Awakening
& Psychological Growth
From
Awakening
& Psychological Growth by Michael Taft,
"Waking
up will not solve your psychological issues—which unfortunately is
exactly what most people think it will do and are looking for. It
will not automatically make you nicer, or make other people like you
more. It won’t solve your depression, your obsession, or your
narcissism."
In
buddhism, awakening in general, is defined as familiarisation with
the empty or selfless nature of mind. It is true that little
familiarisation leaves much of the self-based terrain alive and this
can and does lead to mistakes and problems, even scandals and
traumas, unfortunately. It is little or too little familiarisation
(or too little awakening) that is the problem here, not that
buddhism, as a philosophy, wouldn't work or "go all the way".
I am a fan of Western psychology but I do think that if taught and
applied correctly, buddha dharma doesn't require support from it.
Having said that, I don't recommend stubbornly sitting (sticking with
one's chosen method of dharma) with one's problems if there is no
indication of both awakening and psychological growth.
Buddhist
methods vary and teachers' understanding of their own methods and
ability to pass it on varies greatly. Even something very basic, like
the meditative exercise of following of the breath or the meaning of
taking refuge, can be taught very differently, which affects how the
students learn and internalise it. The differences in learning can be
vast depending on the method and the teacher, even if the theory is
the same. Someone can be a teacher from a highly considered
tradition, such as vajrayana, but be a poor practitioner and not much
of a teacher, while a dedicated practitioner and skilled enough
teacher from a lower vehicle can make his or her students advance and
transform significantly. On the other hand, a vajrayana teacher, who
is familiar with the natural state and sees into the underlying
principles of practices, can make his or her students progress very
fast. So, the questions of method as well as pedagogy are very
important, as is the level or depth of the teacher's awakening.
To
have use for dharma teachings, one has to acknowledge one's own
confusion, or suffering caused by a sense of me-ness. Without this
discontent one has no need or motivation for practice, and doesn't
see the point of it either. On the other hand if one acknowledges
one's confusion, and immaturity because of that, it feeds one's
motivation to practice for one's own liberation for the sake of all
beings, as it is taught in mahayana. But if you get your belly full
from one or two shifts, possibly become a teacher, or a worshipped
guru who has comfortable life with money and services, your growth
stops there. It stops the moment you become satisfied. More
importantly you only understand a fraction of what buddhism points to
with emptiness or nature of mind. While anyone with one or few shifts
can understand something of emptiness, only a fully awakened one, a
buddha, really knows it. This leads to a whole another discussion but
I'll try to stick with the topic.
The
Heart Sutra states, "Form is emptiness, emptiness is form".
Confused self-based (samsaric) mind is realised to be empty of self.
"There is no one here! Woohoo!". Once this realisation
expands to cover most of one's mind, one's training takes a different
turn, that of becoming a human being again, instead of remaining as
transparent, colourless and formless emptiness. The thing is that
emotions don't go away or stop with realisation of emptiness but
instead of them causing selfing, they become expression of the
natural state. Because one has solid ground in the empty nature of
mind, emotions and expressing them becomes an embodiment of one's
awakening. It is OK to feel hurt, vulnerable and angry, that is the
training here and really it is all part of the same training as
before. In this way, one becomes healed as a human, instead of
remaining a human-shaped non-human who has no self or emotions. This
is, of course, if one has human traumas. Not all do but I think many
attracted to dharma or spiritual teachings do, because once again you
need suffer to have use for dharma.
But
I think that in many cases there simply isn't enough familiarisation
with the natural state, i.e. insight is insufficient, to get to the
stage of emotional healing.
Hope
this is useful.
-
Kim
