Mark Epstein on the Intersection of Buddhism and Psychotherapy

The One You Feed

Eric Zimmer

Education, Self-improvement, Religion & Spirituality, Health & Fitness, Buddhism, Mental Health

4.6 • 2.5K Ratings

🗓️ 1 May 2018

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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Mark Epstein is a psychiatrist in private practice in NYC and the author of many books about the intersection of Buddhism and psychotherapy. He's currently the clinical assistant professor in the postdoctoral program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis at New York University. His most recent book, Advice Not Given; A Guide to Getting Over Yourself is what he talks about in this episode. His wisdom is so incredibly practical, applicable, and helpful. Ideas like whether or not naming your feelings would be a helpful strategy for you and how to work with clinging in its many forms - even the clinging to inner peace - abound in this discussion. Take a listen and enrich your inner life.

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In This Interview, Mark Epstein and I Discuss...

The Wolf Parable
His book, Advice Not Given; A Guide to Getting Over Yourself
The duality that we all struggle with
Freud and the Buddha's nearly identical conclusion
What it means to take personal responsibility for our selfish concerns
The clinging to that which gives us a sense of control over life
The clinging to that which nurtures our ego
The eightfold path of the Buddha
The conversation with his terminally ill father that inspired this book
Right View - being realistic about one's self and the nature of things
How change and death is happening all of the time, moment to moment
Trying not to try as it relates to meditation
"Take the backward step" in meditation
FInding balance in "right effort"
Exploring the feelings that we are otherwise afraid of through psychotherapy
The link between being with uncomfortable feelings and empathy to others
How anything that's happening in the body or mind can be the object of meditation
How useful it is to name a feeling
Making a feeling "intelligible" by naming it
How useful it can be to find where feelings show up in the body
When your mind is not aware of what's making you act this way (in addiction, compulsive behaviors etc) it's important to put the words on the feelings
Whether or not all emotions show up in the body
How clinging takes many forms - even the desire for inner peace
"Don't chase her, let her find you."
That our lives are made dull by our efforts to over control things

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Transcript

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0:00.0	most of us tend to be more under the sway of the ego or more identified with the ego
0:06.8	than we actually need to be to live a good life.
0:17.3	Welcome to the One You Feed. Throughout time, great thinkers have recognized the importance of
0:22.4	the thoughts we have, quotes like garbage in, garbage out, or you are what you think,
0:28.4	ring true, and yet for many of us our thoughts don't strengthen or empower us. We tend toward
0:34.6	negativity, self-pity, jealousy, or fear. We see what we don't have instead of what we do.
0:41.4	We think things that hold us back and dampen our spirit. But it's not just about thinking.
0:46.8	Our actions matter. It takes conscious, consistent, and creative effort to make a life worth living.
0:53.2	This podcast is about how other people keep themselves moving in the right direction,
0:57.6	how they feed their good wolf.
1:14.5	Thanks for joining us. Our guest on this episode is Mark Epstein, a psychiatrist and private
1:20.0	practice in New York City and the author of many books about the interface of Buddhism and
1:24.8	psychotherapy, including thoughts with how to think are going to pieces without falling apart
1:30.5	and going on being. Mark is currently clinical assistant professor at the postdoctoral program
1:36.4	in psychotherapy and psychonalysis at New York University. His new book is Advice Not Given,
1:43.3	a guide to getting over yourself. Don't forget that one of the benefits of being a Patreon for
1:49.3	the One You Feed podcast is that you can get ad-free episodes. So for more information, go to
1:55.8	OneYouFeed.net slash support. And here's the interview with Mark Epstein.
2:20.1	I mean, all have been wonderful books and the latest one is no exception. And so we'll talk a
2:27.2	lot more about that in a second, but let's start like we normally do with the parable.
2:32.4	There's a grandfather who's talking with his grandson. He says, in life, there are two wolves inside
2:38.1	of us that are always at battle. One is a good wolf which represents things like kindness and
	...

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