Post by Cindy on Jan 19, 2016 9:30:33 GMT -5
BUDDHIST INFLUENCE ON WESTERN PSYCHOLOGY: A Deception Unchallenged
by Marcia Montenegro
Under the above phrase, “Buddhist Influence on Western Psychology,” Google gives 1,330,000 results the day I did the search, Jan. 1, 2016. So please understand this list is just a tiny drop in the bucket. In light of my recent post on psychologist Daniel Goleman, I list these (some with excerpts) to give evidence for my continuing claims that Eastern influences on Western culture are strong and have been quite impactful on Western psychology. I don’t think many realize this and there has been some but mostly very little challenge to it. While the articles listed below point out differences, they also endorse the idea that Buddhism and psychology can be integrated and/or that psychology can benefit from Buddhist concepts. The Buddhist worldview, however, is as far from Western thinking as possible and is vigorously opposed to a Christian worldview. Below this list of articles are some books on the topic.
ARTICLES
Buddha philosophy and Western Psychology
1.usa.gov/1NWxVSK
Buddhism and Western Psychology: Fundamentals of Integration
bit.ly/1JjXdLO
This excerpt explains that due to the postmodern influence on science, science can now accommodate Buddhist views:
Quote== Although both science and Buddhism are concerned with truth then, their two approaches to its apprehension and comprehension are significantly different. Because of this one could perhaps conclude that there is no possibility for fruitful interaction between the two. Science, it would seem, sees the world as something external, which can be observed and understood. The inner life of the scientist is irrelevant to achieving understanding. Buddhism on the other hand sees one’s perception as a fundamental part of the process. If one’s perception is warped, there is no possibility of correctly interpreting data gathered from ‘outside’.
The approach of science and of Buddhism are not quite as mutually exclusive as this however. This is true for two reasons. Firstly, the ‘purist’ picture of science painted above is now a little dated. The postmodernism of the twentieth century has placed science firmly within a cultural and historical context7. It’s beliefs and assumptions are now generally recognised to be no less free of culture and history than those of any other belief system. This has meant that some scientists are now far more open to interaction with other approaches to knowledge:
Pluralism does not imply integration, but rather the holding within one view of a multiplicity of perspectives. The objective of postmodern psychology is not that of modernist science, namely, to create a unified theory of the mind. Rather it is to bring together the complementary resources of different traditions in order that new understanding may emerge from their interaction.8
Further, the scientific community has come to realise that the optimism of its earlier years was perhaps unfounded, or at the very least premature - "towards the end of the [19th] century some physicists even advised students against entering the subject since it was nearly finished."9
Complete understanding through science does not appear to be getting any nearer. Truth is not something external to and independent of the scientist, to be gathered up once and for all through a finite set of well-designed experiments. As Schroedinger remarked,
All this information goes back ultimately to the sense perceptions of some living person or persons, however many ingenious devices may have been used to facilitate the labour... The most careful record, when not inspected, tells us nothing.
Given this re-positioning of science within what can only be described as an unscientific context (i.e. the biases of culture, history, sensory input and neural interpretation), some people working in the field of psychotherapy have begun to call for a broadening of acceptable methodology, specifically, the increased use of qualitative data:
Carl Rogers [who developed person-centred therapy], for instance, has emphasised the necessity to develop a methodology which, while upholding the precision and the formal elegance of the behavioural sciences, will not turn a blind eye to the subjective experience of individuals.11
Secondly, Buddhism acknowledges that conventional truth is valid and useful. It only becomes an obstacle to enlightenment when it is confused with ultimate truth. Thus for Buddhists, one may live one’s life on the basis of scientific laws without assuming that truth ends with that law. One may successfully drive a car to the office and at the same time understand that both oneself and one’s car are empty of inherent existence: "these are merely names, expressions, turns of speech, designations in common use in the world, which the Tathagata uses without misapprehending them"12 .
The Buddhism that is written down and taught is also considered by Buddhists to be conventional truth. It is, to use a well-known Zen expression, a finger pointing at the moon - it is not the moon itself.
Given Buddhism’s recognition of different levels of truth, and science’s repositioning within a postmodern context, there is room for interaction. As Pickering explains,
The postmodern condition is one of radical pluralism in which new meaning is synthesised in conversations between different traditions. No one view or intellectual framework is final nor can its conceptual vocabulary predominate.==End quote from Buddhism and Western Psychology at bit.ly/1R2hRTc
History of Buddhism and Western Psychology
bit.ly/1NZJEOq
The Buddha’s Influence in the Therapy Room
bit.ly/1NWyiNd
Quote== The sharpest and most challenging contention of Buddhism, though, is that we don't have a soul. Phrased in more psychological terms, there is no self. This needs to be understood as a consequence of the Buddhist understanding of impermanence. Buddha made the astute observation that everything is impermanent. This is easy to understand from the perspective of contemporary Western science. Even the Himalayas once weren't, until an island continent we know as India today crashed into Eurasia in much the same way Indian thought has smacked into the Western thought beginning the creation of who knows what sort of Himalayas of understanding yet to come. But it will be different.
