with Ven. Zinai and Jonathan S. Watts. Ven. Zinai (Taiwan) was ordained in 1983 by the renowned bhiksuni Master Wuyin and Venerable Xinzi. Her works focuses on integrated Buddhist Abhidhamma studies, mindfulness meditation practice, creative education method based on Image Theory, and Satir’s Family Therapy Model. Jonathan S. Watts (U.S.A./Japan) studied and practiced at the forest monastery of Buddhadasa Bhikkhu in Thailand during the 1990s. Since 2006, he has helped to develop Japan’s first Buddhist chaplaincy training program, the Rinbutsuken Institute of Engaged Buddhism, where he teaches Buddhist social analysis and systems care.
March 15, 2024
I. Contrasting Buddhist Practice and Modern Psychotherapy:
- Differing Goals? Buddhist practice focuses on enlightenment or nirvana through the transformation of consciousness, accessing inner wisdom, addressing existential concerns, and fostering overall well-being. Modern psychotherapy has a problem-solving orientation, addressing psychological and social issues, and promoting psychological adjustment to internal and external challenges.
- Contrasting Methods? Buddhist practice cultivates mindfulness and awareness through silent meditation, emphasizing embodied experience, and transforming habitual patterns. Modern psychotherapy relies on intellectual understanding, verbal dialogue, and therapeutic knowledge provided by experts.
- Points of Convergence?
1) Internalizing Attention: Both emphasize turning inward to observe mind-body phenomena. Eugene Gendlin’s Focusing guides this process through a structured inquiry, while Buddhist practice cultivates sustained awareness through meditation.
2) Mindfulness & Emotional Regulation: Both acknowledge the significance of non-judgmental observation and skillful management of emotions.
3) Self-Compassion & Interpersonal Relationships: Both recognize the importance of self-compassion and understanding in relationships.
4) Holistic Approach: Recently modern psychology has begun to incorporate Buddhist and other Asian sources on the influence of the body and its energetic systems on the mind as well as what might be called “higher consciousness”.
II. The Six Steps of Eugene Gendlin’s Focusing presented by Ven. Zinai
1) Clearing a Space
The guidance goes: What I will ask you to do will be silent, just to yourself. Take a moment just to relax . . . All right—now, inside you, I would like you to pay attention inwardly, in your body, perhaps in your stomach or chest. Now see what comes there when you ask, “How is my life going? What is the main thing for me right now?” Sense within your body. Let the answers come slowly from this sensing. When some concern comes, do not go inside it. Stand back, say “Yes, that’s there. I can feel that, there.” Let there be a little space between you and that. Then ask what else you feel. Wait again, and sense. Usually there are several things.
2) Felt Sense
From among what came, select one personal problem to focus on. Do not go inside it. Stand back from it. Of course, there are many parts to that one thing you are thinking about—too many to think of each one alone. But you can feel all of these things together. Pay attention there where you usually feel things, and in there you can get a sense of what all of the problem feels like. Let yourself feel the unclear sense of all of that.
3) Handle
What is the quality of this unclear felt sense? Let a word, a phrase, or an image come up from the felt sense itself. It might be a quality-word, like tight, sticky, scary, stuck, heavy, jumpy or a phrase, or an image. Stay with the quality of the felt sense until something fits it just right.
4) Resonating
Go back and forth between the felt sense and the word (phrase, or image). Check how they resonate with each other. See if there is a little bodily signal that lets you know there is a fit. To do it, you have to have the felt sense there again, as well as the word. Let the felt sense change, if it does, and also the word or picture, until they feel just right in capturing the quality of the felt sense.
5) Asking
Now ask: What is it, about this whole problem, that makes this quality (which you have just named or pictured)? Make sure the quality is sensed again, freshly, vividly (not just remembered from before). When it is here again, tap it, touch it, be with it, asking, “What makes the whole problem so ….?” Or you ask, “What is in this sense?” If you get a quick answer without a shift in the felt sense, just let that kind of answer go by. Return your attention to your body and freshly find the felt sense again. Then ask it again. Be with the felt sense until something comes along with a shift, a slight “give” or release.
6) Receiving
Receive whatever comes with a shift in a friendly way. Stay with it a while, even if it is only a slight release. Whatever comes, this is only one shift; there will be others. You will probably continue after a little while, but stay here for a few moments.
What does a Focusing-oriented therapist do?
- Look for and respond to the client’s felt sense. This is the baseline and what one would see most of the time in this type of practice.
- Help clients attend in such a way that a felt sense can form, can give rise to words, images, or gestures, and can carry forward.
