Becoming Being

How Zen practice can cultivate the Core Conditions within us and our Therapeutic Practice
2024

“To learn the Buddha Way is to learn one’s self. To learn one’s self is to forget one’s self. ”
-Dögen, translates by Tanahashi, 1985

I first read this thought of Zen master Dögen over a decade before I even considered practicing Person Centred therapy, and though they are distant moments, they seem tied together by the thread of my curiosity in the Self. Now, studying and practicing as a Counsellor, this thread has pulled tighter and tighter. So much so that my experience within Client sessions feels knotted with my sessions sitting in Zazen meditation. In both, I feel my most open and present.

As I expand my experience of the therapeutic Relationship and process, I feel more and more the resonance between the state of being within Client sessions, and the state of being I experience within Zen practice. I am only a beginner in both of these disciplines, and as a beginner, my curiosity leads me to consider why and how these parallel states of being can be useful and supportive to each other, particularly how a practice and knowledge of Zen philosophy can offer a greater depth to my understanding of the therapeutic process, and the qualities essential for good Person Centred practice. It is the parallel of experience that invites my title, how Zen practice can cultivate the Core Conditions within us and our therapeutic Practice.

Within the theory of the Necessary and Sufficient conditions, Carl Rogers puts forth that it is necessary for the Counsellor to be in a greater state of congruence than the Client, that the Counsellor feels Unconditional Positive Regard towards the Client, that the Counsellor experiences Empathetic understanding of the Clients feelings and experience, and that the Counsellor communicates their Congruence, Unconditional Positive Regard and Empathy clearly to the Client. Developing these qualities within ourselves is essential and foundational to our Person Centred practice.

And so the hard work of Person Centred therapists is the cultivation of a certain quality of being. Unlike Psychodynamic or Behaviourist practice, we do not learn how to be experts, we deepen a way of being, we become being. Obscure, and complex, this therapeutic practice requires us to be truthfully aware, truthfully considerate, truthfully compassionate, and truthfully human. I find Zen an equally obscure and complex practice in being truthfully human.

I am reassured that, in some way, Carl Rogers also shared a sense of this parallel and a curiosity and call towards Eastern philosophy, perhaps because of his time spent in China as a young person. Though not explicit, whispers of an appreciation for Buddhist and Taoist thought are threaded through his writing. These glimmers are recognised by Fung Kai Cheng, who writes,

“Since Rogers enjoyed studying Chinese thought, including Taoism (Miller, 1996) and Buddhism (Harman, 1997), and especially for Zen Buddhism (Rogers, 1961, 1980; Rogers & Freiberg, 1994), it is not surprising that Eastern religious philosophy and Buddhist teachings can be traced through his theories (Tophof, 2006; Wang, 2005).”
- Cheng, 2019

We also see Rogers thought embraced by ‘Buddhist Counselling’, which suggests the complimentary nature of these two systems, such as in the realm of Amitābha Buddha, where Clients are able to “reflect their inward world while counsellors can effectively perform the three essential attributes noted earlier of congruence, positive regard, and empathic understanding.” Cheng, 2019.

However, beyond their complimentary nature, I hoped to hone my exploration to a support of the practitioners way of being, as opposed to introducing Zen into the therapy room itself. This is done with a reverence for the non-directive nature of Person Centred therapy in mind. Though many papers could be, and have been, written about the comparisons between Buddhism and Self-Actualisation, what interests me is the importance of ‘being’ within the therapeutic relationship as a catalyst to psychological movement, and the nurturing of our state of being as counsellors. I hope to outline how Empathy, Unconditional Positive Regard and Congruence can be more deeply cultivated by the Counsellor with Zen practice, and what insights from within this philosophy can deepen our understanding of the Therapeutic Process. I shall touch lightly upon the Zen theories and experiences of Non-Dualism, Kenshō, Shoshin, True Nature, No Self and the practice of Zazen meditation.

