buddha offer a great variety of methods of mental training and subjects of meditation, suited to the various individual needs, temperaments and capacities. Yet all these methods ultimately converge in the "Way of Mindfulness" called by the Master himself "The Only Way" … the systematic cultivation of Right Mindfulness, as taught by the Buddha in his Discourse on Satipatthana, still provides the simple and direct, the most thorough and effective, method for training and developing the mind for its daily tasks and problems as well as for its highest aim" (28, p.7).
The Satipatthana Sutta occurs twice in the Buddhist scriptures, once in the Majjhima Nikaya (Middle Collection of Discourses) and again in an extended version in the Digha Nikaya (Long Collection), where it is referred to as the Maha-Satipatthana Sutta (The Great Discourse). This teaching was given by the Buddha both at the beginning and the end of his career, latterly when he was ill and his disciples were anxious that he would soon die, at which time his faithful attendant Ananda asked him for a teaching. He is said to have replied:
"Be your own island, Ananda, be your own refuge! Do not take any other refuge! Let the Teaching be your island, let the Teaching be your refuge; do not take any other refuge! And how, Ananda, does a monk take himself as an island, himself as refuge, is without any other refuge? How is the Teaching his island and refuge, and nothing else? Herein a monk dwells practising body-contemplation on the body … feeling-contemplation on feelings … mind-contemplation on the mind … mind-object contemplation on mind-objects, ardent, clearly comprehending and mindful, having overcome covetousness and grief concerning the world. In that way, Ananda, will a monk be his own island and refuge, without any other, in that way will he have the Teaching as his island and refuge, and nothing else." (Nyaponika Thera quoting from the Pali Canon, 28, p.140)
The Buddha's teaching emphasises therefore, that for liberation from suffering, all one needs is one's own body and experience. He is, in my view, implying in the final sentence of the above quotation that in his physical being he embodies the teaching; all he needs is within himself, "nothing else" is required from outside of himself. This message is wonderful news for the monks; what more empowering a concept than to know that the key to your liberation from suffering lies within what you already have. Self-enquiry, including enquiry into the body can provide all; and a parallel with focusing is evident.
The Satipatthana Sutta describes in detail the various elements of human experience which the monk should contemplate. These include bodily functions such as breathing, postures, physical movement, bodily feelings such as pain, pleasure or neutrality, sense perceptions like sound, sight, smell, touch, taste, "mental objects" such as emotions like anger, desire, sloth, agitation, doubt, and factors of enlightenment such as mindfulness, energy, joy, tranquillity, and equanimity. Consciousness is also listed as an element to contemplate. Included in the list is the contemplation of the body as the four elements of earth, fire, water and air; as well as all unseen elements of the body, some of which may provoke revulsion such as bile and faeces. In addition, and surprising to the modern mind, are the "nine cemetery contemplations" -- which the monk is encouraged to undertake at charnel grounds in order to realise the impermanence of the body.
Each element described in the list falls within one of four categories: body, feeling, mental object or consciousness. And at the end of each section describing the object or objects of contemplation, there is a reiterated passage, as follows:
"Thus he lives contemplating the body (or other category) in the body internally, or he lives contemplating the body in the body, internally and externally. He lives contemplating origination-factors in the body, or he lives contemplating origination-and-dissolution factors in the body. Or his mindfulness is established with the thought: "The body exists," to the extent necessary just for knowledge and mindfulness, and he lives detached, and clings to naught in the world. Thus also, monks, a monk lives contemplating the body in the body." (15, p.113)
This teaching comes from around two and a half thousand years ago (the Buddha's exact dates are unknown), from a distant culture, and has been translated. It is therefore always open to interpretation. However, what may be revealed by self-enquiry of ourselves as humans, it seems to me, is not dependent upon time and culture, but will contain basically similar elements. Nyanaponika Thera writes "True wisdom is always young" (28, p.21). The contemplation of "the body in the body" in my view means that it is necessary in this practice to delve into the bodily-held experience to taste and appreciate its qualities. Thich Nat Hanh writes: "To comprehend something means to pick it up and be one with it. There is no other way to understand something" (14, p.11). This is echoed by Tarab Tulku:
"It is important to note that in accordance with Tibetan psychology, the conceptualisation of emotionality represses it. This psychological view suggests that instead of letting the conceptualising mind dominate and repress the emotions, we should stay with and live through the emotional experience" (27, p.33).
Chogyam Trungpa, in answer to the question "How do you transmute emotions?", replied
"Instead of experiencing emotions as being separate from you, your rather unruly employees so to speak, you must actually feel the texture and real living quality of the emotions … We have to be brave enough to actually encounter our emotions" (30, p.235).
