Mark,

I don’t have much in terms of guidance to offer, but I wanted to let you know I too struggle with the seeming contradiction between Buddhism and psychology. I have studied the latter for longer and only recently have become interested in understanding Buddhism. For years, my “guru” was Lou Tice of the Pacific Institute, an organization I was exposed to through my work in a corporate environment. A lot of attention was put to goal setting and visualization techniques. For instance, if you have a fear of public speaking, visualize yourself delivering a flawless speech to the crowd. Over and over, play this movie in your mind of you delivering the speech, so that when the time comes to give the speech, you are simply acting out the scene you have envisioned in your mind. We move toward and become what we think about. Visualize yourself driving that fancy new car you want, getting married to that beautiful woman, or performing a drum solo to an enthusiastic audience. But isn’t that too much future thinking, when you consider the teachings of Buddhism? Shouldn’t you be mindful of the present moment and not give attention or time to that speech you need to deliver tomorrow? I’ve heard it said that spending too much mental energy on the past leads to depression whereas investing too much time focused on the future can cause anxiety. But what of goals and hopes and dreams? How do these future biased thought patterns fit into a Buddhist mind? I think for someone like me who wants to have a high level of (perceived?) “control” in my life, the idea that everything is happening perfectly, in its own time without any intervention from me causes me angst. Surely there’s something I can do to direct my life’s path. But this is ego, and ego is something I could stand to let go of.

I guess we need to take a deep breath and get out of our heads at times.