From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Buddhism includes an analysis of human psychology,
emotion,
cognition,
behavior and
motivation along with
therapeutic practices. A unique feature of Buddhist psychology is that it is embedded within the greater
Buddhist ethical and
philosophical system, and its psychological terminology is colored by ethical overtones.
[1] Buddhist psychology has two therapeutic goals: the healthy and virtuous life of a
householder (
samacariya, "harmonious living") and the ultimate goal of
nirvana, the total cessation of dissatisfaction and suffering (
dukkha).
[2]
Buddhism and the modern discipline of
Psychology have multiple parallels and points of overlap. This includes a descriptive
phenomenology of mental states, emotions and behaviors, as well as theories of
perception and
unconscious mental factors. Psychotherapists such as
Erich Fromm have found in Buddhist
enlightenment experiences (e.g.
kensho)
the potential for transformation, healing and finding existential
meaning. Some contemporary mental-health practitioners such as
Jon Kabat-Zinn increasingly find ancient Buddhist practices (such as the development of
mindfulness) of empirically proven therapeutic value,
[3] while Buddhist teachers such as
Jack Kornfield see Western Psychology as providing complementary practices for Buddhists.
Interaction
The establishment of
Buddhism predates the field of
psychology by over two millennia; thus, any assessment of Buddhism in terms of psychology is necessarily a modern invention.
[a] One of the first such assessments occurred when British Indologists started translating Buddhist texts from
Pali and
Sanskrit. The modern growth of
Buddhism in the West and particularly the development of
Buddhist modernism
worldwide has led to the comparing and contrasting of European
psychology and psychiatry with Buddhist theory and practice. According
to Austrian psychologist Gerald Virtbauer,
[4] the contact of Buddhism and European Psychology has generally followed three main approaches:
[5]
- The presentation and exploration of parts of Buddhist teachings as a
Psychology and psychological method for analyzing and modifying human
experience.
- The integration of parts of the Buddhist teachings in already
existing psychological or psychotherapeutic lines of thought (such as in
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy and in Acceptance and commitment therapy).
- Buddhist integration of Western psychological and social science knowledge into the Buddhist system (e.g., Buddhist modernism, Vipassana movement)
Psychology in the Tripitaka
The earliest Buddhist writings are preserved in three-part collections called
Tipitaka (Pali; Skt.
Tripitaka). The first part, the
Sutta Pitaka contains a series of discourses attributed to the Buddha containing much psychological material.
A central feature of Buddhist psychology is its
methodology, which is based on personal experience through
introspection and phenomenological self observation.
[6]
According to the Buddha while initially unreliable, one's mind can be
trained, calmed and cultivated so as to make introspection a refined and
reliable method. This methodology is the foundation for the personal
insight into the nature of the mind the Buddha is said to have achieved.
While introspection is a key aspect of the Buddhist method, observation
of a person's behavior is also important.
[7]
Perception and the self
The early Buddhist texts outline a theory of
perception and
cognition based on the
ayatanas (sense bases, sense media, sense spheres) which are categorized into
sense organs,
sense objects and awareness. The contact between these bases leads to a
perceptual event as explained in Buddhist texts: "when the eye that is
internal is intact and external visible forms come within its range, and
when there is an appropriate act of attention on the part of the mind,
there is the emergence of perceptual consciousness."
[8]
The usual process of sense cognition is entangled with what the Buddha terms "
papañca" (conceptual proliferation), a distortion and elaboration in the cognitive process of the raw sensation or feeling (
vedana).
[9] This process of
confabulation
feeds back into the perceptual process itself. Therefore, perception
for the Buddhists is not just based on the senses, but also on our
desires, interests and concepts and hence it is in a way unrealistic and
misleading.
[10] The goal of Buddhist practice is then to remove these distractions and gain knowledge of things as they are (
yatha-bhuta nadassanam).
This psycho-physical process is further linked with psychological craving,
manas (conceit) and
ditthi (dogmas, views). One of the most problematic views according to the Buddha, is the notion of a permanent and solid
Self or 'pure ego'. This is because in early Buddhist psychology,
there is no fixed self (atta; Sanskrit
atman) but the delusion of self and clinging to a
self concept affects all one's behaviors and leads to suffering.
[9]
For the Buddha, there is nothing uniform or substantial about a person,
only a constantly changing stream of events or processes categorized
under five categories called
skandhas (heaps, aggregates), which includes the
stream of consciousness (
Vijñāna-sotam). False belief and attachment to an abiding ego-entity is at the root of most negative emotions.
The psychologist
Daniel Goleman states:
The notion of an "empty self" posits that there is no "CEO of the
mind," but rather something like committees constantly vying for power.
In this view, the "self" is not a stable, enduring entity in control,
but rather a mirage of the mind—not actually real, but merely seemingly
so. While that notion seems contrary to our own everyday experience, it
actually describes the deconstruction of self that cognitive
neuroscience finds as it dissects the mind (most famously, Marvin Minsky's
"society of mind"). So the Buddhist model of the self may turn out to
fit the data far better than the notions that have dominated
Psychological thinking for the last century.[11]
The Buddha saw the human mind as a psycho-physical complex, a dynamic continuum called
namarupa.
Nama refers to the non-physical elements and rupa to the physical
components. According to Padmasiri de Silva, "The mental and physical
constitutents form one complex, and there is a mutual dependency of the
mind on the body and of the body on the mind."
[12]
Motivation and emotion
Buddha's theory of human
motivation
is based on certain key factors shared by all human beings and is
primarily concerned with the nature of human dissatisfaction (
dukkha) and how to dispel it. In the suttas, human beings are said to be motivated by craving (
tanha, literally 'thirst') of three types:
[9]
- Kama tanha - craving for sensory gratification, sex, novel stimuli, and pleasure.
- Bhava tanha - craving for survival or continued existence, also
includes hunger and sleep as well as desire for power, wealth and fame.
- Vibhava tanha - craving for annihilation, non-existence, also associated with aggression and violence towards oneself and others[13]
These three basic drives have been compared to the Freudian
drive theory
of libido, ego, and thanatos respectively (de Silva, 1973). The arousal
of these three cravings is derived from pleasant or unpleasant feelings
(
vedana), reactions to sense impressions with positive or negative
hedonic tone. Cravings condition clinging or obsession (upadana) to sense
impressions, leading to a vicious cycle of further craving and striving,
which is ultimately unsatisfactory and stressful.
