How To Integrate Eastern Enlightenment Wisdom With Western Psychology/Personal Growth Approaches
Below are some of the ways the Inner Presence Inquiry work integrates both the Eastern Enlightenment traditions with depth psychology and personal growth work. We took the challenges of both approaches and integrated solutions base upon those challenges. This allows us to naturally extract the wisdom from both approaches while overcoming the challenges of each. Here’s a two part video presentation about integration.
Eastern Enlightenment Approaches
Primary focus of seeing through the illusion of or dis-identifying the self sense for liberation, which can be a challenge to western learners who are institutionally enculturated with a strong self habit that mostly remains subconsciously hidden.
Psychology/Personal Growth Approaches
Primary focus on creating an improved self sense however that is defined in each approach, which not only strengthens identification with self sense, but prevents learners from experiencing what is outside the self sense.
Inner Presence Inquiry Approach
Primary focus of engaging in skillful ways the specific in-the-moment expressions of a sense of self that organically emerges in an inquiry session as a way to transcend or dis-identify with such self sense expressions.
Eastern Enlightenment Approaches
Enlightenment can be idealized as positive projections of a perfect state or perpetual serenity where only positive bliss feelings occur that is compensation for a negative self sense.
Psychology/Personal Growth Approaches
Whatever is idealized (mental health, peak performance, high self esteem) can be positive projections of better self that serve as compensation for a wounded or negative self that remains in duality.
Inner Presence Inquiry Approach
Creates conditions which discloses the tendency to project an idealized self and experientially points to the deeper unconscious self-sense that needs such idealizations.
Eastern Enlightenment Approaches
Negative emotions, anger for example, are viewed as obstructions on the path that are something to be banished/controlled, which can easily be interpreted by learners as instructions to suppress or create a calm non-angry persona.
Psychology/Personal Growth Approaches
Views negative emotions as something to be managed and expressed in healthy ways to prevent suppression. Often, such short term cathartic methods don’t consider associated desires/beliefs and encourages complete identification.
Inner Presence Inquiry Approach
Views negative emotions as something that are invited into the inquiry, given a voice to express in a way that does not foster strong identification with them, and explores the associated desires/beliefs.
Eastern Enlightenment Approaches
Teachers instruct from a pedestal and/or students put them there and instruction is received from a context which can undermine student’s own inner authority.
Psychology/Personal Growth Approaches
Professionals can counsel from a position of authority or “knowing what is best” and/or clients make them authorities at the expense of their own innate wisdom.
Inner Presence Inquiry Approach
Built into the protocols is a natural deferment to the client’s innate wisdom. The Inner Presence coach has expertise in prompt and techniques to support the client in accessing their own inner authority.
Eastern Enlightenment Approaches
Focus on present which can be interpreted as ignoring past memories or future projections and making the present some ideal state to be attained.
Psychology/Personal Growth Approaches
Focus on healing the past and/or creating future in a way the cultivates strong identifications with them at the expense of the present.
Inner Presence Inquiry Approach
Focus on the timeless present while allowing past memories or future projections into timeless awareness in ways that avoid identification with them.
Eastern Enlightenment Approaches
Non attachment is interpreted as being unemotional, disengaged and unconcerned for the world, and/or a place to hide from connection and intimacy and of relationships.
Psychology/Personal Growth Approaches
Self work can lead to more emotional engagement with the self/others, but often are accompanied by strong attachments to outcomes, resulting in strong identifications with such emotions.
Inner Presence Inquiry Approach
Integrated practices that naturally deconstruct attachments through engagement which lead to a rich emotional life where things are held lightly due to the lack of identification with them.
Eastern Enlightenment Approaches
Lacks extensive or direct consideration of the subconscious mind and the role it plays in creating constructs that these approaches want to liberate.
Psychology/Personal Growth Approaches
Does consider the power of the subconscious mind and is often “hit or miss” in accessing or connecting with the subconscious material in meaningful ways.
Inner Presence Inquiry Approach
Considers the subconscious mind—especially the limbic system constructs—and has efficient ways to access and engage such material in meaningful ways.
Eastern Enlightenment Approaches
Instead of a living reality, no-self or oneness can become a conceptual refuge for a wounded self that never gets acknowledged and impacts daily life in dramatic ways
Psychology/Personal Growth Approaches
Tending to the wounded self in a way that increases identification with the self that precludes an exploration or experiencing of no self or oneness as a living reality.
Inner Presence Inquiry Approach
Inquiry protocols welcome specific wounded self aspects into presence, which lessens identification and inspires experiences of no self or oneness as a living reality.
Eastern Enlightenment Approaches
Can be done in a way where it becomes a place to hide and protect one’s self or it becomes the tail-chasing activity that fortifies a self sense instead of seeing through it.
Psychology/Personal Growth Approaches
Can promote practices where practitioners get lost in a maze of endless processing or improvement and delay or prevent actualizing what is outside conditioning.
Inner Presence Inquiry Approach
Uses the practice of no practice where the effort and attention are focused on allowing and being present to whatever emerges in an Inner Presence session.