There is no intellectualisation of the experience, no dwelling on the relationship with the experience which is created by the ego; it is "going into" in order more fully to understand it. This is directly comparable with what happens in focusing. Campbell and McMahon write:
"Most of us only feel our uncomfortableness with a problem or our need to control it. Rarely, however, do we experience what it is like deliberately and consciously to be in the body's sense of negative issue. … This openness to bodily knowing within the Focusing process sets the stage for real and sometimes dramatic change as hurting places are allowed to unfold." (2, p.17)
There is also possibly a connection between the focusing process and the concept of "origination" and "dissolution" factors in the body. When a felt sense rises into consciousness, or when one realises more about that felt sense, could this not be an origination factor? And when a felt shift occurs, this is surely energy transforming, or in other words, dissolving. It may be that this instruction in the Sutta is describing factors of personality arising from the ground of emergence, the not-self, and dissolving back into it, and so presumes a state of relative enlightenment which is not the case with focusing instruction. Certainly for the contemplation of consciousness, considerable enlightenment would seem to be necessary; although the other three categories of contemplation, i.e. body, feeling and mental objects do arguably encompass the material which is worked with in the focusing process.
Contemplating the body "externally" would not seem to find a direct parallel with the focusing process. As explained in Nyanaponika Thera's "Heart of Buddhist Meditation":
"And how does a monk dwell practising body-contemplation on the body externally? Herein a monk reflects upon a body external to himself." (28, p.155)
However, certain of the instructions concerned with contemplation on the body which are explained by Thera in the same work can be seen as having some parallels with focusing. In answer to the question "How does one dwell practising body-contemplation on the body?" The Buddha's answer is seven-fold:
"Contemplating it as impermanent, he abandons the notion of permanency, contemplating it as painful, he abandons the notion of pleasure, contemplating it as not-self, he abandons the notion of a self; by turning away he abandons delight; by being dispassionate he abandons greed; by causing cessation he abandons origination; by relinquishing he abandons grasping" (28, p.156).
Certainly focusing can be linked to the first element of the above teaching in that it embraces the notion of impermanency -- an acceptance that change is not only possible but natural and healthy; and to the second element in that, in focusing there has to be a willingness to be with painful aspects of the self, temporarily abandoning defences against pain. In addition, the sixth and seventh elements "by causing cessation he abandons origination" and "by relinquishing he abandons grasping" can be related to the process of bringing unconscious aspects into consciousness -- the realisations and felt shifts which are indications of real psychological change.
The fifth, fourth and third elements, which are about abandoning greed, physical pleasure and the notion of self are more difficult to relate to focusing, as these teachings assumes the highest spiritual aim of enlightenment, which in Buddhism carries an intention to realise the "not-self", that which is not conditioned, being beyond individual personality in order to "overcome grief and covetousness concerning the world" (28, p.154). In focusing, the self and its development is emphasised -- the aim is to become happier with ourselves, more fulfilled as individuals within the world.
The development of mindfulness can be seen as involving two different types of practice, one formal and time limited, the other an application of awareness within everyday living. Chogyam Trungpa writes:
"In addition to the sitting form of meditation there is the meditation practice in everyday life of panoramic awareness. This particular kind of practice is connected with identifying with the activities one is involved in. The awareness practice could apply to artwork or any other activity" (31, p.80).
He also writes "Sitting meditation needs to be combined with an awareness practice in everyday life" (32, p.47). Nyanaponika Thera similarly states:
"to trap the actual and potential power of mindfulness it is necessary to understand and deliberately cultivate it in its basic, unalloyed form, which we shall call bare attention. … Bare attention is developed in two ways: (1) as a methodical meditative practice with selected objects; (2) as applied, as far as practicable, to the normal events of the day, together with a general attitude of mindfulness and clear comprehension." (29, p.50-51)
There is certainly a parallel here to the use of focusing in Core Process Psychotherapy. The devotion of a part of a therapy session to a time-limited section, proceeding formally through focusing steps, can be likened to the first "sitting form of meditation", whereas the practice of inviting the client momentarily to become aware of their felt sense, bringing their awareness to the inside of their bodies, is like the second. Neil Friedman described these two types of focusing in his psychotherapy practice, calling them "focusing rounds" and "mini-focusings" (7, p.129). The more practice undertaken in focusing, the easier this "touching momentarily into the felt sense" becomes. Moreover, I have found that my own practice of focusing has increased my ability to find a state of "panoramic awareness" in everyday living. Paradoxically, to become more aware of oneself at an inner level, is actually to become more aware of everything around one as well. Campbell and McMahon write in "Bio-Spirituality": "We also find that Focusing can support spiritual growth by inviting a person to step beyond the mind's perennial quest for control" (2, p.52), and McMahon in "Beyond the Myth of Dominance" urges:
"Look not with your mind, but with your body. If you can find a way to live in your body and not reject any of it, then you will be guided into discovering the wisdom you sense in nature all around you. Your own body is the key that will tune you into this vast and awesome Presence, the source of all wisdom" (24, p.199).