As apparent as the truth of impermanence is everywhere else, it is a difficult one to accept within the field of personality. We would still like to cling to the belief that there is something of us that is permanent through life. The Jamesian 'me' may change, but must the 'I' change too (James,1890/1964)? Is there no changeless transcendental knower?
A compromise may be offered in the understanding of the self as a process. Processes may have identity, at least for convenience. More importantly, from kamma it is understood that one moment conditions the next. There is continuity. I experience guilt when I remember an unskillful action taken by me in the past. Even if I am deluded in believing myself to be my self, there is no denying that the unskillful action was an event occurring in an ongoing process. This process is not determined -- conditioned, perhaps, but there is agency, there are feelings, and there is cognition. This process has all the properties of the trilogy of mind, and satisfies all the criteria of the ethico-legal perspective of personhood (Paranjpe, 1995). Therefore, while there may be no permanent unchanging self, there is still a person who is eligible for responsibilities and privileges as a participant in human society.==End quote from Buddhist Psychology at bit.ly/1MLlg0X
Excerpts== The reception of foreign systems of thought can open new doors for dialog and co-operation. This is what has been happening concerning Buddhism and psychology since Buddhist teachers have arrived in Western societies. Currently, almost all streams of psychology and psychotherapy have noticed and reflected Buddhist psychological theory and many of them have integrated parts of the Buddhist teachings in their own theoretical and practical work…… In the Mind and Life Conferences these topics are addressed in a dialog of world renowned scientists and Buddhist authorities, according to the principle of "a mutually respectful working collaboration and research partnerships between modern science and Buddhism - two of the world's most fruitful traditions for understanding the nature of reality and promoting human well-being"--Mind and Life XVIII directs to "The Self, Mental Causation and Free Will: Exchanges between Science and Buddhism on the Human Mind" (Mind & Life Institute, www.mindandlife.org/, 2008/10/08). That there is a prolific dialog for both sides can be observed by the statement of His Holiness the XIV. Dalai Lama that Buddhism must be open for change, if there are scientific results which clearly imply a modification of certain Buddhist attitudes.==
And
== Other ground-breaking movements in Western Buddhism are Buddhist chaplaincy programs which are intended to address current burning problems in the societal surroundings and the interdependent global connection of harmful developments. Areas as prison work, end of life care, or environmental protection are dealt with from a Buddhist standpoint in connection with sciences.
In many cases, psychology is one of the most fitting Western systems to build a frame for dialog with newer developments in Buddhism, because Buddhism always sets off from individual experience which is in a deeper way seen as non-divided, non-dualistic, and connected with all phenomena. But only the individual itself can experience non-distinction--the modern scientific definition of psychology, as a science of experience and behavior of the individual, is therefore a link to Buddhism as a psychological and ethical system.====From Buddhism As a Psychological System: Three Approaches at bit.ly/22CDFcf
[Note from Marcia: the Mind and Life Conferences are part of the Dalai Lama’s Mind and Life Institute, which has been gathering together neuro-scientists and other scientists for many years and has exerted an impactful influence on those fields].
More articles
bit.ly/1Opmncb
BOOKS
Already Free: Buddhism Meets Psychotherapy on the Path of Liberation
Jun 1, 2015
by Bruce Tift and Tami Simon
The Wise Heart: A Guide to the Universal Teachings of Buddhist Psychology
May 19, 2009
by Jack Kornfield (Kornfield is Buddhist; I read him when I was in the New Age-Buddhist zone)
Thoughts Without a Thinker
Mark Epstein, M.D.
