Buddhist & Gestalt paradoxes

• Buddhism and Gestalt by Philip Brownell, 12/6/96
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    • Buddhism and Gestalt by Morgan Goodlander, 12/15/96
      
      

There are many differences and similarities between Gestalt and buddhism, some of which have already been commented upon. Both emphasize awareness and both are field theory-oriented; as regards the latter point, both Buddhis and Gestalt affirm the inseparability of the organism and the environment. Buddhism takes it that one step farther, asserting that there is no independent, unchanging Self: no soul, no ego, that all these are misunderstanding and delusion. gestalt does not go so far as to do away with the Self, yet it redefines the Self as an active process rather than as a structure. In Gestalt, body and mind are a field and are ineparable: we do not have bodies, we are bodies. Gestalt speaks up for organismic unity. Buddhism speaks up for the unity of the organism-environment field, seemingly, suggesting that "Thou art That" and that "form is emptiness, emptines is form." As Thich Nhat Hanh points out, this assertion begs the question "Empty of what?" Empty of a unique indepentdent being-ness, apparently.

• Zen and Gestalt by LaoTzu, 11/14/97