Zen and Western Psychotherapy: Nirvanic Transcendence and Samsaric Fixation
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Description: An argument that both the ends and the means of Buddhist practice far exceed the limitations of Western psychotherapy in its dominant forms. This claim is substantiated by examining the underlying views of human nature in the broader context of cosmic Nature, as these reflect the assumed nature of the therapeutic task.
Nirvanic Transcendence and Samsaric Fixation . P.451 Summary Much has been said about the relationship between Buddhism and Western psychotherapy. I argue that both the ends and the means of Buddhist practice far exceed the limitations of Western psychotherapy in its dominant forms. This claim is substantiated by examining the underlying views of human nature in the broader context of cosmic Nature, as these reflect the assumed nature of the therapeutic task. Special attention is given to the universal human encounter with death as the ultimate manifestation of dukkha.My conclusions may be summarized as follows: 1)Western psychotherapy, rooted in ancient Greek assumptions and represented by strains as diverse as Sigmund Freud and Abraham Maslow, essentially views human nature as internally weak and thus largely controlled by "objective" external forces. Consequently, it conceives of its task in terms of teaching patients to cope with existing conditions, that is, how to tread water in the samsaric sea. Its response to death, as expressed in Freud's later theory of the Death Instinct, is one of resignation as demanded by the scientifically validated fact of natural necessity. 2) One of the few variations on this therapeutic scheme, tending toward Buddhism in general and Zen in particular, is to be found in Viktor E. Frankl's Logotherapy. As revealed in Frankl's dimensional ontology, he is more sanguine about human prospects and our ability to achieve P.452 self-transcendence. Many parallels are to be found between logotherapeutic techniques and those of Zen, including glimmerings of enlightenmental insight into the key role of suffering. Yet, Frankl is never fully able to liberate either himself or Logotherapy from Samsaara, as reflected in his view of death as a necessary guarantor of life's meanings. 3)Only Zen is able to transcend both self (ego) and Samsaara, by means of the resources inherent in Original Nature. Its attitude of detachment toward death, without succumbing to denia
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