Abstract
Buddhism is increasingly shown to have positive effects for health and well-being. Robust research supports the claim that by practicing Buddhism one feels better. But just how does Buddhist practice work, and why? To begin to answer these questions this chapter reports recent findings in the fields of neurobiology, clinical psychology, and anthropology, and points to three especially promising domains of psychological processes: attention to the present (what is often called “mindfulness”), decreased attachments to the self (or changes in self-construal), and the cultivation of calm emotion. After summarizing research from neurobiology and clinical psychology in each domain the chapter turns to an ethnographic case study of Buddhism in a small community in Thailand in order to show how these domains are connected to a range of other ideas in practice. In doing so the chapter shows how Buddhism and its positive effects may best be understood within, rather than extracted from, its historical and cultural context.
Research for this chapter was approved by the Institutional Review Board at the University of Chicago, and made possible through a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad grant and a Culture and Mind Postdoctoral Fellowship at Stanford University. The author would like to thank Justin Van Elsberg, Paul Kwon, Somwang Kaewsufong, Emily Zeamer, and the members of Stanford University’s Psychology Culture Co-Lab for their contributions to the development of this chapter.
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Notes
- 1.
The Pali language is considered the most ‘canonical’ language of early Buddhism, used as such throughout the Theravādan world of mostly Southeast Asia, while the related language of Sanskrit is the most common canonical language of the Mahayana Buddhist schools (e.g. Tibetan and Zen) of Northern Asia. It is worth noting however that neither Pali nor Sanskrit was spoken by the Buddha himself, who probably spoke a Magadhi, Pakrit local dialect of his birth (Mizuno, 1982). Throughout this chapter, technical terms in italics refer to the Pali language unless otherwise noted.
- 2.
See the Abhidhamma for a comprehensive account of Buddhist psychology.
- 3.
Dhamma (or dharma in Sanskrit) is a difficult concept to translate into English: it generally refers to the all-pervasive order of reality and morality. According to Buddhadāsa dhamma means (a) the state of nature as it is (b) the laws of nature, (c) the duties that must be performed in accordance with the laws of nature, and (d) the results that are derived from the fulfillment of such duties.
- 4.
Flow has a particular meaning in a Buddhist context. Rather than feeling “mindless” in the moment, people training in Buddhist practices report instead feeling especially “mindful.” While the practice of mindless “flow” and the mindfulness of being in the moment may relate, these different constructions about the mind may suggest differences in ideal experience. They may also suggest cultural variation in Theory of Mind (Luhrmann, 2012, Robbins, Cassaniti & Luhrmann, 2011).
- 5.
While some scholars point to a natural similarity between CBT and Buddhist meditative techniques of mindfulness, others point to inconsistencies in findings, fundamental differences in philosophies, or a lack to date of sufficient systematic evidence to warrant confident conclusions about the use and benefits of such a project (Krisanaprakornkit, Krisanaprakornkit, Piyavhatkul, & Laopaiboon, 2006). There is clearly more research to be done on the relationship between CBT and Buddhist meditation. I return to this issue at the end of this chapter.
- 6.
As Hölzel et al. tell us (2011), meditation has been shown to cause physiological as well as psychological relaxation. It relates to high levels of relaxation, and relaxation is connected to decreased heart rate (Zeidan, Johnson, Gordon, & Goolkasian, 2010), decreased blood pressure (de la Fuente, Franco, & Salvator, 2010), decreased cortisol levels (Carlson et al., 2007), decreased breathing rate (Lazar et al., 2005), lowered oxygen and carbon dioxide consumption (Young & Taylor, 1998), decreased skin conductance response (Austin, 2006), decreased muscle tension (Benson, 2000).
- 7.
- 8.
Instead of a stable self or soul the person according to Buddhist accounts suggests that the feeling of having a self is made up of different and always changing parts. These parts are referred to as the five aggregates (upādāna-khandhas) or objects of grasping: rūpa (material form), vedanā (feeling); sañña (cognitive and interpretive sensation); sankhāras (moods, emotion and motivation); and viññaṇa (consciousness of discrimination, or awareness) (Abidhamma 3BCE). Anattā or self-lessness is known as one of the three marks of existence, along with aniccā (impermanence) and dukkha (unsatisfactoriness). The suggestion of self-lessness (in Pali, anattā) is radical in two senses: it is radical from a Western psychological point of view that emphasizes the enhancement of self-hood, and it is radical from the socio-historical view in which Buddhism emerged from a Hinduism that took for granted a unifying, cosmic Self (or Attā, as opposed to the Buddhist opposite that adds the negative Pali prefix na to create non-self, or (na) an-attā).
