Buddhist Psychology

NEW COURSE: EATING ISSUES

2008-12-21T01:01:00.000-08:00

We are launching a month long course looking at attitudes to food, eating and body image. The programme includes exploratory exercises, guided meditations, and theoretical material based in the insights derived from Buddhist psychology. Participants join a supported peer group. Enrolment will be ongoing, with the first participants starting after Christmas.

This month long programme helps you to look at your eating behaviour and your relationship with your body in new ways. Through daily activities and reflections it helps you to understand some of the factors behind compulsive or restricted patterns of eating and to develop strategies to change your behaviour around food. The multi-media course uses meditations, work charts, guided fantasy exercises and practical experiments. It also contains theoretical and inspirational material related to the subject. Participants join an on-line support group and are given access to many resources. They remain registered after completion of the programme thus having access to an ongoing community of peers.

Check out details and register through the web page on: http://www.buddhistpsychology.info/eatingonline.html

GENETIC LEGACY

2007-02-03T17:17:00.000-08:00

I was fascinated by this item on the BBC new site today. Quite amazing how strong the instinct about our genetic origins is. Not only did both father and son sense the mistake that had been made, despite there apparently being no evidence other than their own intuition for the swap having happened. Also, the sister became convinced by the appearance of the young stranger of her lost brother's relationship, to the point where she initiated conversation that led to the uncovering of the mistake. The case, as disturbing as that of the boy brought up as a girl, gives yet more evidence that our sense of who we are is embodied and programmed from before birth, not learned.

A disturbing issue also raised incidentally by this article is the legal barrier the boy faces to renouncing Islam, such religious restriction so opposite to the path of faith.

Chance meeting solves baby mix-up
By Jonathan Kent BBC News, Kuala Lumpur
A Malaysian Chinese couple are considering taking legal action against a hospital for sending them home with the wrong baby nearly 30 years ago.
The couple, who had always suspected a mix-up, were reunited with their biological son after a chance meeting in a shopping centre.
But the family may now face a battle with Malaysia's religious authorities.
As well as taking a Chinese name, the son wants to renounce Islam - something which is very difficult in Malaysia.
Teo Ma Leong had always suspected his fifth child was not his own.
The young boy's dark features led neighbours to whisper that he was the result of an affair.
Meanwhile, Mr Teo's biological son had always suspected he was not really the child of the Malay Muslim couple who took him home from a hospital in Batu Pahat in southern Malaysia in 1978.
So Zulhaidi Omar left home at 13 because he felt he did not belong.
Supermarket spot
Then eight years ago one of his sisters spotted him working in a shopping centre.
Convinced he was the spitting image of their father, she brought the rest of her family along.
After staring at one another for a while they found the courage to speak and the truth emerged.
DNA tests subsequently proved that the two men were father and son.
Now the family has gone public with their story because Zulhaidi wishes to take a Chinese name and renounce Islam.
That is very difficult in Malaysia, where the Islamic authorities regard abandoning the faith as a grievous sin.
However the Malaysian government has started to encourage a more pragmatic approach from its religious departments, so the Teo family may yet be reunited in name as well as deed.

Is forgiveness a Buddhist concept?

2006-02-10T04:19:00.000-08:00

It is hard to argue for forgiveness as a Buddhist concept, even though it may seem superficially to be in line with Buddhist concepts of generosity, loving kindness and so on. Having said this, when I put "forgiveness" and "Buddhism" into google, plenty of references come up. I think this is basically an importation of judeo-christian values. Forgiveness is a concept that goes with divine authority. Compassion is a much more solidly Buddhist idea.

Can the therapist be neutral or are they always leading the client?

2006-01-23T06:57:00.000-08:00

I have to say I am very doubtful that we ever entirely give up leading the client. We may become less deliberately "leading" but I'm sure clients perceive our responses to things they say and adjust their direction accordingly. Also because our minds are conditioned we hear certain parts of the clients story more strongly. This leads us to reflect some things and not others.