Briefly, I would like to clarity how Zen practice differs from mindfulness by introducing the subtleties of the Soto Zen School and the foundational concept of Emptiness, which differentiates Zen from Buddhism and expands it beyond simple mindfulness or meditation. I hope for this outline to offer some insight and context to the experiences I go on to describe.

Sōtō -  the (brief) history

The Sōtō School is one of three traditional schools of Zen in Japanese Buddhism. It arrived in Japan in the 13th century from China, carried by Dōgen Zenji, also known as Eihei Dögen and Master Dögen, a Japanese Buddhist priest, poet and philosopher. With over 14,000 temples, the Sōtō School signiffcantly shaped Japanese philosophy and culture. In the late 1950’s, the Sōtō School and practice reached the Western world, carried from Tokyo to California by Shunryū Suzuki. His publication of ‘Zen Mind, Beginners Mind’ shaped the classic Western understanding of Zen.

Zazen -  the practice

Zen, though an arm of Buddhism, is less of a religion, and more a way or view of life. It is not a science or a psychology. It is a practice. Zen places its faith within ‘mans inner being’, and is emphatically against religious convention. Though deeply informed by Taoism, Zen does not have a God or deities, but gives authority to the individuals self-realisation by transforming the psychological structure of the mind through a simple practice, Zazen.

Zazen, is the act of sitting meditation. Unlike mindfulness, which is a practice of focus, Zazen is a practice of being. Practitioners ‘just sit’ in a state of conscious awareness, also known as Shikantaza. Sensations and thoughts arise and flow through the mind, without our engagement or analysis. They are simply acknowledged with our awareness as they arise, and left to drift away again. Through the duration of the sitting, awareness rests on the breath, so that it becomes a holistic and embodied experience of presence from moment to moment.

Emptiness - The philosophy

Though very simple, our awareness of each present moment is what gives Zazen practice is power. At the core of its philosophy, Zen asserts that all phenomena is emptiness, is void, is nothing. Emerging from non-dualism is the idea that everything, the essence of all reality, cannot be divided or separated and that it defies categorisation, for it is not static, it is in constant flux.

Zen expresses this as ‘all phenomena is either devolving toward or evolving from, nothingness’. Unlike in the Western mind, Zen recognises this nothingness as potential. That within each moment, the potential of everything is present. Sitting in Zazen connects us to this understanding. We do not sit to reach enlightenment, enlightenment is there. We simply sit to be.

Congruence - Awareness, Acceptance, and the True Self
“This body is like a drifting cloud, changing and vanishing in an instant.” - Watson, 1997

Rogers third condition of the Therapeutic Relationship is that ‘the Counsellor be in a greater state of Congruence’. Congruence is a sameness between our inner experience and external presentation of it. It is a genuineness, and authenticity and transparency. Being congruent requires an awareness of our inner, real experience, and the security to express this openly and honestly. It is a demonstration of connection within ourselves and trust of ourselves. As a more congruent person, the Counsellor leads the more anxious and vulnerable Client towards a greater state of inner awareness and connection in themselves, thus psychological change is sparked.

Congruence is a key component in building trust between Client and Counsellor. Our self-awareness and ability to vulnerably show it allows our Clients to see we trust ourselves but also them, and in turn, expands their sense of security with us. The more we can be genuine, aware and accepting of our own feelings, especially those towards our Clients, and willing to express ourselves genuinely, the more help we may be. Rogers talks of this as a way of giving the relationship ‘reality’ and says,

“It is only by providing the genuine reality which is in me, that the other person can successfully seek for the reality within him. It is by being ourselves, without façade or pretence, and with awareness and acceptance, that our Clients can begin to be openly being the feelings and attitudes which at that moment are flowing in him.”
- Rogers, 1967

And it is within this thought of Carl Rogers that I am drawn to Zen. It is, in particular, his mention of ‘awareness’, ‘acceptance’ and ‘at that moment are flowing’, which are both the essential components of Congruence and of Zen practice. Within Zazen, or Shikantaza, the aim is just sitting. To suspend all judgemental thinking by letting words, ideas, images and thoughts arise and then pass by. We remain, as much as possible, in the present moment, aware of and observing what is occurring, around and within, without analysis or attachment. This is not merely doing nothing, it is a deep attunement to our selves and experience, made possible with each present moment as it unfolds.

