All posts tagged: Karma

Understanding the Interplay Between Karma and Trauma

In a previous post, we shared the first part of an illuminating dialogue between Julie Flynn Badal and Dr. Miles Neale — a Buddhist psychotherapist.  That article offered a fresh presentation of the Buddhist notion of karma, and discussed how Buddhist psychotherapy offers a way of working with challenging habitual patterns.  Here in part two, we’d like to deepen the exploration by addressing the topic of trauma — how it is related to karma, and what some effective ways of healing may be.    Click here to read Julie’s helpful introduction to this discussion as well as the first part of this interview.  Julie Flynn Badal: In describing the hallmarks of Buddhist psychotherapy, you spoke of including the role of the body in the process of emotional healing. I’ve noticed that your meditation courses and retreats frequently include yoga. How does Buddhism view the relationship between mind and body? Miles Neale: Current neuroscience has clearly shown that unprocessed trauma is often stored somatically as fragmented, implicit memory. You can spend years in psychotherapy from the neck up, talking about past …

Understanding Karma Through the Lens of Buddhist Psychology

By Julie Flynn Badal ~~~ In the Western world, the concept of karma is frequently misunderstood. Many people take the term karma to mean one’s predetermined fate or destiny. This interpretation has a fixed and fatalistic quality, as if there is little or nothing one can do to change one’s current situation. However, through the lens of Buddhist contemplative psychology, we can come to understand the notion of karma as something more fluid and transformative. Working with a Buddhist psychologist, individuals can begin to examine how past traumas have shaped perceptions of reality and reactions to the present moment. In this way, we can begin to see how karma is not what happens to us, but what we do with what happens to us. To understand the relationship between our individual history and karma, I turned to an expert. Dr. Miles Neale, a Buddhist psychotherapist with Nalanda Institute of Contemplative Science and a popular meditation teacher at the Tibet House in New York City. His classes frequently touch upon the relationship between karma and trauma. …