If you take a class of students, or indeed any group of therapists, and ask them to listen to a piece of counselling, stop it, and ask them to write what they would say next, you will get quite a variety of answers. Ask them what you think the main themes are, significant insights are, or future direction is and you will get a similarly diverse set of responses.

Being neutral is impossible. Therapy is about interaction, not a monlogue. Whether this is leading or participating in a shared exploration can be debated, but I think the therapist certainly has a big influence on the process.

Skandha process: Majjhima Nikaya 149

2005-04-30T12:29:00.000-07:00

In today's course we were exploring skandha process by studying Majjhima Nikaya 149 In this sutra the Buddha talks about the way that the senses are conditioned, relating this to the development of the skandhas. One can draw a number of interesting conclusions from this sutra, which support the premises put forward in Buddhist Psychology cf that the different teachings of the Buddha can be mapped onto one another, and that they describe a process model.

In the sutra we find the following passage:
“Not knowing, not seeing (avidya) the eye as it actually is present; not knowing, not seeing forms (rupa)...consciousness(vijnana) at the eye...contact (sparsha) at the eye as they actually are present; not knowing, not seeing whatever arises conditioned (vedana) through contact at the eye -- experienced as pleasure, pain, or neither-pleasure-nor-pain -- as it actually is present, one is infatuated (entranced, samjna) with the eye...forms...consciousness at the eye...contact at the eye...whatever arises conditioned by contact at the eye and is experienced as pleasure, pain, or neither-pleasure-nor-pain.
"For him -- infatuated, attached, confused, not remaining focused on their drawbacks -- the five aggregates for sustenance head toward future accumulation. (through this process the Skandas grow) The craving that makes for further becoming -- accompanied by passion & delight, relishing now this & now that -- grows within him. His bodily disturbances & mental disturbances grow. His bodily torments & mental torments grow. His bodily distresses & mental distresses grow. He is sensitive both to bodily stress & mental stress.”

The above section from the sutra addresses the question of how the senses in their conditioned state (ie for the person in a state of avidya or not seeing) become hooked. The eye and the object of perception (rupa) are both conditioned, as is the eye-consciousness (eye-vijnana) and the eye contact (sparsha) with the perceved object. Through this process vedana arises, (which has positive, negative or neutral valancy) and through this, infatuation (samjna) is created.

This first paragraph shows elements from the skandha teaching (vijnana, rupa, vedana and samjna), combined with other elements familiar from the teaching of Dependant Origination (shadyatanas and sparsha) in a process description. Both these factors support the arguments for
1) a process interpretation of the skandha teaching, and
2) the overlap of meaning between the skandha teaching and that of Dependant Origination. Both of these key teachings describe the same cyclical process, but give attention to different aspects of that process, so can be combined in one model (see Buddhist Psychology)

The second paragraph above confirms that if a person becomes more enmeshed in this process, the skandhas “grow towards future accumulation”. In other words, the intensity of skandha attachment increases.

The sutra continues to describe a similar process associated with each of the other senses. In other words each of the senses is conditioned in a similar way and has its own skandha process.

Following this description of conditioned process, the sutra then moves on to the situation of one who is not taken in by the process, who sees the real situation and remains uninfatuated (asamjna). In this person's case, the sutra says that the skandhas will diminish. In other words, skandha process is, as we have suggested, something that can be increased or decreased – it is not an “all or nothing” process.

Finally the sutra talks of how someone who is able to reach this state will naturally acquire right view, right intention, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. In other words, these five elements of the eightfold path arise naturally from having let go of attachment of the skandhas. This however depends upon having previously established right action, right speech and right livelihood. In other words, the behavioural framework (sila) creates the conditions for the process of delusion to be perceived, and from recognising the nature of conditioning and its dangers, the spiritual life flows naturally. From this, all the higher spiritual states flow.

“Any view belonging to one who has come to be like this is his right view. Any resolve, his right resolve. Any effort, his right effort. Any mindfulness, his right mindfulness. Any concentration, his right concentration: just as earlier his actions, speech, & livelihood were already well-purified. “

Summer Course Block

2005-04-18T10:01:00.000-07:00

Summmer course block Breaking Through Delusion April 30th - May 8th

Places still available

The object world ; Dualistic delusion?

