This is Mark Epstein's memoir of his early years as a student of Buddhism and of how Buddhism shaped his approach to therapy. It is also a practical guide to how the Buddhist understanding of self and mind make change for the better possible. In psychotherapy, Epstein discovers a vital interpersonal parallel to meditation but he also recognises Western psychology's tendency to focus on problems, either by attempting to eliminate them or by going into them more deeply and how this often results in a frustrating paralysis of analysis.