"You can't go beyond ego if you don't have one."

A secure psychological foundation is a precondition for a serious meditation practice. People have used Buddhist meditation to calm the mind, or as a means of developing a spiritual perspective. Although psychoanalysis and Buddhism have a lot in common, they are two different realms of experience and cannot be reduced to one another. Each offers a unique set of tools for working with human suffering and a different understanding of what causes suffering. 

While I am not a Buddhist teacher and do not offer meditation instruction, I'm receptive to a dialogue about Buddhism and psychological work.

For more than 30 years, I have been a Zen Buddhist practitioner in the Rinzai linage. I began Zen practice in 1987 with Yoshin David Radin, Abbot of Ithaca Zen Center. Two years later, I met Kyozan Joshu Sasaki Roshi, a Japanese Rinzai Zen master, with whom I studied until Roshi’s retirement from teaching in 2012 at age 104. My other Zen teachers include Eido Roshi of Dai Bosatsu Zendo (DBZ), Livingston Manor, NY, Catherine Anraku Hondorp of Zen on Main, Northampton, MA. I am currently a student of Shinge Roshi Roko Sherry Chayat, the abbot of the Zen Center of Syracuse, NY, who is the first American woman to receive official Rinzai Zen transmission. I also have a background in Vipassana (insight) meditation practice.