Those who use the Vipassana style of insight or
"mindfulness" meditation come to see in time that all emotions,
sensations and feelings are impermanent: They arise, become evident, dissipate
and disappear in time. Moreover, they come to see that when emotions,
sensations and feelings are allowed to be *as* they are *when* they are, the
coming and going of them is more rapid and less discomfiting and agitating.
Virtually everyone I have ever seen who has anxiety or
depression has a case of "emotional constipation" that is the result
of attempting to deny or resist the direct, conscious, mindful experience --
and *digestion* -- of their shame, guilt, worry, remorse, regret, frustration,
resentment, anger or agitation. They do so because they were instructed,
trained, conditioned, socialized, habituated and normalized as children to
suppress and deny their feelings to avoid being insulted, criticized, judged,
embarrassed, humiliated, ridiculed, persecuted, picked on, bullied, scapegoated,
and/or otherwise abused by their parents, their older siblings, their playmates
or others in the first few years of life. The result of such habituated
suppression over 15 or 20 years is ultimately severe depression or
"emotional incontinence" ...or a swinging back and forth that looks
just like borderline personality disorder.
Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), Dialectical
Behavior Therapy (DBT), Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT), Mind-Body
Bridging Therapy (MBBT) and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) were
designed to be "emotional emetics" for those with emotional
constipation and incontinence. Likewise the 10 StEPs of Emotion Processing,
which is a combination of Vipassana mindfulness meditation with the principles of General Semantics.
All of them teach patients how to "be with what *is*
in relationship," which is to simply observe without resistance or
suppression the coming and going of emotions, sensations and feelings along
with the ideas, evaluations, appraisals and judgments we have *about* them.
Just sensing them so that they can course through the mental digestive system
and be discharged.
One can find out more about "being with what is in
relationship" in books like these:
Alpert, R. (“Ram Dass”): Be Here Now, San Francisco: Lama
Foundation, 1971.
Brach, T.: Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life with
the Heart of a Buddha, New York: Random House / Bantam, 2004.
Chodron, P.: The Places That Scare You: A Guide to
Fearlessness in Difficult Times, Boston: Shambhala, 2001.
Chodron, P.: Taking the Leap: Freeing Ourselves from Old
Habits and Fears, Boston: Shambala, 2010.
Deikman, A.: Personal Freedom: On Finding Your Way to the
Real World, New York: Bantam, 1976.
Deikman, A.: The Observing Self: Mysticism and
Psychotherapy, Boston: Beacon Press, 1982.
de Mello, A.: Awareness: The Perils and Opportunities of
Reality, New York: Doubleday / Image, 1990.
Dyer, W.: Your Erroneous Zones, New York: Avon Books,
1977, 1993.
Ellis, A.; Harper, R.: A Guide to Rational Living, North
Hollywood, CA: Melvin Powers, 1961.
Fronsdal, G.: The Buddha Before Buddhism, Boulder, CO:
Shambala, 2016.
Goleman, D.: The Meditative Mind: The Varieties of
Meditative Experience, New York: Putnam & Sons, 1988.
Gurdjieff, G.: Life is Real Only Then, When I Am, New
York: Viking, 1974, 1991.
Hart, W.: The Art of Living: Vipassana Meditation as
Taught by S. N. Goenka, San Francisco: Harper-Collins, 1987.
Kabat-Zinn, J.: Full Catastrophe Living: Uasing the Wisdom
of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain and Illness, New York: Dell, 1990.
Kabat-Zinn, J.: Wherever You Go, There You Are:
Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life: New York: Hyperion, 2004.
Kabat-Zinn, J.: Coming to Our Senses, Healing Ourselves
and the World Through Mindfulness, New York: Hyperion, 2005.
Klein, J.: Beyond Knowledge, Oakland, CA: Non-Duality
Press div. of New Harbinger, 1994, 2006.
Kramer, J.: The Passionate Mind: A Manual for Living
Creatively with One's Self, Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 1974.
Kramer, J.; Alstad, D.: The Passionate Mind Revisited:
Expanding Personal and Social Awareness, Berkeley: North Atlantic Books,
2009.
Krishnamurti, J.: Education and the Significance of Life,
San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, (1953) 1975.
Krishnamurti, J.; Luytens, M.: The Krishnamurti Reader,
New York: Penguin Arcana, (1954, 1963, 1964) 1970.
Krishnamurti, J.; Huxley, A.: The First & Last
Freedom, San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, (1954) 1975.
Krishnamurti, J.: As One Is: To Free the Mind from All
Conditioning, Prescott AZ: Hohm Press, (1955) 2007.
Krishnamurti, J.; Rajagopal, D.: Commentaries on Life, 1st
Series, Wheaton IL: Theosophical Publishing, (1956) 1973.
Krishnamurti, J.: Rajagopal, D.: Commentaries on Life, 2nd
Series, Wheaton IL: Theosophical Publishing, (1956) 1976.
