Sacred Mirror: Nondual Wisdom & Psychotherapy (Omega Book (New York, N.Y.).)

"Dzogchen psychology has arrived... this is the post-CBT-post-DBT-post-ACT psychology. "It is because it isn't." Welcome to the next non-paradigm!

Pavel Somov, Ph.D., Author of "Eating the Moment: 141 Mindful Practices to Overcome Overeating One Meal at a Time" (New Harbinger, Nov. 2008) "
~ Written on 2008-10-05

"If you're wanting to understand either nondual wisdom or psychotherapy more clearly, read this wise and literate book. And when you're done, then read the second volume as well, Listening from the Heart of Silence. I wrote a longer review over there that applies to both volumes. They're good and, sad to say, there's nothing else out there that's like them. We need more. Until then, at least we have these."
~ Written on 2008-05-05

"This book is my first contact with non dualism in psychotherapy.
I read a lot of books on modern psychology in the past, but hadn't tapped into the edge of the field in a few years. Reading this made me aware that psychotherapy had finally found its maturity. I've expected this for 30 years, that our modern world would provide paths to truth/reality/God/I AM...And here it is. Expressed by modern minds, non dualism is easier to "understand". This book contains many tentatives at describing the undescrbable, or at least get as close as possible, a bit like hints. The authors are so articulate and honest ( exposing the weaknesses, pitfalls etc...of what method they use in their non dual therapies) that they succeed, and one can get a good taste of what they hint at, providing one reads slowly, with an open heart/mind. I find it fascinating and plan to study this field for awhile. It helps me clarify my mind, which is precious. It's pretty funny by times. These folks have humor, I like that too."
~ Written on 2008-01-17

"What a find - a book that explains what is essentially unexplainable! The Sacred Mirror is the "Bible" for any therapist who works from the nondual perspective. The Sacred Mirror expertly guides readers beyond what the words themselves point to. It is very rare to find anything on the subject of Nondual Wisdom and Psychotherapy, let alone a book that does the subject any justice.

I appreciated the essays by John J. Prendergast and Dorthy Hunt. Prendergast writes, "The critical question is whether the therapist's awareness is centered in the moment and creatively responsive to what is." And Hunt writes about, "...the healing that unfolds when that which is awake directly and intimately touches what is." I found the same power and clearity in these authors' words that is typically found in the most illumined teachers. Both of these writers are seasoned psychotherapists. They write from their direct experience.

This book serves as a wise mentor to my work as a psychotherapist. It encourages therapists to trust such "non-tangibles" as silence and presence. It helps evoke the living experience of oneself as THAT which IS awake while expertly exploring how this "understanding" connects with psychotherapy. It is no wonder that the Sacred Mirror is considered the current reference in its field.

- Jonathan Gustin M.A. LMFT, Psychotherapist; Founder of San Francisco Integral Transformative Practice; Founder of Green Sangha: Spiritually Engaged Environmental Activism; and teacher of Mind/Body Medicine at Kaiser Permanente."
~ Written on 2005-04-04

"Reality, Self, unconditioned mind, awakening, presence, silence, emptiness, being, nondual. If these are words you'd like to hear associated with psychotherapy, this book will be very welcome.

The Sacred Mirror is a collection of original writings by leading practitioners of nondual psychotherapy. Each author -- in his or her own fashion, and with varying degrees of emphasis -- addresses the nature of nondual disposition, what nondual therapy is, how it is practiced, and its role in psychotherapy. It is angled toward psychotherapists and the healing of psychological problems, but will appeal to anyone interested in nonduality, whether a professional healer or not. This book will be appreciated by one who senses or knows presence, whether one is held, or holds, in presence.

Since the function and work of the guru or spiritual teacher is essentially the same as that of the nondual therapist, both voices are heard from each author. Since these authors and therapists are intimate with nondual awareness, there is no underlying difference. What nondual therapists possess that most gurus do not, is formal training in psychology and a set of skills allowing them to practice conventional psychotherapy.

The first two chapters give overviews of nonduality and nondual therapy. John J. Prendergast, in the first chapter, asks whether the nondual approach makes for a new school of psychotherapy. He talks about how nonduality fits into practice. He addresses whether psychotherapy is evolving into a vehicle for transmission of truth, and whether awakening therapists are in the same lineage as Buddha or other great sages of all time. Prendergast speaks of the primary and secondary impacts of awakening. He discusses psychotherapy methods and skills in light of nondual awareness and how awakening impacts the psychotherapist.

