- CHASING ELEPHANTS by Diane Shainberg
-
"Chasing
Elephants:
Healing Psychologically With Buddhist Wisdom" by Diane
Shainberg ( February 2001. $16.95).
Ms.
Shainberg is a practicing psychotherapist, ordained Zen Buddhist priest, and director of the Mani
center for integral psychotherapy and study in NYC.
The phrase "Chasing Elephants" means looking for reasons or answers outside of ourselves. When we no longer look for external solutions, we can discover how things naturally unfold.
Paul
R. Fleischman - Tricycle Magazine
Chasing Elephants is an inspirational text combining vivid psychotherapeuthic examples and
the author's personal experiences with general discussion. The tone of the writing is heartfelt,
hopeful, and energetic. We feel the author reaching out through the printed page to help us discover
what she herself has found elevating. The book contains brief as well as extended therapeutic
transcripts in which we can feel the presence of a trusted and comforting therapist who exposes her
working style and skills with confessional honesty.
Publisher's Weekly
Elephants really can hide in plain sight; all that we need, we already have. Countless Americans who
have been in therapy as clients or practitioners will discover such familiar refrains in this latest
offering from Zen priest and psychotherapist Shainberg. Writing for both psychotherapists and
laypeople, Shainberg pushes the simple, elusive, key truth of Buddhism--its own essential "suchness"--as
a way to psychological healing, helping readers to see things as they are. Real-life therapeutic
scenarios are recounted, wherein Shainberg applies her Buddhist-founded philosophy: "We no
longer look for external solutions" (the metaphor of chasing elephants). "We stay present,
let things be, experience what is there, and in the process discover how things naturally unfold and
transform." She relies not only on the mind, but on the body as witness to the "now,"
as a key to healing and a place where a new "softness" arises when we "let the entire
game happen on its own." Shainberg's clear work may be of particular value to newcomers to
Buddhism, who will find much of its vital message of "being awake" very accessible, as
well as applicable to their lives or their therapeutic situations. Her complete trust in the
available healing is echoed by her Rumi refrain: "Birds make great sky-circle of their
freedom./ How do they learn it?/ They fall and falling they are given wings." (Feb.) Copyright
2000 Cahners Business Information.
Internet Book Watch
Diane Shainberg draws upon her experiences as a practicing psychotherapist and a Zen Buddhist
priest-teacher to integrate the practice of western psychological healing with Buddhist spiritual
precepts in Chasing Elephants: Healing Psychologically With Buddhist Wisdom. Shainberg aptly
demonstrates that rather than searching for health through external solutions, we can look to our
own internal potentials for healing and transformation. A very welcome and highly recommended
addition to both Buddhist studies and psychology oriented self-help reading lists for the
non-specialist general reader, Chasing Elephants offers a series of specific practices for
psychological healing to initiate and be maintained.
To Order this Book either click on the above link or email, fax us directly at the address below.
- All inquiries should be directed to:
- Altered Ego-Luminous Press
Postal address: 2565 Broadway, #185, New York, NY 10025
For general information, distribution, and orders