Personality Course - Buddhism and Psychology
Buddhism, although a religion, makes many statements that are closer to psychology than to religion.
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Buddhism describes the universal human condition of suffering and its causes, and it offers methods for ending suffering, in teachings called the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path.
The First Noble Truth is that “there is suffering.”
The Second Noble Truth identifies the origin of suffering, which is the attachment to desire. At root, the problem is ignorance because we are deluded about what would make us happy, and so we crave the wrong things.
The Third Noble Truth is that ending the craving will end the suffering. Detachment from craving is the key. This includes detachment from the craving for material goods.
The Fourth Noble Truth outlines an Eightfold Path for achieving all the above: right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. This path is sometimes called “the Middle Way” because it avoids the extremes.
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Buddhism is a religious tradition that has developed meditation practices, based on understandings of phenomena that are of interest to personality theory: thought, the self, emotion, behavior and its consequences, to name a few.
Meditation is now used by some Western psychotherapists and medical practitioners in conjunction with other therapeutic interventions to deal with stress, anxiety, and many other disorders.
Neuroscientists studying meditating monks and other meditating subjects have found that the practice does change brain functioning in various ways, depending on the type of meditation and experience of the meditator.
These effects support the Buddhist claim of increased positive emotions from meditation.
Benefits to physical health and to society are claimed to result from individual spiritual practice and development.
Psychotherapists have incorporated meditation into their practice, including treatments for addiction, and neuroscientists are exploring the relationship of meditation to brain functioning.
Reference - Theories of Personality - Understanding Persons, Susan Cloninger, The Sage Colleges, 6th edition
This article is part of Personality Course series. If you miss previous articles, you can find them below.
I don't practise both of them but I do know it's good for the body and soul!
I am not Buddhist, but I love to meditate. I am still learning how to do it. It is not easy 😉
I know, I always fell asleep when meditating... hahaha
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Buddhism is the only religion that I can even come close to liking, because it is more philosophical and in most cases makes logical sense. Of course, I don't believe in reincarnation, because there is no evidence for any such thing, including life after death. However, the philosophy is absolutely spot on. I went to see the Dalai Lama about 6 years ago when he was in Louisville, Kentucky. He was both funny and very logical in almost simple childlike way. I think it is tragic that there are strains of Buddhism that have become more like other religions, resorting to violence to push their views.
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Great to see your article. Buddhism was originally from India and the Buddha saw that the Vedic brahmana priests were misusing the Vedas so he called on people to follow him and ignore the Vedas.
Later Buddhism was pushed out of India and found more acceptance in other Asian countries, but it is originally from the Vedic culture of India, it is an offshoot of Vedanta.
Funny how the teachings of the Buddha became an "ism" with all the dogma of a religion when it really was a philosophy, a way of life that addresses the suffering in the world. It's a beautiful path to follow and I thank you for bringing it to the forefront.
A good reminder to me to keep me on the Eightfold Noble Path!
Have you heard of the Mindful Life discord community?
I cordially invite you to Mindful Life community, which resides in the @naturalmedicine server here. We run group meditations and support each other as we grow through conscious awareness. With much love!
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Love and be loved!
That's my message to anyone reading this.
Wow. I had no clue. I would love to learn about the meditation but when i have tried i fall asleep. It is reall annoying. Of course, someone told me one time that i am too busy which is why i fall asleep. Thanks so much for shari g this.
Ren