Are there then similarities between developing the skill of focusing and developing the "bare attention"; that is the key to the "potential power of mindfulness"? There are in my view significant parallels.
In developing bare attention, and in developing Focusing, there is a common objective: that of examining the self in order to transform the self. Similar advice is given about physical posture to be adopted. For sitting meditation and for Focusing, a relaxed posture with a straight spine is usually recommended. As well as a similar physical attitude, there is the adoption of similar mind-sets in approaching meditation or focusing. These mind-sets are typified by qualities which are positive and expansive, involving trust and open-mindedness. In Buddhist meditation, confidence and curiosity are emphasised. Chogyam Trungpa writes: "This awareness practice … requires confidence. Any kind of activity that requires discipline requires confidence"(31, p.80), and in "Cutting through Spiritual Materialism" he states
"in order to be a completely inspired person like Gautama Buddha, you have to be very open-minded and intelligent, an inquisitive person. You have to want to explore everything" (30, p.162).
even though what is found may seem ugly, painful or repulsive. Nyanaponika Thera also writes: "The aim of the meditative practice to be described here, is the highest which the teaching of the Buddha offers. Therefore the practice should be taken up in a mental attitude befitting such a high purpose". He goes on to suggest that the meditator recite the Threefold Refuge because "this will instil confidence in him, which is so important for meditative progress." (28, p. 91)
Focusing writers Amodeo and Wentworth emphasise faith (confidence actually means "with faith") and courage: "Allowing ourselves to vulnerably open to a full range of felt experience requires the courage to take intelligent risks." And "Facing unknown outcomes requires living with a realistic degree of faith" (1, pp 83-84). Other writers describe the cultivation of a respectful attitude and friendliness to the self, as well as curiosity: "The point of creating a caring-feeling-presence is ... to create an open enough body climate within which negative feelings can be owned" (24, p.118). "A Focusing attitude is a respect for a reverence towards concrete bodily felt experiencing" (7, p.130). "Focusing is like being a friend to your own inner experience. The qualities of true friendship include acknowledging, allowing patience, curiosity, respect, warmth, welcome, empathy, compassion, and love." (34, p.18).
This encouragement by writers on focusing to be warm and friendly towards oneself may be in light of the prevalence of low self-esteem in our culture today; it may be that greater natural self esteem was a given for the Buddha. When I consider my own experience when approaching a Focusing session or a meditation session, I note that in both cases I enter a mind-state of slowing or dropping thought processes, where my attention is inwards rather than outwards; and there is an aspect of giving time to myself, of self-nourishment, and inner expansion. For both activities, I drop as much as possible my tendency to self-judgment, and carry an intention to notice this at a subtle level when it arises; this is different from my everyday consciousness mode. There is also common to both a sense of a balancing act going on; not getting drawn into self-criticism, not getting drawn into thoughts, a sort of "hovering at the edge". Ajahn Chah writes, when giving advice about meditation technique "To practise in a way that's peaceful means to place mind neither too high or too low, but at the point of balance" (3, p.47). Chogyam Trungpa echoes this, when relating a story about a sitar player who asked the Buddha how to meditate: "The musician asked, "Should I control my mind or should I completely let go?" The Buddha answered, "Since you are great musician, tell me how you would tune the strings of your instrument." The musician said, "I would make them not too tight and not too loose." "Likewise", said the Buddha, "in your meditation practice you should not impose anything too forceful on your mind, nor should you let it wander." That is the teaching of letting the mind be in a very open way, of feeling the flow of energy without trying to subdue it and without letting it get out of control." (30, p.10)
There can definitely be shifts in my experience of time in practising focusing and in meditation. In both, I am less aware of time as a linear process. I have focused for forty-five minute periods when I seem to have visited many deep places in myself and been aware of significant shifts, and yet have been astonished when given the "five minutes to go" signal from my listener -- much more time has elapsed than I would have guessed. This can also happen in those meditation sessions when I experience less busy-ness of mind, a deeper relaxation. In both meditation and focusing also, thoughts can arise, acting as distractions from the intended process. When this happens in a focusing session with a client, I encourage them to return their attention to the body. When engaged in focusing myself, I bring my attention back to my felt sense after realising my mind has wandered. However in meditation something subtler, less action-oriented is encouraged:
"In true meditation there is no ambition to stir up thoughts, nor is there an ambition to suppress them. They are just allowed to occur spontaneously and become an expression of basic sanity. They become the expression of the precision and the clarity of the awakened state of mind." (Chogyam Trungpa, 30, p.10)
The Skandhas Trungpa also writes about thoughts in relation to meditation:
"One comes to an understanding and transcendence of ego by using meditation to work backwards through the Five Skandhas. And the last development of the Fifth Skandha is the neurotic and irregular thought patterns which constantly flit across the mind" (31, p.151).
