Comments on: What would Rebel Buddha say to the American Psychotherapist?

By: James Post

James Post — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 03:11:04 +0000

I like what the Karmapa said about the destruction of the beautiful stone buddhas of Afganistan: “Maybe they are like the Berlin Wall. They should be knocked down so a real dialogue can begin”. He is a rebel Buddha I can trust.

By: Deborah Bowman

Deborah Bowman — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 20:04:03 +0000

“I don’t think that it matters whether the Buddha is male or female. He transcends both in my mind. But if it helps you to think about female Buddhas, that’s fine.”

This quote by Tenzin Palmo gives me permission to use my imagination to break stereotypes. I do need images of Buddha that are female and male. Just like young girls and boys need images of men and women doing activities that break socially conditioned thinking. Men as househusbands. Women as presidents.

Tina’s article helps us sit in the seat of the client and imagine a real flesh and blood person in front of us. As a psychologist, I’ll use whatever language is helpful to inspire clients to shake up habitual patterns.

When we hold the appearance lightly, such as gender, it is easier to play with language in creative and non harmful ways.

In gratitude to Tina and everyone for the helpful conversation.
-see blog at http://www.thefemalebuddha.com for more on: The Lady Buddha: Beyond All Constructs

By: mary tsering

mary tsering — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 16:24:08 +0000

peace is peace . rest easy when the arrow …flower … landing nicely

By: podiertooro

podiertooro — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 19:15:32 +0000

Reason is the historian, but passions are the actors.

By: GokPeelahak

GokPeelahak — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 22:15:41 +0000

Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace.

By: mary tsering

mary tsering — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 20:54:42 +0000

i am totally at ease with the feminine womb of spaciousness that this this whole debate is taking place in . its precious ornament . and this womb miscarries no child as all is welcome fresh and spice and even the hurtful words
like people wanting to create gender war wisps is like a wound in space calling for fresh cotton .
shall we call 911 or rest in the easy chair of our buddha nature?
let us see more clearly the nature of this drawing this echo… is so familiar perhaps it is spaciousness that hates itself?

By: Robert Fettgather, Ph.D.

Robert Fettgather, Ph.D. — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 15:26:38 +0000

As a Clinical psychologist, Buddhist and grateful participant with Dzogchen Ponlop and all the Rebel Buddha Sangha in Seattle, Ms. Fosella’s article was a welcome addition to a great literature that includes (DT Suzuki; Erich Fromm; Richard DeMartino “Zen Buddhism and Psychoanalysis”) or a favorite, Salinger’s Franny and Zooey, as character Zooey rails at the NYC Analyst of the 1950′s that any any Analyst worthy of being an Analyst would would have to have the goddamn humility to understand that they were blessed enough with the brains or spirit to sit in that chair and enter into the heat and soul of his blessed sister Franny and offer up sacrament of value toward her enlightenment (rough, treasured remembrance from this Salinger Sutra).

Rebel Buddha holds both masculine and feminine qualities: really all qualities; and the psychotherapist offers up the merits of his/her livelihood each moment; without knowing what’s next: it is this unknowing, empty agenda entrance, that for me has embodied Rebel Buddha;this union; this alchemy of spirits that produces some sort of transmission: as Minds “change”, as our laughter, tears, yells or silence fill a room, there is the Buddha nature present for all of us there and I often forget that I am the one called Doctor!

on the road to freedom

Robert Fettgather, Ph.D.

By: Robert J. Bullock

Robert J. Bullock — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 13:45:54 +0000

Yeah, I can easily imagine a buddha in the form of a woman. Isn’t Tara a female bodhisattva / buddha? This isn’t a problem for me, though I think it’s pointless to visualize Shakyamuni Buddha as a woman since he clearly was not. But Tina did not say “Shakyamuni Buddha”, did she?

By: Ceci Miller

Ceci Miller — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 00:28:49 +0000

Thanks for your comment, Andro. I’d be very interested to hear more about your preferred language. Also, just as a friendly point of clarification, “rebel buddha,” as used by Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, isn’t meant to refer to Buddha Shakyamuni per se, nor even to buddha nature. It’s “the voice of your own awakened mind. . . the sharp, clear intelligence that resists the status quo.” As such, it makes sense to me that this blogger (a female psychotherapist) would engage in this contemplative exercise of imagining rebel buddha as female — and as a psychotherapist as well.

By: Peter Carpentieri

Peter Carpentieri — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 17:38:53 +0000

Loved this installment. Thank you. Agree with the previous post re: Buddha as a woman. As a male therapist in a field already dominated by women, and a man who’s father was unavailable, this imagery does not help me at all. I do, though, understand now how women have felt for the past, oh, two or three millennia, so I understand it’s value for you. Thanks again.

By: Andro

Andro — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 00:44:07 +0000

Nice thoughts, but by visualizing the Buddha as a woman as a context for these thoughts, you’re creating and perpetuating a dualistic perception that these ideals are somehow associated with the female gender. Rather than further concretizing the gender polarizing that plagues our modern consciousness, perhaps we’d do better to de-emphasize this type of artificial and arbitrary split in consciousness that contribute to mind’s tension and agitation, as all such “this, not” preference-provoked thinking does.

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