Psychoanalysis and Zen Buddhism

Seiso Paul Cooper is a licensed and nationally certified psychoanalyst, ordained Soto Zen priest, and transmitted teacher in the Soto Zen lineage of Shunryu Suzuki and Dainin Katagiri. He is a member of the Soto Zen Buddhist Association and the American Zen Teacher’s Association. He is the cofounder and guiding teacher: Two Rivers Zen Community; founder: Realizational Practice Studies Group; former Dean of Training, National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis; faculty, training analyst, and supervisor: Institute for Expressive Analysis, Metropolitan Institute; a member of the editorial board: Psychoanalytic Review; and award-winning author: Zen Insight, Psychoanalytic Action: Two Arrows Meeting (2019) and The Zen Impulse and the Psychoanalytic Encounter (2010). He maintains a private psychoanalytic psychotherapy and supervision practice in Montpelier, Vermont. He has presented his work on Buddhism and Psychoanalysis internationally. He currently organizes, facilitates, and leads silent retreats in the formal Soto Zen style, especially tailored for mental health professionals both at retreat centers and online.

‘A valuable exploration of co-nourishing aspects of Zen Buddhism and psychoanalysis, amplifying and adding to this growing field. It at once gives valuable critiques of work already done and opens further possibilities of being and experience. Seiso Cooper mediates and helps expand dimensions of growth that further open life.’Michael Eigen, author of Contact with the Depths, The Sensitive Self, and The Challenge of Being Human‘Psychoanalysis and Zen Buddhism is in a class by itself within the ever-expanding literature comparing Zen Buddhism and psychoanalytic thought. Cooper succinctly clarifies points of departure. He is consummately equipped to take the reader on a profound yet exciting journey into the depths. The reader comes away with an appreciation of the realizational perspective, while obtaining a nuanced understanding of Bion’s and Dogen’s inherent theoretical differences.’Melvin E. Miller, co-editor of Self and No-self: Continuing the Dialogue Between Buddhism and Psychotherapy, psychoanalyst in private practice, Montpelier, Vermont, USA‘Seiso Paul Cooper uses an experiential voice to illuminate how sitting in silence common to both Zen Buddhism and psychoanalysis engenders clarity in the present. He addresses with erudite skill the misunderstanding and misuse of what Zen practice has come to mean in western thought. By returning to the sources of zazen, misconceptions of both theory and practice are reset and contextualized. Here lies the way of "unknowing," an essential state of mind to both awakening and emotional change.’Robby Stein, Bion videographer, Tavistock-trained child psychotherapist

• Foreword by Robby Stein Part One: Introduction 1. "No Fixed Point" An Introduction 2. The Primacy of Experience 3. Mokusho: Silent Illumination Open to Whole Being Part Two: Review 4. Literature Review: Precursors 5. D.T. Suzuki and Dōgen 6. A Zen Wave: Review Part Three: The Definite and the Infinite 7. Emptiness and Dependent Co-arising 8. Dōgen's Expression of Suchness 9. Bion's Use of "O" and "K" Part Four: Realizational Perspectives 10. Assimilation and Accommodation 11. Bion and Dōgen: Realizational Practice, Emotional Truth Part Five: Practice 12. Thinking's Bad Rap 13. Ada: A Clinical Study 14. Shikantaza: "Basic Fact of Sitting" Practice Session