Read without ads and support Scribd by becoming a Scribd Premium Reader.
See Premium Plans
 
 BUDDHA FOUNDED PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHOTHERAPYCharles Daywww.DesMoinesMeditation.orgcharlesday1@mchsi.comMy spiritual journey combined with my professional interests to lead me to assert that if sciencehad been more developed 2600 years ago, Buddha would be considered the founder of psychology and psychotherapy. Here's how I came to that conclusion. I first learned to meditatein the late 1960s when meditation was being introduced into the United States and other Westerncountries by spiritual gurus and teachers who came from throughout Asia, as well as by returningWesterners who had spent time in Asian ashrams and monasteries.As a young practicing psychotherapist, I had been teaching patients different relaxation methodstaught in my clinical psychology education and training programs. When I learned how tomeditate - sitting comfortably with eyes closed while mentally repeating a phrase or observingthe breath - I thought it was the simplest, easiest to learn, and most effective of all the relaxationmethods I knew. And I began practicing it regularly myself and teaching it to my psychotherapypatients, psychology students, and friends who wanted to learn how to relax.Back then I usually called it a relaxation technique because the various meditations coming outof Asia were often dismissed as rituals associated with Eastern religions, despite being taught assecular and universal relaxation methods, or as too fringy, esoteric, or scientifically unproven.Today, a half-century of scientific experimental and field research has validated the multiplephysiological, neurological, psychological, occupational, and behavioral benefits of meditationand mindfulness practices. And meditation and mindfulness have become popular buzzwords inhealth, education, and business.Fast forward to late 1980s when I worked in India and Thailand teaching clinical psychology andpsychotherapy skills to mental health professionals and students. While there I took theopportunity to do several ten-day meditation retreats at International Retreat Centers withrevered Buddhist Masters, in India with S.N. Goenka and in Thailand with Bhikkhu Buddhadasa.Previous to these retreats, impressed with the contributions to psychology made by Easternreligions, I had sporadically and eclectically studied them, but this was the first time I wassystematically exposed to the specific teachings of Buddhism. And I was astonished by theparallels between what Buddha taught and what I had been taught were the 19th and 20th centurydiscoveries of Pavlov, Skinner, Watson, Freud, Jung, Rogers, and Maslow, to name just a few of those we think of as the pioneers in the history of psychology. The
 Abhidharma
, one of the maintreatises attributed to the Buddha, is sometimes translated as the psychology of the mind.Buddha explained in exquisite detail how the mind develops in such a way that suffering, stress,and discontent are experienced as inherent parts of life, and perhaps most importantly how toretrain or redevelop the mind in order to minimize, transcend, and ultimately eliminate sufferingand live in harmony with all beings and all of creation. His basic teachings were furtherelaborated upon as Buddhism entered other Asian cultures, particularly China, Japan, and Tibet,
Search
Search History:
Searching...
Result 00 of 00
00 results for result for
  • p.
    • Notes
    Load more