MindScience: An East-West Dialogue Paperback – November 1, 1999
by His Holiness the Dalai Lama (Author), Herbert Benson (Author), Howard Gardner, and Daniel Goleman
[Note: Herbert Benson helped to pave the way for the use of Eastern meditation as stress reduction in his books, which I've read]
Toward a Psychology of Awakening: Buddhism, Psychotherapy, and the Path of Personal and Spiritual Transformation
Feb 12, 2002
by John Welwood
Unlimiting Mind: The Radically Experiential Psychology of Buddhism
Apr 20, 2010
by Andrew Olendzki and John Tarran
The Meditative Mind
By Daniel Goleman [Note: I read this book as a New Ager]
(Part 4 of this book “examines the spiritual psychology of meditation, and its ‘potential for cross-fertilization with western psychology.’ It was originally written for psychologists in order to introduce them to non-Western systems of psychological theory. The Buddhist scholastic tradition of the Abhidhamma, which attempted to systematize and clarify the Buddha’s teachings, is the main focus. The overview of Abhidhamma (unlike the Abhidhamma itself!) is engrossing, and offers an overview of Buddhist personality theory, and a map of the Buddhist conception of mental health. The enlightened individual is then presented as the exemplar of religious views of the ideal of human “peak performance” and this is contrasted with the history of western psychology’s obsession with psychological disfunction, and compared with the way in which some western psychological theory has sometimes seen the healthy individual in terms very similar to those of the Buddhist tradition” from bit.ly/1NWAhRA)
Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom Paperback – November 1, 2009
by Rick Hanson
The Essence of Jung's Psychology and Tibetan Buddhism: Western and Eastern Paths to the Heart
Jun 1, 2002
by Radmila Moacanin
Buddhist Psychology and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy: A Clinician's Guide
Nov 18, 2015
by Dennis Tirch PhD and Laura R. Silberstein PsyD
The Positive Psychology of Buddhism and Yoga, 2nd Edition: Paths to A Mature Happiness
Jul 16, 2009
by Marvin Levine
ZEN PSYCHOLOGY In A Nutshell: Enlightening Insights & Perspectives For Living Mindfully
Aug 4, 2015
by Matzke PhD, Dr. Dan
The Psychology of Awakening: Buddhism, Science, and Our Day-to-Day Lives
Feb 1, 2000
by Gay Watson
Encountering Buddhism: Western Psychology and Buddhist Teachings
May 8, 2003
by Seth Robert Segall
Reflections of Mind: Western Psychology Meets Tibetan Buddhism (Nyingma Psychology Series)
Jan 1, 1975
by Tarthang Tulku
Journal
Spring Journal, Vol. 89, Spring 2013, Buddhism and Depth Psychology: Refining the Encounter (Spring Journal: A...
Jun 14, 2013
by Nancy Cater and Polly Young-Eisendrath
~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Why I Ditched Buddhism"
slate.me/1tWnQOD
CANA Article on Buddhism and Christianity
bit.ly/1Opc6KC
Posted with permission:
by Marcia Montenegro
Under the above phrase, “Buddhist Influence on Western Psychology,” Google gives 1,330,000 results the day I did the search, Jan. 1, 2016. So please understand this list is just a tiny drop in the bucket. In light of my recent post on psychologist Daniel Goleman, I list these (some with excerpts) to give evidence for my continuing claims that Eastern influences on Western culture are strong and have been quite impactful on Western psychology. I don’t think many realize this and there has been some but mostly very little challenge to it. While the articles listed below point out differences, they also endorse the idea that Buddhism and psychology can be integrated and/or that psychology can benefit from Buddhist concepts. The Buddhist worldview, however, is as far from Western thinking as possible and is vigorously opposed to a Christian worldview. Below this list of articles are some books on the topic.
ARTICLES
Buddha philosophy and Western Psychology
1.usa.gov/1NWxVSK
Buddhism and Western Psychology: Fundamentals of Integration
bit.ly/1JjXdLO
This excerpt explains that due to the postmodern influence on science, science can now accommodate Buddhist views:
Quote== Although both science and Buddhism are concerned with truth then, their two approaches to its apprehension and comprehension are significantly different. Because of this one could perhaps conclude that there is no possibility for fruitful interaction between the two. Science, it would seem, sees the world as something external, which can be observed and understood. The inner life of the scientist is irrelevant to achieving understanding. Buddhism on the other hand sees one’s perception as a fundamental part of the process. If one’s perception is warped, there is no possibility of correctly interpreting data gathered from ‘outside’.
The approach of science and of Buddhism are not quite as mutually exclusive as this however. This is true for two reasons. Firstly, the ‘purist’ picture of science painted above is now a little dated. The postmodernism of the twentieth century has placed science firmly within a cultural and historical context7. It’s beliefs and assumptions are now generally recognised to be no less free of culture and history than those of any other belief system. This has meant that some scientists are now far more open to interaction with other approaches to knowledge:
Pluralism does not imply integration, but rather the holding within one view of a multiplicity of perspectives. The objective of postmodern psychology is not that of modernist science, namely, to create a unified theory of the mind. Rather it is to bring together the complementary resources of different traditions in order that new understanding may emerge from their interaction.8
Further, the scientific community has come to realise that the optimism of its earlier years was perhaps unfounded, or at the very least premature - "towards the end of the [19th] century some physicists even advised students against entering the subject since it was nearly finished."9
Complete understanding through science does not appear to be getting any nearer. Truth is not something external to and independent of the scientist, to be gathered up once and for all through a finite set of well-designed experiments. As Schroedinger remarked,
All this information goes back ultimately to the sense perceptions of some living person or persons, however many ingenious devices may have been used to facilitate the labour... The most careful record, when not inspected, tells us nothing.
