Transcript Buddhist Psychology - Dr. Pollyanna V. Casmar

Buddhist Psychology
Pollyanna V. Casmar, Ph.D.
VASDHS San Diego
Spinal Cord Unit
THE PROBLEM IS……
We do not see things as they are.
We see them as we are.
--The Talmud
It takes a lot of courage to release the
familiar and seemingly secure, to
embrace the new. But there is no real
security in what is no longer
meaningful. There is more security in
the adventurous and exciting, for in
movement there is life, and in change
there is power.
--Alan Cohen
Therapies that include Buddhism
• DBT
• MBCT for depression
• Jon-Kabat Zinn’s Full Catastrophe Living
• ACT
• Siegal’s work on positive psychology
• Mindfulness added to any other treatment
We are coming to understand health not as
the absence of disease, but rather as the
process by which individuals maintain their
sense of coherence (i.e. sense that life is
comprehensible, manageable, and
meaningful) and ability to function in the
face of changes in themselves and their
relationships with their environment.
--Aaron Antonovsky
WHAT ENLIGHTENMENT IS:
A complete understanding of emptiness, resulting in
spontaneous compassionate expression. By knowing
ultimate reality, one has the skillful means to behave
perfectly in conventional reality.
The art of living does not consist in preserving and clinging
to a particular mode of happiness, but in allowing
happiness to change its form without being disappointed
by the change; happiness, like a child, must be allowed
to grow up. --Charles L. Morgan
Foundational Buddhist Concepts
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Suffering (3 types)
Sickness, aging, death
Impermanence
Interdependence
Emptiness
Compassion
The two truths: conventional and ultimate
MINDFULNESS
3 poisons and 6 perfections
• Desire/Clinging or
Greed
Moving towards
• Hatred/Aversion
Moving Against
• Ignorance
Indifference/Avoidance
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Generosity
Patience
Ethics
Joyful Perseverance
Concentration
Wisdom
The work I do to let go of my suffering
diminishes the suffering of the whole
universe. When I have room for my own
pain, I have room for the pain of others.
Only then can I be transformed into joy.
As I heal, the Earth heals.
--Christiane Northrup
Tricky bits that can be revised
• Guru yoga
• Karma
• Nirvana/Samsara
• Rebirth/reincarnation
• 6 classes of sentient beings
• Enlightenment
• Precepts
What is Mindfulness?
• Of body: Breathing and sensations
• Of Feeling: Pleasant, unpleasant or neutral
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Make sure to assist in distinguishing the physical
sensation from the labelled emotional content.
Of Mind: Is it Desire, Aversion or Ignorance?
Of Mental Objects: Content based: know what to
abandon, what to cultivate. 5 hindrances: sense
desire, aversion, laziness, restlessness and
doubt. Cultivate emptiness of “I”
Voluntary simplicity means going
fewer places in one day rather than
more, seeing less so I can see
more, doing less so I can do more,
acquiring less so I can have more.
--Jon Kabat-Zinn
7 factors of awakening
• Mindfulness
• Investigation (and choice)
• Energy/Enthusiasm
• Joy
• Tranquility
• Concentration
• Wisdom
Biology of Meditation
• Stress reactivity as measured by skin conductance
response (meditators have heightened responses then
quickly return to baseline, or let go)
• Increased attention and lack of habituation in practiced
meditators for repetitive stimuli
• FMRI studies being done with the Dalai Lama’s group
http://www.mindandlife.org/mission.org_section.html
• and B. Alan Wallace’s group
http://sbinstitute.com/
Realization and Actualization
• Understanding emptiness has 10 levels
• Knowing “bliss” or even possessing some of the
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siddhis does not guarantee personality
integration into everyday life.
The integration of psychology with spiritual
training assists in bringing reality to periods of
meditation….for those of us who aren’t nuns and
monks, living in caves!
Learning is finding out what we
already know.
Doing is demonstrating that you
know it.
Teaching is reminding others that
they know just as well as you.
You are all learners, doers and
teachers.
--Richard Bach
More Information at:
http://HeartOfUnderstanding.com