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In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities;
in the expert's mind there are few.
This paper has emerged from a collaborative effort to understand how the use of Zen practice in our lives shapes our psychoanalytic work. One of us (S.R), an analyst for many years, has come to Zen only in the last few years, whereas the other (A.C.), a Zen teacher and Dharma heir, who has been practicing Zen for over thirty years, is a relative newcomer to the field of psychoanalysis. The practice of Zen over many years slowly penetrates to the core of one's being and permeates how we come to our work, how we experience the psychoanalytic process, and how we understand our patients. We often ask the question, Is what we are doing different from what we would have done without Zen practice? Because there are points of sameness, similarities, and striking as well as subtle differences in the bringing together of Eastern and Western disciplines, this becomes a complex issue. Our focus in this paper is on the microtracking of a countertransference process with which one of us was struggling. In this struggle the practice of Zen becomes particularly evident and thus forms a beginning means to illustrate how Zen practice can deepen the work of psychoanalysis.
We begin with a brief introduction to the principles of Zen Buddhism that can enrich the work of psychoanalysis, particularly in the realm of countertransference work. These principles are brought to a case example where the therapist, caught in the midst of a projective identification, used a Zen awareness practice to stay very close to her mental and bodily experience. This allowed for a shift to occur in the analyst's perception, which