3 posts tagged “psychology”
John Welwood’s Toward a Psychology of Awakening is an attempt to explain how Buddhism and psychotherapy can work together to bring about both personal and spiritual transformation. Welwood tackled this monumental task by first showing how psychology and spirituality can be integrated. He then discussed how psychotherapy can be understood in a spiritual context. Finally, Welwood showed how psychological and spiritual awakening can occur within a relationship, rather than the conventional notion these two could only occur in a solitary context like a monastery.
Welwood’s material is well researched. Unfortunately, it is also barely readable. It is not that his writing is terrible. On the contrary, Welwood wrote as one would expect an experienced academic would write on a topic of this magnitude. However, that is where the problem lies. This book is like reading a programming textbook on how to integrate spirituality and psychology. The information is sound, but it is also boring to read.
Some of the best books I have read on psychology and spirituality tend to be less mechanical and more personal. When dealing with these two weighty ideas and how they work together, I think a better way is to err on the side of simplicity. Rather than fill 300 pages with theories and case studies, I think breaking it down to simple teachings would be more effective in showing how psychology and spirituality work together in the whole person.
Despite my criticisms, there is much to learn in these pages, however difficult it may be to find. Welwood did well explaining the difference between the horizontal thinking of Western psychology and the vertical thinking of Eastern Buddhism. Regarding meditation, Welwood explained the importance of regarding mediation as a road to a nondualistic experience rather than simply a selfish journey to the unconscious mind. In fact, Welwood spent a great deal of time talking about transcending dualistic forms of thinking, especially when thinking about divisions between the conditioned and unconditioned mind.
Here is an interesting passage in this book about emptiness:
A sudden clap of thunder is awesome not just because of the sound, but because of the silence it has interrupted, as [William] James points out: “Into the awareness of the thunder itself the awareness of the previous silence creeps and continues; for what we hear when the thunder crashes is not thunder pure, but thunder-breaking-upon-silence-and-contrasting-with-it…. The feeling of the thunder is also a feeling of the silence just as gone.” (52)
Journeying into this emptiness will help us experience the awakening Welwood wrote about in this book. Meditation offers us a method to walk into the emptiness and into a unification of our total life.
Dreams is a collection of works by Swiss psychologist Carl Gustav Jung, as chosen by editor R.F.C. Hull and published in 1974. Split up into four parts, this book offers a primer on dreams in relation to psychoanalysis, psychic energy, the practicality of dream analysis, and symbolism when related to alchemy. This collection of works describes Jung’s method in analyzing dreams and the aspects of dream psychology as a whole. Finally, Jung deconstructed the symbolism contained in 59 dreams and unconscious images from a patient over a ten-month span in the early 1930s (the total amount of dreams analyzed by Jung for this patient was 400).
Throughout his writings, Jung used plenty of jargon and would often go on long digressions into literature, philosophy, and theology. This was important, though, because Jung’s basic claim about dreams is that they are unconscious manifestations of situations experienced by the conscious life. A person’s makeup and personality are often formed and shaped by their experiences with literature, philosophy, and theology. According to Jung, the dream is “a spontaneous self-portrayal, in symbolic form, of the actual situation in the unconscious” (49). The symbols contained in the dream are made up of information and experiences found in our daily lives.
Jung was cautious about inadequate dream interpretations and even went as a far as to say even he did not have the final say on the subject. Constantly warning that dream analysis should always be considered within the context of the person, Jung went as far as to say the first task in analysis is not to understand or interpret but to establish the context (often involving an understanding of history, philosophy, literature, and theology). Jung said, “I would even assert that without knowledge of the conscious situation the dream can never be interpreted with any degree of certainty” (102). Jung rejected any stereotyped interpretations of dreams and only considered an interpretation valid if it examined the person’s whole context (conscious and unconscious).
What I found the most useful in Jung’s writings was his method for analyzing the symbols found in dreams. Jung would take every symbol and image in the dream and break down how it worked within the context of the dreamer. The history of symbols (shapes, colors, mandalas, elements, and objects like poles) was also important for gaining a context as to how these symbols have been understood throughout the ages. For example, unity is represented by circles, squares represent the four elements, and a mandala signifies the psychic center of the personality not identified with the ego.
