Psychological Approaches in the East & the West

The story of Buddhist psychology begins with the Buddha, and his revelation, as the story of Western psychodynamic psychotherapy begins with Freud. However, the origins are quite different, even though part of the revelations are similar.

For the Buddha, the revelation came from his study of internal processes, although it began with his observation of the suffering inevitable to human life. It is through the meditative process, however, the process of observing the operation of his own mind, that he developed his system of thought and practice. That system focused on the scientific observation of the processes of mind by each individual so that each individual could understand the nature of mind and existence for himself or herself. The Buddha recommended to his disciples that they test everything for themselves, rather than take his word for it.

On the other hand, Freud's revelation seemed to come almost totally from observation of other's mental processes. He began as a doctor, concerned with neurological processes and disorders. He, too, observed the suffe

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, 1959). Finally, in looking at the last goal, or end of Buddhist practice, Wisdom is seen as the counterpart to compassion and love. In some respects, Wisdom segues into the endpoint of Mental Discipline in that it represents true understanding that is not fragmented, nor categorical, but complete in seeing things for their true nature, without distortion. Again, this is not an end of psychodynamic psychotherapies. Where Epstein (1995) does find a number of correspondences is in the Buddhist concept of noself or nosoul. According to Buddhist thought, there is no such thing as a permanent, invariant, everlasting entity which can be termed a "self" or "soul." This is generally understood to be a foundation of Buddhist philosophy. However, as Epstein noted, there is also the tendency in Buddhism to avoid absolute statements, such as the above, preferring instead the Middle Path in this, as in other aspects of life. The Middle Path in relationship to the above involves neither denying nor affirming the existence of the self, as these are not completely relevant questions. For the Buddha, the relevant thing was engaging in the practices that eliminated suffering from human existence. This was the practical approach. Conscio
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Ken Wilber, Wilber Epstein, Buddhism Buddhist, Mental Discipline, Western Eastern, Eightfold Path, Noble Truth, Path Buddha, Buddha Recently, Buddhism Returning, epstein 1995, psychodynamic approaches, psychodynamic approach, noble truth, rahula 1959, mental discipline, middle path, wilber 1993, buddhist psychology, buddhist meditation, noble eightfold path, nature mind existence, free individual conditioned, epstein 1995 noted, goal buddhist training,
Approximate Word count = 2296
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)

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