Buddhism and psychotherapy

Buddhism and Psychotherapy

Ed Geraty LCSW-CFounder: The Universalus Community & The Baltimore Insight Meditation Group

What is Buddhist Psychotherapy?

• Buddhist Psychotherapy differs in some ways from Western psychologies in that it initially focuses on human potential rather than human pathology.

• When you experience problems with living, it doesn’t find you in need of fixing.

• Instead, Buddhist Psychotherapy views all suffering as an opportunity for growth and change.

- Bikkhu Pannaji, Buddhism and Psychotherapy, Buddhist Quarterly

• The Buddhists of Buddhist countries don't look upon Buddhism as a psychotherapy. It is mainly understood as a form of religion. Of course, those scholars who study the teaching of the Buddha ... tend to regard the teaching as a philosophy. Now as I see it, these two ways of thinking can be seen as two extremes.

• Avoiding these two extremes, I would like to take the Middle Path, which is to treat the teachings of the Buddha as a form of psychotherapy. I would say that if Buddhism is introduced into the modern world as psychotherapy, the message of the Buddha will be correctly understood."

The great physician• Buddha is, after all, commonly referred to as "the great physician"

and, like any therapist, made it his aim to identify, explain and decrease human suffering.

• There are also many who have identified the Four Noble Truths as adopting a deliberately diagnostic format to explain suffering and its cure;

• the First Noble Truth identifies the disease, • the Second provides an etiology, • the Third gives a prognosis, and • the Fourth suggests a remedy.

• The Four Noble Truths are presented within the Buddha's first discourse, Setting in Motion the Wheel of the Dharma (Dharmacakra Pravartana Sūtra). An English translation is as follows:

• 1. "This is the noble truth of dukkha: birth is dukkha, aging is dukkha, illness is dukkha, death is dukkha; sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief and despair are dukkha; union with what is displeasing is dukkha; separation from what is pleasing is dukkha; not getting what one wants is dukkha, getting what one doesn’t want is dukkha.

• 2. "This is the noble truth of the origin of dukkha: it is this craving which leads to renewed existence, seeking delight here and there, that is, craving for pleasures, and craving for existence.“ (holding on)

• 3"This is the noble truth of the cessation of dukkha: it is the fading away and cessation of that same craving, the giving up and relinquishing of it, freedom from it, non- reliance on it.“

• 4 "This is the noble truth of the way leading to the cessation of dukkha: it is the Noble Eightfold Path; that is, right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration

Eightfold Path

• The major schools of psychotherapy appear to fit easily within the prescription of the Eightfold Path.

Division Eightfold Path factors

Wisdom (Sanskrit: prajñā, Pāli: paññā)

1. Right view

2. Right intention

Ethical conduct (Sanskrit: śīla, Pāli: sīla)

3. Right speech

4. Right action

5. Right livelihood

Concentration (Sanskrit and Pāli: samādhi)

6. Right effort

7. Right mindfulness

8. Right concentration

The word “right” is better translated as “complete”

Psychoanalysis and Buddhism

• Psychoanalysis, pioneered and popularized by Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, rests upon the idea that uncovering and making conscious buried complexes and memories is a therapeutic process.

• The relocation of a complex or neurosis from the unconscious to the conscious easily equates to the principles inherent in Right Meditation and Right Understanding.

• On Jung's deathbed he was reading a translation of Hsu Yun's dharma discourses and was excited by the succinct and direct methods of Buddhist practice in working with the unconscious.

Behaviorism and Buddhism

• The school of Behaviorism, associated in particular with Ivan Pavlov (or more popularly, his dog) and B.F.Skinner takes a "hard science" approach to psychotherapy, tending to describe (or reduce) human functions to principles of behavior, which can be manipulated to create positive effects in the life of the patient.

• In the Noble Eightfold Path we see reflections of this approach in the exhortations to Right Action, Right Speech and Right Livelihood.

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy and Buddhism

• Cognitive and cognitive-behaviorists, taking a less mechanistic and deterministic view of therapy, focus more on training the mind to review and question assumptions, phobias, fears and beliefs.

• These therapists are typically associated with such techniques as visualization (guided meditation) and positive self-talk designed to teach, or unlearn, principles that are, respectively, helpful or unhelpful.

