Contemplative Psychology:

The Art & Science of Self-Healing

Spring 2013, by Hillel Greif
Congratulations, most of us have finally succeeded; we have become professional sufferers. I would say
that our capacity to deal with reality is gossamer thin but that would be a stretch. Im not blaming anyone,
I am just stating what I have seen on both an individual and massive global scale is not exactly the
optimal state we are striving for. In fact, it seems like the cards are stacked against us. Banging up
against reality over and over again we have become extraordinarily gifted at the art of inflicting emotional
and physical pain both to ourselves and other sentient beings accompanied by our hope of some
occasional respite from the seemingly endless travails that besiege us. And who wouldnt be? We are
confronted daily by the enormous weight of crisis, violence, war, human trafficking, and abuse, as well as
our own disregard for our own planet, the very thing that sustains life itself. As individuals, we are
confronted with the enormous challenges of childhood in which traumatic events seem almost
unavoidable due to the very nature our dependence on others who were, and most likely still are,
struggling and operating within the boundaries of fight or flight themselves; our models for our so-called
mature social engagement. We are confronted with old age, sickness and death, in which we are assailed
by our most basic fears, grasping and clinging onto anything that will relieve us from the inevitable
realities we must confront and an unspoken social contract to avoid dealing with them entirely until it is
much too late. To make things even worse, we have imbibed the messages of a caustic philosophy,
seemingly through osmosis, where scientific materialism seeps its way into every dimension of our lives,
even turning our own spiritual lineages into mere fable. We seem to be inevitably positioned to straddle
the precarious lines between stress and the attempt to alleviate it in a manner that indulges in our
materialist reductionist mindset leading to ingesting the inevitable snake oil of consumerism, militarism
and ultimately nihilism.
Now all of this would be workable if we viewed our experience through the lens of agency and efficacy,
but what transpires is something nefarious; we self-identify with our experiences and the world around us
as if they exist intrinsically, inherently, as if it was inflexible, concrete and truly unchangeable. We view
individuals and groups as if they were just born that way and that there is very little that we can do about
it. We even see ourselves as some generic image that is locked and even more seriously, loaded. The
concept of the inexorability of causality is viewed with skepticism and contempt even if it looks good on
paper. Even if we are predisposed to some religious doctrine where lifes daily activities are imbued with
meaning beyond mere appearance, our visceral experience does not confirm the values and principles
that accompany a nod and wink when hearing words that affirm our dreams from the pulpit. Perhaps it is
for this reason that the messianic vision held by some disciples 1 within the Judeo Christian world is
regarded as someone or some supernatural external event outside the boundaries of any real human
activity, agency, and intervention, for only the supernatural could infringe upon the current natural state
that is believed to be inherently unmovable. Our point of reference, our self-identity is reified as inherently
vulnerable and everything we do, even our defensive self-protective tactics and motives only confirm our
original perception. Ironically every step we take toward defending ourselves from the limited selfidentified narrative that has become organic to who we think we are underneath the faade we show
others, actually reinforces that self-identity; the medicine we think is healing us is in actuality making us
sicker. This form of suffering, this view of self and other as the inherently existent self, the unchanging
self, could be called all encompassing, for it travels with us regardless of where we may may go.

1 See Rav Avraham Yitzhak Kook in Orot haKodesh III, p. 140. At the end of this
piece Rav Kook appears to reflect the messianic vision from a non-dual perspective
in which the messianic impulse is literally ruach apeinu, based on Lamentations
4:20, the breath of our nostrils.