"Skandha" is the term use in Buddhism for elements of the ego as it develops, the creation of ourselves as individuals. The word is translated as "heaps" or "aggregates", as it carries the quality of "growing collections". There are five of these. The first involves the development of "form", which arises from a fear of space. The space is the universal energy, which holds all form in potential. Trungpa writes:
"the fear of the absence of self, of the egoless state, is a constant threat to us … We want to maintain some solidity … so we try to solidify or freeze that experience of space" (32, p.21).
The second skandha involves feeling, a seeking to feel in order to confirm that we are distinct and separate from that which is outside ourselves. The third skandha involves impulses which are guided by perceptions. According to Trungpa this encompasses
"indifference, passion and aggression. … Perception, in this case, is the self-conscious feeling that you must officially report back to central headquarters what is happening in any given moment. Then you can manipulate each situation by organizing another strategy" (32, p.21).
This is linked to the impulse to control our experience. The fourth skandha involves the development of intellect and concepts. Trungpa again:
"We cannot establish ego properly without intellect, with the ability to conceptualize and name. By now we have an enormously rich collection of things going on inside us. Since we have so many things happening, we begin to categorize them putting them into certain pigeon-holes, naming them" (32, p.22).
The last skandha is the development of consciousness. Thich Nat Hanh states: "The fifth category, consciousness, however contains all the other categories and is the basis of their existence" (15, p.46). Although these are described in order, they arise together and continuously, and are involved in the creation of karma. Trungpa states that all five have one purpose:
"The whole development of the five skandhas -- ignorance/form, feeling, impulse/perception, concept and consciousness -- is an attempt on our part to shield ourselves from the truth of our insubstantiality. The practice of meditation is to see the transparency of this shield. … If we want to take this wall down, we must take it down brick by brick; … So the practice of meditation starts with the emotions and thought, particularly with the thought process" (32, p.23).
Meditation can be seen as an "unpacking" of the skandhas, so as to become eventually free of karma, the cycle of birth and death.
In focusing there is an intention to move away from the emotions to find the more subtle felt sense.
"A felt sense is the broader, at first unclear, unrecognizable discomfort, … to let it form, you have to stand back a little from the familiar emotion. The felt sense is wider, less intense, easier to have, and much more broadly inclusive" (Gendlin, 9, p.69).
So, any issue which may exist around the relationship with our arising emotions is not entered into immediately in the focusing process. However, during focusing, a question about the emotional tone of a felt sense or image can usefully be asked, and acknowledging such a tone can bring a process step to reveal the nature of an underlying fear or belief. For instance, in a recent focusing session I saw an image of a garage door open inside my heart area. My listener asked if there was an emotional tone, and I realised that there was anger involved with the image. Underneath the anger was a fear of being energetically "too open" and that to receive was also to be invaded. What was happening here was, I would argue, an engagement with the anger and fear unearthed in this process. It was necessary fully to taste the nature of that particular anger and fear in order to move my process on. And in order fully to taste them, it was also necessary to apply something other than the "dualistic thought process" referred to by Trungpa. The dualistic thought process involves judging whilst perceiving: whatever is perceived is judged as right or wrong, good or bad; the mind takes a fixed stance as to the desirability or repulsiveness of that which is perceived. (Often the terms "clinging" and "aversion" have been used to describe this in a Buddhist context). Focusing, as described above, involves non-judgmental acceptance of that which arises in the inner space. This seems to me to be closely related to the space being described by Trungpa in "The Myth of Freedom", when he states that the Buddha's teaching "was inspired by his discovery that there is a tremendous space in which the universality of inspiration is happening. There is pain, but there is also the environment around the origin of pain. The whole thing becomes more expansive, more open." He goes on "the vipashyana practice that we are attempting ... is realizing that space contains matter, that matter makes no demands on space and that space makes no demands on matter. It is a reciprocal and open situation" (32, pp 58-59). In focusing, it is tremendously helpful to be able to be with and to explore the felt sense from such an open, spacious and non-judgmental place, which allows for fluidity and change.
