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J. Ash Bowie
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This is a fantastic post, one of your best I think. I am in training to be a clinical psychologist, as it happens, and the attitude shift you talk about is actually gaining a lot of traction in the field.
A similar point I often use with clients is the difference between pain and suffering. Pain is physical or emotional hurt, whereas suffering is grounded in the desire for pain to stop. Ideally, if one were able to have zero desire for pain to end, that person would not be suffering.
This is not about wanting or deserving pain or avoiding attempts to reduce it when possible, but about acceptance of pain as one of the costs of embodiment. A demand or expectation that life be pain-free guarantees suffering. In this framework, sad-crying is a healthy expression of pain whereas protest-crying expresses suffering.
Ash
sacredriver.org
Secular Buddhism, and the Difference Between Attachment and Engagement
Is there a difference between being attached to the world, and being engaged with it? I've been talking with a friend who is, for lack of a better term, a secular Buddhist. He's an atheist and a materialist, but he engages in a meditation practice, and he applies aspects of a Buddhist philosoph...
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Mar 30, 2010
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