- 9.
Few people living within a Buddhist culture report that they live as if they fully do not have a self (Cassaniti, 2006; Spiro, 1970) – this supposed incongruity between theory and practice led an early generation of Buddhist studies scholars to proclaim many Buddhists living in Buddhist countries somehow not ‘truly’ Buddhist (Almond, 1988). More recent anthropological investigations of non-self attend instead to the ways that people understand the Buddhist teaching and apply it to their lives as an ideal (Cassaniti, 2009).
- 10.
This teaching is related in the Pali Buddhist canon at Alagaddūpama Sutta (MN22).
- 11.
It may make more sense to think of ‘feelings’ in Buddhism instead of ‘emotion’ per se. When I asked my bilingual expert Buddhist studies professor Somwang Kaewsufong at Chiang Mai University to translate “emotion” for me into a formal Buddhist Pali or colloquial Thai he scoffed at me. “Emotion?” he said, “that’s just a fancy Western psychological term. They study ‘emotion’ down the hall (pointing to the psychology wing of the building). It has nothing to do with Thai life or with Buddhism.” In general there are three kinds of feelings in Buddhism: pleasant feelings (or joy, sukha), unpleasant feelings (or pain, dukkha), or neutral feelings (neither pleasant nor unpleasant, adukkham-asukham).
- 12.
For example, “My sister has always been quiet. She doesn’t speak much, she has a good personality, she’s cool and calm-hearted. (Inson)”. Swang, a local police chief, highlights this when he says, “I like helping people, doing my duty. In terms of emotions, my emotions are cooler. I’ve learned more, I see more of what’s around me.” For example, I asked a friend one night if he would help me with something the following day. He said in response, “I don’t know. If I’m able to tam jai by tomorrow I’ll come out of my room to cook and I’ll help you, but if not don’t think anything of it if I don’t appear.” (Jan) Duangta offers another example of this when he talks about his feelings on getting ripped off by a supply company he had gone into business with. He says, “I’m settling my heart.” (Duangta)
- 13.
The Buddha instructs on mindfulness training most directly in a teaching known as the Sati-pațțhāna-sutta (Soma Thera 1941). Here in the Pali language of early Buddhism “sati” refers to mindfulness, “patthāna” means establishing (also variously translated also as foundations or applications), and “sutta” refers to a collection of Buddhist teachings (Sanskrit: sutra). The Sati-pațțhāna-sutta literally translated means “The Establishing of Mindfulness.” (Majjhima Nikāya, Middle Length Sayings of the Buddha). Pali language scholars, interestingly, most exactly translate sati not as “mindfulness” but as “memory” (Kelly, 2008) (it has also been translated variously as “consciousness”, “awareness” or “knowledge” (Shulman, 2010)). The work of memory and the work of mindfulness seem to be in contradiction; if one is paying attention to the present moment, how is memory implicated? It has been argued by various scholars that the translation of sati as memory may relate to an outdated meaning taken from the Upanishads, and is not worth thinking about further, but others suggest that sati as memory necessarily incorporates personal cultural, conceptual processing in to mindful practice.
- 14.
For example, my host sister P’Goy (Cassaniti, 2014) had to deal with the death of her father two years before I got to know her in 2003. She remembers, “When my father died I started learning more and more about anicca, and it helped me to remain calm.” (P’Goy). Suwit, for example, says, “I think of anicca often. When something happens and there’s a feeling of stress rising inside me I think ‘anicca…’” Ampon says, “Rich people can’t lay down their burdens. They’re attached to themselves. They don’t have happiness.”
- 15.
This person in discussing cause and effect is indirectly referencing the Buddhist theory of dependent origination, or pattisamaputta, or the idea that everything has a cause and that by recognizing causes and effects one gains insight and escapes from suffering.
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Cassaniti, J.L. (2014). Buddhism and Positive Psychology. In: Kim-Prieto, C. (eds) Religion and Spirituality Across Cultures. Cross-Cultural Advancements in Positive Psychology, vol 9. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8950-9_6
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