- Help protect the “green shoots”, the early beginnings, of the client’s forward direction.
These are some examples of the kind of guidance:
- “You might take a minute and bring your attention to the bodily sense of what that whole situation is like for you. Wait to see what words or images or gestures come from your body.”
- “How is that whole thing in your body right now? Bring your attention to your body. What is that whole thing like, the felt sense of it?”
- “Let’s make a space to check whether your words resonate in your body and feel like they get at your sense.” (The therapist then repeats the client’s words aloud. The client checks the bodily felt sense.) “I am holding onto your phrase (image), and I just want to say them back to you, so your body can know they were heard.” “You have a sense of a something right there, but it has no words yet.”
- “Let me slow us down so that I can take in what has come.” (The therapist might then repeat or paraphrase the client’s words, letting their meaning resonate in the therapist’s body.)
- You might ask inside, “What is needed to ease this?” Or “What would be a right next step about this whole thing?”
If one is unfamiliar with this process, saying back the client’s words may seem like a mechanical exercise. But it has a deeper function. Not all words are said back, only those which have freshly come from the felt sense. Repeating the client’s words creates a space in the session in which the therapist has time to really take in what the client is experiencing. The time also lets the client feel whether the words used to explain her feelings resonate in her body, whether they get at what she meant exactly.
III. A Buddhist Analysis and Commentary on the 6 Steps of Focusing presented by Jonathan Watts
Introduction:
- Is there a relationship between Gendlin’s “felt sense” & the Five Aggregates (khandha), especially vedana, which can be translated as “visceral feeling”? Can the Five Aggregates of form (rupa), visceral feeling (vedana), perception (sanya), cognitive thought (sankhara), and consciousness (vinyana) be reflected in the felt sense? Can the felt sense be used as a tool to observe and analyze the Five Aggregates?
- The purpose of the Five Aggregates and Focusing: Can the contemplation of the Five Aggregates help people achieve the purpose of focusing, which is to gain more self-understanding and growth? Can Focusing help people achieve the purpose of the five aggregates, which is to break attachment to the self and liberate from suffering?
- The method of the Five Aggregates and focusing: Can the contemplation of the Five Aggregates borrow the method of Focusing, such as using words or images to describe the phenomena of the Five Aggregates, especially “visceral feeling” (vedana) and perception” (sanya)? Can Focusing borrow the method of the Five Aggregates, such as using the perspective of impermanence, suffering, and non-self to view the felt sense?
- Clearing a Space: Much of this first step is comparable to how to begin with Buddhist meditation. As one step, it seems to contain 4 steps: 1) look inside, 2) ask what is the main thing?, 3) develop a space between the answer and your awareness, which seems like practicing mindfulness (sati), and 4) keep exploring how yu feel. From a Buddhist perspective, one problem with this approach is starting with language and cognitive questions like, “How is my life going? What is the main thing for me right now?” This seems like a much different question than, “How does something feel?” Shouldn’t the approach start with the very basic “felt sense” and then after a while ask these more complex questions about life and the main thing? In the Buddhist contemplation of the Five Aggregates, one would normally start with the most “material” and move to the most “immaterial”: 1) rupa/form: establish your physical presence through posture and breathing, 2) vedana/visceral feeling: do a body scan & then choose a place that stands out & then determine the basic vedana of positive, negative or neutral, 3) sanya/perception: label the feeling with single word adjectives, 4) sankhara/cognitive thought: one’s awareness tends to run off into cognitive thought, catch it, and come back to vedana and then engage in Gedlin’s questions about life and the main thing at this place, 5) vinyana/conscious awareness: notice how new thoughts from sankhara lead to new kinds of “contact” (phassa) and new states of vinyana, such as the shift from nauseousness to one of anger after a concocted thought arises. The arising of the Five Aggregates from coarse to fine also maps onto the process of Dependent Origination (paticca samuppada), where the conscious awareness (vinyana) of a sense object with a sense door in the body (rupa) gives rise to vedana and into more cognitive types of craving and attachment.
- Felt Sense: Discovering the felt sense is similar to contemplating the Five Aggregates in reverse order, which is also included in Buddhist practice. As follows: notice a vinyana of anger, observe the details of your thoughts (sankhara), deconstruct the thoughts into impressions/perceptions (sanya), and then back into a fundamental feeling (vedana) in the body (rupa). There is also reverse paticca sampudda, where one starts from the experience of suffering (jaramarana & dukkha) and traces backwards to the basic factors and causes of its arising.
