The Positive Psychology of Buddhism and Yoga

Paths to A Mature Happiness

Marvin Levine

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2011
• ISBN:
  9781136910555
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Psychologie
• Subtopic: Histoire et théorie en psychologie

This book describes Buddhist-Yogic ideas in relation to those of contemporary Western psychology. The book begins with the Buddhist view of the human psyche and of the human condition. This leads to the question of what psychological changes need to be made to improve that condition. Similarities between Buddhism and Western Psychology include:

Both are concerned with alleviating inner pain, turmoil, affliction and suffering.

Both are humanistic and naturalistic in that they focus on the human condition and interpret it in natural terms.

Both view the human being as caught in a causal framework, in a matrix of forces such as cravings or drives which are produced by both our biology and our beliefs.

Both teach the appropriatenss of compassion, concern and unconditional positive regard towards others.

Both share the ideal of maturing or growth. In the East and the West, this is interpreted as greater self possession, diminished cravings and agitations, less impulsivity and deeper observations which permit us to monitor and change our thoughts and emotional states.

Buddhism, Yoga, and Western Psychology, especially the recent emphasis on positive psychology, are concerned with the attainment of deep and lasting happiness. The thesis of all three is that self-transformation is the surest path to this happiness.

Section I
Buddhism

1
King Ashoka’s Question

What Is Your Secret?

The following legend is told of King Ashoka, a powerful ruler in India at about 250 B.C.E.:

A messenger, sent by the master of the royal torture chamber, informed the king of a remarkable event. A heretic, although being tortured, showed complete indifference to the pain. The king was immediately interested and went himself to witness this phenomenon. Inside the desolate room he saw, in a pot of vigorously boiling water, an old man. This gentleman was chatting affably with the servants who were attempting to make the flames even hotter. When the king recovered from his astonishment, he ordered that the man be released and escorted to the palace.

Later at the palace the king had an interview with the fellow, now dressed in the saffron robe of a Buddhist monk. Ashoka began by asking, “What is your secret?”

According to the legend, the monk replied by telling the king about the Buddha and Buddhist teachings—how these liberated him from all suffering. Ashoka then had the monk instruct him in these teachings. The king converted to Buddhism and made it the national religion. He himself changed from a despotic conqueror into a beneficent ruler.

2
Maturity and Serenity

Tibet, a country that was entirely Buddhist, was invaded in 1949 by the Chinese. They then began the forcible conversion of this land into a Marxist state. The Dalai Lama, the country’s spiritual leader, and many of the Buddhist monks escaped into exile. Since then, the Dalai Lama has traveled tirelessly trying to persuade the UN and various governments to pressure the Chinese into leaving Tibet. In a television interview a reporter asked the Dalai Lama: “Aren’t you ever angry at the Chinese?” The Dalai Lama replied: “They stole my country. Why should I let them steal my mind?”

During another interview about Tibet he said, “The enemy can be very important. The enemy teaches you patience.”

What do we mean by the term maturity, as in “He behaved in a mature way?” What do we mean by serenity? We associate these states with wisdom and peace of mind and generally regard them as ideals to be attained. Yet no one teaches us how to attain them. What produces mature behavior and serenity? Are there particular experiences we need? Are there techniques that, if faithfully applied, will produce them? How can one attain wisdom, peace, patience, and freedom from anger, even when one is in the midst of life’s struggles?

As the stories of the Dalai Lama suggest, these questions are taken very seriously in the East. Buddhism and Yoga have striven for thousands of years not only to answer such questions, but also to develop techniques for attaining this maturity, this in-the-world serenity.

We will begin our quest for this goal as they do in the East, at the opposite end: We will begin by understanding psychological suffering, i.e., the experience of suffering. We will be concerned with knowing how such suffering may be minimized and even eliminated. This apparent detour, according to the Eastern view, is really the start of the path to the goal. We will discuss suffering not merely theoretically but concretely, in terms of your and my pain, distress, frustration, etc. We will consider its various flare-ups and chronic forms. The chief starting questions are: What is the nature of this suffering? What causes it? What alleviates and puts an end to it?

In an effort to answer these questions, Buddhist and Hindu concepts of human nature, as they developed in India more than 2,000 years ago, are reviewed. In addition, these concepts will periodically be compared to relevant Western psychological ideas, for I clearly perceive an affinity between these Eastern views and the Western scientific view of human nature.

At the outset, let us acknowledge a basic similarity. The Western system of psychotherapy, with its various theoretical underpinnings, such as behaviorism or psychoanalysis, has as its fundamental concern the understanding and alleviating of psychological suffering. So also does Buddhism. The great questions of suffering—its nature, cause, and alleviation—have motivated into being the entire religion.

Given, then, two worldviews with the same concerns, we should not be surprised that they have some similarity or that they complement each other. As we review the Buddhist (and later the Yogic) system, I’ll pause periodically to present some relevant Western conception or method. Typically, these will be found at the end of the appropriate chapters.

FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

1. In one form of the legend described in Chapter 1, when Ashoka asks, “What is your secret?” the monk first replies, “What do you mean? What secret?” Do you find that an odd response? What does it imply?

2. One meaning of mature, of course, is “older.” But another meaning is a compliment, as when we say of a child, “He behaved in a mature way,” or of an adult, “That was a mature decision.” Using this second meaning, give a specific example of an adult person’s action in some situation where you might compliment him using the word mature. Now give a general definition of the word mature when used as a compliment.

3. Sometimes we use the word immature as a criticism (“You’re behaving in an immature way!”). What is the meaning of immature when used as a criticism?