The nature of this meditation requires our awareness of arising experience, and an acceptance of letting it drift past without the impulse to enforce a preconceived narrative, judgement or suppression. In our Client sessions, Congruence requires our awareness of arising experience, our ability to accept it as our own experience without judgement on ourselves, or our Client, and to vulnerably reveal the reality of it. Zazen can cultivate this awareness and acceptance in our own experience. Its attentional process is one of allowing our conscious attention to open inward to our own mental and sensational processes.

Not only does Zazen practice develop our ability to open ourselves to our inward experience, it supports us in a non-judgemental and non-reactive response to what arises. Our acceptance of ourselves, and of discomfort, and as an extension, of our Clients experience, supports us sharing ourselves with Congruence, but also compassion and consideration.

In our Client sessions, demonstrating Congruence does not mean sharing every inner experience, thought or feeling, but an opening of our own reality when necessary. It seems that our discernment of which aspect of our experience to share and when, is vital for helpful and un-harmful counselling. It is in the cultivation of our awareness and discernment of which aspects to express and doing it with acceptance that makes for good, congruent counselling.

While Zazen practice cultivates our self-awareness, self-acceptance and stillness, or non-judgemental reaction, useful in our Client sessions, Zen meditation also touches on the deeper parts of Carl Rogers theory of the psychological tension and change. The Person Centred approach works to liberate Clients from rigid and conditioned realities of Self, or, their Self-Concept. An accurate perception of reality equates to a healthy psychology, but when our Clients sense of Self and reality is filtered through absorbed Conditions of Worth, dissonance occurs. It is within the Therapeutic atmosphere of Empathy, Unconditional Positive Regard and the Counsellors Congruence, that this distance realigns to a truer sense of Self.

From a Zen perspective, this describes the experience of Kenshō, also referred to as Satori. It is a Japanese tern for awakening, of deep comprehension and understanding. The experience of Kenshō is that of ‘seeing into one’s true nature’ and is typically translated as enlightenment. Zen considers this ‘to return home’ or an ‘awakening to the True Self’, as though from the dream of delusion.

Zazen, which is a practice of being truthfully present with ‘ourselves’, reveals to us our True Self; the continuous flow of our experience from moment to moment. Like the path to enlightenment, it seems that in both Person Centred and Zen philosophy, connecting with the truth of ourselves shifts our whole reality. From delusion and tension, to enlightenment and actualisation.

The subject of Self in Zen is nuanced and multifaceted, as Buddhism denies the existence of ‘self’ in the sense of an unchanging entity. It talks of the Original Self, True Self and No Self, each of which express Buddha Nature, a person who has realised selflessness which is not separate from the universe. Buddhism teaches that there is no self, because the self is not separate from the entire universe.

Though hard for Western minds to grasp, I believe Rogers had some sense and understanding of this No-Self perspective. Whilst researching the Actualising Tendency, I came across a piece of writing by Rogers in the 70’s, in which he mentioned the Formative Tendency. As he continued to describe it, I was struck by its resemblance to this Buddhist understanding of the Self as the Universe. Rogers makes the argument that awareness is of great significance, and draws a connection between consciousness and ‘evolutionary flow’. He says,

“With greater self-awareness a more informed choice is possible, a choice more free from introjects, a conscious choice which is even more in tune with the evolutionary flow. Such a person is more potentially aware… of the ongoing flow of feelings and emotions and physiological reactions which he senses in himself. The greater this awareness, the more surely he/she will float in a direction consonant with the directional evolutionary flow.”
- Rogers, 1979

