#110 – Buddhist Psychology Meets Western Therapy with Bill Belanger M.A.
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In this episode of the State of Mind Mental Health Podcast, I sit down with Bill Belanger — psychotherapist, 20+ year Buddhist meditation practitioner, and longtime student of Harvard psychologist and Tibetan Buddhist teacher Dr. Daniel Brown — to unpack what gets lost when Buddhist psychology is repackaged as Western wellness.
Bill is writing a book on integrating Buddhism with Western psychology, and he walks me through the three levels the Buddhist tradition uses to explain why we suffer: chronic reactivity, emptiness of self, and non-dual awareness. Along the way we get into:
- Why “McMindfulness” leaves people underwhelmed
- The difference between compassion meditation and mindfulness — and why compassion might be the better starting point
- How Buddhist ethics map onto the 12 steps
- The community problem in Western Buddhism
- Why MBSR, ACT, DBT, and IFS all owe Buddhism a quiet debt
- Matthieu Ricard, “the happiest man alive,” and intelligent selfishness
- How parts work (IFS / voice dialogue) makes compassion practice actually workable
- Meditation for people with ADHD
If you’ve ever felt like your meditation practice plateaued, or wondered what’s under the surface of all the mindfulness apps, this is a conversation I think you’ll get a lot out of.
Learn more about Bill: billbelanger.com
Chapters
0:00 – Cold open: what mindfulness leaves out
0:45 – Meet Bill Belanger
3:00 – Buddhist psychology vs Western therapy
5:15 – “I can’t meditate” — the biggest myth
7:20 – The problem with McMindfulness
11:00 – Ethics, the 12 steps, and living the practice
19:50 – Finding community in Western Buddhism
23:45 – Where MBSR actually fits
25:50 – The 3 levels of why we suffer
30:00 – Emptiness and the sensory bubble
33:00 – Investigating the self in meditation
38:15 – Non-dual awareness, Dzogchen, Mahamudra
45:40 – The six meditation styles in Bill’s book
50:55 – ACT, DBT, IFS, and Buddhism’s quiet influence
54:55 – Matthieu Ricard & the happiest man alive
59:05 – Parts work, voice dialogue & “idiot compassion”
1:05:40 – Bill’s book, website & closing thoughts
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