Psychology & Buddhism.pdf

118 G. Rita Dudley-Grant
events occurring at any given moment. A major aspect of self-control then is
learning how to temper one’s response to alleviate the suffering attached to these
lower worlds.
The four higher worlds or four noble paths are Learning, Realization,
Bodhisattva and Buddhahood. On these paths, the human condition is elevated
beyond common experience, informing and refining consciousness and awareness
of self and other. In the world of learning one studies and attempts to elevate
one’s life condition through the acquisition of knowledge. The discipline of study
has been an important ingredient in the movement towards an enlightened life.
The world of realization also speaks to the processes of insight found through
chanting or meditation, which open’s inner wisdom and clarifies perceptions
helping to attain the paths of seeing and knowing. The Bodhisattva is one who has
come to realize that our deep interconnectedness to all things requires a life that
is devoted to caring for others. Attainment of Buddhahood is possible in this lifetime
as the awareness of the ultimate reality and how to live happily within it,
with unshakeable conviction and equanimity. Thus, Nichiren Buddhism does not
propagate Nirvana, nor describe enlightenment as the absence of suffering. One
does not seek to escape life’s realities, but rather understands that Buddhahood,
or unshakeable happiness is to be experienced and lived in daily life.
From a Buddhist perspective, the addict, however, is caught in the lower
worlds of hunger, animality and anger, continuously cycling through them unable
to move beyond. Nichiren taught that one could become enlightened in one’s
current state. The process of practice enables individual change through the
development of insight and wisdom, or what Daisaku Ikeda calls a “human revolution”.
He goes on in the forward of his book of the same name to explicate
“A great revolution of character in an individual will help achieve a change in the
destiny of a nation and further, will cause a change in the destiny of humankind”
(as cited in Soka Gakkai, 1998, p. 46).
Commonalities with Buddhist and
Psychological Addiction Theories
These Buddhist conceptualizations of addiction are consistent with psychodynamic,
cognitive and transpersonal theories. From a dynamic perspective,
Buddhists conceive of the addict as being caught in a self-perpetuating negative
process, which can feed upon itself to the point of extinction. As in psychological
theories, these individuals are seen as functioning in lower, underdeveloped or
infantile manners with inhibited growth and completely selfish or narcissistic
orientation, the antithesis of Buddhist functioning. As one engages in Buddhist
practice our delusions and attachments to the lower world are purified, our insight
is enhanced, and we are able to function with more wisdom leading to less