In stark contrast to this staunch and rigid view of reality is the Indo-Tibetan view of emptiness. Mind you, I
said emptiness, not nothingness. Emptiness is the term used to describe the nature of things as they
exist. It posits the notion that the world lacks inherent existence independent of its causes. The world and
everything in it lacks an intrinsically identifiable thing that exists outside of its relative relation to something
else. For example, if you were to try and find the essence of a guitar, you would be asked to find it. What
makes a guitar a guitar? Is it the neck alone? Is it in the strings alone? What you would identify as the
guitar is the functional collection of its aggregates. Emptiness does not deny that there is a guitar. It
denies the findability of the guitar within its parts and recognizes that there is another layer applied to the
collection of aggregates in which the mind projects a conventional labeling of that which functions as a
guitar. It in no way denies it or the music that unfolds from it. In fact it is precisely because of its lack of
inherent existence, its capacity to work in harmony with its parts, that music is even possible. As the Dalai
Lama writes in An Open Heart, Practicing Compassion in Everyday Life, So what is emptiness? It is
simply this unfindability. When we look for a flower among its parts, we are confronted with the absence of
such a flower. The absence we are confronted with is the flowers emptiness. But then, is there no flower?
Of course there is. To seek for the core of any phenomenon is ultimately to arrive at a more subtle
appreciation of its emptiness, its unfindability. However, we mustnt think of the emptiness of a flower
simply as the unfindability we encounter when searching among its parts. Rather, it is the dependent
nature of the flower, or whatever object you care to name, that defines its emptiness. This is called
dependent origination..Within the context of a single phenomenon like the flower, its parts the petals,
stamen and pistil and our thought recognizing or naming the flower are mutually dependent. One cannot
exist without the other. They are also mutually exclusive, separate phenomena. Therefore, when
analyzing or searching for a flower among its parts, you will not find it. And yet the perception of a flower
exists only in relation to the parts that make it up.
This topic may be difficult to grasp at first but it is supremely important. What it means is incredibly
radical. It means that the way things appear to us is absolutely mistaken, and that our view of ourselves
and our world being entrenched in an unflinching isness is the ultimate in deception. We feel that the
words that we are reading at the moment are out there somewhere, and that our mind is somewhere in
here, but there is in fact a co-emergence that is taking place. The world, and I mean the entire world and
everything in it is relational. You cannot find an essence of anything that exists in a manner that is not
dependent on its parts and the mind that is operating at a personal and collective level that is labeling and
perceiving it. Without going into perception in depth, it must be stated that this process of labeling and
perception, which is mostly a projection based on emotion, expectation and memory is highly subjective.
When this understanding of reality becomes visceral, we gain some space in the otherwise petrified view
of self that limits us and our capacity to interact in ways that were heretofore considered beyond the ken
of ones own limited imagination. It does not deny the need for a conventional relationship to self and
others. It does not deny the capacity to operate in a world conventionally where labels of father, brother,
boss, etc., seem to function and indeed may need to, but what it does deny is the essential self that we
have bought into as being unalterably and ultimately real. The unlovable self, the needy self, the
overwhelmed self is there and must be processed but it no longer defines us. How we relate to others is
radically changed. People we cling to as essential for our happiness, those we view as a cardboard cutout
on the train with indifference, or the people we find as a challenging to our very existence because we
have labeled them as such begins to resonate as erroneous. As the Dalai Lama puts it, In a similar
manner, our aversion to someone we dislike arises as a result of attributing inherent negative qualities to
the person.2

2 Reminiscent of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, where he describes the capacity to

judge even wicked people favorably that this transforms them for the good. This
could be ontological but is definitely an indication that through the application of
finding the good that ones perception about that individual is transformed. I believe
that this teaching indicates that the labeling and perception of those who we deem
good, neutral and evil is based on the fact that phenomena lacks inherent