The suttas also enumerate three "unwholesome roots" (
akusala mulas)
of suffering, negative emotions and behavior: raga (passion or lust);
dosa (hatred or malice); and moha (delusion, or false belief).
[9] These are opposed by three wholesome roots: liberality, kindness and wisdom.
Feeling or affective reaction (
vedana)
is also at the source of the emotions and it is categorized in various
ways; as physical or mental, as pleasant, unpleasant or neutral; and as
rooted in the different senses.
[14]
The Buddha also makes a distinction between worldly and unworldly or
spiritual feelings, seeing spiritual feelings as superior. Out of these
basic immediate reactions as well as our situational context,
conceptualization and personal history arise more complex
emotions,
such as fear, hatred, hope or despair. The Buddhist theory of emotions
also highlights the ethical and spiritual importance of positive
emotions such as compassion and friendliness as antidotes for negative
emotions and as vehicles for self development.
According to Padmasiri de Silva, in the early Buddhist texts emotions
can be divided into four groups: "those which obstruct the ideal of the
virtuous life sought by the layman, emotions that interfere with the
recluse seeking the path of perfection, emotions enhancing the layman's
ideal of the virtuous life and emotions developed by the recluse seeking
the path of perfection."
[15]
The Unconscious
The early Buddhist texts such as the
Pali Canon present a theory about latent mental tendencies (
Anusaya, "latent bias," "predisposition", "latent disposition") which are pre-conscious or non-conscious
[9][16] These habitual patterns are later termed "
Vāsanā" (impression) by the later Yogacara Buddhists and were held to reside in an unconscious mental layer. The term "
fetter" is also associated with the latent tendencies.
A later Theravada text, the
Abhidhammattha-sangaha
(11th-12th century) says: “The latent dispositions are defilements
which ‘lie along with’ the mental process to which they belong, rising
to the surface as obsessions whenever they meet with suitable
conditions” (Abhs 7.9).
[16] The Theravada school also holds that there is a subconscious stream of awareness termed the
Bhavanga.
Another set of mental factors which are unconscious and influence one's behavior are termed the
asavas
(Sanskrit asrava, "influx, canker, inflows"). These factors are said to
"intoxicate" and "bemuddle" the mind. The Buddha taught that one had to
remove them from the mind through practice in order to reach
liberation. The asavas are said to arise from different factors:
sensuality, aggression, cruelty, body, and individuality are some of the
factors given.
[9]
The
Yogacara school of
Mahayana Buddhism (starting from the 3rd to 5th century CE) extended these ideas into what has been called a Buddhist theory of the
Unconscious mind.
[17]
This concept was termed the ālaya-vijñāna (the foundation
consciousness) which stores karmic seeds (bija) and undergoes rebirth.
This theory was incorporated into a wider Yogacara theory of the
Eight Consciousnesses and is also held in
Tibetan Buddhism.
Self development and cognitive behavioral practices
According to Padmal de Silva "Buddhist strategies represent a
therapeutic model which treats the person as his/her agent of change,
rather than as the recipient of externally imposed interventions."
[18]
Silva argues that the Buddha saw each person responsible for their own
personal development and considers this as being similar to the
humanistic
approach to psychology. Humanistic psychotherapy places much emphasis
on helping the client achieve self-actualization and personal growth
(e.g. Maslow).
[18]
Since Buddhist practice also encompasses practical wisdom, spiritual
virtues and morality, it cannot be said to be just another form of
psychotherapy. It is more accurate to see it as a way of life or a way
of being (
Dharma).
Personal development in Buddhism is based upon the noble
eightfold path which integrates
ethics, wisdom or understanding (
pañña) and psychological practices such as
meditation (
bhavana, cultivation, development).
Self-actualization in traditional Buddhism is based on the ideas of
Nirvana and
Buddhahood. The highest state a human can achieve (an
Arahant
or a Buddha) is seen as being completely free from any kind of
dissatisfaction or suffering, all negative mental tendencies, roots and
influxes have been eliminated and there are only positive emotions like
compassion and
loving-kindness present.
[9]
Buddhist meditation of two main types,
Samatha is meant to calm and relax the mind, as well as develop focus and concentration by training
attention on a single object.
Vipassana is a means to gain insight or understanding into the nature of the mental processes and their
impermanent, stressful and self-less qualities through the application of continuous and stable
mindfulness and comprehension (
Sampajañña).
[9] Though the ultimate goal of these practices are
nirvana, the Buddha stated that they also bring mundane benefits such as relaxation, good sleep and pain reduction.
[9]
Buddhist texts also contain mental strategies of thought modification which are similar to
Cognitive behavioral therapy techniques.
[19] A comparison of these systems of cognitive behavioral modification has been discussed by professor William Mikulas
[20] and Padmal de Silva.
[21]
According to Padmal de Silva these similarities include: "fear
reduction by graded exposure and reciprocal inhibition; using rewards
for promoting desirable behavior; modelling for inducing behavioral
change; the use of stimulus control to eliminate undesirable behavior;
the use of aversion to eliminate undesirable behavior; training in
social skills; self-monitoring; control of intrusive thoughts by
distraction, switching/stopping, incompatible thoughts, and by prolonged
exposure to them; intense, covert, focusing on the unpleasant aspects
of a stimulus or the unpleasant consequences of a response, to reduce
attachment to the former and eliminate the latter; graded approach to
the development of positive feelings towards others: use of external
cues in behavior control; use of response cost to aid elimination of
undesirable behavior; use of family members for carrying out behavior
change programs; and cognitive-behavioral methods--for example, for
grief."
[9]
An important early text for these cognitive therapeutic methods is the
Vitakkasanthana Sutta (MN 20) (The Removal of Distracting Thoughts) and its commentary, the Papancasudani. For removing negative or
intrusive thoughts, the Buddha recommended five methods in this sutta:
- Focus on an opposite or incompatible thought or object.
- Ponder on the perils and disadvantages of the thought, its harmful consequences.
- Ignore the thought and distract yourself from it through some other activity.
- Reflect on the removal or stopping of the causes of the target thought.
- Make a forceful mental effort.
