The West Constantly Talks About a Mind-Body Connection, India Taught Me Otherwise: Psychologist Dr Tang

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Western White Christian CLOWNS have been SNAKE OIL SELLERS their entire
existence. They completely DESTROYED human species "SPIRITUALLY".

We Dharmic Hindus should and must IMPOSE our values on the entire human
species especially the "proselyzing abrahamic filthy evil genocidal
VIRUSES Islam and Christianity", to make human species "respectable in
the Universe."

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The West Constantly Talks About a Mind-Body Connection, India Taught Me
Otherwise: Psychologist Dr Tang

Aparna Sridhar April 12, 2020

On a more specific level, the Vedic teachings do acknowledge the
importance of cultivating a clear mind in preparation for the knowledge.
(However, Swamini Svatmavidyananda ji is careful to specify that while
the knowledge takes place in the mind, it is not of the mind.) A
necessary component of preparation means taking care of the body through
self-care and diet. Using the body in sattvic ways such as performing
rituals, meditating or not causing harm to other beings is also taught.
Having a sattvic lifestyle helps clear the mind. The mind cannot be at
ease otherwise. In these modern times, we also have the gift of
psychotherapy, which increases self-love. Then one can be ready for the
‘supertherapy’ of Vedanta as Swaminiji calls it.

On how Vedanta affects my practice - it frankly keeps me sane! Without
Vedanta, I don't know how I could function in relationships with family,
friends, or my patients. I'll try to explain the mechanisms a bit.

There are many, many approaches to psychotherapy. However, the research
is becoming clear that the one common factor in facilitating change in
people is the quality of the therapeutic relationship. That is, how much
the client feels understood, cared for, and trusts the therapist.
Whatever other techniques one uses in therapy seem to be
interchangeable. Vedanta teachings help me foster the strength of the
therapeutic relationship as well as help clients see themselves as whole
people, bigger than the mental and emotional challenges they face.


Swaminiji says one can simultaneously love the person and not like the
behaviour. In other words, one can see the behaviour and emotions as
mithya and the person as Ishvara. This ability to discriminate between
conditional reality (mithya) and unconditional reality (Ishvara) is
called viveka. As a therapist, it helps me:


1. Love my clients more freely - to quote Swaminiji, viveka is the
source of compassion. So beautiful, yes?

2. Help my clients see themselves more clearly - that they are not
identified by this mess of depression, anxiety, hurt feelings, etc.

3. Have healthy boundaries with my clients - I strive to serve them as
best as I can, but in the end, they have free will given by Ishvara and
I do not have control over that. Viveka also teaches me not to identify
with what is not me.

It is a paradox that the teaching of oneness helps me have healthy
boundaries but I think it works in this way: my practicing seeing myself
as none other than the whole helps me recognize that all else is not
real. Then, I can let go of identifying with others as myself or
depending on them to make me feel good and worthwhile. In one meditation
Swaminiji teaches, we imagine there is an inside and outside of
ourselves - the inside being Ishvara and the outside everyone and
everything else. Of course, this is a yet another duality, but it helps
with letting go of mithya?”

Dr Tang’s says she must have always been longing for the teachings from
a very young age and they came unbidden.

“I think I have always been longing for the teachings of Advaita Vedanta
and Hinduism but for a long time was not consciously aware of this
desire. Despite this ignorance, somehow the teachings found me rather
than me finding them. However, I suppose there was a journey of
preparation. My first exposure to Hindu philosophy was Alan Watt's The
Book, a Westerner's interpretation of Vedanta, which I ‘happened’ to
pick up at a bookstore in college.


"Discovering yoga years later in my late 20s gradually fuelled an
interest in Sanskrit until I realized I needed a spiritual teacher. I
actually first tried Buddhism, but while I did find great peace in
meditation, I still felt something was missing (which I now know was
Brahman) and had not found the right teacher. I spent several years
participating in a community dedicated to Amma (the Hugging Saint) and
going to her tours. This was my first exposure to Hindu rituals and
teachings. Like yoga, these experiences fuelled a greater desire to be
taught, but at the same time, I was not finding the teaching I desired
in this community. Still, I thought I had found my guru in Amma."


That was when Dr Tang had an epiphany of sorts. A beautiful icon of
Goddess Mukambika arrived in Eugene, Oregon in 2008 via Swamini
Swatmavidyananda.

“I was strongly drawn to this Devi shrine and simply wanted to worship
her, but, as Swaminiji jokes, one cannot have the Devi without the
teacher whether one likes it or not! I met Swaminiji in the shrine
itself and have been her student since. She had such a clarity about her
that cut through all my misery and longing. I feel as though Swaminiji
heard my prayers and found me rather than me finding her. She has been
my primary gateway to Hinduism, teaching me how to conduct pujas and
chant mantras, participate in homas, and, of course, study Vedanta.”

Dr Tang says that as a young child between 4 and 6, she remembers
understanding that “time was not absolute and that the ego did not
matter.” “Growing up, I lost touch with this knowledge, but the memory
of this clarity is what keeps me returning to Vedanta and Swaminiji over
and over again. The teachings are restoring my memory of who I am,” says
the therapist who is drawn towards Advaita Vedanta and the concept of
moksha.