3
The Story of Siddhartha

Like Jesus and Mohammed, the Buddha is a historical figure around whom a religion arose. The following story of his life is commonly told:

About 2,600 years ago, the ruler of a small Indian state fathered a son whom he named Siddhartha Gautama. Legend has it that at his birth, it was prophesied that Prince Siddhartha would grow up to be either a great king or a great spiritual leader. Siddhartha’s father was clear about his own desires: He wanted his son to be a great king. To this end, the king had his son brought up with definite restrictions. Siddhartha was to be trained in the warrior and governing arts. He was not to receive religious teachings or to know the hardships of life. The father even feared the effects upon Siddhartha of the poverty and misery that might be seen in the surrounding towns. He therefore restricted him to the palace grounds. Until he grew to adulthood, Siddhartha did not regard this as confinement, for the grounds extended for miles and included beautiful parks and streams. The most pleasurable entertainments and the friendship of noble children were all his, and he had the status as the king’s heir. He thus flourished within these golden walls. When Siddhartha was a young man, his father attached him further to the royal life by having him marry a beautiful princess. Not long after, they had a son.

Siddhartha, now in his 20s, was fully aware of the confined life he had been living. He had simply obeyed his father and had stayed within the palace grounds. Nevertheless, he finally persuaded his father that he, the prince, should view the lands and people that he would one day rule. The king agreed and set a date for Siddhartha’s excursion to the nearby villages.

The king, however, took no chances. He sent word to the surrounding communities about the upcoming visit. He ordered that a festive welcome was to be given to his son, that on that day none but the young and healthy were to be seen in their finest, most colorful dress. The old, the sick, and the dying were to be hidden away.

For all his precautions, however, the king failed. The selected day arrives. The prince leaves the palace in a chariot, escorted by Channa, his charioteer. The people, vigorous and colorfully arrayed, line the streets. Siddhartha is, of course, dazzled by the beauty and admiration of the crowd. Suddenly, however, there appears a half-naked man, covered with oozing sores, emaciated from illness, collapsed on the ground. Siddhartha stops the chariot and inquires of Channa what that might be. Is that a human being? Channa replies that he is indeed a human, but that he is ill. Siddhartha asks what it means to be so ill. Is this some sort of punishment? Channa replies that it is not. What has happened to him could happen to any of us. “Even to me?” “Even to you, Oh Prince.”

They ride on through the youthful, cheering throng when a second momentous event occurs. There appears an ancient, decrepit man, wrinkled, eyes clouded over, hanging weakly on to a staff. Again, Siddhartha inquires, and again is informed that this is indeed a human and that his condition will be the condition of all of us who live for so many years.

A third event occurs soon after. In the midst of the festivities, a funeral procession appears. Siddhartha, puzzled by the grey, motionless corpse, is informed by Channa that this is death, that the life of every one of us will end in this way.

Siddhartha, troubled, decides to return to the palace. On the way back they pass a man simply dressed, carrying a bowl for begging. He is a forest hermit, a type of spiritual seeker common in India at that time. To Siddhartha, however, he is a novel and strange apparition. Channa explains that the man is one who has withdrawn from the world in order to better understand himself and the world. He follows a path of the spirit.

They reenter the palace, but these four events have transformed Siddhartha. He sees now the potential horrors lurking behind the glittering surface of palace life. He sees his own vulnerability to life’s sorrows and the pain that must be in the world. Remembering the fourth event, the forest hermit, he decides after a few weeks to become one of these. One night, taking tender leave of his sleeping wife and child, and without telling his father, he leaves the palace. Returning to where he had seen the monk, he gives away his expensive clothes and enters the forest, hoping to find kindred souls who might teach him.

Before continuing with the tale, let us note the symbolic significance of Siddhartha’s transformation. One might think that renunciation of the world is appropriate only for people who have little and are wretched to start with. Siddhartha, by his action, tells us that is not so. Even princely pleasures cannot compensate for the pain caused by ignorance of life. If we lack understanding, the richest, most luxurious life is not good enough.

We also can make here a comparison between West and East. Psychotherapy in the West is concerned with specific types of suffering: depression, phobias, obsessions, etc. The initial impulse to Buddhism begins with the more general framework of suffering: that derived from illness, aging, and the constant threat of death. As will be seen when we consider the teachings of the mature Buddha, the concept of suffering will be enlarged to cover not only this general framework, but also the clinician’s concerns as well as other kinds of pain.

In the forest, Siddhartha meets fellow seekers. He also finds teachers with whom he studies but who leave him ultimately unsatisfied. He and five other seekers like himself go off together and decide to practice a radical asceticism, literally starving themselves.

One day, when he is alone, Siddhartha faints from hunger. He is found by a young woman who revives and feeds him. Siddhartha realizes that asceticism was not leading him to the answers that he seeks. If anything, by so weakening him, it became a hindrance. As he had earlier rejected the life of pleasure, he now rejects the ascetic life. He understands that he is looking for something between the two, what he will later call The Middle Way.

With this in mind, he enters upon a great meditation. He emerges from it transformed. Not only has he seen to the heart of life, but he has formulated his insights as a doctrine. By this vision, this enlightenment, he realizes that he is now beyond the reach of the pain of life’s horrors, and is suffused by a profound serenity. This transformation is seen even in his outward behavior, with the result that people, sensing his wisdom and serenity, soon start calling him the Buddha, which means “the Awakened (or Enlightened) One.”

As the Buddha, he returns to his five colleagues in the forest and begins his teaching. They, struck by his remarkable contentment and b...