Another recommended technique is from the
Satipatthana Sutta, which outlines the practice of
mindfulness,
which is not just a formal meditation, but a skill of attentive
awareness and self monitoring. In developing mindfulness, one is advised
to be aware of all thoughts and sensations that arise, even unwanted or
unpleasant ones and continuously attend to such thoughts. Eventually,
through
habituation and exposure, the intensity and unpleasantness of such thoughts will disappear.
[9] Buddhist texts also promote the training of positive emotions such as
loving-kindness,
compassion,
empathetic joy and
equanimity.
Abnormal Psychology
The
Pali Canon records that the Buddha distinguished between two kinds of illness (
rogo): physical illness (
kāyiko rogo) and mental illness (
cetasiko rogo). The Buddha attributed mental illness to the arising of mental defilements (
Kleshas) which are ultimately based on the unwholesome roots (
three poisons) of greed, hatred and confusion.
[22]
From the perspective of the Buddha, mental illness is a matter of
degree, and ultimately, everyone who is not an awakened being is in some
sense mentally ill. As the Buddha in the Pali canon states: "those
beings are hard to find in the world who can admit freedom from mental
disease even for one moment, save only those in whom the asavas are
destroyed."
[23] Another set of negative qualities outlined by the Buddha are the
five hindrances,
which are said to prevent proper mental cultivation, these are: sense
desire, hostility, sloth-torpor, restlessness-worry and doubt.
According to Edwina Pio, Buddhist texts see mental illness as being mainly
psychogenic in nature (rooted mainly in "environmental stress and inappropriate learning").
[24]
The Pali canon also describes Buddhist monks (epitomized by the monk Gagga) with symptoms of what would today be called
mental illness.
An act which is against the monk's code of discipline (Vinaya)
committed by someone who was "ummatta" - "out of his mind" was said by
the Buddha to be pardonable. This was termed the madmans leave (
ummattakasammuti)
[25]
The texts also assume that this 'madness' can be cured or recovered
from, or is at least an impermanent phenomenon, after which, during
confession, the monk is considered sane by the sangha once more.
[24]
There are also stories of lay folk who show abnormal behavior due to the loss of their loved ones.
[26] Other Buddhist sources such as the
Milinda Panha echo the theory that madness is caused mainly by personal and environmental circumstances.
[26]
Other abnormal behaviors described by the early sources include
Intellectual disability,
epilepsy,
alcoholism, and
suicide.
Buddhagosa posits that the cause of suicide is mental illness based on factors such as loss of personal relations and physical illness.
[27]
Abhidhamma psychology
The third part (or
pitaka, literally "basket") of the Tripitaka is known as the
Abhidhamma (Pali; Skt.
Abhidharma).
The Abhidhamma works are historically later than the two other
collections of the Tipitaka (3rd century BCE and later) and focus on
phenomenological psychology.
The Buddhist Abhidhamma works analyze the mind into elementary factors
of experience called dharmas (Pali: dhammas). Dhammas are phenomenal
factors or "psycho-physical events" whose interrelations and connections
make up all streams of human experience. There are four categories of
dharmas in the Theravada Abhidhamma:
Citta (
awareness),
Cetasika (
mental factors),
Rūpa (
physical occurrences, material form) and
Nibbāna (
cessation).
[28]
Abhidhamma texts are then an attempt to list all possible factors of
experience and all possible relationships between them. Among the
achievements of the Abhidhamma psychologists was the outlining of a
theory of
emotions, a theory of
personality types, and a
psychology of ethical behavior.
Ven.
Bhikkhu Bodhi, president of the
Buddhist Publication Society, has synopsized the Abhidhamma as follows:
- "The system that the Abhidhamma Pitaka articulates is simultaneously
a philosophy, a psychology, and an ethics, all integrated into the
framework of a program for liberation.... The Abhidhamma's attempt to
comprehend the nature of reality, contrary to that of classical science
in the West, does not proceed from the standpoint of a neutral observer
looking outwards towards the external world. The primary concern of the
Abhidhamma is to understand the nature of experience, and thus the
reality on which it focuses is conscious reality.... For this reason the
philosophical enterprise of the Abhidhamma shades off into a
phenomenological psychology. To facilitate the understanding of
experienced reality, the Abhidhamma embarks upon an elaborate analysis
of the mind as it presents itself to introspective meditation. It
classifies consciousness into a variety of types, specifies the factors
and functions of each type, correlates them with their objects and
physiological bases, and shows how the different types of consciousness
link up with each other and with material phenomena to constitute the
ongoing process of experience." [29]
Buddhism and Psychology
Buddhism
and psychology overlap in theory and in practice. Since the beginning
of the 20th century, four strands of interplay have evolved:
- descriptive phenomenology: scholars[30] have found in Buddhist teachings a detailed introspective phenomenological psychology (particularly in the Abhidhamma which outlines various traits, emotions and personality types).
- psychotherapeutic meaning: humanistic psychotherapists have found in Buddhism's non-dualistic approach and enlightenment experiences (such as in Zen kensho) the potential for transformation, healing and finding existential meaning. This connection was explained by a modification of Piaget's theory of cognitive development introducing the process of initiation.[31]
- clinical utility: some contemporary mental-health practitioners
increasingly find ancient Buddhist practices (such as the development of
mindfulness) of empirically proven therapeutic value.[32]
- popular psychology and spirituality: psychology has been popularized,[33] and has become blended with spirituality in some forms of modern spirituality. Buddhist notions form an important ingredient of this modern mix.
Psychology
Caroline A. F. Rhys Davids was one of the first modern Psychologist to conceptualize canonical Buddhist writings in terms of psychology.
The contact between Buddhism and Psychology began with the work of the
Pali Text Society scholars, whose main work was translating the Buddhist
Pali Canon. In 1900, Indologist
Caroline A. F. Rhys Davids published through the
Pali Text Society a translation of the
Theravada Abhidhamma's first book, the
Dhamma Sangani, and entitled the translation, "Buddhist Manual of Psychological Ethics".
[34]
In the introduction to this seminal work, Rhys Davids praised the
sophistication of the Buddhist psychological system based on "a complex
continuum of subjective phenomena" (
dhammas) and the relationships and laws of causation that bound them (Rhys Davids, 1900, pp. xvi-xvii.).