Here, in ‘the Foundations of the Person-Centred Approach’, Rogers, to me, expresses that awareness and a connection to ‘evolutionary flow’ is what determines a person positive progress through therapy, towards Actualisation. The term Actualising Tendency stems from ‘actualise’ which is to ‘become real’ or ‘become of the moment’. I am led to consider that it is the awareness of Self, discovered through the Therapeutic Relationship, which taps a person into a greater awareness of the Here and Now and Universe. When Rogers describes the Fully Functioning Person he describes their flow and acceptance. A person living in harmony with each moment as their awareness of Self within the world is fully embraced and recognised as fluid.

Perhaps as if aware that their Self is, in fact, not an unchanging entity? This parallel is solidified when Rogers introduced the theories of his contemporaries and expresses,

“But some would take us further. Researchers like the Grofs (1977) and John Lilly (1973) would take us beyond the ordinary level of consciousness. Their studies appear to reveal that in altered states of consciousness persons feel they are in touch with, and grasp the meaning of, this evolutionary flow. They experience it as tending toward a transcending experience of unity. They picture the individual self as being dissolved in a whole area of higher values, especially beauty, harmony and love. The person feels at one with the cosmos. Hard-headed research seems to be con􀎵rming the mystic’s experience of union with the universal.”
- Rogers, 1979

This is all to say, that both Congruence and Zazen, are a practice of being with our True Self, and this promotes positive psychological change in ourselves, and in relationship with us, our Clients. This understanding also promotes another of the Necessary and Sufficient Conditions, that ‘the Counsellor feels Unconditional Positive Regard towards the Client’.

Unconditional Positive Regard - Interconnectedness, Non-dualistic thinking and Discrimination
‘People are just as wonderful as sunsets’ - Rogers, 1980

Deepening our understanding of Kenshō and embodying awareness and acceptance of ourselves through Zazen practice, we share acceptance and openness with our Clients. Deepening our understanding of the True Self as Buddha Nature. With an experience of Kenshō, our rigid sense of Self dissolves into a fluidity with the Universe, and by extension our Clients. We feel less separate to them, less defined and opposed. As we practice self-acceptance in Zazen, and our barriers to our Clients thin, our acceptance naturally falls on them too and promotes helpful, healing therapy.

One of the greatest hinderances to our Unconditional Positive Regard are our inner biases and judgements, and Zen practice supports us with letting go of these. The foundation of Zen philosophy, which differs slightly from other Buddhist forms, is an understanding of non-dualism. Zen is both dualistic and non-dualistic and holds both of these paradoxes together, in a way unlike other Buddhist thought.

Buddhism emphasises direct experience of interconnectedness that highlights the recognition of an innate nature free from dualistic limitations and narratives. It teaches that dualism is delusion. Dualistic conceptualisation is something extra we add to our ‘real’ and interconnected experience by separating ourselves from it. Specifically, duality, refers to the duality of mentally constructed subject and mentally constructed object. Even more specifically, “dualism refers to a mutual exclusion, an antagonism, tension, or sense of resistance between a supposed subject and a supposed object” Boyle, 2016.

Dualistic thinking forms our reality by discriminating between ‘me’ and ‘that’. The more opposed this definition is, the more solid our dualistic reality feels. “The more solid we make the subject out to be, the more solid the objects are taken to be. The more solid we take the objects to be, the more solid our Self is taken to be.” Boyle, 2016.

Zen holds this understanding, but it also holds that our separatesness too, is connected. Zen lives in this world of contradictions. Living in the both worlds of separation and interconnectedness, from one dimension to the other. This is most clearly expressed in the posture taken when practicing Zazen. In Zazen, we sit with crossed legged on the floor or cushion. The left foot is placed on the right thigh, and the right foot is placed on the left thigh. Hands rest, one on top of the other, gently in our lap, the tips of the thumbs touching together. This is the Lotus Position. When sat like this, we express the oneness of duality; not two, not one. Two and one. Not plural, not singular, not dependant, not independent.

