Psychology & Buddhism.pdf

Responsibility in Daseinsanalysis and Buddhism 149
In the wisdom category, the Buddha advises developing right understanding
and right thought. This means understanding the three characteristics of existence,
the workings of karma and dependent origination. Right understanding
frees us from ignorance and enables us to gain insight into ourselves and the
nature of reality.
Mental culture, more commonly understood as meditation, the third aspect
of the path, deals with the training of the mind to develop the wisdom and insight
to overcome psychological suffering. It involves the development of right effort,
right mindfulness and right concentration. In all his teachings, the Buddha
emphasizes personal responsibility. But nowhere is this sense of responsibility
and self-reliance more prominent than in mental culture, where the individual’s
opportunity for growth and happiness lies in his or her taking the responsibility
to develop the mental discipline for clear thinking. We can see a parallel between
the Buddha’s advice to people to cultivate this frame of mind and phenomenological
seeing advocated by Heidegger and Boss.
Daseinsanalysis
Social Responsibility
Social responsibility in daseinsanalysis is grounded on the following
Heideggerian notions:
Da-sein as the “shepherd of Being”
Fourfold
Letting be
It may be recalled that Heidegger and Boss emphasize Da-sein’s ever-present
concern for its own Being, and the Being of everything that it encounters (Craig
1988). In other words, Heidegger considers human beings indispensable to Being
and perceives “man [Da-sein] as the shepherd of Being” (Heidegger, 1947/1993b,
p. 234). According to Heidegger and Boss, seeing themselves in this guardianship
role helps to motivate people to take responsibility for other beings.
Additionally, both men seek to promote social responsibility by entreating
people to perceive everything as inter-related. This notion of inter-relatedness is
captured in Heidegger’s (1952/197la) concept of the “fourfold” which comprises
earth, sky, divinities (gods) and mortals. To understand the fourfold in relation to
social responsibility, we need to look briefly at Heidegger’s distinction between
technological (calculative) and meditative thinking; and his idea of “letting be.”
For Heidegger (1941/1993c), technological thinking refers to the utilitarian
attitude that human beings adopt towards things, perceiving them as “standing
reserve” (p. 17) to be used in the service of something else. This attitude,