[b] Buddhism's psychological orientation is a theme Rhys Davids pursued for decades as evidenced by her further publications,
Buddhist Psychology: An Inquiry into the Analysis and Theory of Mind in Pali Literature (1914) and
The Birth of Indian Psychology and its Development in Buddhism (1936).
An important event in the interchange of East and West occurred when American psychologist
William James invited the Sri Lankan Buddhist
Anagarika Dharmapala to lecture in his classes at
Harvard University
in December 1903. After Dharmapala lectured on Buddhism, James
remarked, “This is the psychology everybody will be studying 25 years
from now.”
[35] Later scholars such as
David Kalupahana
(The principles of Buddhist psychology, 1987), Padmal de Silva
(Buddhism and behaviour modification, 1984), Edwina Pio (Buddhist
Psychology: A Modern Perspective, 1988) and
Hubert Benoit
(Zen and the Psychology of Transformation, 1990) wrote about and
compared Buddhism and Psychology directly. Writers in the field of
Transpersonal psychology (which deals with
religious experience,
altered states of consciousness and similar topics) such as
Ken Wilber also integrated Buddhist thought and practice into their work.
The 1960s and '70s saw the
rapid growth of Western Buddhism, especially in the United States. In the 1970s, psychotherapeutic techniques using “mindfulness” were developed such as
Hakomi therapy by
Ron Kurtz (1934–2011), possibly the first mindfulness based therapy.
[35] Jon Kabat-Zinn's
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) was a very influential
development, introducing the term into Western Cognitive behavioral
therapy practice. Kabat-Zinn's students Zindel V. Segal, J. Mark G.
Williams and John D. Teasdale later developed
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) in 1987.
[35]
Research by Sarah Lazar et al (2005) found brain areas that are thicker
in practitioners of Insight meditation than control subjects who do not
meditate.
[36]
More recent work has focused on clinical research of particular
practices derived from Buddhism such as mindfulness meditation and
compassion development (ex. the work of
Jon Kabat-Zinn,
Daniel Goleman)
and on psycho-therapeutic practices which integrate meditative
practices derived from Buddhism. From the perspective of Buddhism,
various modern Buddhist teachers such as
Jack Kornfield and
Tara Brach have academic degrees in
psychology.
Applying the tools of modern
Neuropsychology (EEG, fMRI) to study
Buddhist meditation is also an area of integration. One of the first figures in this area was neurologist
James H. Austin, who wrote
Zen and the Brain (1998). Others who have studied and written about this type of research include
Richard Davidson,
Alan Wallace, Rick Hanson (Buddha's Brain, 2009) and Zoran Josipovic.
[37] A recent review of the literature on the
Neural mechanisms of mindfulness meditation
concludes that the practice "exerts beneficial effects on physical and
mental health, and cognitive performance" but that "the underlying
neural mechanisms remain unclear."
[38]
Japanese Psychology
Dr. Shoma Morita (1874-1938)
In
Japan,
a different strand of comparative thought developed, beginning with the
publication, "Psychology of Zen Sect" (1893) and "Buddhist psychology"
(1897), by
Inoue Enryō (1858–1919).
[39]
In 1920, Tomosada Iritani (1887–1957) administered a questionnaire to
43 persons dealing with Zen practice, in what was probably the first
empirical psychological study of Zen.
[39] In the field of psychotherapy,
Morita therapy was developed by
Shoma Morita (1874-1938) who was influenced by
Zen Buddhism.
Koji Sato (1905–1971) began the publication of the journal,
Psychologia: An International Journal of Psychology in the Orient
in 1957 with the aim of providing a comparative psychological dialogue
between East and West (with contributions from Bruner, Fromm, and Jung).
In the 1960s, Kasamatsu and Hirai used
Electroencephalography
to monitor the brains of Zen meditators. This led to the promotion of
various studies covering psychiatry, physiology, and psychology of Zen
by the
Japanese ministry of education which were carried out in various laboratories.
[39]
Another important researcher in this field, Prof. Yoshiharu Akishige,
promoted Zen Psychology, the idea that the insights of Zen should not
just be studied but that they should inform psychological practice.
Research in this field continues with the work of Japanese psychologists
such as Akira Onda and Osamu Ando.
[39]
In Japan, a popular psychotherapy based on Buddhism is
Naikan therapy, developed from
Jōdo Shinshū
Buddhist introspection by Ishin Yoshimoto (1916–1988). Naikan therapy
is used in correctional institutions, education, to treat alcohol
dependence as well as by individuals seeking self development.
[35]
Buddhism and Psychoanalysis
Buddhism has some views which are comparable to
Psychoanalytic theory. These include a view of the
unconscious mind
and unconscious thought processes, the view that unwholesome
unconscious forces cause much of human suffering and the idea that one
may gain insight into these thought processes through various practices,
including what Freud called "evenly suspended attention." A variety of
teachers, clinicians and writers such as
D.T. Suzuki,
Carl Jung,
Erich Fromm,
Alan Watts,
Tara Brach,
Jack Kornfield and
Sharon Salzberg have attempted to bridge and integrate psycho-analysis and Buddhism. British barrister
Christmas Humphreys
has referred to mid-twentieth century collaborations between
psychoanalysts and Buddhist scholars as a meeting between: "Two of the
most powerful forces operating in the Western mind today."
[c]
D.T. Suzuki's influence
One of the most important influences on the spread of Buddhism in the west was
Zen scholar
D.T. Suzuki. He collaborated with psycho-analysts
Carl Jung,
Karen Horney and
Erich Fromm.
Carl Jung wrote the foreword to Suzuki's
Introduction to Zen Buddhism, first published together in 1948.
[d] In his foreword, Jung highlights the enlightenment experience of
satori
as the "unsurpassed transformation to wholeness" for Zen practitioners.
And while acknowledging the inadequacy of Psychologist attempts to
comprehend
satori through the lens of intellectualism,
[e]
Jung nonetheless contends that due to their shared goal of self
transformation: "The only movement within our culture which partly has,
and partly should have, some understanding of these aspirations [for
such enlightenment] is psychotherapy."
