About the Book
When Thinking is a Problem examines the activity of thinking and how it is a primary factor in suffering at the individual as well as at the collective level, while at the same time, a necessary function that is often taken for granted and misused.
When Thinking is a Problem is unique in helping the reader to see the activity of thinking from a variety of different perspectives provided by writers representing diverse backgrounds. It contains essays, contemplations, and dialogues by eighteen teachers, all of them leaders in their fields. In these chapters, the mechanics and dynamics of thinking are discussed by well-known teachers from the Buddhist and Advaita traditions, as well as from noted neuroscientists, psychologists, philosophers, academics, and prominent writers. In its focus on thinking as it relates to suffering, whether by its presence or absence, the writers discuss the need to honor both thinking as well as the dimension or reality beyond conscious thought.
Table of Contents:
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction by Charles Eigen
Part I: About Thinking
Chapter 1: Every Kind of Seed, from Understanding our Mind by Thich Nhat Hanh
Chapter 2: Thinking Problems and Jung's Typology by Frederick R. Gustafson
Chapter 3: How My Mind Works and Visualizes the World by Temple Grandin
Chapter 4: SEEKING Thinking: Greed and Need in Affective Neuroscience by Lucy Biven
Chapter 5: Thinking About Thinking by Raymond Tallis
Chapter 6: Introduction to Thinking at the Edge by Eugene T. Gendlin
Chapter 7: Mental Health and Normality: Toward a New Process oriented Perspective by Pierre Morin
Chapter 8: In Thought We Trust: A Podcast Conversation by Gangaji with Hillary Larson
Chapter 9: Mind Only, Beyond Thought by Rev. Ben Connelly
Part II: Beyond Thinking
Chapter 10: Going Beyond Thinking: Thinking, Attachment, and Interdependent Origination by Rev. Shohaku Okumura
Chapter 11: Introduction to J. Krishnamurti by David Bohm
Chapter 12: Banaras 5th Public Talk (Sunday, 6 February 1955) by Jiddu Krishnamurti
Chapter 13: Beyond Thinking by Jac O’Keeffe
Chapter 14: Dialogues in Delphi, November 6, 1990, from Open to the Unknown by Jean Klein
Chapter 15: John Doe, the Actor, from Eternity Now by Francis Lucille
Chapter 16: Putting an End to Discriminating Mind and To Study the Way is to Study the Self, from The Essence of Zen by Sekkei Harada
Chapter 17: An Interview from The Fire of Freedom by H.W.L. Poonja (Papaji)
Chapter 18: On Dying to Self, from Life as Teacher by Vimala Thakar
Chapter 19: No Trace, from Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind by Rev. Shunryu Suzuki
Appendix: Shohaku Okumura’s Translation of Dog’s Buddha-Nature Part of Busho
Index
About the Contributors
About the Author :
About the Editor
Charles Eigen is a psychotherapist, teacher, and long-time meditation practitioner in Milwaukee, Wi. He was a founding member of the Mindfulness Community of Milwaukee, Past President of the C. G. Jung Center of Milwaukee, and Past President of the Milwaukee Zen Center. He has been a lecturer at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee in both the departments of English and Human Kinetics. Chuck Eigen has been a practitioner of Craniosacral therapy, Rolfing Structural Integration, and Rolfing Movement, as well as Internal Family Systems Therapy, The Focusing Method, and The Progoff Intensive Journal. His previous book is Inner Dialogue in Daily Life (Jessica Kingsley).
Contributors
Lucy Biven, David Bohm, Rev. Ben Connelly, Charles Eigen, Gangaji (Merle Antoinette Roberson), Eugene T. Gendlin, Temple Grandin, Frederick R. Gustafson, Thich Nhat Hanh, Sekkei Harada, Jean Klein, Jiddu Krishnamurti, Francis Lucille, Pierre Morin, Jac O' Keeffe, Rev. Shohaku Okumura, Sri Harilal W. Poonja (Papaji), Shunyru Suzuki, Raymond Tallis, Vimala Thakar
Review :
When Thinking is a Problem, compiled, edited, and sagely introduced by Charles Eigen, is a remarkable and moving collection. These essays, dialogs, musings, and analyses take on the heart of human inquiry and deliver a radical view that is at once unsettling and illuminating. Some of the greatest scientists, scholars, Zen masters, and therapeutic researchers of our time bring us their condensed views of what thinking is, what thinking isn’t, and what these realizations directly bring to our experiences. The book is a marvel of insight and expression, and essential to any introspective person.
Charles Eigen has collected contributions from a variety of thinkers who cannot easily be categorized, and who all made it their life's work to benefit sentient beings. This engaging book raises a topic that goes to the root of the human dilemma: suffering and liberation from suffering. Is thinking our main problem or can it be beneficial? What does 'beyond thinking' look like and is that the solution? I like this book a lot and recommend it to any serious thinker.
Charles Eigen invites us to ponder how conditioned we are to fall into thinking as a resolutive resource, being seduced by the illusion of control, unaware of how thinking can lead us away from our self and our experience. So many processes get stuck as we pretend to intellectually understand; such a waste of life! The intricacies of life cannot be solved through thinking, as thoughts can interfere with organismic wisdom, but we are conditioned to turn to thinking. We have an illusion of certainty in which challenges can be solved at that thinking level. This book invites us to a whole-body and heartfelt experience, resulting in an enjoyable ride in the here and now. The message of this book is powerful and life-changing.
