Included in the selections from the Parinirvana Sutta posted in the Buddhism Group is the following:
22. "Now there are eight kinds of assemblies, Ananda, that is to say, assemblies of nobles, brahmans, householders, ascetics, of the Four Great Kings, of the Thirty-three gods, of Maras, and of Brahmas.
23. "And I recall, Ananda, how I have attended each of these eight kinds of assemblies, amounting to hundreds. [28] And before seating myself and starting the conversation or the discussion, I made my appearance resemble theirs, my voice resemble theirs. And so I taught them the Dhamma, and roused, edified, and gladdened them. Yet while I was speaking to them thus, they did not know me, and they would enquire of one another, asking: 'Who is he that speaks to us? Is it a man or a god?'
When we think about the early work of Carl rogers or the classic form of psychoanalysis we have an approach to therapy in which the therapist, in a sense, virtually disappears. The empathic therapist as depicted in "Client-Centered Therapy" is only a mirror. The analyst sitting behind the head of the couch gives little away about him/herself.
Later, Rogers came to lay more emphasis upon "congruence", developed his ideas about "encounter groups" and had the therapist come out of anonymity into a position of self-expression. Similarly, some later psychoanalysts have developed more "conversational" models in which the analyst appears as a person in their own right.
In this example from the sutta, however, we see a third strategy, one more akin to classic hypnosis. The therapist appears as a strong presence, but not as an alteric self so much as a fellow traveller. In this case, the strength comes not from the therapist's assertion of his/her own personality, but from the fact of embodying the Dharma. That very embodiment includes the flexibility to present in whatever manner accommodates the audience. This is all a description of upaya. Upaya, however, here is not a manipulation, it is an expression of deep compassion. Surely the buddha-therapist is able to take the appropriate form because he really does feel himself to be a fellow traveller with those he addresses, thus meeting Rogers' third condition, congruence.
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Interesting questions. Reciprocity of therapy is no doubt what often happens in communities. The answer to the question about walking with or walking behind is, I think, that it is fluid - sometimes one, sometimes the other, and not always is the same person in front. This is because the path is really multidimensional, not just a narrow and straight but with several tracks going on in interaction with one another, a skein.
The thing about boxes is surely that every box contains several other boxes. The search for one right final answer in life is doomed. Creativity refers more to working with a lot of boxes and having fun with them. I'm not sure that the creative person has a teleological goal. Rather he or she is playing and open to new outcomes emerging. There is, perhaps, an ambient faith that such activity is intrinsically worthwhile and ultimately will yield value but if there is too much attempt to assert in advance what hat value will turn out to be the creativity is lost.
On congruence, yes, it is interesting to think through "congruence" within a "non-self" philosophy. I think that the description in the sutra is offering something of that.
Somewhere in this I have a question brewing about the relationship between compassion and creativity. There is a classical approach to therapy that seems to focus on sorting things out, or figuring them out, or working them out. But this gets mixed up with a kind of mythos of imaging that there are real answers: we think that somehow, by searching enough, we will find that box at the bottom of the stairs with the answer in it. Further we imagine that in finding it we will recognize it AS the answer— and that suddenly and magically everything will change. We can spend weeks or months or years searching through these old boxes of ourselves. But surely they have no real existence. We could be down in the basement forever and meanwhile life and possibility and travel and exploration are passing us by.
The images of the mage and the alchemist carry so much more of a creative seed than this. Could there be invested in the therapeutic process a conscious intention to build a world that is creative, compassionate and wholesome? The therapist as friend and traveller; the one who helps carry you to new places, helps open you to new ideas and new vistas. This is quite the opposite of spending endless hours digging through the rubble of your life. Yes, you may well be caught in hurtful patterns, but surely discovering new ones that better serve is a worthy goal and this must, at heart, be creative.
This lovely idea of congruence, I do not think i fully understand it but it intrigues me. The feeling I have is of an embodied spirit guide. The therapist sensitively and perhaps even unconsciously taking on the form needed to create the alchemical shift. The display of a new, creative garment, a robe that the client can try on as his own... A kind of play of the elemental creative energy of the world being captured and focused by the magician in the way a lens captures sunlight and transmits it onto a surface...