[40]
Referencing Jung and Suzuki's collaboration as well as the efforts of others,
humanistic philosopher and
psychoanalyst Erich Fromm
noted that: "There is an unmistakable and increasing interest in Zen
Buddhism among psychoanalysts". One influential psychoanalyst who
explored Zen was
Karen Horney,
who traveled to Japan in 1952 to meet with Suzuki and who advised her
colleagues to listen to their clients with a "Zen-like concentration and
non attachment".
[41][42][f]
Suzuki, Fromm and other psychoanalysts collaborated at a 1957
workshop on "Zen Buddhism and Psychoanalysis" in Cuernavaca, Mexico.
[g]
Fromm contends that, at the turn of the twentieth century, most
psychotherapeutic patients sought treatment due to medical-like symptoms
that hindered their social functioning. However, by mid-century, the
majority of psychoanalytic patients lacked overt symptoms and functioned
well but instead suffered from an "inner deadness" and an "alienation
from oneself".
[43] Paraphrasing Suzuki broadly, Fromm continues:
Zen is the art of seeing into the nature of one's being; it is a way from bondage to freedom; it liberates our natural energies; ... and it impels us to express our faculty for happiness and love.[44]
[...] [W]hat can be said with more certainty is that the knowledge of
Zen, and a concern with it, can have a most fertile and clarifying
influence on the theory and technique of psychoanalysis. Zen, different
as it is in its method from psychoanalysis, can sharpen the focus, throw
new light on the nature of insight, and heighten the sense of what it
is to see, what it is to be creative, what it is to overcome the
affective contaminations and false intellectualizations which are the
necessary results of experience based on the subject-object split"[45]
Buddhist psychoanalytic dialogue and integration
The dialogue between Buddhism and psychoanalysis has continued with the work of psychiatrists such as
Mark Epstein,
Nina Coltart, Jack Engler, Axel Hoffer, Jeremy D. Safran, David Brazier, and Jeffrey B. Rubin.
Nina Coltart (1927-1997) was the Director of the London Clinic of Psychoanalysis, a
neo-Freudian and a
Buddhist. She theorized that there are distinct similarities in the transformation of the self that occurs in both
psychoanalysis and
Buddhism.
[46] She believed that the practice of Buddhism and Psychoanalysis where "mutually reinforcing and clarifying" (Coltart,
The practice of psychoanalysis and Buddhism).
Mark Epstein is an American psychiatrist who practiced Buddhism in Thailand under
Ajahn Chah and has since written several books on psychoanalysis and Buddhism (
Thoughts Without a Thinker 1995,
Psychotherapy Without the Self, 2008).
[47] Epstein relates the Buddhist Four Noble Truths to
primary narcissism as described by
Donald Winnicott in his theory on the
true self and false self.
[49]
The first truth highlights the inevitability of humiliation in our
lives of our narcissistic self-esteem. The second truth speaks of the
primal thirst that makes such humiliation inevitable. The third truth
promises release by developing a realistic self-image, and the fourth
truth spells out the means of accomplishing that.
[51]
Jeffrey B. Rubin has also written on the integration of these two practices in
Psychotherapy and Buddhism, Toward an Integration
(1996). In this text, he criticizes the Buddhist idea of enlightenment
as a total purification of mind: "From the psychoanalytic perspective, a
static, conflict-free sphere-a psychological "safehouse" -beyond the
vicissitudes of conflict and conditioning where mind is immune to
various aspects of affective life such as self-interest, egocentricity,
fear, lust, greed, and suffering is quixotic. Since conflict and
suffering seem to be inevitable aspects of human life, the ideal of
Enlightenment may be asymptotic, that is, an unreachable ideal."
[52] He points to
scandals and abuses by American Buddhist teachers
as examples. Rubin also outlines a case study of the psychoanalytic
treatment of a Buddhist meditator and notes that meditation has been
largely ignored and devalued by psychoanalysts.
[53]
He argues that Buddhist meditation can provide an important
contribution to the practice of psychoanalytic listening by improving an
analyst's capacity for attention and recommends meditation for
psychoanalysts.
[54]
Axel Hoffer has contributed to this area as editor of "Freud and the
Buddha", which collects several essays by psychoanalysts and a Buddhist
scholar, Andrew Olendzki. Olendzki outlines an important problematic
between the two systems, the Freudian practice of
free association,
which from the Buddhist perspective is based on: “The reflexive
tendency of the mind to incessantly make a narrative of everything that
arises in experience is itself the cause of much of our suffering, and
meditation offers a refreshing refuge from mapping every datum of
sensory input to the macro-construction of a meaningful self.”
[55]
Olendzki also argues that for the Buddhist, the psychoanalytic focus on
linguistic narrativity distracts us from immediate experience.
David Brazier
David Brazier is a psychotherapist who combines psychotherapy and
Buddhism (Zen therapy, 1995). Brazier points to various possible
translations of the Pali terms of the
Four Noble Truths, which give a new insight into these truths. The traditional translations of
samudhaya and
nirodha are "origin" and "cessation". Coupled with the translation of
dukkha
as "suffering", this gives rise to a causal explanation of suffering,
and the impression that suffering can be totally terminated. The
translation given by
David Brazier gives a different interpretation to the Four Noble Truths.
- Dukkha: existence is imperfect, it's like a wheel that's not straight into the axis;
- Samudhaya: simultaneously with the experience of dukkha there arises tanha, thirst: the dissatisfaction with what is and the yearning
that life should be different from what it is. We keep imprisoned in
this yearning when we don't see reality as it is, namely imperfect and
ever-changing;
- Nirodha: we can confine this yearning (that reality is different from what it is), and perceive reality as it is, whereby our suffering from the imperfectness becomes confined;
- Marga: this confinement is possible by following the Eightfold Path.
In this translation,
samudhaya means that the uneasiness that's inherent to life
arises together with the craving that life's event would be different. The translation of
nirodha
as confinement means that this craving is a natural reaction, which
cannot be totally escaped or ceased, but can be limited, which gives us
freedom.
Gestalt therapy
Gestalt Therapy, an approach created by
Fritz Perls, was based on phenomenology, existentialism and also
Zen Buddhism and Taoism.
[57]
Perls spent some time in Japanese Zen monasteries and his therapeutic
techniques include mindfulness practices and focusing on the present
moment.
[58] Practices outlined by Perls himself in
Ego, hunger and aggression
(1969), such as “concentration on eating” (“we have to be fully aware
of the fact that we are eating”) and “awareness continuum” are
strikingly similar to Buddhist mindfulness training.
