The Metropolitan Institute for Training in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy:  A CEU- APPROVED ONLINE WORKSHOP

ZEN BUDDHISM & PSYCHOANALYSIS:  A REALIZATIONAL PERSPECTIVE: PRESENTER: SEISO PAUL C. COOPER, Ph.D., LP

The British psychoanalyst, Wilfred Bion (1897-1979) and the Soto Zen Buddhist master, Eihei Dogen (1200-1253), were both highly creative and brilliant thinkers who exerted a radical impact on their respective disciplines. Their ideas continue to contribute to the contemporary cross-fertilization between Buddhism and psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Despite the highly regarded philosophical and theoretical complexity of their teachings, they both shared the agenda of strengthening and deepening experiential realizational practice with an insistent emphasis on the relationship in the present moment. Both have contributed directly to effective clinical work and religious realization and from the realizational perspective. This experiential and didactic workshop provides an overview of similarities, differences and identities between Bion’s and Dogen’s ideas and practices. The workshop will elaborate four foundational points that form the basis of the realizational perspective and its impact on clinical practice. These points include: Emphasis on an openness to unknowing; balance between intuition and cognition; shift from attention to static mind states to an emphasis on fluid functions and actional relationships; and radically experiential orientation rooted in the present moment.

Learning Objectives:
Participants will: 1) become familiar with the Zen Buddhist practice of shikantaza “Just Sitting,” 2) identify unconscious transference dynamics that influence clinical choices, 3) understand the Zen Buddhist concept of “mushotoku” (no gaining mind) and its clinical relevance, and 4) distinguish Bion’s notions of “evolution” and “O” in relation to psychoanalytic listening.

PRESENTER: SEISO PAUL C. COOPER, Ph.D., LP is a licensed psychoanalyst; Zen Buddhist Priest and formally transmitted Zen teacher. Faculty and Supervisor: Metropolitan Institute for Training in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, Adult Program. Member: American Zen Teachers Association. Founder: Realizational Practice Studies Group, Montpelier, Vermont; Former Dean of Training: NPAP; Faculty: Nalanda Institute for Contemplative Science; California Institute for Integral Studies: Clinic Without Walls; Award-winning author: Zen Master Yueh Shan & Thinking’s Bad Rap: A Practitioner’s Guide (2026), Psychoanalysis & Zen Buddhism: A Realizational Perspective (2023), Zen Insight, Psychoanalytic Action: Two Arrows Meeting (2019), The Zen Impulse and the Psychoanalytic Encounter (2010). He has presented his work on Buddhism and Psychoanalysis internationally. He is the founder and guiding teacher of the Barre Zen Meditation Center, Barre, Vermont.

SATURDAY,

DECEMBER 12, 2026

10:00 AM – 12:00 PM
(Daylight Saving Time)

ONLINE THROUGH ZOOM

Zoom instructions and meeting link will be emailed to participants prior to the workshop.

FEE: $60 or $40 for students (with proof of student status)

NO FEE FOR MCMH STAFF THERAPISTS
Registration deadline:
December 10, 2026

TO REGISTER:
https://www.mitpp.org/events/
2 Contact Hours

 

The New York State Education Department has approved this online workshop for 2 contact hours (CEUs) for LMSWs, LCSWs, LMHCs, LPs, LMFTs and Licensed Psychologists. A certificate will be emailed to those who sign in at the beginning of the session, stay until the end of the session, complete an emailed evaluation. The evaluation form will be emailed to you within a week of the event and usually much more quickly. Full session must be attended to be eligible for CEUs/Contact hours.