In Zazen, as we recognise our interconnectedness and ever shifting reality, our discriminatory thinking both forms and dissolves. We begin to observe our dualistic thinking alongside our actual absolute experience and we embrace them together.

It may not disappear, but it is no longer the whole truth of our reality. We no longer reply on opposition and separation as a means to define ourselves, not do we loose our definition and merge with the other. This promotes an openness to experience to ‘otherness’.

As we sit in Zazen, thoughts come and go and our practice is to simply let them come and go. This teaches us that there is no need to grasp for and hold onto our concepts, narratives, judgements, definitions, biases, discriminations. We no longer imagine that they are more solid than they actually are. This allows for a very nuanced way of relating to and connecting with our Clients. A way of relating which I feel Rogers expresses a knowing of when he writes this,

“This kind of transcendent phenomena is certainly experiences at times in groups which I have worked, changing the lives of some of those involved. One participant put it eloquently; “I felt oneness of spirit in the community. We breathed together, felt together, even spoke for one another…I felt its presence without the usual barriers of ‘me-ness’ and ‘you-ness’- it was like a sedative experience when I feel myself as a centre of consciousness. And yet with that extraordinary sense of oneness, the separateness of each person present has never been more clearly preserved.”
- Rogers, 1961

With the experience of No-Self, and practice of Non-dualism, Zen Buddhism holds that all individuals are equal in the most profound sense. There is no fundamental difference between any human being, or in their worth, or in their experience. It soaks each and every person with worthiness and our attitude towards them with respect and reverence. This innate, unconditional value for other beings reverberates through all of our Personal Centred practice. Rodgers beautifully expresses this parallels attitude when he writes,

“People are just as wonderful as sunsets if I can let them be… When I look at a sunset, I don’t find myself saying, “Soften the orange a bit on the right hand corner”… I don’t try to control a sunset. I watch with awe as it unfolds.”
- Rogers, 1980

This so eloquently express that Unconditional Positive Regard is the prizing, valuing of another person without requiring them to be or perform in a way pleasing to us. We accept and value them for being who they are. It is clear how affecting Conditions of Worth are in shaping a person, and equally powerful is the experience of a relationship without conditions. Unconditional Positive Regard, which is offered consistently, offers our Clients a new understanding of themselves as somebody valued and of worth for themselves, not their pleasing behaviours. From this new understanding, the possibility of being all and only who they deeply are, opens up. Rogers states, ’when the therapist is experiencing warm, positive and acceptant attitude toward what is in the Client, this facilitates change’, Rogers, 1961.

When offered this non-possessive love, this prizing, our Clients can begin to heal the rejected, subdued and shameful parts of themselves. Where Conditions of Worth have shaped and contorted their behaviour and Self-Concept, our Unconditional Positive Regard can liberate them. Feeling valued by us, in a way they have not felt before, deepens their trust in us and their connection to themselves. The ideas they hold about who they ‘need’ to be, now evaporate with the understanding that they are safe and worthy to simple be who they are.

As Counsellors, it is important for us to nurture our Unconditional Positive Regard. Because of our own Conditions of Worth and value systems, it can be hard for us to accept all of every person. Understanding where our Unconditional Positive Regard may be limited, and working to extend it, is vital for us to do good work. The practice of Zazen cultivates awareness in where our own Conditions of Worth dwell, and our ability to discern and release the unhelpful judgements, narratives and biases which interrupt the flow of prizing for our Clients.

As we come to recognise that Zen practice values equality and acceptance of another, and cultivates the ability to be present and secure within the ever shifting nature of reality, we can begin to see how the next Core Condition, Empathy, can also naturally evolve from its practice.

Empathy - Stillness and presence
“When are mind is compassionate, it is boundless.” - Bazzano, 2021

Rogers fifth Necessary and Sufficient Conditions is that ‘the Counsellor experiences empathetic understanding of the Clients feelings and experience’. Empathy can be defined as the ability to understand another persons emotion and experience. It is a process of identifying, relating, and accepting somebody else’s reality, to see through their eyes.