- Handle: Focusing instructs us to ask, “What is the quality of this unclear felt sense? Let a word, a phrase, or an image come up from the felt sense itself.” Indeed, some people think more in images rather than a voice that speaks. Further, “It might be a quality-word, like tight, sticky, scary, stuck, heavy, jumpy or a phrase, or an image. Stay with the quality of the felt sense till something fits it just right.” This process is very similar to the stage of contemplating the aggregate of perception (sanya), which arises out of vedana or the felt sense.
- Resonating: This is an interesting contemplation of watching the interdependent causality across the Five Aggregates. This act of resonating seems to develop a language or a communication between previously dissociated parts. The question then arises, “What’s been the fundamental problem here?” From a modern standpoint, there is a basic dissociation between body and mind. Polyvagal theory, a more recent Western theory, would say a feeling that is too intense embeds itself deeply in the body as a dysregulated “felt sense”, making it very hard to connect to cognitive mind/higher mind, which could regulate it with wisdom and compassion. Buddhism would say early trauma has so conditioned the mind and created so many “ferments” or “outflows” (asava) that mindfulness cannot operate at the moment of sense contact (phassa) with wisdom or “clear knowing” (sampajanna). In this way, the causal chain of paticca samuppada rages uncontrolled and very rapidly results in attachment (upadana), arising of the ego-self (jati) and suffering (dukkha). Does Focusing help us work with this model of the Five Aggregates paticca samuppada to develop clearer levels of understanding and regulation? When there is more connectivity is there less dissociation and greater wholeness and health?
- Asking: We are told, “Be with the felt sense until something comes along with a shift, a slight ‘give’ or release.” From a Buddhist perspective, it seems like two things are going on here: 1) After experiencing the felt sense (vedana) and the handle (sanya), Gendlin warns of the arising of “a quick answer”, a kind of articulated or verbal response (sankhara); and 2) He then instructs us to “let that kind of answer go by” and continue to investigate with this question—What is in this sense?—“until something comes along with a shift, a slight ‘give’ or release”. This process seems somewhat like how one practices contemplation of paticca samuppada at the crucial moment of sense “contact” (phassa), which leads directly and usually very rapidly into “visceral feeling” (vedana). With sufficient mindfulness at “contact”, wisdom or “clear knowing” (sampajanna) can interrupt the reactive process of vedana—good, bad or indifferent—and prevent the arising of attachment (upadana), ego-self birth (jati) and suffering (dukkha). This practice is well-known as an essential part of the Buddha’s final awakening.
Buddhadasa Bhikkhu—a highly regarded Thai master known for his creative and radical teaching of practical paticca samuppada—explains this term sampajanna. Sampajanna can be translated as “clear comprehension, ready wisdom, intelligence; clear seeing and intelligence applied to specific circumstances. Sampajanna draws upon wisdom accumulated through inquiry, practice, insight, and contemplation. Sampajanna often forms a compound with sati.” Further, “with a sufficiently developed practice, these four essential dhammas—mindfulness (sati), wisdom (sampajanna), clear comprehension (vipassana), and well-focused stability (samadhi)—will be ready to do their work at the moment of contact (phassa)”. [1]
In terms of the Five Aggregates, one seeks to develop mindfulness (sati) at sense contact (phassa), and then observe how the sense contact concocts into vedana, sanya, and sankhara. This process parallels the one of paticca samuppada when after vedana, craving (tanha) and clinging (upadana) may arise. As with Focusing, we “just let that kind of answer go by”; that is, do not attach to the vedana or quickly let go of craving and clinging. Then, we continue the investigation “until something comes along with a shift, a slight ‘give’ or release”, which is akin to using mindfulness to create a space for the arising of wisdom (sampajanna), clear comprehension (vipassana), and well-focused stability (samadhi). In this way, there seems to be some connection between sampajanna and the “asking” stage of Focusing. Wtih sampajanna, there is a natural dropping of ignorance and arising of intelligence. With Focusing, it seems one must engage in a more active intellectual process of asking the question “What is in this sense?”, but there is also a less directed aspect of “allowing the feeling to speak”. In Buddhism, this practice not only short-circuits the process of paticca samuppada, but by creating an open space, allows sampajanna to arise. This can begin a different causal process known as paticca nirodha that can begin with “wise reflection” (yoniso-manasikara), “moral conduct” (sila) or intelligent faith or confidence (saddha), culminating in nirvana, the final extinction of the ignorant, concocted self-ego.