Focusing engages us in the more subtle felt sense which can be related to the second skandha of feeling. In choosing to be with the bodily felt sense we are helping to disengage from thought processes (peeling away the fifth skandha), and similarly in realising emotional tones held in the felt sense we are strengthening a non-attachment to emotions associated with the fourth skandha. It is more difficult directly to correlate the first skandha regarding form to the process of focusing, and to the third one regarding perception/impulse. In the Buddhist context, "impulse" is a phenomenon much more subtle that a "wanting to", which can be categorised as an emotion. I believe I recently touched the edge of an impulse whilst focusing, when I noticed quality of energy to the left of my heart which constantly pulled away from settling into the moment, being fully present. It was so subtle as to be difficult to describe in words, and my sense is that it will take time and persistence to transform.
Of course, it would not be helpful to analyse in terms of skandhas or another model the sensations which are noticed whilst in a focusing session, as this would put one back into thought processes rather than being with the felt sense. Finding a handle is about individual experience, not about fitting an analytic construct. Nyanaponika Thera describes something very similar when discussing meditation technique:
"It is a fundamental principle of the Satipatthana method that the disciple should take his very first steps on the firm ground of his own experience. He should learn to see things as they are, and he should see them for himself. He should not be influenced by others" (28, p.87-88).
In Focusing, the listener is not intending to influence or control the focuser, and most focusers find the practice much enhanced by the presence of a listener (I would suggest because of feeling reassured by being accompanied, and because the spirit of non-judgment is reinforced by the listener's quality of presence and skilful reflection). The listener can be likened to a "spiritual friend". Trungpa describes this concept in relation to unpeeling the layers of the ego:
"We must be willing to communicate in a completely open and direct way with our spiritual friend and with our life, without any hidden corners. …
Q: Must we have a spiritual
friend before we can expose ourselves, or can we just open ourselves
to the situations of life?
A: I think you need someone to watch you
do it, because then it will seem more real to you" (30, p.82-83).
The implication here is that the "spiritual friend" is a guru, perhaps. However, as the role of the guru is to enable one to see oneself more clearly, so the listener in focusing also fills this role, albeit for a very limited time period. It is the finding of the handle and expressing this to a listener which is perhaps the most obvious difference between focusing and any form of meditation, the latter being a practice where transmutation is usually an inner process only.
The Buddha's teaching on meditation practice was addressed to monks, who were committed to a way of life which embraced non-harm to self or others, the adoption of precepts such as poverty and chastity, in fact surrendering all aspects of living to the goal of spiritual enlightenment. At the present time those who embrace Buddhist beliefs or practices are, of course, not necessarily monks. Still, vipassana meditation is undertaken by the Buddhist practitioner with the intention of becoming conscious that one's basic true nature is unalloyed joy and ecstasy; "as the Master says so emphatically in the Discourse, the attainment of final deliverance from suffering (Nibbana) is the ultimate aim and inherent power of Satipatthana" (Nyanaponika Thera, 28, p.13). The practice is part of a spiritual tradition which accepts the concepts of reincarnation, karmic effects, and the paradoxical idea that liberation of an individual from suffering is possible by releasing the concept of the self. Focusing does not claim such connections of course, and is simply a skill useful in the pursuit of self knowledge in the twentieth century western cultural context of self-development. Gendlin writes "It is a way of enhancing self-knowledge, rather than a complete philosophy" and "focusing … should be combined with anything else that can develop us as persons." (9, p ix)
The foregoing has compared Focusing with Core Process Psychotherapy and aspects of Buddhist philosophy and meditation practice. All these teachings and practices are involved with the exploration and strengthening of self-knowledge and the inner life, and as such, all are methods of spiritual development, and can inform each other. The key to success in all is the purity of intention of the practitioner. As Ajahn Sucitto writes "We are our intention, that's what forms us" (26, p.109). Intention to change oneself involves courage, honesty, commitment, perseverance and sensitivity. And all these practices: Core Process Psychotherapy, Focusing, and Buddhist meditation, combined with pure intention, are important, perhaps vital, to the evolution of consciousness.
| Home | | Top | | Site map | | Feedback |