carries a projection of the fully developed True Nature or enlightened mind that the
student potentially harbors but as yet cannot access or manifest. Authentic Buddhist
teachers may only qualify as such if: (a) they have undergone long and arduous
training and testing, often over periods of ten to twenty years or more; and (b) they
have been formally authorized to teach by their own teachers (Kapleau 1989;
Welwood 2000; Young-Eisendrath forthcoming). Appreciating and perhaps awed by
the extensive training that their teachers have undergone, and perceiving the quality
of fully developed True Nature or enlightened mind in their teacher, students want
to attain it themselves (Young-Eisendrath forthcoming).
Extremely negative transference relationships may occur in the teacher-student
relationship (Engler 1984; Gopfert 1999; Rubin 1996; Young-Eisendrath
forthcoming). Traditionally, the Zen teacher-student relationship does not encourage
the student to express overwhelming or negative emotional states. Zen teachers often
have little or no understanding of the nature of transference relationships or they
choose to ignore their importance (Engler 1984; Gopfert 1999). Because the student
lacks the benefit of interpretation of his or her negative emotional states, and because
they are never reflected on in the teacher-student relationship, transference,
countertransference, and relational re-enactments tend to remain relatively
unconscious (Rubin 1996; Young-Eisendrath forthcoming). At best, these negative
transferences may result in a shallow relationship with the teacher; at worst, they may
threaten regression (Engler 1984). In any case, this may hinder reflection in the
therapeutic setting as well.
Buddhist teachers inevitably become repositories for projections of perfection from
their students (Epstein 1990; Gopfert 1999; Rubin 1996; Young-Eisendrath
forthcoming). Many Zen students fantasize about their teachers and communities in
terms of ‘super-parents’ and the ‘super-family’ (Tart and Deikman 1991:46). The
most common transferences in teacher-student relationships are of the Kohutian
mirroring and idealizing types; that is, many Zen Buddhist students may invest hope
that their teachers will mirror them by providing a source of acceptance and
confirmation, or will perceive them as a source of idealized strength with which to
merge (Engler 1984; Rubin 1996). These hopes may be fulfilled or thwarted,
depending on the Zen teacher’s personality and teaching style. Unfortunately, it is
often the case that Buddhist teachers are presented as being beyond self-deceit (Rubin
1996). As parental surrogates, some Zen teachers will engage in projective
identification; that is, they will unconsciously be induced to act as if they were indeed
their students’ parent(s) (Rubin 1996).
In addition to the Kohutian mirroring and idealizing transferences, there is a third,
more chaotic kind of transference between Buddhist teachers and students, which
oscillates between extreme omnipotence and extreme devaluation of the teacher on
the part of the student (Engler 1984). When the need for idealization is coupled with
debasing of self and others, extreme virtues are attributed to the teacher. But when
the teacher is unable or refuses to meet the student’s high expectations, very negative
reactions may occur which may take the form of extreme vilification (Engler 1984).
156 KATHERINE V.MASÍS