Western Zen

by Raven Walker

Overview

Western Zen undertakes the task of stripping away the religious trappings of Zen to reveal the practical theory of mind beneath. While Western culture conditions the physical being in hundreds of constructive ways, we are haphazard in our conditioning of the mental being. We teach it to read, write, do numbers, and know facts, but otherwise leave mental life to wander as it pleases. What is missing is a practical theory for conditioning the mind.

Zen's intuitive psychology fills that void. It not only describes processes of inner conditioning that can make positive improvements in our conscious life, it unites these results with the arts of performance creating more effective human behavior.

Remarkably, this psychology in Zen is no foreign import. Its reality is well explained by Western Psychology, and is full reflected throughout the course of American Intellectual Tradition. Western Zen takes the hidden truth in Eastern Zen, shines the light of Western Reason upon it, and makes the deeper intuitive psychology universal. The practical conditioning of the mind and the emotions to good effect is possible in terms completely consistent with Western science. The end result is a mastery of your inner life and a finer quality in your human experience.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780595090280
Publisher:	iUniverse, Incorporated
Publication date:	03/01/2000
Series:	Millennium Books (Writers Club)
Pages:	132
Product dimensions:	6.08(w) x 9.04(h) x 0.40(d)

Table of Contents

	The Problem and the Plan	1
	Heresies	9
	What Zen Is Not	17
	What Zen Is	23
	Outcomes	27
	Quality	27
	Eastern Trappings	31
	The Problem of Teaching	35
	Zazen	36
	Breathing	38
	The Devil and the Darkside	40
	Enlightenment	41
	Psychological Foundations	43
	The Brain	45
	Animal Intelligence	46
	Inhibition	47
	Consciousness	48
	Thought	50
	Mental Discipline	51
	Emotionality	52
	Dealing with Emotions	53
	Intuition	54
	Reflection	56
	The Self	57
	The Self Actual Person	58
	The Alternative to Self Growth	59
	Attachment	59
	The Existential Why	61
	The Gist of Zen	63
	Reality	65
	Change	67
	Experience	68
	The Undivided Present	69
	The Natural Mind	69
	Control	70
	Concentration	72
	Doing	72
	Non-Attachment	73
	In the Master's Words	74
	Other People	74
	Petty Taboos	75
	Complaining	75
	Retaliation	76
	Intolerance	77
	Hard Existential Reality	77
	The Intuitive Mind Revisited	78
	American Harmonies	81
	Religious Freedom	85
	Political Freedom	85
	Economic Freedom	86
	The Pursuit of Happiness	87
	Transcendentalism	87
	Emerson	87
	Thoreau	88
	American Skepticism and Pragmatism	88
	William James	89
	Santayanna	89
	John Dewey	90
	Western Trappings	91
	The Individual	94
	The Potentia	95
	On the Possibility of Perfection	96
	The Reflective Mind	96
	Dispassionate Reason	97
	The Analytic Mind	97
	Consistency	98
	The Natural Mind Revisited	98
	The Tactical Mind	99
	Of Time and Events	100
	Of Time and Conscious Intuition	101
	The Role of Preparation and Practice	102
	The Will	102
	The Two Areas of Concern	103
	The Program	104
	The Method	104
	The Eyes	105
	The Process	105
	The Laughing Masters	106
	A Primer on Freudian Defense Mechanisms	107
	The Ego Itself as a Defense Mechanism	110
	Compensation	110
	Denial of Reality	111
	Displacement	111
	Dissociation	111
	Distortion	112
	Emotional Insulation	112
	Flight into Reality	112
	Idealization	113
	Intellectualization	113
	Introjection	113
	Isolation and Affect	114
	Projection	114
	Rationalization	114
	Reaction Formation	115
	Regression	115
	Restitution	115
	Sublimation	116
	Substitution	116
	Suppression	116
	Undoing	117
	Withdrawal	117