Psychology & Buddhism.pdf

272 David W. Chappell
2.
3.
Cultivating good means creating inner peace and outer compassion by
seeing the diversity within ourselves and our interdependence with
others that defuses the individual ego and extends our social identity to
include the common ground among us.
Freeing all beings includes actively protecting the integrity, diversity, and
creativity of others based on ecological and social mindfulness:
a. by holding “regular and frequent” meetings conducted fairly and harmoniously
where all beings, human and nonhuman, are included and
given a voice, where authority is shared, responsibility is distributed,
participation is balanced, decisions are democratic, and legal structures
of checks-and-balances avoid favoritism;
b. by nurturing social harmony and justice by small group dialogue where
diversity can be expressed and common ground found by sharing the
psychological factors and conditions that lead to decisions and actions,
not by primarily focusing on the decisions and actions themselves;
c. by building a just world by a fair and sustainable distribution of goods
for the well-being of all, based on collaborative decisions informed by
education, dialogue, and information about social, financial, and ecological
resources.
The importance of the social dimension for Buddhist psychology is illustrated
by a modern encounter in the 1930s in India. Mahatma Gandhi had worked
to eradicate the caste system through “a change of heart,” but the former untouchable,
B. R. Ambedkar, argued for legal safeguards to ensure social change.
Ambedkar publicly burned those parts of the Hindu Code of Manu that mandated
the caste system and vowed: “I was born a Hindu, but I won’t die a Hindu.” Later
Ambedkar was chairman of the drafting committee for the constitution of India
(1947–1948) and as a member of Nehru’s cabinet, he proposed that the Buddhist
dharmacakra (wheel of the law) be on the Indian flag. In 1956, he publicly converted
to Buddhism, followed by several million others. Ambedkar’s social revolution
is continuing in the Trailokya Bauddha Mahasangha Sahayaka Gana
(TBMSG) founded in 1978 by millions of former “untouchables”. Based on the
Buddha’s example, TBMSG members are seeking equality, but are using new
social instruments: legal protection, education, social development, and international
support. (Lokamitra, 1999)
Yes, Gandhi was right, the caste system will not disappear without a “change
of heart”. But Ambedkar was also right: new legal safeguards and specific social
processes are needed to encourage opportunities to support positive inclusion. For
an increasing number of Buddhists, social mindfulness and social activism is being
seen as a necessary part of Buddhist psychology to achieve peace both for oneself
and “for the good of the many, for the happiness of the many, out of compassion
for the world, for the benefit, for the good, for the happiness of gods and humans”.