|
|
|
| Current Issue |
|
|
| Resources |
|
|
|
Losing and Gaining a Self: Buddhist Concepts of Personal Growth
| Article
# : |
15320 |
|
|
Section : |
MODERN THOUGHT
|
| Issue
Date : |
8 / 1989 |
6,042 Words |
| Author
: |
Luis O. Gomez
Luis O. Gomez is Charles O. Hucker professor of Buddhist
studies and chairman of the department of Asian Languages and
Cultures of the University of Michigan. He is coeditor of
Borobudur: History and Significance of Buddhist Monument. |
Buddhism is an ancient religious tradition, with a historical development that was only occasionally, and then only slightly, touched by the main currents of classical European philosophy and religion. This cultural gap separating us from the presuppositions of its worldview widened as the modern, post-Renaissance West, at times gradually and at times violently, adopted secular, scientific, and technological ways of interpreting and changing the world. It is therefore not surprising that our concerns do not always find an echo in Buddhist doctrine. Our two worlds at times can speak to each other's concerns only through a major effort of translation and reinterpretation. This is the case with concepts of self and personality. Insofar as there is a Buddhist psychology, it is primarily a theory of the adult mind, a sophisticated theory of cognition and perception but nevertheless for the most part insensitive to questions of abnormal and developmental psychology. Traditional Buddhist analysis did not address, at least not explicitly, most of the issues that have been raised by modern developmental and educational psychology, many of which have been incorporated into the lore of most educated Westerners.
Buddhist concepts of human development are primarily religious. They have little to say about biological or social development, about the question of healthy versus abnormal human growth, or about the genetic or epigenetic history of the human personality. In contrast, although modern psychology by no means ignores the question or moral development, it assumes that one can treat human development, and therefore adulthood, independently from notions of moral or spiritual perfectibility.
Points of contact exist, nevertheless, between our two worlds. For instance, in everyday English speech, and sometimes in the psychological literature as well, the term adult can be used prescriptively as a code word for a "mature" or "whole" human being. Although in this usage the term often hides cultural and personal assumptions about human growth and fulfillment, these same presuppositions can serve as a foil for Buddhist concepts of personal growth and maturity, and thus can highlight them by way of contrast.
Whatever form our assumptions about adulthood may take according to our individual preferences, they tend to picture adulthood as a single, unchanging, and perhaps final state in the life cycle of the human being. Scientific psychology, at least since Erikson, divides adulthood into more than one stage, but the popular, normative use of the term adult tends to ignore such distinctions, overlooking the variety of states
...
Read Full Article
Look for this article in Ask.com
|
|
