Faith Matters Bruce Tift: Already Free
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Feb 15, 2026 Bruce Tift, author and psychotherapist who blends Vajrayana Buddhism with Western therapy, joins to explore inner freedom. He contrasts self-improvement with awareness-based freedom. He maps how childhood survival strategies shape adult life. He offers practice-focused ways to sit with vulnerability, track panic in the body, and ride emotional waves toward greater presence.
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From Unitarian Roots To Naropa Training
- Bruce Tift described his Unitarian upbringing and early study at Naropa linking Buddhist practice with psychotherapy.
- He credits Trungpa Rinpoche and a master's in Buddhist and Western psychology for shaping his integrated approach.
Freedom As Open Awareness
- Western psychotherapy aims at self-improvement while Vajrayana Buddhism points to awareness as the ground of freedom.
- Freedom, from a Buddhist view, is participating in open awareness rather than removing external limitations.
Survival Strategies Become Adult Neuroses
- Early survival strategies form when children protect themselves from unsafe family environments and later persist into adulthood.
- These strategies are adaptive then but become out-of-date neuroses that steer life to avoid core vulnerabilities.