Here is an excerpt that I believe does a good job at showing Jung in action:
It concerns a colleague of mine, a man somewhat older than myself, whom I used to see from time to time and who always teased me about dream-interpretations. Well, I met him one day in the street and he called out to me, “How are things going? Still interpreting dreams? By the way, I’ve had another idiotic dream. Does that mean something too?” This is what he had dreamed: “I am climbing a high mountain, over steep snow-covered slopes. I climb higher and higher, and it is marvelous weather. The higher I climb the better I feel. I think, ‘If only I could go on climbing like this for ever!’ When I reach the summit my happiness and elation are so great that I feel I could mount right up into space. And I discover that I can actually do so: I mount upwards on empty air, and awake in sheer ecstasy.”
After some discussion, I said, “My dear fellow, I know you can’t give up mountaineering, but let me implore you not to go alone from now on. When you go, take two guides, and promise on your word of honour to follow them absolutely.” “Incorrigible!” he replied, laughing, and waved good-bye. I never saw him again. Two months later the first blow fell. When out alone, he was buried by an avalanche, but was dug out in the nick of time by a military patrol that happened to be passing. Three months afterwards the end came. He went on a climb with a younger friend, but without guides. A guide standing below saw him literally step out into the air while descending a rock face. He fell on the head of his friend, who was waiting lower down, and both were dashed to pieces far below. That was ecstasis with a vengeance!
Jung took dream interpretation seriously and had strong feelings for those (specifically medical doctors) that took this lightly. At the end of the book, Jung said:
This is reason enough not to make light of them, and my medical experience has only confirmed this estimate. There are people, of course, who think it unscientific to take anything seriously; they do not want their intellectual playground disturbed by graver considerations. But the doctor who fails to take account of man’s feelings for values commits as serious blunder, and if he tries to correct the mysterious and well-nigh inscrutable workings of nature with his so-called scientific attitude, he is merely putting his shallow sophistry in place of nature’s healing processes.
And with that, I have concluded my reading for 2008. Thanks to Excel, I now have my reading progress broken down into many nifty graphs and interesting statistics.
For Good Self-Control, Try Getting Religious About It
John Tierney, The New York Times
Psychologists Michael McCullough and Brian Willoughby from the University of Miami have concluded that religious belief and piety contribute to one’s ability to employ self-discipline. This is a key point in the article:
“Brain-scan studies have shown that when people pray or meditate, there’s a lot of activity in two parts of brain that are important for self-regulation and control of attention and emotion,” he said. “The rituals that religions have been encouraging for thousands of years seem to be a kind of anaerobic workout for self-control.”
I have found this to be true in my case. Religious and spiritual practices have significantly contributed to my ability to control both my emotions and actions. The meditation practices I have learned seem to have done the most in creating an awareness of both my soul and the world that surrounds me. This mindfulness has given me peace, clarity, and self-control.
Does this mean all people should embrace religious practices? I do not think so and the psychologists in this article concur. People pretending to be religious and spiritual do not achieve spiritual benefits. There are also people that are neither religious nor spiritual who yet possess marvelous self-control. Tierney said, “So what’s a heathen to do in 2009? Dr. McCullough’s advice is to try replicating some of the religious mechanisms that seem to improve self-control, like private meditation or public involvement with an organization that has strong ideals."
I think deep thinking can be a bridge between the spiritual and secular realms. When one deeply thinks about something, they become mindful and aware of things passed over by shallow thinkers. When the deep thinking is turned inward, people learn about whom they are and are not. They also learn how to balance themselves, avoiding life that is either too emotional or too rational. When deep thinking is turned to the outside, the entire world is different because you are considering things and ideas that are not available to people that do not think deeply.
Deep thinkers see things and experience life on an entirely different level that the person that is only concerned with matters of the flesh. Possible consequences to actions are evaluated and considered, rather than simply giving in to fleeting passions. This is why both genuinely religious and secular people can practice self-control. It does not have so much to do religion; it has to do with deep thinking, something most people can do if they are willing and are patient.
