Why Tibetan Lamas Need Psychotherapy: Vajrayana, Dzogchen, and the Unconscious Mind

I’ve posted another video on You Tube. This one explores whether Vajrayana Buddhism truly addresses the core unconscious patterns that drive human behaviour. I consider how the Jungian psychotherapy concept of the unconscious mind relates to the Sambogakaya realm in Buddhist philosophy and how Jungian active imagination techniques can complement Vajrayana practices to address unresolved trauma and uncover unconscious drivers of our behaviour. I highlight the intersection of Buddhist philosophy and Jungian psychology and how they can work together in healing trauma, questioning if meditation alone can resolve deep-seated issues. And I relate Jungian work with the unconscious mind to the Buddhist concept of the 4 obscurations.

Transcript below.

Tibetan Buddhism, particularly Vajrayana and Dzogchen, claims to address all aspects of the mind, but does it truly tackle the unconscious patterns that drive human behaviour? This post explore how psychotherapy could complement Vajrayana practices to address unresolved trauma and unconscious habits.  

When I was studying Vajrayana and Dzogchen, the lamas made it clear: you didn’t need anything else. Sitting in the nature of mind would solve all your problems and eventually lead to enlightenment. Psychotherapy? Dismissed. The Tibetan Buddhist view was that Westerners were just rolling around in their childhood garbage, never moving forward.  

Now, I’ll admit, there’s some truth to that criticism. Psychotherapy can sometimes feel like an endless loop of rehashing the past. But the idea that Tibetan Buddhism alone solves all problems? That’s naïve.  The abusive behaviour of some of the lamas show us quite clearly that Tibetan Buddhist practice alone does not an enlightened being make. It might have been enough in traditional Tibetan society, where rituals and cultural practices might have addressed trauma in ways we don’t understand. But it’s clearly not working well enough in today’s world.

Why Vajrayana Falls Short  

Vajrayana practices like the Vajrasattva healing practice are designed to clear out negative karma and unconscious patterns. In theory, this should help practitioners realise Dzogchen—the nature of mind. But in practice, it often doesn’t.  

Clearly Vajrayana doesn’t stop lamas from being psychologically unsound human beings. Why? Because as it’s practiced today, it doesn’t  address the hidden drivers in the unconscious mind. It doesn’t encourage one to look at the contents of our mind – be it conscious or unconscious – rather it encourages students to bypass it.  We see this in lamas who can transmit profound teachings while being abusive or deeply flawed in their personal lives. They may access the nature of mind during meditation, but their unresolved unconscious patterns remain active and dictate their everyday behaviour. And that’s where I think Jung’s work on the unconscious mind comes in.  

Jung’s Unconscious Mind and the Sambhogakāya  

Jung’s concept of the unconscious mind aligns remarkably well with the Tibetan Buddhist idea of the Sambhogakāya—the realm of thoughts, dreams, imagination, and creativity. In Tibetan Buddhism, the Sambhogakāya is one of three realms, levels or bodies of existence:  

1. Nirmanakaya: Physical reality.  

2. Sambhogakāya: The imaginative realm.

3. Dharmakaya: The luminous, formless nature of reality.  

The Sambhogakāya, where deities, dreams and fantasies reside, is strikingly similar to Jung’s  unconscious mind, which is a repository of symbols, archetypes, and shadow figures that drive human behaviour. Think of the Tibetan deities, are they not symbols, archetypes and shadow figures?  And they relate particularly strongly to Jung’s idea of a collective unconscious, a universal reservoir of innate, primordial images and patterns—called archetypes— that are shared by all human beings across cultures and generations. 

Jung believed that the collective unconscious level of mind profoundly influences human experience and psychological development. Vajrayana works on the same premise. For instance the teachings say that deity practice purifies the practitioner’s karma. Jungian psychologists would say that working with the unconscious mind heals emotional wounds and trauma. So they’re both essentially trying to do the same thing – which is to clear out the mental junk that stops one being a fully integrated human being (in Jungian terms) or one ready for Dzogchen or Mahamudra practice in Vajrayana terms. 

The flaw in Vajrayana, at least as it’s commonly taught today, is that it doesn’t work specifically with an individual’s psychological issues. It’s all rather generic, and therefore not nearly as powerful as it could be. If you don’t know what you’re trying to wash away with Vajrasattva’s nectar flow, it’s not nearly as effective as it would be if you knew exactly what you need to work with.

