The editors of this book Dr John Crook, Reader in Ethology at Bristol University and Buddhist Scholar and teacher, and Dr David Fontana, Reader in Educational Psychology at Cardiff University, author and therapist, have brought together seventeen essays, most of which are based upon papers presented at a conference on 'Eastern Approaches to Self and Mind' sponsored by the British Psychological Society in Cardiff in the summer of 1986.
Crook and Fontana provide an introduction and conclusion to the book, as well as introducing each of the four sections into which it is divided. They contribute between them five of the total seventeen essays. Other contributors are Stephen Batchelor, Susan Blackmore, Venerable Ngakpa Chogyam, Guy Claxton, Padmal da Silva, Kedar Nath Dwivedi, Lynn Goswell, Richard Jones, James Low, Paul Thomas Sagal, Martin Skinner, Malcolm Walley. The field of interest covered by the contributors is very wide, ranging from Western Psychological theory and therapeutic practice to both a scholarly and experiential knowledge of Buddhist philosophy, psychology and spiritual practice.
One of the key aims of this very rich book is to define the contrast between Eastern and Western approaches to mind, to self, to reality, Western thinking tending to focus on form, and the Eastern mind on the space within the form. The West sees the self as a fixed ego, an entity or definable object, the East sees it as energy, flow or process. To quote the authors "It seems to us that when East comes West 'the wordless view' meets 'the viewless word"'.
In the past these contrasting views have led to incomprehension and an absence of true dialogue between Eastern and Western thinkers. The authors believe that we now stand in a period of reciprocal exchange but that there is scant comprehension of how the contrasting paradigms of East and West can meet and relate to each other, to create a truly global perspective on a world that is in deep crisis.
The book attempts to enhance this understanding particularly within the psychological field. Section 1 deals directly with this theme. Section 2 shows how our comprehension of self, mind and meditation can be enlarged by including Eastern perspectives. Section 3 examines problems of personal growth and spiritual development and looks at the social world of Westerners who are attempting to find personal meaning in Eastern practices or viewpoints. Section 4 applies the same line of thought to the study of counselling and therapeutic practice.
The authors explain that their focus on Buddhist perspectives, rather than on Eastern traditions in general, rests on the fact of Buddhism's lack of dogmatism, its sophistication, its flexibility, its compatibility with modern scientific discoveries and its contemporary popularity amongst intellectuals.
The four chapters in the first section indicate some of the ways in which Buddhist psychology may be related to contemporary Western psychological thought. John Crook stresses the experiential contrast between two types of knowledge: 'knowing how' and 'knowing that'; the first discriminative and analytical, the second passive and apperceptive. Since Western philosophy is primarily concerned with 'knowing how' and Eastern thought with 'knowing that', it follows that an integration of the two should produce a more holistic perspective.
Stephen Batchelor introduces us to Eastern thought in a brief but comprehensive account of the nature of Mahayana spirituality. He outlines the two complementary philosophical positions of the Madhyamika and Cittamatra schools respectively, which have similarities to Western linguistic and deconstructive philosophies of Wittgenstein and Derrida and to the 'mind only' perspective of A.N. Whitehead. Each perspective is associated with ways of progressing from purely conceptual to experiential and intuitive insight into the meaning of key ideas. He then proceeds to discuss two of these ways, Tantric Vajrayana and Chan (Zen). In spite of the surface differences in practice and orientation both can be seen to be anchored in the fundamental Mahayana philosophy of the essential emptiness and relativity of all things.
Martin Skinner examines parallels between Buddhist and Western ideas on the nature of the self. He discusses in particular G.H. Mead's interpretation of the self as a social object. The idea of the self becomes 'a symbol' derived from social interaction in personal development. There are very clear similarities between Mead's view and the ancient conception of the self as object in Buddhism. The relating of Buddhist practice to the theory of 'symbolic interactionism' can thus become a creative contemporary perspective on the processes of mind.
David Fontana looks further at the difficulties Westerners experience with the Buddhist conception of self. He stresses that the self is not an object like a table or chair but rather an internal process of attribution. The quality of this attribution is thus subject to many influences that can have personally destructive or beneficial effects. The basis of mind resides behind this process of attribution. To become aware of this aspect of mind below or beyond the mere attributing of self requires experiences of deep insight. Only when self assertion is related to perceptive self-negation can a deeper self- affirmation, which lies at the root of wisdom, begin.