2005-03-08T09:15:00.000-08:00

Surely the delusion is that there are phenomena "out there" (sense objects) to be perceived and engaged, distinct from the perceiver. Using a dualistic understanding of objects being only separate, conditioned responses occur.

Although there are different understandings of this notion of separateness around in different Buddhist schools, my understanding would be that the problem lies not in our perception of objects as separate, but rather in our perception of them as extensions or indicators of self (Lakshanas). It is the extra bit we add to perception of the object that creates the delusional worlds and the self. If we could really perceive the object as "other" we would be viewing them cleanly. This is true emptiness: to see things as they are without the self element. The term "dualistic" which is much used in the West is very slippery. People use it in all sorts of ways, most of which do not relate to original Buddhist doctrine at all. I would see it as linking to the concept of vijnana - which I would see as the self-centred mentality. The implication of vijnana is that we divide the world into "me" and "not me", making ourselves a special case. In this understanding I would see the implication to be that we should indeed see the objects in te world as separate - more separate - and let go of our habit of appropriating them to our self-project.

On the beaches - Buddhist psychology at play

2005-02-15T09:17:00.000-08:00

from our Order web site Namo Amida Bu: "I have been going from tent to tent doing first aid or distributing shoes, essential, clothes or foodstuffs. People now are a bit OK, however one month on the beaches are still masses of rubble and deserted. I was given five kites in a bag of toys to give out, and I kept them and asked for a lot more. I got 100 and 100 small balls and on Sunday took a huge pied piper of children with some parents to the beach. People flew the kites quite happily. Some even went in the water. They seemed for the first time to have forgotten the Tsunami."
Amrita's account of working with Tsunami victims in Sri Lanka gives such a wonderful example of Buddhist psychology in action. Her approach is not to get people talking about the pain of the Tsunami (though of course there will be a time for such sharing) She gets them, without even realising it, going back to the scene of the disaster in a happy frame of action. The new seeds sown by such joyful play (action conditions our mentality far more deeply than words) help these folk to reclaim the beaches, even though never a word is said.

AMIDA TRUST: SPRING COURSE BLOCK

2005-02-11T10:19:00.000-08:00

Saying Goodbye, Facing Death 5-13 March 2005
Venue: The Buddhist House, 12 Coventry Rd, Narborough LE19 2GR * tel:0116.286.7474

For many Buddhists work with the dying and the bereaved is an important practice. Buddhists are often seen as particularly able to work in this field, perhaps because Buddhism offers a confident but flexible metaphyisic around death, but also because the calm brought by meditation and other mind-training techniques are often appreciated by the dying. This course block focuses on different aspects of work with dying and is offered in sections so that you may attend all or part.
SUPPORT FOR THE DYING: 5-6 March : Death makes life more vivid. Being with a person in the last days of their life can be deeply moving. It can also be formidably challenging. The dropping away of personal trappings that comes at the end of life can throw us into a naked encounter with our shared impermanence. Giving dignity to the process of death we touch the eternal. Accompanying a dying person is a process that demands support on many levels; there may be physical and intimate tasks, as well as experiences and feelings on verbal and non-verbal levels. Each death, as each life, is unique. We are never fully prepared. This first weekend will offer opportunities to share experiences, explore responses, and look at how to best be of service. It will look at the stages a person passes through in acknowledging terminal illness, the tasks to be accomplished and the final process of the last weeks and days.
DEATH, CULTURE AND UNIVERSALITY: 7-10 March: cultures accommodate and support the needs of the dying and the bereaved. Death is the great leveller. For example, mothers from different backgrounds sharing openly their experience at the loss of a child find a communion in shared humanity, transcending differences of race or history. Such experiences can build the foundations for peace between embittered communities as in the women's peace movement in Northern Ireland. At the same time some cultural differences in attitudes to death bring perplexity. The suicide bomber or the fight to the death to redeem family honour can be hard for some to understand. This practical section of the course block will give opportunities to research and explore different attitudes to dying and to draw on the rich legacy of human ritual to find tools that can be used for working with the dying and bereaved, both in Buddhist and in other cultures of the world. There will also be scope to examine personal reactions.
DAY RETREAT : 11 March In the midst of impermanence: a light that does not fade
Patacara, disciple of the Buddha, spoke this verse:
Lo! from my heart the hidden shaft is gone,
The shaft that nestled there, she hath removed,
And that consuming grief for my dead child
That poisoned all the life of me is slain.
Today my heart is healed, my yearning stayed. Perfected the deliverance wrought in me.
Lo! I for refuge to the Buddha go -
The only wise - His sangha and His Way.
Patacara had been crazed with grief until she found the Buddha. Following him she was able to say "my heart came back to me". This day retreat will be a chance to practice together and rediscover that light.
SUPPORTING THE BEREAVED: 12-13 March: Just as we all face our own mortality, so too we face the loss of people we love. This is the first Noble Truth. The problem of loss was the transformative seed that set the Buddha on his spiritual quest. At the same time bereavement brings severe mental distress that can transform into physical ill-health and flight into damaging behaviours. Acute or chronic, the grief that finds expression provides a door to healing and beyond it to spiritual maturity. This weekend will offer opportunities to talk about personal and universal responses to grief. It will look at established ways of understanding the grieving process and of supporting those caught in it, each with their unique needs.

