[Buddha-l] monks and trauma

[Vicente Gonzalez]

L Harrington wrote:

lwe> I am hoping to tease out various perspectives or strategies from
lwe> within their own  tradition that might complement their present
lwe> treatment.

just to point a famous episode absent in this discussion, the strategy
applied by Buddha to Kisa Gotami to solve her traumatized mind:
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/noncanon/comy/thiga-10-01-ao0.html 

Probably you know similar strategies in modern therapy  in the
Brief Strategic and Systemic Therapy of Giorgio Nardone and others:
http://www.giorgionardone.it/ The American side is the Mental Research 
Institute of Palo Alto, CA: http://www.mri.org/
These authors sometimes use Buddhist texts to exemplify aspects or to
stress the importance of the present moment. 

Well but how anyone can know if only medical interpretations are
enough in a religious person. Unfortunately, the traumatic episode
frequently is an unavoidable presence in the spiritual path. Even if
the person has not lived a sensorial experience the mind can show such
things when the moment arrives. I remember psychologist Rollo May
cites in "Love and Will" the biblical episode in where Jacob fight
against God. He achieves the victory but getting a lameness for the
rest of his life.


best regards,