Thinking in a marrow Bone: Embodiment in Vajrayana Buddhism and Psychoanalysis

Abstract

Nondualistic conceptions of the body in Vajrayana Buddhism and some schools of Zen potentially extend the range for imagining and conceptualizing the analyst’s body. They add dimension to psychoanalytic explorations of nonverbal, body-to-body communication in the analytic dyad. Vajrayana Buddhism posits that the body that we have from the point of view of the conceptual mind is not our only body. The body that we are, known as the Vajra body, is experientially available only when the conceptual mind is relaxed. The Vajra body suggests an aspect of embodiment that upsets distinctions of subject/object, mind/body, and internal/external. From a Vajrayana perspective, some psychoanalytic views of the body blunt our bodies’ potential sensitivity and then theorize in response to this objectified body. Thinking that the body is primitive and requires the transformative capacities of the mind distorts modes of sentience that are bodily. From a Vajrayana perspective, this assumption locks in an overreliance on the conceptual mind that is self-perpetuating. It also inhibits a useful, though at times disturbing potential for intercorporeal communication. A detailed clinical example illustrates how these nondualistic ideas about embodiment might influence analytic work.