In the final section above on how a therapist works, we see verbal cues and questions such as, “What is needed to ease this?” or “What would be a right next step about this whole thing?” While Focusing is supposed to link you to the trauma in your body, it seems there is a still strong reliance on cognitive solutions. In Buddhism, we are taught to develop cognitive wisdom but the approach to awakening is very different in that solutions or liberations usually don’t come from the cognitive mind. There are experiences of “other power” and sudden awakenings coming from the withering away of neurotic networks and the opening to new forms of awareness. It seems Gendlin is getting at this with his guidance, “Be with the felt sense until something comes along with a shift, a slight “give” or release.” In Buddhism, there is a lot of “composting” with cognitive inputs from studying the teachings, but the process of awakening is quite alchemic involving energetic and physical dimensions, especially in Zen and in Vajrayana as well. From a Polyvagal theory standpoint, meditation creates the physical and energetic homeostasis we need for the higher mind to guide us through change.
6. Receiving: We are instructed to “receive whatever comes with a shift in a friendly way”. In one way, this goes against what the Buddhist meditator is instructed to do in maintaining non-judgmental awareness or mindfulness. Even to force oneself to be friendly may obscure forms of resistance that need to be uncovered. At the same time, there is the practice of “loving kindness” (metta) and compassion (karuna), which can be directed inward to enliven the mind and enable further investigation and practice. On numerous occaisions, the Buddha spoke about the conditional dependence of wisdom and realization on the presence of non-sensual joy and happiness. Delight (pãmojja), joy (piti) and happiness (sukha) arise and lead in a causal sequence to concentration and realization. Without gladdening the mind when it needs to be gladdened, realization will not be possible.[2] Such a state would then enable what Gendlin next instructs, “Stay with it a while, even if it is only a slight release. Whatever comes, this is only one shift; there will be others. You will probably continue after a little while, but stay here for a few moments.”
III. Narrative and Embodiment in Counseling
- The Power of Stories: Religious narratives offer frameworks for understanding experiences and provide meaning to life’s challenges. Stories of religious figures, like the Buddha, can be used to illustrate the universality of human struggles and the potential for transformation. One participant who is a Christian priest commented, “When when I bring the counseling into the Christian context, then suddenly all the narrative, the great narrative is available, like all the teachings and becomes flesh in the stories that are available in the tradition, in the text. I find it interesting that in the discourses or suttas of the Buddha that record not only his teachings but his life, there is also an embodiment of wisdom, right? I think we’re so story-driven all the time.” A Buddhist therapist from the United States concurred and spoke of how she has taught the story of the Buddha to teens and young adults as the story of a young man who ran away from home, joined a cult, engaged in self-harming, developed an eating disorder, and was found half dead in the street … all leading to his eventual enlightenment!
- Embodied Experience: Recognizing the role of the body in storing memories and shaping emotional responses. Gendlin’s Focusing, somatic therapies, and Buddhist meditation practices all emphasize the connection between mind and body.
IV. Further Considerations
- Integrating Focusing with Buddhist Practices: Explore how to adapt Focusing for group settings and within Buddhist communities. Investigate the ethical implications of using Focusing within a spiritual context.
- Navigating Potential Challenges: Address the potential for bypassing difficult emotions with overly positive reframing. Acknowledge the importance of skillful guidance and support in working with traumatic memories and deeply ingrained patterns.
- Cross-Cultural Applications: Examine how to adapt Focusing to different cultural contexts and belief systems. Recognize the need to be sensitive to individual needs and preferences when integrating Focusing with Buddhist practices.
- Social Engagement: An important and little known part of the Buddha’s teachings on Dependent Co-Origination is his instruction that the process can go beyond individual suffering and lead to communal strive, violence, and war. He taught that, “Now, craving (tanha) is dependent on visceral feeling (vedana); seeking is dependent on craving; acquisition on seeking, leading into ascertainment, desire and passion, attachment, possessiveness, stinginess, defensiveness. Various evil, unskillful phenomena then come into play, such as the taking up of sticks and knives, conflicts, quarrels, and disputes, accusations, divisive speech, and lies.” Maha-Nidana Sutta: The Great Causes Discourse, Digha Nikaya 15. Ven Zinai also recently gave a talk at the International Network of Engaged Buddhists general conference on The Five Aggregates and Socially Engaged Spirituality
[1] Buddhadasa. Under the Bodhi Tree: Buddha’s Original Vision of Dependent Co-Arising. Ed. Santikaro. (Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2017) pp. 180, 95.
[2] Analayo. Satipatthana: The Direct Path to Realization. (Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society 2003) p. 166.