[59] Other authors in Gestalt Therapy who were influenced by Buddhism are
Barry Stevens (therapist) and
Dick Price (who developed
Gestalt Practice by including
Buddhist meditation).
According to Crocker, an important Buddhist element of Gestalt is
that a “person is simply allowing what-is in the present moment to
reveal itself to him and out of that receptivity is responding with ‘
no-mind’”.
[57]
More recently,
Claudio Naranjo has written about the practice of Gestalt and Tibetan Buddhism.
Existential and Humanistic psychology
Both
existential and
humanistic models of human psychology stress the importance of personal responsibility and freedom of choice, ideas which are central to
Buddhist ethics and psychology.
[60]
Humanistic psychology's focus on developing the ‘fully functioning person’ (Carl Rogers) and
self actualization (Maslow) is similar to the Buddhist attitude of self development as an ultimate human end. The idea of
person-centered therapy
can also be compared to the Buddhist view that the individual is
ultimately responsible for their own development, that a Buddhist
teacher is just a guide and that the patient can be “a light unto
themselves”.
[61]
Carl Rogers's idea of "unconditional positive regard" and his stress on the importance of
empathy has been compared to Buddhist conceptions of compassion (
Karuṇā).
[62][63]
Mindfulness
meditation has been seen as a way to aid the practice of person
centered psychotherapy. Person centered therapist Manu Buzzano has
written that "It seemed clear that regular meditation practice did help
me in offering congruence, empathy and unconditional positive regard."
[64]
He subsequently interviewed other person centered therapists who
practiced meditation and found that it enhanced their empathy,
nonjudgmental openess and quality of the relationship with their
clients.
[64]
A comparison has also been made between
Marshall Rosenberg's
Nonviolent Communication and
Buddhist ideals of
right speech, both in theory and in manifesting Buddhist ideals in practice.
[65][66][67]
Padmasiri de Silva sees the focus of existential psychology on the
"tragic sense of life" just a different expression of the Buddhist
concept of
dukkha.
The existential concept of anxiety or angst as a response to the human
condition also resonates with the Buddhist analysis of fear and despair.
[60] The Buddhist monk
Nanavira Thera
in the preface to his "Notes on Dhamma" wrote that the work of the
existential philosophers offered a way to approach the Buddhist texts,
as they ask the type of questions about feelings of anxiety and the
nature of existence with which the Buddha begins his analysis. Nanavira
also states that those who have understood the Buddha's message have
gone beyond the existentialists and no longer see their questions as
valid.
Edward Conze
likewise sees the parallel between the Buddhists and Existentialists
only preliminary: "In terms of the Four Truths, the existentialists have
only the first, which teaches that everything is ill. Of the second,
which assigns the origin of ill to craving, they have only a very
imperfect grasp. As for the third and fourth, they are quite unheard
of...Knowing no way out, they are manufacturers of their own woes."
[68]
Positive Psychology
The growing field of
Positive psychology shares with Buddhism a focus on developing a positive emotions and personal
strengths and virtues with the goal of improving human
well-being. Positive psychology also describes the futility of the "
hedonic treadmill",
the chasing of ephemeral pleasures and gains in search of lasting
happiness. Buddhism holds that this very same striving is at the very
root of human unhappiness.
[69]
The Buddhist concept and practice of mindfulness meditation has been adopted by psychologists such as Rick Hanson (
Buddha's brain, 2009), T.B. Kashdan & J. Ciarrochi (
Mindfulness, acceptance, and positive psychology, 2013) and Itai Ivtzan (
Mindfulness in Positive Psychology, 2016). Kirk W. Brown and Richard M. Ryan of the
University of Pennsylvania have developed a 15-item "Mindful attention awareness scale" to measure dispositional mindfulness.
[70]
The concept of
Flow studied by
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has been compared to Buddhist meditative states such as
samadhi and mindfulness. Ronald Siegel describes flow as “mindfulness while accomplishing something.”
[71]
Nobo Komagata and Sachiko Komagata, however, are critical of
characterizing the notion of “flow” as a special case of mindfulness,
noting that the connection is more complicated.
[72] Zen Buddhism has a concept called
Mushin (無心, no mind) which is also similar to flow.
Christopher K. Germer, clinical instructor in psychology at
Harvard Medical School
and a founding member of the Institute for Meditation and
Psychotherapy, has stated: "Positive psychology, which focuses on human
flourishing rather than mental illness, is also learning a lot from
Buddhism, particularly how mindfulness and compassion can enhance
wellbeing. This has been the domain of Buddhism for the past two
millennia and we’re just adding a scientific perspective."
[73]
Martin Seligman and Buddhist monk
Thanissaro Bhikkhu
have pointed out that the framework of Positive psychology is ethically
neutral, and hence within that framework, you could argue that "a
serial killer leads a pleasant life, a skilled Mafia hit man leads a
good life, and a fanatical terrorist leads a meaningful life."
[74]
Thanissaro argues that Positive psychology should also look into the
ethical dimensions of the good life. Regarding the example of flow
states he writes:
"A common assumption is that what you do to induce a sense of flow is
purely a personal issue, and ultimately what you do doesn’t really
matter. What matters is the fact of psychological flow. You’re most
likely to experience flow wherever you have the skill, and you're most
likely to develop skill wherever you have the aptitude, whether it’s in
music, sport, hunting, meditating, etc. From the Buddha’s point of view,
however, it really does matter what you do to gain gratification, for
some skills are more conducive to stable, long-term happiness than
others, due to their long-term consequences"
[74]
The skills that Thanissaro argues are more conductive to happiness
include Buddhist virtues like harmlessness, generosity, moral restraint,
and the development of good will as well as mindfulness, concentration,
discernment.
Naropa University
In his introduction to his 1975 book,
Glimpses of the Abhidharma,
Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche wrote:
Many modern psychologists have found that the discoveries and explanations of the abhidharma
coincide with their own recent discoveries and new ideas; as though the
Abhidharma, which was taught 2,500 years ago, had been redeveloped in
the modern idiom." [75]
Trungpa Rinpoche's book goes on to describe the nanosecond
phenomenological sequence by which a sensation becomes conscious using
the Buddhist concepts of the "
five aggregates."