• Again, the Noble Eightfold Path and its focus on Right Mindfulness and Right Thinking are the corollary in Buddhist thought.

Gestalt Therapy and Buddhism

• Gestalt Therapy was a radical, though now increasingly conventional, approach created by Fritz Perls which drew heavily on existentialist philosophy and, significantly, Zen Buddhism (among other influences).

• In Gestalt, the premise is that we must work with the whole person, the "gestalt" in German, which echoes the wisdom of Right Understanding.

• Its techniques the focus on the immediate, phenomenological and experiential reality of the here and now, in the physical, emotional and mental realms.

Solution-Focused Therapy and Buddhism

• Solution-Focused schools of therapy encourage a "retelling" of one's personal narrative, and a "revisioning" of personal ideals, goals and prospects.

• One might suggest that all successful counseling is teaching the skill of reframing.

• The application of Right Thought and Right Understanding could be said to be the basis of all therapeutic change.

Rogerian Therapy and Buddhism• David Brazier in his book Zen Therapy makes a thoughtful comparison

of some principal Buddhist concepts and Person-Centred (Rogerian) Therapy.

• Person-Centered Therapy is a profoundly significant and influential development in modern psychotherapy.

• Like the Buddha, this non-authoritative approach suggests the patient can be "a light unto themselves". But this space is not simply empty. Although the therapist may provide active and empathic listening, and reflect and validate the thoughts and emotions of the struggling patient, they nonetheless provide three crucial components for change to occur; unconditional positive regard, empathy and congruence (or genuiness.)

• These are the elements that are considered essential to create an environment where the individual can grow, learn and evolve.

• This is of particular interest to the Buddhist student who is taught that all suffering stems from the three "bitter roots" or "poisons" of greed, hatred and delusion. Brazier demonstrates how, from a therapeutic perspective…..

• Person-Centered Therapy counters each of these "poisons"; empathy is the "antidote" to hate, unconditional positive regard provides a model of acceptance of self and other which counters the grasping, needy nature of greed, and congruence (genuineness) is the opposite of delusion.

• Delusion itself, as Brazier suggests, could just as well be translated as "incongruence", the separation of self and mind from what is real and what is present.

This picture has nothing to do with this talk, I just liked it .

The Problem of Reason• Buddhism, at least in the form it has taken in the West, seems to sit well in an

environment where untested and untestable “religious” beliefs and doctrines are largely dismissed, rightly or wrongly, as unworthy of an intelligent and inquiring mind.

• Scientists, ethicists, environmentalists and futurists consistently find common ground with Buddhism in a way they rarely do with other religions since it is often considered a philosophy rather than a religion.

• This is not surprising as Buddhism, at its best, is an approach to life and oneself based on personal action and verifiable experience.

• It requires little in the way of adherence to doctrine or belief based on faith or authority.

• The modern mind warms to this undemanding philosophy and typically considers it a "reasonable religion," unencumbered by the excesses of fundamentalism and superstition. It is held by many to be free of the "irrationality" that characterizes many religious traditions.

Mindfulness• Mindfulness (Pali: sati, Sanskrit: smṛti / स्मृति�) in

Buddhist meditation.; also translated as awareness, is a spiritual faculty (indriya) that is considered to be of great importance in the path to enlightenment according to the teaching of the Buddha.

• It is one of the seven factors of enlightenment. "Correct" or "right" mindfulness (Pali: sammā-sati, Sanskrit samyak-smṛti) is the seventh element of the noble eightfold path.

• Mindfulness meditation can be traced back to the Upanishads, part of Hindu scriptures and a treatise on the Vedas.

• Enlightenment (bodhi) is a state of being in which greed, hatred and delusion (Pali: moha) have been overcome, abandoned and are absent from the mind.

• Mindfulness, which, among other things, is an attentive awareness of the reality of things (especially of the present moment) is an antidote to delusion and is considered as such a 'power' (Pali: bala).

• This faculty becomes a power in particular when it is coupled with clear comprehension of whatever is taking place.

• The Buddha advocated that one should establish mindfulness (satipatthana) in one's day-to-day life maintaining as much as possible a calm awareness of one's bodily functions, sensations (feelings), objects of consciousness (thoughts and perceptions), and consciousness itself.

• The practice of mindfulness supports analysis resulting in the arising of wisdom (Pali: paññā, Sanskrit: prajñā).[2] A key innovative teaching of the Buddha was that meditative stabilization must be combined with liberating discernment.