BOOKING:
Send a deposit of £20 to The Buddhist House, 12 Coventry Rd, Narborough LE19 2GR
Cost: Dana plus accommodation @ twin room at £18 per full day (£10 if you bring a sleeping bag)

Morita therapy

2005-01-29T10:40:00.000-08:00

Helping with sickness

2005-01-29T10:02:00.000-08:00

my question is how can buddhist psychotherapy aid the sick? i'm working with this one on a personal level myself and am not sure how to cope/make sense when the body breaks down in some way and one's quality of daily life is affected.
Tharakesh asked this in response to my previous post.

I guess there is no simple answer. At one level, sickness is just as much an inevitable part of life as death - indeed the sick man was one of the four sights that the Buddha encountered, alongside death, which set him on his path. This "noble truth" is dukkha; it's just how it is. We get sick.

The first point, then, is that we do not have to feel ashamed of sickness. It will come and go, just like the vicissitudes of weather, and in a gross sort of way we cannot control it. Some people see sickness as something we do to ourselves, and go through lots of psychological contortions to try to determine what mental pathology might have caused it (was my cancer due to guilt? Does my deafness mean I don't want to hear?) Personally I feel quite disturbed by such approaches because not only do they assume we have much more control over the world we inhabit than we in fact do, a kind of grandiosity, but also they can be quite pernicious, making the person who is already suffering sickness feel responsible for their own symptoms.

This said, some illnesses do seem to have psychological causes, or at least to be exacerbated by psychological factors. Any illness can be compounded by our attitudes. Depending on their outlook, one person may be felled by an illness that another would take in their stride. Fear, unhappiness, anger, resentment of the symptoms, laziness or a whole range of other emotions can make us feel a whole lot worse. We mostly feel better when the sun shines. We hardly notice our toothache when we are in love.

Sometimes reflecting on our illness can bring us significant psychological messages or insights, though often I think it better, even where there is a psychological component, to dwell on the real element of the illness's physicality rather than getting bogged down in the psychological elements. This is a more typically Buddhist approach (rather similar to Morita methods)

And of course, even at a physical level, we do things that create illness or health. We can think of this in terms of karma and dependent origination. Whether it is at the gross level of smoking or overeating, or at more subtle levels of holding habitual body tensions, we create the conditions for our physical wellbeing.

February Course Block

2005-01-28T05:29:00.000-08:00

The February course block will be well attended. We can still take last minute bookings, but please let us know as soon as possible if you want to attend, particularly if you require accommodation.

How can Buddhist psychotherapy aid the dying?