In 1974, Trungpa Rinpoche founded the Naropa Institute, now called
Naropa University. Since 1975, this accredited university has offered degrees in "contemplative psychology."
[76][i]
Mind and life institute
Every two years, since 1987, the
Dalai Lama has convened
"Mind and Life" gatherings of Buddhists and scientists.
[j] Reflecting on one Mind and Life session in March 2000, psychologist
Daniel Goleman notes:
Since the time of Gautama Buddha
in the fifth century BC, an analysis of the mind and its workings has
been central to the practices of his followers. This analysis was
codified during the first millennium after his death within the system
called, in the Pali language of Buddha's day, Abhidhamma
(or Abhidharma in Sanskrit), which means 'ultimate doctrine'.... Every
branch of Buddhism today has a version of these basic psychological
teachings on the mind, as well as its own refinements" [77]
Buddhist techniques in clinical settings
For over a millennium, throughout the world, Buddhist practices have been used for non-Buddhist ends.
[k]
More recently, clinical psychologists, theorists and researchers have
incorporated Buddhist practices in widespread formalized
psychotherapies. Buddhist
mindfulness practices have been explicitly incorporated into a variety of psychological treatments.
[78] More tangentially, psychotherapies dealing with
cognitive restructuring share core principles with ancient Buddhist antidotes to personal suffering.
Mindfulness practices
Fromm
[79] distinguishes between two types of meditative techniques that have been used in psychotherapy:
- auto-suggestion used to induce relaxation;
- meditation "to achieve a higher degree of non-attachment, of
non-greed, and of non-illusion; briefly, those that serve to reach a
higher level of being" (p. 50).
Fromm attributes techniques associated with the latter to Buddhist mindfulness practices.
[l]
Two increasingly popular therapeutic practices using Buddhist mindfulness techniques are
Jon Kabat-Zinn's
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and
Marsha M. Linehan's
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT). Other prominent therapies that use mindfulness include
Steven C. Hayes'
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT),
Adaptation Practice founded in 1978 by the British psychiatrist and Zen Buddhist
Clive Sherlock and, based on MBSR,
Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) (Segal
et al., 2002).
Clinical researchers have found Buddhist mindfulness practices to help
alleviate anxiety, depression and certain personality disorders.
Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)
Kabat-Zinn developed the eight-week
MBSR program over a ten-year period with over four thousand patients at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center.
[80] Describing the MBSR program, Kabat-Zinn writes:
This 'work' involves above all the regular, disciplined practice of moment-to-moment awareness or mindfulness, the complete 'owning' of each moment of your experience, good, bad, or ugly. This is the essence of full catastrophe living.[81]
Kabat-Zinn, a one-time
Zen practitioner,
[m]
Although at this time mindfulness meditation is most commonly taught
and practiced within the context of Buddhism, its essence is
universal.... Yet it is no accident that mindfulness comes out of
Buddhism, which has as its overriding concerns the relief of suffering
and the dispelling of illusions.[82]
In terms of clinical diagnoses, MBSR has proven beneficial for people
with depression and anxiety disorders; however, the program is meant to
serve anyone experiencing significant stress.
It would be based on relatively intensive training in Buddhist meditation without the Buddhism (as I liked to put it), and yoga.[83]
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)
In writing about DBT, Zen practitioner
[n] Linehan
[84] states:
As its name suggests, its overriding characteristic is an emphasis on
'dialectics' – that is, the reconciliation of opposites in a continual
process of synthesis.... This emphasis on acceptance as a balance to
change flows directly from the integration of a perspective drawn from
Eastern (Zen) practice with Western psychological practice."[o]
Similarly, Linehan
[85] writes:
Mindfulness skills are central to DBT.... They are the first skills
taught and are [reviewed] ... every week.... The skills are
psychological and behavioral versions of meditation practices from
Eastern spiritual training. I have drawn most heavily from the practice
of Zen
Controlled clinical studies have demonstrated DBT's effectiveness for people with
borderline personality disorder.
[p]
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
ACT did not explicitly emerge from Buddhism, but its concepts often parallel ideas from Buddhist and mystical traditions.
[86][87]
ACT has been defined by its originators as a method that "uses
acceptance and mindfulness processes, and commitment and behavioral
activation processes to produce psychological flexibility.".
[88]
Mindfulness in ACT is defined to be a combination of four aspects of the
psychological flexibility model, which is ACT's applied theory:
- Acceptance (openness to and engagement with present experience);
- Cognitive defusion (attending to the ongoing process of thought
instead of automatically interacting with events as structured by
prediction, judgment, and interpretation);
- Contact with the present moment (attention to the present external
and internal world in a manner that is flexible, fluid, and voluntary);
- A transcendent sense of self or "self as context" (an interconnected
sense of consciousness that maintains contact with the "I/Here/Nowness"
of awareness and its interconnection with "You/There/Then").[88]
These four aspects of mindfulness in ACT are argued to stem from
Relational Frame Theory,
the research program on language and cognition that underlies ACT at
the basic level. For example, "self as context" is argued to emerge from
deictic verbal relations such as I/You, or Here/There, which RFT
laboratories have shown to help establish perspective taking skills and
interconnection with others.
[89][90]
Most ACT self-help books (e.g.,
[91])
and many tested ACT protocols teach formal contemplative practice
skills, but by this definition of mindfulness, such defusion skills as
word repetition (taking a difficult thought, distilling it to a single
word, and saying it repeatedly out loud for 30 seconds) are also viewed
as mindfulness methods.
Adaptation Practice
The British psychiatrist
Clive Sherlock, who trained in the traditional Rinzai School of
Zen, developed
Adaptation Practice
(Ap), the foundation of mindfulness, in 1977 based on the profound
mindfulness/awareness training of Zen daily-life practice and
meditation. Adaptation Practice is used for long-term relief of
depression, anxiety, anger, stress and other emotional problems.
Cognitive restructuring
Dr.
