Buddhist Psychology - Lessons from Eastern Culture

The 14th Dalai Lama

• Thrust into larger world than previous Dalai Lamas, he has met world leaders and renowned scientists

The History of Buddhism

• Established 2500 years ago, when Siddhartha Gautama reportedly reached “enlightenment” after years of trying

• Living life of privilege, Gautama left wife/child. He saw people suffering for 1st time

• Trying to take a religious path, he practiced both brutal self-mortification (fasting, etc.) and indulgent living.

  • Neither extreme was satisfying

Siddhartha Gautama

• Found peace through meditation and living in the “middle ground” (neither self-mortification or –indulgence).

  • Meditation helps people understand how to get rid of suffering by giving up unrealistic illusions and one’s desires.

Buddhism

• We study it as psychology, not as a religion

  • Buddhism does not ask people to accept the idea of a god or the teachings of anyone in particular

• Buddhism urges self-control and worldly- and self-understanding through meditation

• Buddhism suggests that the mind is “central and causal”; it affects physical structures (e.g., the brain) and not visa versa

Buddhism: The Four Noble Truths

• “There is Suffering”

  • Although all people experience unhappiness, we are not aware of the extent of suffering in the world. This is an illusion.

  • We must permit suffering into our conscious experience and not push it aside, which is typical.

  • We must focus on the experience of suffering in others, and not focus on the self – the notion of self is an illusion as well (as we’ll see later)

The 2nd Noble Truth: The Origin of Suffering

• Craving for, or the attachment to, desires

• At its root, we are ignorant of what will make us happy (Need proof? Read Stumbling on Happiness, by Daniel Gilbert)

• People are caught up in samsara, the “Wheel of Suffering” (“If only . . .”)

• Ignorant craving and bad behavior prevent nirvana and continue the cycle of rebirth (more later)

3 Kinds of “Ignorant Desires”

• Sensory Pleasure

  • E.g., sexual gratification

• To “continue to exist”

  • E.g., ambitions for great success (narcissism)

• Annihilation

  • E.g., getting rid of annoying people or negative moods

Where does suffering come from?

The 3rd Noble Truth: The End of Suffering

• Detachment from Craving is the key!

  • Meditation allows us to identify our attachments, examine them, and release them

  • Must be made conscious of them before we can let them go

• What types of attachments?

  • Craving material goods

  • Sexual gratification

  • “Possessing” (i.e., “controlling”) other people

• People who end their cycle of suffering are called arahants

  • Act with great compassion

  • Considered teachers/advisors

The 4th Noble Truth: The Eightfold Path

• Take the “middle way”

  • Avoid extremes of mortification or indulgence

    • To do so, must take “middle” path with regard to 8 aspects of life

The Eightfold Way

• Having the right (i.e., “middle”):

  • Views

    • Accurate perceptions

  • Intentions

    • Acceptance of realities rather than cravings

  • Speech

    • Assertive, but respectful

  • Actions

    • Live simply and respectfully

  • Livelihood

    • Work that is meaningful, ethical

  • Effort

    • Disciplined, but allow for play and rejuvenation

  • Mindfulness

    • Be aware of larger picture

  • Concentration

    • Be fully involved in the moment; self, others, and environment are not distinct; live in harmony

Buddhism and “the self” or “ego”

• The Self is impermanent

• When we think of our “selves,” we are deluded. There is no enduring, separate Self (this notion is termed anatta).

  • We are constantly changing . . . “like a wave in the ocean, it appears and then disappears; it is part of the whole, not separate, identity.”

  • Also, our identities change across lives (rebirth; more on that later)

The goal is to reach…

• Nirvana

  • Represents “the final annihilation of all ‘selfhood’ and attachments, the causes of suffering”

  • People who achieve nirvana escape the samsara

Transcience and Mortality

• Things are constantly changing

  • Meditation helps one realize this

• If one do not recognize this, s/he may experience fears of:

  • Loss

  • Death

• There is rebirth in the current world (not, say, heaven), with spiritual progression (or regression) from one lifetime to the next depending on one’s:

  • Karma: Refers to intention and volitional activity; People’s intentions affect this lifetime and beyond

  • Karma provides an incentive for good behavior, but can also be used to tolerate the plight of those in lower social status, reasoning that they deserve their suffering

Consciousness

• Frequently, consciousness is chaotic – ideas change rapidly and we can be overwhelmed with thoughts

  • Mediation helps ones control his/her mind

• Lucid dreaming during meditation: the dreamer is conscious of dreaming and can help guide the dream

• Meditation, and the consequent control of thoughts, leads to “awakening”:

  • Recognizing the true nature of things and the path for achieving one’s true nature (becoming a Buddha)

  • Enlightenment comes later, when one overcomes imperfections and delusions by following the path

Emotions

• Happiness

• Anger

• Love

Happiness

• Lasting happiness (sukha) is what Buddhists strive for, but it is difficult to obtain

• Comes from internal sources, not from external things or experiences

  • Momentary pleasures often have opposite long-term effects – junk food, drugs, passionate encounters, etc.

Anger

• Buddhism is one of world’s “unangry religions”

  • there is no place for anger

  • Buddhists strive for tranquility and peace

• Anger is diminished when a person’s sense of Self expands to include compassionate identification with others

Love

• Sexual passion is accepted in the context of love and commitment

• Buddhism warns against other sexual passions, as it disturbs the calmness of one’s mind

The Three Poisons

• Passion

  • Trying to possess what we desire

• Anger/Aggression

  • Rejecting an object or person

• Ignorance

  • Avoid or are indifferent towards someone or something

Remind you of anything?

Interpersonal Relationships

• Compassion

  • Comes naturally with the realization that a separate Self is an illusion

  • When there is no separate Self, the suffering of others is not separate from us

  • People should expand the concept of Self to include a smaller network of friends —> all humans —> all creatures (difficult to do)

• Peace

  • A person who moves toward inner peace creates a more peaceful world

Spiritual Practices

• Meditation – the most followed practice

  • Attention is consciously regulated to achieve insight and enhance well-being

  • May be focused (often on breathing, called concentrative meditation)

  • May be unfocused (allowing thoughts and sensations to arise spontaneously, called mindfulness meditation)

  • Meditation generally has calming/joyful effect

    • Davidson’s left-right frontal research

Effects of Meditation

• After meditation, people show greater:

  • Focused attention

  • Creativity

  • Better able to regulate their emotions

• People react less quickly to stimuli, preventing themselves from being simple “stimulus-response” creatures. Rather, they become “stimulus – process – response” creatures

• After meditation, people show greater:

  • Focused attention

  • Creativity

  • Better able to regulate their emotions

• Meditators have decreased emotional response to “negative” stimuli

Treatments

• Meditation has become a popular alternative form of treatment for stress-related pathology including:

  • Hypertension

  • Headaches

  • Insomnia

• Mediation reduces stress and increases relaxation:

  • Decreased HR

  • Decreased respiration rate / inspiratory depth

  • Decreased BP

  • Decreased cortisol (stress hormone)

  • Increases left-frontal brain activation