In Section 2 the contributors consider some contemporary models of mind that depict processes of conscious awareness, self- consciousness and personal awakening. Susan Blackmore discusses the way in which the mind creates models of reality including representations of the place of the self in that reality. She describes mystical experience in terms of alterations in the modelling process and draws attention to the personal challenges evoked by attempting to view one's own life in this way.
Guy Claxton's chapter develops the issue by focusing on the assumptions we carry concerning the fixity and the continuity of the 'self'. He points out that the annatta doctrine in Buddhism has always claimed that 'the sense of self' is based mistakenly on the assumption of permanence and 'thingness'. The notion that we are a process rather than an object is at first frightening for it means the letting go of basic assumptions. Nevertheless both writers point to a remarkable sense of personal freedom and expansion that can develop from such a cognitive re-evaluation of the idea of self.
Kedar Dwivedi provides an account of the model of mind and its transformation found in the approach to Vipassana meditation of the Theravada School of Buddhism. He is particularly concerned with the process whereby negative emotions associated with limiting views of self can be transformed, and we gain here a direct insight into the intellectual background of a way of transformation based in meditation.
Finally, John Crook builds on his description (Chapter 13) of the Zen training in Western Zen Retreats and in Orthodox Zen Sesshins of the Chinese and Japanese traditions. He shows that the model of mind and personal transformation in the Lankavatara Sutra of the Vijnanavada School of Mahayana has much in common with a comparable model he constructs from contemporary Western premises in cognitive psychology. This model is useful in understanding the process of Zen training, and Crook argues that it is important for Buddhists to examine the way in which contemporary cognitive psychology can be of value in updating Buddhist psychology without losing the integrity of the ancient tradition.
In Section 3, Psychological and Spiritual Development, the authors look at the problems that arise when individuals decide to come to grips with their personal development and move their lives in the direction of greater satisfaction and away from suffering and discontent. Eastern psychology helps us take charge of this development and employ what Buddhism calls 'skilful means' in order to achieve self-fulfilment and lessen pain.
James Low demonstrates in his essay how from the Buddhist perspective the entire realm of human experience is pathological, dependent as it is on the working out of unresolved conditioning that arose in previous life-times. Psychological development is therefore a process of deepening delusion, which if not radically transformed leads onto another life founded upon the concluding confusion of the last one. He takes the reader through the arguments of the Nyingmapa view in Tibetan Buddhism and leads us finally into a discussion of those processes of transformation whereby individuals can become aware of their innate Buddha nature - the basis of mind that is always present however much obscured by the Karma creating effects of ignorance.
Padmal da Silva discusses strategies of self-management advocated in Theravada Buddhism. He points out that, apart from the main area of uncovering or reaching Nirvana, there are many simple techniques provided for improving day to day living. These strategies are mainly behavioural, so similarities with modern behaviour therapy can be drawn. Padmal argues that on a practical level this behavioural approach is quite in keeping with the overall empiricist stance of early Buddhism.
Malcolm Walley examines the way in which the transformations in behaviour and attitude in the process of Buddhist training are conceived and shows that these transformations can be effectively described in terms of cognitive reversals. Both da Silva and Walley thus develop themes which show important parallels and similarities between the Buddhist path of transformation and two contrasting psychological approaches in the West.
Paul Thomas Sagal's perspective is more philosophical, emphasising the therapeutic value of scepticism in Buddhist thought - especially in Zen Buddhism. He traces traditions of scepticism in both East and West, noting important similarities and contrasts. The relative absence of dogma in Buddhism, especially Zen, allows for an unusually free relationship between idea and experience, for the latter is not rigidly framed by preconditioned values. Such freedom allows us to use philosophy as a form of therapy, while psychotherapy itself provides the basis for dynamic personal philosophy.