Given this re-positioning of science within what can only be described as an unscientific context (i.e. the biases of culture, history, sensory input and neural interpretation), some people working in the field of psychotherapy have begun to call for a broadening of acceptable methodology, specifically, the increased use of qualitative data:
Carl Rogers [who developed person-centred therapy], for instance, has emphasised the necessity to develop a methodology which, while upholding the precision and the formal elegance of the behavioural sciences, will not turn a blind eye to the subjective experience of individuals.11
Secondly, Buddhism acknowledges that conventional truth is valid and useful. It only becomes an obstacle to enlightenment when it is confused with ultimate truth. Thus for Buddhists, one may live one’s life on the basis of scientific laws without assuming that truth ends with that law. One may successfully drive a car to the office and at the same time understand that both oneself and one’s car are empty of inherent existence: "these are merely names, expressions, turns of speech, designations in common use in the world, which the Tathagata uses without misapprehending them"12 .
The Buddhism that is written down and taught is also considered by Buddhists to be conventional truth. It is, to use a well-known Zen expression, a finger pointing at the moon - it is not the moon itself.
Given Buddhism’s recognition of different levels of truth, and science’s repositioning within a postmodern context, there is room for interaction. As Pickering explains,
The postmodern condition is one of radical pluralism in which new meaning is synthesised in conversations between different traditions. No one view or intellectual framework is final nor can its conceptual vocabulary predominate.==End quote from Buddhism and Western Psychology at bit.ly/1R2hRTc
History of Buddhism and Western Psychology
bit.ly/1NZJEOq
The Buddha’s Influence in the Therapy Room
bit.ly/1NWyiNd
Quote== The sharpest and most challenging contention of Buddhism, though, is that we don't have a soul. Phrased in more psychological terms, there is no self. This needs to be understood as a consequence of the Buddhist understanding of impermanence. Buddha made the astute observation that everything is impermanent. This is easy to understand from the perspective of contemporary Western science. Even the Himalayas once weren't, until an island continent we know as India today crashed into Eurasia in much the same way Indian thought has smacked into the Western thought beginning the creation of who knows what sort of Himalayas of understanding yet to come. But it will be different.
As apparent as the truth of impermanence is everywhere else, it is a difficult one to accept within the field of personality. We would still like to cling to the belief that there is something of us that is permanent through life. The Jamesian 'me' may change, but must the 'I' change too (James,1890/1964)? Is there no changeless transcendental knower?
A compromise may be offered in the understanding of the self as a process. Processes may have identity, at least for convenience. More importantly, from kamma it is understood that one moment conditions the next. There is continuity. I experience guilt when I remember an unskillful action taken by me in the past. Even if I am deluded in believing myself to be my self, there is no denying that the unskillful action was an event occurring in an ongoing process. This process is not determined -- conditioned, perhaps, but there is agency, there are feelings, and there is cognition. This process has all the properties of the trilogy of mind, and satisfies all the criteria of the ethico-legal perspective of personhood (Paranjpe, 1995). Therefore, while there may be no permanent unchanging self, there is still a person who is eligible for responsibilities and privileges as a participant in human society.==End quote from Buddhist Psychology at bit.ly/1MLlg0X
Excerpts== The reception of foreign systems of thought can open new doors for dialog and co-operation. This is what has been happening concerning Buddhism and psychology since Buddhist teachers have arrived in Western societies. Currently, almost all streams of psychology and psychotherapy have noticed and reflected Buddhist psychological theory and many of them have integrated parts of the Buddhist teachings in their own theoretical and practical work…… In the Mind and Life Conferences these topics are addressed in a dialog of world renowned scientists and Buddhist authorities, according to the principle of "a mutually respectful working collaboration and research partnerships between modern science and Buddhism - two of the world's most fruitful traditions for understanding the nature of reality and promoting human well-being"--Mind and Life XVIII directs to "The Self, Mental Causation and Free Will: Exchanges between Science and Buddhism on the Human Mind" (Mind & Life Institute, www.mindandlife.org/, 2008/10/08). That there is a prolific dialog for both sides can be observed by the statement of His Holiness the XIV. Dalai Lama that Buddhism must be open for change, if there are scientific results which clearly imply a modification of certain Buddhist attitudes.==
And
== Other ground-breaking movements in Western Buddhism are Buddhist chaplaincy programs which are intended to address current burning problems in the societal surroundings and the interdependent global connection of harmful developments. Areas as prison work, end of life care, or environmental protection are dealt with from a Buddhist standpoint in connection with sciences.