Cultivating emotional intelligence, kindness and an open mind seem essential to greater empathy, and I also believe it requires a deeper quality — an innate sense of the human experience. To step into a moment of somebody else’s emotional world, is to recognise that each and every one of us shares a connection that goes beyond our own ‘selves’. That being present in another’s experience offers a sense of profound ‘togetherness’, despite no other similarly. Empathy allows us to embrace another because of our shared human experience of emotion and existence.

In the Counselling relationship, Empathy is the intention to understand our Clients feelings and communications in the moment, to step into their world and connect with their experience. It is through our understating of their thoughts, the ones which seem so horrible, shameful or weak to them, that we o􀎦er them acceptance. As we see them and accept them, they begin to feel free and safe to explore all the frightening and hidden aspect of their inner world. The experiences which are deeply hidden can emerge and be explored.

In the Therapeutic Relationship, we ‘get into the water with somebody, without drowning’. Our ability to be present within their experience, as if it were our own, but also remain stedfast in ourselves, is a powerful demonstration of caring. It asserts that our Clients feelings are accepted, understood and able to be felt.

The Zen idea of No-Self has already begun to support us in feeling more fluid and open to our experience, detached from a need to analyse ourselves or judge another in order to solidify our sense of reality, and now it supports us in entering another reality, without the need to contort it or ourselves. The ‘Self’ frame of reference has softened enough for us to sense more fully the ‘others’ frame of reference, and enter into it willingly and without agenda. To simply be within the experience. Rogers expresses something of this requirement when he writes, “I have found it of enormous value when I can permit myself to understand another person. Step aside from the self-centred dream and open to another”, Rogers, 1961.

However, feeling our Clients feelings is not our only work. We must also feel them from a stable, secure and separate sensing of it; to not become overwhelmed by feeling, of submerged beneath its weight. We must also be able to provide a stillness so that their chaos may be fully expressed and felt. It is this quality, of a sensitivity which is also deeply secure, that I believe Zen can support Counsellors with.

Empathy requires time, effort and a slowness which brings us into the present moment. By sitting quietly and focusing on our breath in Zazen, we can develop awareness of, and ability to be with our thoughts and emotions. It cultivates resilience to the discomfort of feeling and resistance to the impulse to flee or abandon it. As we sit still, we become still. From this stillness, even deeper and darker aspects of feeling emerge, those long suppressed or distorted become clear. As the surface of water that becomes still as ripples subside, it becomes reflective. Within the Therapeutic Relationship, our stillness is reflective.

A large part of our work is feeling into our Clients implicit experience as it dwells beneath their consciousness. It calls for us to be sensitive to, and willing to be with, the uncomfortable realms of emotion. It requires a sort of fortitude and courage to feel deeper. In opposition to what is typically considered Mindfulness, Zen is not easy and it is not relaxing. Manu Bazzano perfectly encapsulates this when he says,

“It is not stress reduction. If anything zen is stress induction. If you are truly practicing, and you’re not at some point getting anxious or stressed out, you are not practicing properly. Because Zen practice is about looking straight in the eye of fundamental, enigmatic, existential questions.”
- Bazzano, 2021

This has been my experience of Zen. That of arising discomfort and sometimes distress as ‘just sitting’ confronts me with everything that is present within, including my reluctance to see it. And it is this experience of both discomfort and compassion, of fear and of curiosity at once, and the ability to be continue sitting, that I find useful in my Client sessions. Sitting in this chaos, choosing to sit in it often and move closer to myself, is really the only equivalent experience I have to what it is like to enter my Clients world, and to be in their chaos with them.

