ABSTRACT
Eigen's depiction of self as a distinction–union structure is an important bridge between Buddhism and psychoanalysis. It brings the seminal contributions of Winnicott into a conversation with the ancient wisdom of the Buddha, enriching our understanding of both while making it more possible to, in his words, make room for ourselves. Indeed, the heralded experience of selflessness or emptiness, as reported by Buddhist masters over the centuries, is always accompanied by a fresh and poignant appreciation of the situational matrix in which the subject is embedded. To understand selflessness, the cornerstone of the Buddha's psychology, one had to first find the self as it exists, as we actually feel it, and then examine the feeling closely. The Buddha began the tradition of enlightenment songs by spontaneously breaking into ecstatic verse after his enlightenment. In Tibetan Buddhism, the stages of realization that come from meditation are sometimes compared to the process of falling in love.
