Page 24 - EH67

22 EASTERN HORIZON | FACE TO FACE

Abhidharma and

Dharma Practice

By Dr Beth Jacobs

Beth Jacobs, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist in
private practice and a former faculty member of
the Feinberg School of Medicine of Northwestern
University, USA. A lay teacher in the Soto Zen
tradition, Beth incorporates Buddhist studies and
meditation into her work as both a psychologist
and a writer. She is the author of Writing for
Emotional Balance (2005) as well as an award-
winning column for the National Association
for Poetry Therapy. Her more recent publication
was The Original Buddhist Psychology: What the
Abhidharma Tells Us About How We Think, Feel,
and Experience Life (2017). Her expertise on the
Abhidharma broadens our perspective on the
observational powers of the human mind: that
humans can train themselves to become aware of
the nano-second process of the coming into being
of awareness, moment by moment.

In this issue of Eastern Horizon, Beth shares her Lay Transmission ceremony – the author
thoughts with Benny Liow about her interest in dispersing the remnants of 40 years of
Zen Buddhism, poetry and spiritual practice, and journals to the 4 elements, throwing bits of
the relevance of Abhidharma in understanding and written pages in a creek:
practicing Buddhism.