The Principles of Buddhist Psychology

Several books dealing with Buddhist psychology have appeared since Mrs. C. A. F. Rhys Davids highlighted the importance of psychological analysis in the Buddha's teachings (see Buddhist Psychology, London: G. Bell and Sons, 1914). More recently, the Buddha's psychological speculations have been compared with those of modern psychologists and psychoanalysts (see M. W. Padmasiri de Silva, Buddhist and Freudian Psychology, Colombo: Lake House Investments, 1978). Even a world renowned psychoanalyst got heavily involved in the study of Buddhist psychology (see D. T. Suzuki, Erich Fromm and Robert De Martino, Zen Buddhism and Psychoanalysis, New York: Grove Press, 1960). While it would be grossly unfair to say that these studies have no contribution to make, there is no denying that most of them labor under the old cliche that the goal of Buddhist psychological analysis is to reveal the hidden mysteries in the human mind and thereby facilitate the development of a transcendental state of consciousness beyond the reach of linguistic expression (see Thomas A. Kochumuttom, A Buddhist Doctrine of Experience, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1982). The Buddha's statements, as well as the statements of some of his faithful disciples throughout the centuries, have therefore been looked upon as enigmatic utterances or koans with no directly implied meanings. Experiences not described by the Buddha or his more enlightened disciples are being constantly discussed, while those that are described and alaid bare" (uttarnkata, as the Buddha himself would characterize them) are ignored. Even though the Buddha's ideas were totally opposed to those expressed in India during his day, their influence on mankind has remained pervasive. They spread rapidly both in India and beyond her boundaries to gain a lasting hold in the lives of countless millions throughout the centuries in South, South-East and East Asia. Yet soon they were to disappear from the country in which they were first promulgated. This disappearance was due mostly to the way in which the Brahmanical tradition reasserted itself by emphasizing transcendence in the spheres of psychology, metaphysics, ethics and religious experience, as is evident from a careful study of the Bhagavadgita.