Krishnamurti, J.: Rajagopal, D.: Commentaries on Life, 3rd
Series, Wheaton IL: Theosophical Publishing, (1956) 1967.
Krishnamurti, J.; Rajagopal, D.: Think on These Things,
New York: Harper Perennial, (1964) 1970.
Krishnamurti, J.; Luytens, M.: Freedom from the Known, San
Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1969.
Krishnamurti, J.; Luytens, M.: The Second Penguin
Krishnamurti Reader, New York: Penguin Arcana, 1970.
Krishnamurti, J.: Inward Revolution: Bringing About
Radical Change in the World, London: Shambala, 1971, 2003.
Krishnamurti, J.: Krishnamurti’s Notebook, San Francisco:
HarperSanFrancisco, (1961) 1976.
Krishnamurti, J.: The Awakening of Intelligence, San
Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1973, 1987.
Krishnamurti, J.: On God, San Francisco:
HarperSanFrancisco, 1992.
Krishnamurti, J.: On Fear, San Francisco:
HarperSanFrancisco, 1992.
Krishnamurti, J.: On Love and Loneliness, San Francisco:
HarperSanFrancisco, 1993.
Krishnamurti, J.: The Book of Life: Daily Meditations with
Krishnamurti, New York: HarperCollins, 1995.
Krishnamurti, J.: Total Freedom: The Essential
Krishnamurti, New York: HarperCollins, 1996.
Krishnamurti, J.: This Light in Oneself: True Meditation,
London: Shambala, 1999.
Kubler-Ross, E.: On Death and Dying, New York: Macmillan,
1969.
Kubler-Ross, E.: Death: The Final Stage if Growth, New
York: Scribner, 1997.
Levine, S.: A Gradual Awakening, New York: Anchor Books /
Doubleday, 1979, 1989.
Levine, S. & O.: Who Dies? An Investigation of
Conscious Living and Conscious Dying, New York: Doubleday, 1982.
Ouspensky, P. D.; In Search of the Miraculous: The
Teachings of G. I. Gurdjieff, New York: Harcourt Harvest, (1949) 2001.
Raja, S.: Overcoming Trauma and PTSD: A Workbook
Integrating Skills from ACT, DBT and CBT, Oakland CA: New Harbinger, 2012.
Ruggiero, V. R.: Beyond Feelings: A Guide to Critical
Thinking, 4th Ed., Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing, 1995.
Siegel, D.: The Mindful Therapist: A Clinician’s Guide to
Mindsight and Neural Integration, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2010.
Siegel, D.: Mindsight: The New Science of Personal
Transformation, New York: Bantam, 2010.
Somov, P.: present perfect: a mindfulness approach to
letting go of perfectionism & the need for control, Oakland: New Harbinger,
2010.
Somov, P.: the lotus effect: shedding suffering and
rediscovering your essential self, Oakland: New Harbinger, 2010.
Speeth, K. R.: The Gurdjieff Work, Los Angeles: J. P.
Tarcher, 1989.
Stahl, B.; Goldstein, E.: A Mindfulness-Based Stress
Reduction Workbook, Oakland CA: New Harbinger, 2010.
Tart, C.: Waking Up: Overcoming the Obstacles to Human
Potential, New York: New Science Library, 1987.
Tart, C.: Living the Mindful Life: a handbook for living
in the present moment, Boston: Shambala, 1994.
Tart, C.: Mind Science: Meditation Training for Practical
People, Napa, CA: Fearless Books, 2013.
Tolle, E.: The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual
Enlightenment, Novato, CA: New World Library, 1999.
Trungpa, C.: The Myth of Freedom and the Way of
Meditation, Boston: Shambala, 1976, 2001.
Trungpa, C.: Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism,
Boston: Shambala: 1973, 2002.
Trungpa, C.: The Heart of the Buddha, Boston: Shambala:
1991.
Watts, A.: The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for the Age
of Anxiety, New York: Random House, 1951.
Watts, A.: The Way of Zen, New York: Random House /
Pantheon, 1957.
Watts, A.: Nature, Man and Woman, New York: Random House,
1958.
Watts, A.: Psychotherapy East and West, New York: Random
House / Pantheon, 1961.
Watts, A.: The Book: On the Taboo of Knowing Who You Are,
New York: Random House, 1966.
Watts, A.; Al Chung-liang Huang: Tao: The Watercourse Way,
New York: Pantheon, 1975.
Williams, M.; Teasdale, J.; Segal, Z.; Kabat-Zinn, J.: The
Mindful Way through Depression, New York: Guilford Press, 2007.
Williams, M.; Penman, D.: Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan
for Finding Peace in a Frantic World, New York: Rodale, 2011.
Williams, M.; Poijula, S.: The PTSD Workbook, Second
Edition; Oakland, CA: New Harbinger, 2013.
