Going Deeper

The world is probably divided between the “going deeper” people and the “going broader” people. Most Zen people fall into the going-deeper camp. Roshi Bernie Glassman stood out from the Zen crowd because he championed going broader. Not that he was against going deeper. Bernie taught me to go up and down the mountain at the same time.

Before I got to Zen and Bernie, both sides were there. I found my professional way to community mental health, serving some of the most excluded, the poor, the black and Hispanic, the people living with mental illnesses, in Brownsville, at the time the poorest neighborhood in New York City. I found myself leading the creation of one of the first paraprofessional training programs in the city, providing a pathway to employment for people from the community served by the hospital.

And I found my way to psychotherapy, both as a patient and therapist, embracing the dive inward. The people I was closest too were “going-deepers.” We called it “psychologically minded.” When we compared notes on a colleague or acquaintance, our test question was, “He hasn’t been in therapy, has he?” To share the gifts I was receiving, I became a psychotherapy evangelist, a pattern I’d repeat when I dove into Zen. Then, I wanted everyone to meditate. Between my therapy plunge and Zen were countless hours going deeper, encounter groups and consciousness-raising sessions and criticism/self-criticism.

Strangely, when I arrived at Zen, I thought my life was predominantly outward facing. I came in search of inner peace. Zen practice took me inward in new ways, did help me toward inner peace, but Bernie inspired a simultaneous turning outward which led to our opening the first charter school on Staten Island, eventually opening four schools, and bringing to the table so many who’d been marginalized, not just kids with serious emotional challenges and their parents, but teachers and other school staff who’d so often found themselves without a voice. This work was one of the great, unexpected gifts in my life. Going up and down the mountain at the same time has been wonderful.