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Ira Rechtshaffer

I hold a PhD in Buddhist studies and have been a Buddhist practitioner for approximately 40 years. I've practiced Zen Buddhism in Japan for four years, have been a practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism since 1976, and have taught Buddhism in various seminaries, contemplative centers and graduate school programs. I am a practicing psychotherapist, integrating Buddhist with Western psychology, attempting to bring 'soul' back into the helping profession. My recently published book, Mindfulness and Madness: Money, Food, Sex and the Sacred, has been published by john Hunt Publishers and has received 5 star reviews on Amazon.

KARMA: ENTRAPMENT OR LIBERATION

Once we separated from our essential nature and created an observer in here, and an observed world out there, we inadvertently created a psychological abyss. Samsara or collective neurosis, is both a symptom of our disconnection from our primordial nature, as well as our confused to search to recover it in all the wrong places.

CULTURAL FACTORS SHAPING BUDDHA’S MESSAGE

In contrast with the Buddhist message, which affirms the preciousness of our human birth and our original enlightened nature, there are psychological and socioeconomic forces in our western culture working in exact opposition. Several developments in our cultural history have dramatically shaped our view of ourselves, displacing us from cosmic significance and eventually led to a mood of nihilistic doubt about our awakened heart of compassion

SHINING A LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS

The shadow holds the wounded and broken parts of ourselves, the failed ideals, the fateful consequences of poor choices. It is the inferior, unprocessed, or undeveloped aspects of our personality that our social mask hides.