Buddhism and Gestalt

I just noted Brian's reading from the Book of the Dead, and recalled in some recent study coming to the conclusion that there is an essential conflict between Buddhism and Gestalt theory that perhaps someone can speak to for me. On the one hand Buddhism says that we escape suffering in this world at least partially by overcoming desire, avoiding it, negating it. Gestalt, through the concept of the cycle of contact and withdrawl, and the notion of the organism as a self-regulating entity, builds on the concept of satisfaction of desire, thereby embracing it. I find this ironic since so many of my Gestalt friends enthusiastically claim to be able to integrate Buddhist teachings in their work.

• Reply to Buddhism and Gestalt by Brian O'Neill, 12/6/96
  • Another Reply to Buddhism and Gestalt by Stuart Stawman, 12/11/96
    • Buddhish Balmain Forehead Sandwich by Brian O'Neill, 12/11/96
      • Buddhism and Gestalt by Morgan Goodlander, 12/15/96
        • Buddhist & Gestalt paradoxes by Timothy C. McNamara, 2/11/97
          • Zen and Gestalt by LaoTzu, 11/14/97
    • Morality, Epistemology, & Phenomenology by Philip Brownell, 12/13/96
• Buddhism and Gestalt, Gestalt and Buddism by J. Richard White, 12/14/96
  • Which Paradox Are We Talking About? by Stuart Stawman, 12/19/96
    • A Small Leaf on the Big Tree by J. Richard White, 12/19/96
    • Defining Self at the Contact Boundary by Philip Brownell, 12/20/96
      • Contact Boundary/Consciousness by Ed Riemann LCSW, 2/10/97
        • Self-Becoming/Self-Being by Philip Brownell, 2/12/97
          • Truth/Non-Truth and Pathology by Ed Riemann, 2/26/97
      • Re: Awareness of Self at the Contact Boundary by Bev Walker, 11/16/97
• Revisitation by J. Richard White, 1/4/97
  • ten months later by Arthur Roberts, 9/18/97
• Message to Phil about Gestalt Psychology by Jeff Bower, 3/27/98
• Message to Phil about Gestalt Psychology by Jeff Bower, 3/27/98