Psychology & Buddhism.pdf

8 G. Rita Dudley-Grant, C. Peter Bankart, and Kathleen H. Dockett
ethnic group conflicts, the questions of what values should guide our selection of
groups with whom to collaborate, how resources should be redistributed and
toward what ends is left unanswered. The main thesis of this chapter is that
Buddhist traditions could provide guides for energizing the visions of community
psychology. Jason and Moritsugu review the foundational values of Buddhist
schools of thought, and show how these values might be applied in assessment and
therapy, with implications drawn to broader community-level interventions. The
chapter advances our thinking on the question of how it is possible to join the value
basis of the spiritual traditions with the action-oriented perspective of ecological
community psychology, as suggested in Spretnak’s (1991) concept of “Ecological
Postmodernism.”
In “Transcending Self and Other: Mahayana Principles of Integration,”
Kathleen H. Dockett and Doris North-Schulte address the contributions of
Buddhist philosophy to understanding and preventing ethnic conflict. From psychological
and Buddhist analyses of the root causes of ethnic conflict, the authors
conclude that a crisis of identity lies at the core of much of the ethnic violence
around the globe. Observing that under conditions of group threat, people retrench
into their primal cultural identities (e.g., as Muslims, Americans, Arab
Palestinians, Jewish Israelis) and become alienated from their more universal or
cosmic identities, the authors propose that a failure to understand the nature of our
existence, our identity, and our mutually interdependent relationships with one
another is at issue. Dockett and North-Schulte then discuss how Buddhist values
and principles may be applied to conflict prevention and propose four Mahayana
principles of integration (unity) that provide an alternative conceptualization of
“self” and “other” and hold the promise of a harmonious co-existence.
The theme of an ethic of care, the idea that science can inform and be
informed by compassion, and the assertion that every living person can be
empowered by coming to direct terms with the essence of his or her own existence
has been recognized by some psychologists as constituting the beginnings
of a deep ecological commitment to preservation of the earth (see for example,
Barash, 2001). In “Environmental Problems and Buddhist Ethics: From the
Perspective of the Consciousness-Only Doctrine,” Shuichi Yamamoto sets forth
an analysis of our environmental dilemma in a way that permits us to see and
understand that the only solution that will save the planet is a solution that
involves a fundamental change in human consciousness. By stressing such concepts
as a fundamental biospheric egalitarianism in humans, living things, and
non-living things Yamamoto’s analysis leads us to a recognition that the ecological
movement to save the earth from destruction requires both the great compassion
and the energy of the wisdom of the way of the Buddha.
David W. Chappell introduces the concept of “social mindfulness” as a
dimension of Buddhist mindfulness practice in “Buddhist Social Principles.” His
thesis is that the same process we pursue in the inner dialogue that is mindfulness