Mark Epstein, M.D. (b. 1953), is an American psychiatrist who has written extensively about Buddhism and psychotherapy. Epstein is a graduate of Harvard College and the Harvard Medical School. He has been a practicing Buddhist since his early twenties, primarily as a student of Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield. He is a psychotherapist with a private practice in New York City, contributing editor to Tricycle: The Buddhist Review and Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychology at New York University. His books include Thoughts Without a Thinker and Going to Pieces without Falling Apart. Both books deal with the difficult and counter-intuitive Eastern teachings of non-self, a concept which has sometimes proved so alien to the Western mind as to be out of reach for many Western Buddhists.
| “ | What Buddhism teaches is that the connection, the ability to find intimacy or connection, is inherent within us, and that if we can just surrender back into that capacity for love, that is all of our birthrights--all babies are born with that; they instinctively love their caretakers. So if we can find that again, then our relationships will take care of themselves.[1] | ” |