Jung believed that the unconscious mind communicates through symbols and images, which can be explored through dreams, active imagination, and creative expression. Engaging with and interpreting these symbolic messages gives us insight into our unconscious motivations and conflicts so we can become a fully integrated human being, no longer driven by unconscious elements of our psyche. Through creative methods like active imagination and art therapy, we can unravel the patterns that trap us, the emotions, habits, karma and concepts that keep us stuck. Just like the Buddhist four obscurations: emotional, habitual, karmic and conceptual. 

Jung’s system of thought, however, does not transcend mind as Buddhism does – it doesn’t go that far – but it does give us ways to work with the unconscious aspects of our mind at the Sambogakaya level where they can be used as a foundation for more effective Vajrayana practice.

We’ve all had those moments in meditation where everything opens up, and we glimpse the nature of mind. But staying there? That’s another story. Until we deal with the unconscious patterns driving us, we’ll keep flipping back into our old ways.  

Tibetan Buddhism has incredible tools, but it’s not enough on its own. Psychotherapy could fill the gaps, helping practitioners truly clear out the unconscious mind and move forward.  

Knowing Your Patterns Before Vajrayana  

Imagine starting a Vajrayana practice, like Vajrasattva, with a clear understanding of your unconscious patterns. What if you already knew the trauma and repetitive behaviours shaping your life? Maybe you’ve rooted these out through Jungian techniques or other methods. You’ve identified the situations that caused your trauma, recognised the beliefs and behaviours that stemmed from it, and seen how they’ve impacted your physical reality.  

With that awareness, your Vajrasattva practice could become incredibly specific. Instead of vaguely clearing karma for “bad things” you’ve done, you’d be addressing the root causes of those actions. You’d be actively working on the patterns driving your behaviour.  

Trauma, Psychotherapy, and Vajrayana  

When I did the 100,000 recitations of Vajrasattva, I did actively work with the habitual patterns I knew about, but it wasn’t until I started using Jung’s active imagination techniques (intuitively at first) that I uncovered deeper layers.  

In Jungian terms, our unconscious minds hold patterns that direct our actions and reactions. These patterns often stem from past trauma and manifest as habitual responses in the present.

I discovered the truth of this when I worked with a psychologist after experiencing bursts of anger that seemed disproportionate to the present situation. She explained these as trauma reactions—responses rooted in the past, not the present. I looked back over my childhood and began to see patterns I hadn’t recognised before. With her help, I located the causes and began addressing them. Once you’ve done this kind of introspective work, Vajrayana practices can target those patterns directly, working on the same level where they exist. That makes them incredibly powerful.

When you’re aware of these patterns, Vajrasattva’s cleansing light can actively break through them. This is where Vajrayana has so much potential but can easily fall short. There’s no emphasis on personal introspection that could bring them to light. Any issues we may have are supposed to just dissolve in an open, aware state. And while they might fall away temporarily, they’ll always pull you back unless you’ve dealt with them.  

You can’t stay in a state of pure awareness if unresolved psychological issues are dragging you down. That’s why I see the work I do with therapeutic art as so important. It helps uncover those hidden aspects of ourselves so we can minimise the impact of past trauma.  

How Dzogchen Fits In  

So how does Dzogchen relate to all this?  

Vajrayana is supposed to clear the psychological obscurations holding you back from recognising Dzogchen. It works on the level of the unconscious mind, addressing karmic, emotional, habitual, and cognitive obscurations. Psychotherapy aims to do the same – though the therapist won’t see it in those terms – and when you’re aware of your psychological drivers and patterns, you have something specific to work with in Vajrayana, and then it becomes particularly effective at cutting through those barriers and allowing you to experience the fullness of the Dharmakaya in Dzogchen practice. This is why those abusive lamas need psychotherapy. They need to be aware of their own issues, so they can do Vajrayana practice in a very specific personally targeted way. 

And it’s also why my forays into active imagination and introspective art therapy aren’t a diversion or a distraction from my spiritual practice. Rather, they’re a way of making the practice more powerful because I know exactly what I need to work with when I practice Vajrayana.  

An Invitation

If you like the idea of investigating the parts of yourself that vajrayana ignored or you’d just like to follow my personal journey, then pick up my latest book Psychemagination: Into the Underworld. It combines my personal reflections and artwork with introspective art exercises designed to help you get to know what’s hiding in your own unconscious mind.

And subscribe to my Psychemagination channel to get my inspirational video art and chats about introspective art, imaginative meditation and living a fulfilling neurodivergent life.

Psychemagination: Into the Underworld