Mindfulness in Psychology • Several definitions of mindfulness have been used in modern

psychology.

• According to various prominent psychological definitions, Mindfulness refers to a psychological quality that involves:

bringing one’s complete attention to the present experience on a moment-to-moment basis.

• paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally.

• A kind of non-elaborative, nonjudgmental, present-centered awareness in which each thought, feeling, or sensation that arises in the attentional field is acknowledged and accepted as it is.

• Bishop, Lau, and colleagues (2004) offered a two component model of mindfulness:

• The first component [of mindfulness] involves the

self-regulation of attention so that it is maintained on immediate experience, thereby allowing for increased recognition of mental events in the present moment.

• The second component involves adopting a particular orientation toward one’s experiences in the present moment, an orientation that is characterized by curiosity, openness, and acceptance.

• In this two-component model, self-regulated attention (the first component) involves conscious awareness of one's current thoughts, feelings, and surroundings, which can result in metacognitive skills for controlling concentration.

• Orientation to experience (the second component) involves accepting one's mindstream, maintaining open and curious attitudes, and thinking.

• Training in mindfulness and mindfulness-based practices, oftentimes as part of a quiet meditation session, results in the development of a Beginner's mind, or, looking at experiences as if for the first time.

Mindfulness PracticeAn interesting development in psychotherapy is the increasing move towards mindfulness as a psychotherapeutic technique in its own right. In this we have a particularly clear example of how the traditions of Buddhism and psychotherapy interrelate. If you type "mindfulness" into an internet search engine it is a fascinating exercise to see how this one technique bridges not only Buddhism and psychotherapy, but the broader fields of spirituality and therapy in general.

Indeed, it would be difficult to find any other technique or approach which does so as comprehensively.

A benefit of this is that in the same way modern psychotherapy has learned much from Buddhism, Buddhists can learn much about mindfulness from those academics and researchers whose approach is based on both quantitative and qualitative research into its effects.

• With the increased use of mindfulness as a psychotherapeutic technique we again see less of an insistence on controlling and changing the world, and ourselves in it, and more of a focus on observing it as it is.

• There is less inclination to change the "thinking mind" - the chattering monkey-mind - and more an attempt to simply observe and accept it.

Does your mind feel like this ???

• With such an approach there is increasing common ground between Buddhism and psychotherapy. It is interesting to note that much of the criticism of these "Third Wave" therapies is the fact that they are seen to parallel, and draw from, the mystical traditions of the East, and Buddhism in particular.

Vipassana (Insight) Meditation• Vipassanā in the Buddhist tradition means insight into the nature of

reality. • Vipassana is one of the world's most ancient techniques of sitting

meditation, the inception of which is attributed to Gautama Buddha. It is a practice of self-transformation through self-observation and introspection to the extent that sitting with a steadfast mind becomes an active experience of change and impermanence. In English, vipassanā meditation is often referred to simply as "insight meditation".

• Vipassanā or Insight meditation differs in the modern Buddhist traditions

and in some nonsectarian forms. It includes any meditation technique that cultivates insight including contemplation, introspection, observation of bodily sensations, analytic meditation, and observations about lived experience.

• Therefore, the term can include a wide variety of meditation techniques across lineages.

• Contemplation is rooted in mindfulness. Mindfulness of body, feelings, mind, and objects of mind. By seeing the arising and passing away of mindfulness and contemplations with regard to an origin, it follows that the self (related to the contemplation) arises and passes away, because the contemplation of the arising and passing away of the self is not a tenable position, the not-self arises.

• To see through this state of impermanence means to examine

things with regard to an origin and by seeing its cessation one can see the arising and passing away to discover their impermanent nature.

• To see through the mode of unsatisfactoriness means to examine things to determine whether they are satisfactory or are imbued with suffering. To see through the mode of non-self means to see the meditation objects with wisdom. In other words, the non-self arises from observing the arising and passing away of the self, it is seeing the self with wisdom.

• While all of the above may seem complicated to understand, it is not even necesssary to do so.

• what is important is to "just sit". Just be with yourself, breathing in and breathing out, and observing your thoughts, feelings and sensations

www.BaltimoreInsightMeditation.com

In Summary

Be Here Now