ASSISTING NATURE

Silently I contemplate
The myriad forms
Spontaneously brought forth
By nature's hand.
--Ch'ˆng Hao (Blofield, 1978)

The principle of assisting nature is expressed by the Taoists' extraordinary reverance for nature and their
unique approach to landscaping (Blofield, 1978). The principal goal of Taoist landscaping was to create
guided wildness--to lend nature a hand by subtly modifying and improving upon her natural artistry. Great
care was taken to avoid artificiality. Rocks were often cunningly arranged to resemble a mountain
landscape, as if they had lain undisturbed for thousands of years. Any hint that painstaking care and work
had gone into creating the landscape had to be carefully concealed, the goal being to make the setting look
totally the work of nature. However, one could lend nature a hand by bringing out and highlighting those
shapes, textures, and colors that were inherent in the setting or object on which one was working.

Following this approach, a square shape could not be rounded, but a relatively round one could be made
rounder. Similarly, a shrub could be trained and trimmed to resemble a stork only if the shrub already
possessed the natural form of the stork in the first place. As Blofield (1973) puts it, the Taoists' aim was "to
assist nature to do what it might under more favorable circumstances have done for itself" (p. 118).

I believe this Taoist approach to landscaping provides a guiding image for the way human consciousness
can harmonize with and aid instinctual life energy. Basically, the Taoist landscapers are saying, "By and
large, nature knows what she is doing, and we do not want to interfere. Sometimes, though, she needs a
helping hand. This is where we come in. We try to see what nature is doing and help her along a little."

This image also describes the basic idea behind psychotherapeutically assisted self-actualization. Like Jung
(1966b), I view self-actualization as a totally natural process of growth and differentiation of the
personality. By working with dreams, body symptoms, and other unconscious signals of psychotherapy
clients, I am mainly trying to see how my clients and I can assist the process.(2) Together we investigate
the ways in which the Self is expressing itself. We then concentrate on consciously assisting what the Self
is indicating. Earlier, for example, I described how a female client's dreams made her aware of needing to
cultivate her Carribean qualities. I have found that exploring clients' feeling states can be equally valuable
for discovering the Tao.

Case Example: Feeling Blank

Audrey was a middle-aged woman who came to me suffering from severe depression. After several weeks
of therapy, she came for an appointment announcing that she had not had any dreams and did not have
much to talk about. "My week went O.K.," she said. "Nothing much is going on."

When I reflected back what she said, Audrey added that she was feeling somewhat blank. Taking that as
the Tao of the moment, I decided to follow up on it. "How does it feel to be blank?" I asked.

Audrey responded by telling me that it was a nice, pleasant feeling. She then asked what I thought she
should do during the session--where she should begin. I suggested she begin with just how she was feeling:
blank. I encouraged her to go ahead and just allow herself to be blank, as blank as she could be, to assist
whatever natural process was trying to occur.

She did this for a few moments, then suddenly burst into tears. After sobbing for several minutes, she
calmed down and was able to talk about her sadness. I learned that hidden within Audrey's feelings of
blankness were life and death issues surrounded by pain and sorrow. She told me she had lost her old
reason for living and feared not finding a new one. Audrey also needed to come to terms with a near death
experience she had earlier in her life.
Although she felt consciously that nothing much was going on, by focusing on and amplifying her feelings
of blankness, Audrey was able to get in touch with the Tao. In this case, it brought to her awareness the
major issues behind her depression.