Another concept held deeply with Zen practice, is that of Beginners Mind, or Shoshin. Shoshin is an attitude held by the practitioner; that of the perpetual student, always open to learning and truthful about their lack of knowing. It is by assuming a Beginners Mind that we can interact most truthfully and fully to our experience of each moment. This so beautifully echoes the attitude of the Person Centred therapist, who understands they do not, and cannot, know how to direct or help their Client more than the Client themselves. With an appreciate for the autonomous and uni􀌍ue Client, our practice is to follow their lead, offering new observations as we discover their inner emotional worlds.

“In the Beginners Mind there are many possibilities, but in the experts there are few.” - Suzuki, 1970

Not only does working in a non-directive way offer our Clients reflective observations, it empowers them to follow their own path, autonomy and uniqueness. Unlike Psychodynamic or Behaviourist practice, the Person Centred sessions value the Clients inner knowing, much like Zen values ‘mans inner being’, above prescriptive interpretations or generalised action plans. “People simple are not helped by advice”, Bazzano, 2021, is understood by both Person Centred and Zen practitioners. Zazen itself is a process of letting go of analyse, per-conceived ideas, even thoughts themselves. It does not advise or teach or offer a path other than inviting you to be with yourself and to be present with your experience. And this is the psychological atmosphere we create as therapists.

Understanding that to step into another’s world, to truly o􀎦er them empathy and acceptance, requires a relinquishing of our own expertise, control and even ideas of Self, is an understanding I hear within Rogers writings. He wrote,

“I realise that if I were stable and steady and static, I would be living death. So I accept confusion and uncertainty and fear and emotional highs and lows because they are the price I willingly pay for a flowing, perplexing, exciting life.”
- Rogers. 1980

He expresses that stepping into the unknown flow of experience, though difficult and unnerving, is what it means to be real.

Allowing ourselves to be empty of knowing, allows us to see that everything already exists within, and within our Clients, are so we are opened up to everything. It supports us in entering our Clients world and meeting them there with compassion and empowerment. This shared appreciation of the Clients process is reflected in this analogy written by Hubert Benoit in ‘Zen and the Psychology of Transformation’,

“Or again, following another comparison of Zen, there is in a man a block of ice to which absolutely nothing is lacking for it to take on the nature of water; but heat has to be generated so that this ice may melt and thus enjoy all the properties of water.”
- Benoit, 1990

How closely the echoes Rogers theory that, with the ‘heat’ of the Core Conditions, a Client connects with their totality and shifting nature, and can become themselves. And how accurately it expresses the importance of Core Conditions to this process of transformation. For this reason, I have proposed Zen can offer a useful insight, and a practice, to cultivate them.

References

Eihei Dögen translated by Kazuaki Tanahashi, (1985) ‘Moon in a dewdrop: Writings of zen master Dögen’, North Point Press.

Fung Kai Cheng, (2019), ‘ e Compatibility of Person-Centred  erapy and Buddhist Teachings’, https://www.ijp.org.uk/docs/

􀎤e_Compatibility_of_Person_Centred_􀎤er.pdf.

B. T. Watson, (1997), ‘ e Vimalakīrti Sūtra’ New York: Columbia University Press.

Carl Rogers, (1961), ‘On Becoming A Person, A  erapists View of Psycholo􀌾’, Boston: Houghton Mi􀎭in.

Carl Rogers (1979), ‘ e Foundations of the Person-Centred Approach’, Education, , Vol 100, Issue 2.

Kuden Paul Boyle (2016), ‘Non-duality’, Forest City Zen Group.

Carl Rogers (1980) ‘A Way of Being’, Houghton Mi􀎭in.

Hubert Benoit (1990) ‘Zen of psychological transformation’, Inner Traditions International.

Manu Bazzano (2021) ‘Zen and the Art of  erapy workshop with Manu Bazzano’, www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2784351998492943.

Shunryu Suzuki (1970), ‘Zen Mind, Beginners Mind’, Shambala Boston and London.

Leonard Koren (1994), ‘Wabi Sabi, for Artists, Designers, Poets and Philosophers’, Imperfect Publishing.