Albert Ellis, considered the "grandfather of
cognitive-behavioral therapy" (CBT), has written:
Many of the principles incorporated in the theory of rational-emotive psychotherapy
are not new; some of them, in fact, were originally stated several
thousands of years ago, especially by the Greek and Roman Stoic
philosophers (such as Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius) and by some of the ancient Taoist and Buddhist thinkers (see Suzuki, 1956, and Watts, 1959, 1960).[92][q]
To give but one example, Buddhism identifies anger and ill-will as
basic hindrances to spiritual development (see, for instance, the
Five Hindrances,
Ten Fetters and
kilesas). A common Buddhist
antidote for anger is the use of active contemplation of loving thoughts (see, for instance,
metta). This is similar to using a CBT technique known as "emotional training" which Ellis
[93] describes in the following manner:
Think of an intensely pleasant experience you have had with the
person with whom you now feel angry. When you have fantasized such a
pleasant experience and have actually given yourself unusually good,
intensely warm feelings toward that person as a result of this
remembrance, continue the process. Recall pleasant experiences and good
feelings, and try to make these feelings paramount over your feelings of
hostility.[r]
Criticism
Some
traditional Buddhist practitioners have expressed concern that attempts
to view Buddhism through the lens of Psychology diminishes the Buddha's
liberating message.
Patrick Kearney has written that the effort to integrate the
teachings of the Buddha by interpreting it through the view of
psychologies has led to "a growing confusion about the nature of
Buddhist teachings and a willingness to distort and dilute these
teachings".
[94]
He is critical of Jack Kornfield and Mark Epstein for holding that
psychological techniques are a necessity for some Buddhists and of
Jeffrey Rubin for writing that enlightenment might not be possible.
Kearney writes:
"Epstein and Rubin want to rewrite Buddhism on their own terms,
taking the ocean of the Buddha’s wisdom and reducing it to a puddle
small enough to accommodate the views of Freud and his successors."
[94]
American
Theravada monk
Thanissaro Bhikkhu[95]
has also criticized the interpretation of Buddhism through Psychology,
which has different values and goals, derived from roots such as
European
Romanticism
and Protestant Christianity. He also identifies broad commonalities
between "Romantic/humanistic psychology" and early Buddhism: beliefs in
human (versus divine) intervention with an approach that is
experiential, pragmatic and therapeutic. Thanissaro Bhikkhu traces the
roots of modern spiritual ideals from German Romantic Era philosopher
Immanuel Kant through American psychologist and philosopher
William James, Jung and humanistic psychologist
Abraham Maslow.
[96] Thanissaro sees their view as centered on the idea of healing the 'divided self', an idea which is alien to Buddhism.
[96]
Thanissaro asserts that there are also core differences between
Romantic/humanistic psychology and Buddhism. These are summarized in the
adjacent table. Thanissaro implicitly deems those who impose
Romantic/humanistic goals on the Buddha's message as "Buddhist
Romantics."
The same similarities have been recognized by David McMahan when describing
Buddhist modernism.
Recognizing the widespread alienation and social fragmentation of modern life, Thanissaro Bhikkhu writes:
When Buddhist Romanticism speaks to these needs, it opens the gate to areas of dharma
[the Buddha's teachings] that can help many people find the solace
they’re looking for. In doing so, it augments the work of psychotherapy
[...] However, Buddhist Romanticism also helps close the gate to areas
of the dharma that would challenge people in their hope for an ultimate
happiness based on interconnectedness. Traditional dharma calls for
renunciation and sacrifice, on the grounds that all interconnectedness
is essentially unstable, and any happiness based on this instability is
an invitation to suffering. True happiness has to go beyond
interdependence and interconnectedness to the unconditioned [...] [T]he
gate [of Buddhist Romanticism] closes off radical areas of the dharma
designed to address levels of suffering remaining even when a sense of
wholeness has been mastered."[95]
Another Theravada monk,
Bhikkhu Bodhi
has also criticized the presentation of certain Buddhist teachings
mixed with psychological and Humanistic views as being authentic
Buddhism. This risks losing the essence of the liberating and radical
message of the Buddha, which is focused on attaining
nirvana:
What I am concerned about is the trend, common among present-day
Buddhist teachers, of recasting the core principles of the Buddha's
teachings into largely psychological terms and then saying, "This is
Dhamma." When this is done we may never get to see that the real purpose
of the teaching, in its own framework, is not to induce "healing" or
"wholeness" or "self-acceptance," but to propel the mind in the
direction of deliverance – and to do so by attenuating, and finally
extricating, all those mental factors responsible for our bondage and
suffering. We should remember that the Buddha did not teach the Dhamma
as an "art of living" – though it includes that – but above all as a
path to deliverance, a path to final liberation and enlightenment. And
what the Buddha means by enlightenment is not a celebration of the
limitations of the human condition, not a passive submission to our
frailties, but an overcoming of those limitations by making a radical,
revolutionary breakthrough to an altogether different dimension of
being.[98]
Popular psychology and spirituality
Mainstream teachers and popularizers
In 1961, philosopher and professor
Alan Watts wrote:
If we look deeply into such ways of life as Buddhism and Taoism, Vedanta and Yoga,
we do not find either philosophy or religion as these are understood in
the West. We find something more nearly resembling psychotherapy....
The main resemblance between these Eastern ways of life and
Psychotherapy is in the concern of both with bringing about changes of
consciousness, changes in our ways of feeling our own existence and our
relation to human society and the natural world. The psychotherapist
has, for the most part, been interested in changing the consciousness of
peculiarly disturbed individuals. The disciplines of Buddhism and
Taoism are, however, concerned with changing the consciousness of
normal, socially adjusted people." [99]
Since Watts's early observations and musings, there have been many
other important contributors to the contemporary popularization of the
integration of
Buddhist meditation with psychology including
Kornfield (1993),
Joseph Goldstein,
Tara Brach,
Epstein (1995) and
Nhat Hanh (1998).
Education and research
Researchers
interested in studying the intersection of Buddhism and psychology in
North America have had to either fit themselves into Eastern Studies
programs, psychology programs or engage in a program of private study.
North American programs at accredited institutions dedicated to Buddhism
and psychology are few. There is a minor (soon to be major) program at
the
University of Toronto called Buddhism and Mental Health.
[100]
As for clinical training, there is an accredited Master's program in
Contemplative Psychotherapy offered at
Naropa University
in Boulder, CO. The curriculum is a hybrid of Buddhist psychology and
psychotherapeutic approaches, and incorporates several group retreats
and ongoing meditation practice. The program, which was founded in 1978,
is designed to prepare for licensure as a professional counselor.
[101]