Remembering-and-Receiving: Mindfulness and Acceptance in Zen

Abstract

This chapter entitled Remembering-and-receiving: Mindfulness and acceptance in Zen is written jointly by Reverend Josh Bartok Roshi and Lizabeth Roemer of University of Massachusetts Boston. Rev. Bartok Roshi is a Zen teacher—in a Buddhist tradition (Boundless Way Zen) that includes lineages of both Soto and Rinzai Zen, who is also an editor of Dharma books and a Buddhist pastoral counselor. Dr. Roemer is a clinical psychologist, grounded in the behavioral tradition, who has co-developed an acceptance-based behavioral therapy for anxiety disorders. The authors express a respect for the value of distinguishing spiritual, religious practice from provision of behavioral health services and encourage (and engage in) secular adaptations of mindfulness-based approaches that draw from evidence-based practice and psychological theory. At the same time, they appreciate the ways that the depth of Zen tradition can inform these adaptations and an ability to flexibly implement them with attention to the complexity of the lived experience of acceptance and its relationship to suffering in its many forms. The chapter endeavors to provide an illustration of the Zen teachings that inform an understanding of acceptance and how it can promote freedom amid suffering.