John Crook describes a recently created form of five-day retreat in which individuals confront themselves in the rigorous manner characteristic of Zen training. The Western Zen Retreat, as it is called, combines the practice of Silent Sitting (Zazen) with exercises in communication in which participants share with a partner their exploration of a koan (paradoxical question) such as 'Who am I?', 'What is Another?', 'What is Death?'. Gradually participants find themselves disidentifying with the imprisoning concepts and self- attributions upon which they have based their identity and sense of self worth. Dr Crook sees this disidentification as having results that are not only therapeutic but provide the basis from which a participant can begin Zen training in earnest.
Lynn Goswell reminds us of the need to measure our progress by looking at our personal relationships. She does this within the setting of Theravada Buddhist monasticism - looking at the motives and some of the issues faced by people who come together to live in a spiritual community. Contrary to popular belief, monasteries are not necessarily havens of peace and light but they are excellent testing grounds for that prime virtue - tolerance!
In Section 4, Counselling and Therapeutic Practice, the contributors demonstrate how Eastern spiritual techniques can blend helpfully with Western insights in therapeutic work and have contributed both to their own growth and that of their clients. Sometimes the level at which improvement takes place is a relatively minor one, as when an individual sees that stress in a place of work can be reduced by being more mindful in simple everyday situations. Sometimes the level is more profound when an individual learns to sever an attachment to negative states and to his or her 'woundedness'. And sometimes it is profounder still when he or she is able to identify negative emotional states as they arise, refrain from identifying with them, and ultimately trace them back to their source in attachment, aversion and erroneous conceptions of the self.
Ngakpa Chogyam, a Westerner and ordained Yogi, shows how Tibetan tantric practices, for all their apparent complexity, yield simple and highly effective strategies for working with and transforming even the most negative emotions.
Richard Jones focuses specifically upon the work that can be done in family therapy.
Finally, David Fontana attempts to reconcile apparent anomalies between Eastern and Western therapeutic approaches to the self and looks at the place of Buddhist techniques in Western psychological counselling.
The reviewer has taken time to give a detailed account of the contents of each section in the hope that it will enable the prospective readers to find out in advance if and how their particular interest or speciality is dealt with. For this reader, whose profession is that of therapist and counsellor, Section 4 was particularly rewarding and stimulating and I can recommend it as a practical and useful support for psychologists, psychotherapist' and others in the helping professions, both as a means for continuing work on the self and with their clients. For other readers the more theoretical sections of the book will be equally interesting. Whilst often scholarly the discussions of Buddhist philosophy and psychology never become pedantic or obscure. The material is presented lucidly, making it a book that would be appropriate for a Buddhist 'beginner' but the depth of the studies, particular focus, the range of Buddhist schools of thought which are presented, make it an appropriate choice also for the 'veteran' or 'specialist'.
Although the ubiquitous presence of the two editors in introductions and conclusion, gives the book a certain uniformity of style, the individual contributors express themselves with their own personal voices and their individuality shines through in the essays themselves, where the prose at times is not without its poetry: "The light was beginning to fade, the glow of an early winter's evening lit up the mud flats, waders called and some wild duck were moving about. The long skeins of gulls came out of the darkening sky inland and flew past in silhouette before me". (Crook).
"Leaves rustle and branches move, clocks strike and people walk, but everything is still and timeless and joyful Then that too dissolves. I am reforming, looking at the tree again... It is more solid, more strong and tall and treefull. Its leaves are gloriously green and gold and brown and mottled. Its trunk is gloriously complex with its shedding scraps of bark and so are all the other trees along the path. I walk among these marvellously vivid trees with a little smile on my lips". (Blackmore).
"We are already secure, because we are a process and remain a process... In security only comes from trying to congeal that process and the hanging on to this congealment, like a river that tries to turn itself into one of the rocks which it so easily flows past. Or like a flame trying to turn itself into one of the cinders around which it dances and plays". (Fontana).
To conclude, this is a refreshing book and a healing one, both in tone and motivation, and deserves to be read and enjoyed by a wide readership of both lay and professional people alike.
Its motivation is a compassionate one, in that it attempts to show ways of healing the divide between Western and Eastern spiritual and psychological thinking and practice. From this ground of wholeness and sanity hope arises that we will be better able to heal the ecological wounding that our past disease and disunity have inflicted on the planet. This is a brave step in the direction of global healing, making all skilful means available to all sentient beings in the human family.
Edited by John Crook and David Fontana Element Books 1990, 230 pp.
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