I went through three bad therapists before I found my current one, and for the first two years, I kept asking him the same question: “You’re just a hired gun, right? ‘What’s love got to do with it?’ What good can this really do me, since it’s just business?”
Then one day I was reading Thich Nhat Hanh’s “The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching” (photo left by PlumVillage.org). On page 5, Nhat Hanh writes this of his youth in Vietnam: “I grew up in a time of war. There was destruction all around – children, adults, values, a whole country. As a young person, I suffered a lot.
"Once the door of awareness has been opened, you cannot close it. The wounds of war in me are still not healed. There are nights I lie awake and embrace my people, my country, and the whole planet with mindful breathing…”
I dissolved in tears, that such a leader of men could live with this terrible pain.
Then he says: “Please don’t run away from your suffering. Embrace it, and cherish it. Go to the Buddha, sit with him, and show him your pain. He will look at you with eyes of loving kindness, compassion, and mindfulness, and show you ways to embrace your suffering and look deeply into it. With this understanding and compassion, you will be able to heal the wounds in your heart…”
Just as suddenly I flashed on a picture of my therapist, grey beard and all. Whoa, he’s a Christian therapist, and I’m (or was) a nice Jewish girl from Long Island — so “trust me,” as we say in New York, Dr. R. was the furthest thing from my mind when I picked up Nhat Hahn’s book.
But now it hits me like a ton of bricks:
“Oh: Buddha!,” I said, speaking mentally to Dr. R. “This is how you look at me, this is how you create deep changes in my soul…” And then I was really bawling and calling Dr. R’s tape to leave a message reading him Nhat Hanh’s passage — saying, more or less, “OK, now I get it! This is real attachment, it’s the real deal! Hey, Buddha…” ... Read More....
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