To talk of an Eastern Psychology is to refer to a cluster of concepts embedded within a diffuse spiritual/philosophical framework that makes up the Eastern worldview. Psychology was an invention of the Western mindset, with the development of the Scientific method during the Renaissance and the concomitant reductionism that created a set of specialist disciplines (which only now in the post-modern era are 'remembering' their inter-relatedness.) (Tarnas,1991) Nevertheless, the Eastern psyche has been contemplating the state of being human for millenias; by the time of Siddhartha Gautama(over 2,500 yrs ago), the man who later became known as the Buddha, there were many powerful methods around for inner exploration of the psyche - ways of entering altered states of consciousness. It was a permissive, spiritually pluralistic environment and, essentially remained so without the equivalent of the Western dark ages during which the hegemony of the Roman Catholic Church acted as a straight-jacket to any alternative form of psychospiritual inquiry.

Siddartha's mission, as a young prince leaving his father's court for the homeless life of a sage, was to discover, and eradicate, the cause of human suffering. He came to the end of his search 6 yrs later sitting under a tree in deep meditation when he experienced enlightenment. Thereafter he was known as the Buddha (which means - 'the one who woke up') In his first teaching sermon he presented the "Four Noble Truths":

1. Dukka - the axiomatic truth that there is suffering/unsatisfactoriness in being human.

2. That Dukka has a cause; that this is craving / aversion

3. That a cessation of Dukka is possible by the removal of it's cause

4. There is a path to that end; that path was explicated as the 'eightfold path'

The eightfold path gives guidance on the qualities, attitudes, ethics and approach to living a meditative life.

Over the next forty years of teaching he gave many thousands of talks to both monks and lay people. The Abhidhamma is the name given to the collection - finally systemised and completed almost 800 yrs later - of teachings around the psychology of human nature and a guide to the workings of the mind.

"Many Abidhamma principles represent the psychological teachings common to all Eastern faiths rather than those limited to Buddhism.As a prototype of Asian Psychology, Abidhamma presents us with a set of concepts for understanding mental activity and an ideal for mental health that differs markedly from the concepts of Western Psychology. Like other Eastern Psychologies, Abidhamma contains an ideal of the perfected personality around which it's analysis of the workings of the mind is oriented." (Goleman,1988, p116)

That which, in the Abidhamma, corresponds most closely to the western idea of self or personality is 'atta ' and this concept appears most frequently in it's negated form as 'anatta'

In fact 'anatta' appears as one of the three universal 'marks of being' - along with 'anicca ' or impermanence and dukka. The central premise of the Abhidhamma is that:

"there is no abiding self whatsoever, only an impersonal aggregate of processes that come and go.The semblance of personality springs from the intermingling of these impersonal processes" (Goleman,1988,p117)

Loy (1992), writing from an existentialist perspective, talks of how Buddhism 'deconstructs the self' in two ways. Firstly, through the concept of the 5 skandhas - literally translated as 'heaps' - of aggregates of processes. They are usually described as 1) form, 2) feelings and sensations, 3) perceptions, 4) volitional tendencies -thoughts or mental factors-, and 5) consciousness.

These are also called 'the five groups of grasping' All experiences associated with a sense of self can be analyzed into these five heaps, with no remainder outside them. There is no persisting self or transcendent soul to be found over and above their functioning" (Loy 1992,p.167)

The other deconstruction is translated as the teaching of 'Dependent Origination' (or 'Co-dependent arising') It locates all human experience within a set of twelve interdependent factors - each is conditioned by and conditions each other factor. Ignorance is the first factor (though this is not seen as a first cause since all factors are interdependent) A chain is only as strong as it's weakest link, however, and this points to the Buddhist solution to this cycle of suffering. Through the fading away of this first factor, the second factor becomes extinguished and so on. Meditation is considered to be the route, to be the mind-training method which can dispell this ignorance (of the true anatta nature of things - particularly the 'self' thing.)

"The Buddhist notion of interdependent factors is thus diametrically opposed to the Cartesian notion of an autonomous, self- grounded consciousness" (Loy,1992,p.170)

It is crucial to understand that ignorance is not dispelled by a mere intellectual understanding; an experiential understanding is required, hence meditation - the practice of observing the mind and the mental factors which arise, endure and pass away - leading to insight.

Mental factors - or volitions as we have already come across them in the five skhandas, or more simply, thoughts, are the key to the concept of karma . The Dhammapada, a collection of verses spoken by Gautama Buddha, begins with a statement of the Abidhamma doctrine of Karma:

"All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts. If a man speaks of acts with an evil thought, pain follows him, as the wheel follows the foot of the ox that draws the wagon....if a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness will follow him, like a shadow that never leaves him"

(quoted in Goleman 1982,p.120)

Goleman goes on to explain that the Abidhamma distinguishes between wholesome and unwholesome mental factors and that this judgement was arrived at empirically on the basis of the collective judgement of large numbers of the early Buddhist meditators. Their criterion was whether a particular mental factor facilitated or interfered with their attempts to still their minds in meditation. Pausing only momentarily to reflect upon this early example of qualitative research, recall that these mental factors, according to the doctrine of dependent origination, are conditioned by previous mental factors and will in their turn condition future states of mind. The concept of rebirth can be best understood in a 'moment to moment way' ie, that the state of mind in this moment will condition the state of mind in a future moment. (Rather than the popularised,and sometimes misleading notion of reincarnation)

"The goal of psychological development in Abidhamma is to increase the amount of healthy states - and correspondingly, decrease unhealthy ones - in a person's mind. At peak of mental health, no unhealthy factors arise at all in a person's mind." (Goleman, 1982,p.132)

This is the ideal that the aspirant is urged to seek. The Arahat is a model of perfected personality - someone who has had sufficient such peak of mental health experiences to permanently restructure her previously deluded personality so that the unwholesome mental factors no longer arise.

Here, then, eastern psychology offers us almost saintly role model for psychological health which has no counterpart in the west where psychological health, until quite recently, has been considered as nothing more than 'not sick' (Goleman,1982) (Walsh & Shapiro,1983)

As stated at the outset of this section, the Abhidhamma is embedded within a culture which, for example, often has a monastic tradition supported by the lay community. TheVinaya is another collection of teachings, rivalling in size and importance, the abhidhamma, which outlines in meticulous detail the kind of ethical behaviour required of monks. (Note: 'required' not in order to be 'good' but in order to increase the chances of success in their endeavour) And -although the development of insight is understood to be naturally accompanied by an outpouring of such human qualities as compassion, loving kindness (Unconditional positive regard) and sympathetic joy - practices which cultivate these qualities run alongside those 'insight' practices and 'resonate' with the natural growth of these qualities.

In a Buddhist culture, for example, this work all takes place within a like-minded community celebrating a multitude of yearly festivals together. The influence of this sangha cannot be disregarded when we consider extracting a meditation technique and some of it's underlying psychology for use in our own western context.

Updated 16 June 99
by Martin Wilks