Following the first two introductory chapters is an interview with Adyashanti. This, the third chapter, could also be considered an introductory chapter, as it gives further overview of nondual therapy and nonduality. Adyashanti is a significant character in this book since he is an outsider to the profession of psychotherapy yet works one on one with people who are awakening. His perspectives on nondual therapy would seem to be important. The interviewers ask over two dozen excellent questions, not including follow-up questions and comments.

Chapter Four is by Prendergast, who writes, "When we look into an ordinary mirror, we see how we appear. When we look into a sacred mirror, we see who we are." The role of "sacred mirror" has traditionally belonged to the guru or spiritual teacher. This chapter describes how the role is being played by the therapist and explores ways of including this function into transpersonal psychology.

Chapter Five is entitled, A Nondual Approach to EMDR: Psychotherapy as Satsang, by Sheila Krystal. EMDR stands for eye movement desensitization and reprocessing. For the reader who has some familiarity with EMDR, this chapter gives an excellent, sometimes sizzling, introduction. Having no knowledge at all of EMDR or the associated terminology, I had to search online for background information, which helped me more fully appreciate what Krystal has compiled.

Chapter Six is authored by John Welwood. Its theme is, "Being fully human means honoring both these truths -- immanence, or fully engaging with our humanness, and transcendence, or liberation -- equally. If we try to deny our vulnerability, we lose touch with our heart; if we fail to realize our indestructibility, we lose access to enlightened mind. To be fully human means standing willingly and consciously in both dimensions."

Chapter Seven is by Dorothy Hunt, and is entitled Being Intimate with What is: Healing the Pain of Separation. Here are a few major points:
-- "When what is awake directly touches its own experience of anything, there is deep intimacy with what is. ... In this intimacy we find ourselves undivided."
--"(This realization of our undivided being) is unfailingly healing because it experiences itself as a whole."
-- This intimacy is not conceptual, not another idea or identification to be harboured. It is not separate from this or what is. It is direct experience. Any conceptualization is movement away from the experience of this. "Healing happens when we are not separating ourselves from the authentic truth of the moment."

Chapter Eight is by Dan Berkow: A Psychology of No-thingness: Seeing Through the Projected Self. "Therapy therefore facilitates exploration, gives feedback, and promotes inquiry. The effects of self-imposed friction are addressed honestly and without either minimizing or exaggerating. The psychosomatic and relational repercussions of self-protection are clarified with self-examination. The dropping of the projection of a separated self is the choiceless awareness of moment-to-moment being."

Chapter Nine, by Richard C. Miller, is about nonduality and Yoga Nidra. "Yoga Nidra is an ancient tantric Yoga practice that reflects the perspective of Awareness both as the inherent ground of our essential beingness and the container, agent, agency of our healing into the understanding that this is so."

In Chapter Ten, Stephan Bodian speaks about deconstructing the self via inquiry. "The inquiry that I describe in this essay, which now arises naturally with my clients, draws upon The Work, the self-inquiry of Advaita Vedanta, and the phenomenological investigation of experiential psychotherapy."

Chapter Eleven is called Healing Trauma in the Eternal Now. Lynn Marie Lumiere sets forth that nondual awareness is unconditional love and as such accepts extreme ecstasy and extreme trauma equally. "It is only in this embrace of the manifest by the unmanifest that true transformation or healing takes place," she says.

Jungian Analysis and Nondual Wisdom, by Bryan Wittine, is the twelfth chapter. "This chapter is about the journey in Jungian analysis of a spiritual seeker named 'Jenna,' who longed to know God. It is also about a defensive process I call 'psychospiritual splitting,' which nearly derailed Jenna's quest. Finally, it is about our analytical relationship and a nondual understanding of spirituality; both of which were central to her journey."

Chapter Thirteen is written by Jennifer Welwood. The author describes how we develop a conditioned identity. She states, "We lose the true support of our deeper nature and seek refuge in the false support of our conditioned identities. This is how our samsaric confusion manifests at the level of psychodynamics."

Nonduality as a term, as a word, remains a stranger to vast stretches of the fields not only of psychology, psychiatry, and psychotherapy, but of religion, spirituality, physics, and philosophy. And to music, art, literature, ecology, architecture, athletics, nonduality is barely a phantom; it has barely breathed in those spaces. This book, The Sacred Mirror, introduces nondual wisdom or nonduality to the field of psychotherapy. This book provides an education in nondual wisdom, an enjoyable expression of nonduality, and an opening to a new direction in psychotherapy.

Jerry Katz
One: Essential Writings on Nonduality"
~ Written on 2005-01-24