My experience with Buddhism during the last several years can most simply be characterized using the words “mind mirror.” No other religion that I’ve come across asks one to persistently look at how the mind works with tools to help one clear away the fog and see more clearly. Even psychology as a discipline (except perhaps for Jungian psychology) is strongly tainted with cultural values that are so deeply embedded they are unstated.

It’s not been a pleasant process. It’s been demanding in the sense of being willing to see honestly, without the affective overlay that usually colors and shapes things to our liking. In my case that “liking” includes my pet ideas about how things “should be”, even when some of my “should be” springs from noble aspirations.