Nothing Is Hidden ─ The Psychology of Zen Koans

In this inspiring and incisive offering, Barry Magid uses the language of modern psychology and psychotherapy to illuminate one of Buddhism's most powerful and often mysterious technologies: the Zen koan. What's more, Magid also uses the koans to expand upon the insights of psychology (especially self psychology and relational psychotherapy) and open for the reader new perspectives on the functioning of the human mind and heart. Nothing Is Hidden explores many rich themes, including facing impermanence and the inevitability of change, working skillfully with desire and attachment, and discovering when "surrender and submission" can be liberating and when they shade into emotional bypassing. With a sophisticated view of the rituals and teachings of traditional Buddhism, Magid helps us see how we sometimes subvert meditation into just another "curative fantasy" or make compassion into a form of masochism.

Barry Magid is psychoanalyst and Zen teacher in the Ordinary Mind lineage of Charlotte Joko Beck. He is the author of Ordinary Mind: Exploring the Common Ground of Zen and Psychoanalysis and Ending the Pursuit of Happiness. He is on the faculty of the Stephen Mitchell Center for Relational Studies and a member of the board of The International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy.