There followed a long but comfortable pause. Then Professor Hisamatsu said,
slowly, ‘I understand that you are dying.’
The direct, matter-of-fact quality of this statement, or question, stunned
me. This was a time when doctors still shielded patients from information
about their illnesses, particularly fatal illnesses, and we went to great pains to
speak in euphemisms about death. I had never heard a physician talk to a patient
about his death.
Before I had a chance to do more than register my surprise, Alan, looking
intently at Hisamatsu, replied in firm voice, ‘Yes.’
Another pause.
Then Professor Hisamatsu said, ‘Does that frighten you?’
Still looking intently at Professor Hisamatsu, Alan again said ‘Yes.’
Another long silence followed.
‘What frightens you about it?’ Professor Hisamatsu asked.
Again silence.
Alan began slowly but with an assurance that surprised me.
‘For a long time I have wanted to come to terms with myself, what Christians
might call knowing God.’ After a pause, he added, ‘Enlightenment.’
Professor Hisamatsu nodded encouragingly.
‘I guess that I had always thought that I would have an infinite amount of
time to get there. Now I know that I won’t. And I’m afraid that I won’t get
there.’
‘That is a good answer,’ Professor Hisamatsu said quietly. The two continued
to look at each other.
After another long period of quiet, Professor Hisamatsu began to speak.
Exactly what he said in those days so long ago eludes me now. It had to do
with the waves on the surface of the sea and the deep stillness under it. The
stillness is always there, no matter how turbulent the waves. He spoke only
briefly and then asked if we would like to have tea....
(Stunkard 1998:3–4)How does this fit in with dealing with the individual problems and distress that people
bring, for example, to psychotherapy? To those unfamiliar with Buddhism, it may
seem narrow and inflexible, even cold and heartless, to focus only on the fundamental
problem of dukkha and the fundamental solution that is Buddhism.
But is there better medicine for the fundamental suffering of each and everyone
than that of directly revealing the one who is originally free of suffering? This is what
Hisamatsu tried to impress upon Jung in their conversation—and upon Alan Balsam,
for that matter. It can be the beginning of truly ‘working through’ (not only in the
sense of uncovering, clarifying, and making our own, but also in the Freudian sense
of overcoming) the particular problems that plague us all.
The fundamental problem that we are, and the particular problems and distress
that we have, need to be clearly distinguished. They are not, however, completely
separable but vitally conjoined and present in and as each of us. Thus, professional
40 A BUDDHIST MODEL OF THE HUMAN SELF