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“This book emphasizes the importance of Buddhist mind science for modern psychology and highlights the essential role of dialogue between the two fields. It shows that when Buddhist and psychological perspectives are brought together, they support the alleviation of suffering and the cultivation of compassion, mental well-being, and wisdom for the benefit of all.”
-The Dalai Lama
In The Alchemical Mind: Carl Jung, Tibetan Buddhism, and Francisco Varela, Jungian analyst Leslie de Galbert brings a new perspective to the relationship between Jung and Buddhism by introducing the work of Chilean scientist and philosopher Francisco Varela (1946‒2001). Jung stressed the importance of remaining faithful to one’s own cultural origins and found that Westerners were too rooted in Cartesian mind‒body dualism to be able to experience the nondualism of Eastern contemplative practices. Yet he also posited that the archetypes of the collective unconscious are universal. Can this paradox be resolved?
When His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Francisco Varela co-founded the Mind and Life Institute in 1987, they did so in the belief that interdisciplinary dialogues between Western scientists and Eastern contemplatives might offer new insights into the mind and consciousness. Varela brought not just neurobiology but also his concept of embodied enactive cognition into dialogue with the Buddhist epistemologies of Tibetan monastics.
Galbert shows how analytical psychology resonates deeply with this idea of openness and dialogue as a means to building a bridge between different viewpoints and different cultures. The Alchemical Mind lays down a path where an encounter between analytical psychology, Tibetan Buddhism, and the ideas of Francisco Varela enriches and deepens our understanding of mind.
Praise for The Alchemical Mind
“Despite many attempts to forge a scientific holism, our culture still suffers from the “hard problem” – we split ourselves into material bodies, immaterial thought, and a reticent psyche. In her exciting and erudite book Leslie de Galbert unites the disparate domains by overlaying Carl Jung’s analytical psychology, Francisco Varela’s notion of life and the Tibetan Buddhist metaphysics of non-self. The alchemical quintessence de Galbert distils from her deep reading reveals that we – and the world – are neither mental, nor material, neither subject nor object, but always both: Our experience is an actualization of reality itself.”
-Andreas Weber, biologist and philosopher, author of Biology of Wonder, Matter and Desire and Butterfly Means Soul
“The Alchemical Mind is an original and inspiring investigation into the common threads and differentiating themes between two remarkable pioneers of psychological science whose lives, insights, and passionate pursuits mirror and differentiate each other in powerfully relevant ways to this day. All this is nested within the overarching canopy of Tibetan Buddhist teachings and meditative insights, informed by the author’s own keen and creative explorations, networks of friends, and musings. What comes into clear and compelling focus is just how pioneering Francisco Varela was in the intersecting domains of phenomenology, embodied cognition, biological systems, and the mystery of experience, as well as how creative and imaginative the author is in her own wide-ranging and deep explorations and musings. Galbert has done the world a remarkable service with this deeply original, creative, expansive, and ultimately poetic exploration.”
-Jon Kabat-Zinn, Founder of MBSR (mindfulness-based stress reduction), author of Full Catastrophe Living and Coming to Our Senses
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER ONE: JUNG AND THE MIND/BODY PROBLEM
CHAPTER TWO: JUNG AND THE EAST
Confrontation with the Unconscious
Jung’s Typology
Jung and the East
Synchronicity
CHAPTER THREE: VARELA AND TIBETAN BUDDHISM
Varela and Buddhism
Autopoiesis and Enaction
Varela and the Dalaï Lama—The Mind and Life Dialogues
Varela and Jung
CHAPTER FOUR: BUILDING BRIDGES
Dialogue: Eranos and Mind and Life Europe
Mandalas—A Triangulation of Spirit, Life, and Art
CHAPTER FIVE: A CONVERSATION
CHAPTER SIX: CONNAÎTRE – SAVOIR
Knowing and Knowing
Language and Writers as Translators
CHAPTER SEVEN: RESOLVING THE QUESTION OF MIND/BODY DUALISM
Dialogue for a Better World: Remembering Francisco Varela
The Evolution of the Scientific Mindset in the West
Meanwhile, in the East
Bringing Jung to the Table
And Back to Varela
CHAPTER EIGHT: WHY THE ALCHEMICAL MIND?
A Middle Path
Embodied Enaction as Alchemical
Active Imagination as Alchemical
Mind as Alchemical
EPILOGUE
Acknowledgements
Bibliography
Index