Following the path of the Perennial philosophy, we can find an extraordinary example of emptiness within
the expansive mind of a Hasidic master. His name was Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, the Holy Fire, the
Piacezna Rebbe and is the only example of Jewish mystical and pedagogical philosophy that survived the
calamitous events of the Warsaw Ghetto. His work is indicative of an enlightened altruist that can witness
the worst that humanity has to offer, to persevere in his unswerving hope, and relay the enduring
message for all to follow. In one of his illustrious works, Bnei Machshava Tova, loosely translated as the
Conscious Community in which he attempted to create an enlightened Jewish society that could
ultimately affect the entire world, The Holy Fire writes, We are aware that you will still harbor doubts,
even though you may want to believe what we say. You cannot quite accept the fact that you can rise to
the level of a man of spirit that you can see the underlying sustaining patters in reality. This kind of
observation both includes and transcends normal sense perception. 3 You will not simply know in your
mind that Gods guiding presence sustains the universe. You will be able to see and perceive the soul, the
inner light, the essence of each thing.4 But you will answer, I see this material world do I not? How can I
deny the direct report of my eyes and ears? And I respond: Are you so sure of the report of your
senses?...You are so sure of them and so stuck in them that you obstruct the possibility of higher
perception. You can, however, observe physical reality with a vision that both includes and transcends
normal sight.5 So, I ask you this simple question: What is water? When you see and touch and use the
phenomenon we call water, are you absolutely sure that you are dealing with its total manifestation? Is
this water not just the outer, shifting form of water, one aspect of the substance? How is it that this same
material is also snow, or hail or mist? How is it that it once again becomes water? Or take straw as an
example. It is cut and composted and returned to the field. Compost enriches the soil and increases the
produce; the compost works its way into the vegetation. Thus, rotted straw becomes sail, which is
transformed into vegetables, which are, in turn, consumed by a person, becoming the flesh and life
energy of a human being which is in the likeness and image of the One: a cycle of straw to rot to
vegetation to humanity. So what are these things at their core? What actually is water? What is true
straw? What is real produce? What is the essence of our flesh? Does one essential material turn into
something else and then change again and finally return to its original form? Or perhaps several
essences coexist in each material. These ideas are neither possible nor true. The true essence of a
material is beyond your vision; it is not visible to the eye. What you observe are the shifting shapes and
outer forms of an object. Your senses are lying when they say, We see the world! 6
It is interesting to note that the analysis of phenomena and the conclusions that the Rebbe makes is a
protest to humanities rigid self-identification as something that cannot aspire to greatness with any real

existence. See Lekutai Maharan I:282.

3 This point is a clear reflection of non-duality.
4 You may find the word essence here to be antithetical to the claims that I am
making. However, according to Kabbalists, the essence of things, souls and Hebrew
letters are relational and infinite. See Hovot haTalmidim, Obligation of the Student
where the Piacezna Rebbe describes the relative levels of the five aspects of soul.
Therefore, even the soul within a Jewish mystical approach lacks inherent existence
for all five dimensions of soul are relative to the individual and shift depending upon
specific levels of consciousness. For further research into the complexity of the five
levels of soul, please see Kuntres haAvodah by the Lubavitcher Rebbe Rashab.
5 Here the Rebbe follows in the footsteps of the Tibetan masters who recognize the
analysis of phenomena from both an ultimate and conventional perspective.
Ultimate reality does not deny the conventional. In this sense, it is entirely non-dual.

confidence. His analysis, similar to those within the Tibetan Buddhist tradition navigates through the
nature of reality in order to address the psycho-spiritual disaster that may have been a part of our species
from time immemorial but in my opinion has taken on a special flavor since the advent of the Freudian
view of the intrinsically neurotic self and the nihilism that is indicative of postmodernism.
In light of these teachings, it is important to note that this is not mere mental gymnastics; it is a means to
an end. If we hope to advance the cause of our sanity and our own mental well-being it is of primary
importance for us to contend with the way things really exist. If we continue to struggle against the stream
of existence, where we are constantly fighting against the universe, operating from a sense of smallness,
it is not hard to imagine that the sense of overwhelm will prevail. However, with reality on our side, we can
seize the opportunity to question the limited constructs that inhibit our potential due to a self-imposed selfexile. The key is to take this one step further. Catching a glimpse of emptiness, not as a purely cognitive
experience, but something visceral, is the moment we can begin to loosen up that reified traumatized self
and begin to realize that there are remarkable answers with monumental vistas to climb as long as we are
willing to remember what the real question truly is. Luckily, things are empty, you are empty, and so its
entirely possible.

6 Translation found in Conscious Community, A Guide to Inner Work by Andrea

Cohen Kiener