In many cases, psychology is one of the most fitting Western systems to build a frame for dialog with newer developments in Buddhism, because Buddhism always sets off from individual experience which is in a deeper way seen as non-divided, non-dualistic, and connected with all phenomena. But only the individual itself can experience non-distinction--the modern scientific definition of psychology, as a science of experience and behavior of the individual, is therefore a link to Buddhism as a psychological and ethical system.====From Buddhism As a Psychological System: Three Approaches at bit.ly/22CDFcf
[Note from Marcia: the Mind and Life Conferences are part of the Dalai Lama’s Mind and Life Institute, which has been gathering together neuro-scientists and other scientists for many years and has exerted an impactful influence on those fields].
More articles
bit.ly/1Opmncb
BOOKS
Already Free: Buddhism Meets Psychotherapy on the Path of Liberation
Jun 1, 2015
by Bruce Tift and Tami Simon
The Wise Heart: A Guide to the Universal Teachings of Buddhist Psychology
May 19, 2009
by Jack Kornfield (Kornfield is Buddhist; I read him when I was in the New Age-Buddhist zone)
Thoughts Without a Thinker
Mark Epstein, M.D.
MindScience: An East-West Dialogue Paperback – November 1, 1999
by His Holiness the Dalai Lama (Author), Herbert Benson (Author), Howard Gardner, and Daniel Goleman
[Note: Herbert Benson helped to pave the way for the use of Eastern meditation as stress reduction in his books, which I've read]
Toward a Psychology of Awakening: Buddhism, Psychotherapy, and the Path of Personal and Spiritual Transformation
Feb 12, 2002
by John Welwood
Unlimiting Mind: The Radically Experiential Psychology of Buddhism
Apr 20, 2010
by Andrew Olendzki and John Tarran
The Meditative Mind
By Daniel Goleman [Note: I read this book as a New Ager]
(Part 4 of this book “examines the spiritual psychology of meditation, and its ‘potential for cross-fertilization with western psychology.’ It was originally written for psychologists in order to introduce them to non-Western systems of psychological theory. The Buddhist scholastic tradition of the Abhidhamma, which attempted to systematize and clarify the Buddha’s teachings, is the main focus. The overview of Abhidhamma (unlike the Abhidhamma itself!) is engrossing, and offers an overview of Buddhist personality theory, and a map of the Buddhist conception of mental health. The enlightened individual is then presented as the exemplar of religious views of the ideal of human “peak performance” and this is contrasted with the history of western psychology’s obsession with psychological disfunction, and compared with the way in which some western psychological theory has sometimes seen the healthy individual in terms very similar to those of the Buddhist tradition” from bit.ly/1NWAhRA)
Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom Paperback – November 1, 2009
by Rick Hanson
The Essence of Jung's Psychology and Tibetan Buddhism: Western and Eastern Paths to the Heart
Jun 1, 2002
by Radmila Moacanin
Buddhist Psychology and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy: A Clinician's Guide
Nov 18, 2015
by Dennis Tirch PhD and Laura R. Silberstein PsyD
The Positive Psychology of Buddhism and Yoga, 2nd Edition: Paths to A Mature Happiness
Jul 16, 2009
by Marvin Levine
ZEN PSYCHOLOGY In A Nutshell: Enlightening Insights & Perspectives For Living Mindfully
Aug 4, 2015
by Matzke PhD, Dr. Dan
The Psychology of Awakening: Buddhism, Science, and Our Day-to-Day Lives
Feb 1, 2000
by Gay Watson
Encountering Buddhism: Western Psychology and Buddhist Teachings
May 8, 2003
by Seth Robert Segall
Reflections of Mind: Western Psychology Meets Tibetan Buddhism (Nyingma Psychology Series)
Jan 1, 1975
by Tarthang Tulku
Journal
Spring Journal, Vol. 89, Spring 2013, Buddhism and Depth Psychology: Refining the Encounter (Spring Journal: A...
Jun 14, 2013
by Nancy Cater and Polly Young-Eisendrath
~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Why I Ditched Buddhism"
slate.me/1tWnQOD
CANA Article on Buddhism and Christianity
bit.ly/1Opc6KC
Posted with permission:
!!