2005-01-28T05:25:00.000-08:00

(Written for Buddhist Hospice Trust, UK)

Facing death is probably the deepest challenge which each of us faces in our spiritual lives. It can also be the greatest opportunity. The inevitability of death lies behind our living at all times, but for the most part we are able to avoid its reality through preoccupation with day to day activities and pleasures. Yet it was the sight of death that set the Buddha on his spiritual journey and became the heart of his insight. It can be the source of spiritual growth for all of us.

The Buddhist understanding of death, affliction and impermanence underlies a Buddhist approach to psychotherapy. Habitually we distract ourselves from the recognition of our own impermanent state, but in doing so we create compulsive and mind-dulling patterns of behaviour. This is what Buddhists refer to as avidya or ignorance. It is not seeing. In avoiding death we learn to avoid life. We do not see the beauty or love that surround us.

When death is near, whether it is our own or that of someone to whom we are close, some of these layers of avoidance may slip away. At this time, we may have an opportunity to see things more clearly. People going through the experience of closeness to death will often describe feeling more fully alive at this time than they have at any other point in their lives.

Buddhist psychotherapy is grounded in an understanding that aliveness comes, not through seeking ordinary comforts in life, but in facing our existential position with courage and faith. A Buddhist psychotherapist can be a source of strength and support at such a time, a midwife to the process. The familiar may be comforting, but if we can enter the space in which there are no certainties with confidence, we will live the time we have fully.

So we step into the unknown, holding no more than our faith, whatever this may be. In death we discover life.

Reflecting on perception

2005-01-05T13:38:00.000-08:00

Buddhist psychology is broadly phenomenological in its orientation. that is it looks at the way we perceive our world - and the way that perception is coloured - indeed the word "rupa" which is often translated as form would more correctly be translated as "colour" - in other words the colour we add to our perceptual objects.

I had a recent experience that led me to think about this issue of how we perecive, and how that perecption is far from simply being "how things are". It was a very simple, everyday incident, but these sorts of micro-examples help us to realise just how conditioned and conditional our view is. No doubt others, similarly, can identify experiences that brought home the subjectivity of quite ordinary "seeing". It is worth noticing such things lest we assume our perception IS reality.

I was organising my photos on a web page the other day. As thumbnails it was diffficult to make out the content of each image and the images were packed maybe twenty in view at a time.

Having loaded the images from a disc, a number of pictures were sideways on. I set about turning them. What struck me was that although I could recognise the subject of the image when it was sideways on, as soon as I turned it the right way, the images suddenly became super-clear to me. All the details stood out in a way that seemed even clearer than surrounding pictures that had not required turning. It was as if it leapt into three dimensional view, so great was the shift in my perception of it.

Such a perceptual shift illustrates the way the senses lock onto the familiar and reject the unfmiliar. They are not neutral, but conditioned and grasping. It is almost as if they were seeking to compensate for the prior confusion of the sideways view, and returning my perceptual world to the comfort of the familiar and easily recogniable.

Applications for courses

2005-01-02T02:22:00.000-08:00

If you are wanting to apply for attendance courses, there is still time to send in your application in order to join the course in February. Any students wishing to join the programme at the February course block should make sure their applications are with us within the next week or so. This is particularly important if you are applying for the Advanced Certificate or Diploma as we will need to send for references.

EVENTS IN NORTH AMERICA

2005-01-02T02:14:00.000-08:00

Caroline and David Brazier are about to set out to visit North America. They will be running events in Vancouver and Redding in January. These will include workshops on Buddhist Psychology which are open to the public, as well as Pureland retreats, talks and seminars. David will be going on to Japan where he will run events at the end of the month.

You will find details of the events in Vancouver and Redding on the Amida Trust web page Full details of each event can be obtained through clicking on links from the news item on this page.

Buddhist Psychology Questions

2004-12-28T04:44:00.000-08:00

This Blog site works in parallel with www.buddhistpsychology.info and will offer respomses to questions about courses at Amida Trust and about Buddhist Psychology. Questions can be sent to courses@amidatust.com or you can simply reply to this posting below.