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Buddhist Psychology: An Interdisciplinary Exploration of Buddhist Theories of Mind

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Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Chien-Te Lin

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Guest Editor

Institute of Religion and Humanities, Buddhist Tzu-Chi University, Hualien City, Taiwan
Interests: buddhist philosophy; buddhist psychology; buddhist ethics; humanistic buddhism in Taiwan; chinese philosophy

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The extensive understanding of the mind in Buddhism, coupled with the recognition of suffering as an inherent aspect of life, has propelled the increasing significance of Buddhist psychology in contemporary society. People are now actively exploring this field to discover ways to enhance their well-being, happiness, and inner peace. That said, to eliminate suffering, Buddhism emphasizes directing our attention to our mind and body and illustrating insights such as self, consciousness, awareness, enlightenment, emotion, greed, anger, ignorance, and so on.

Unlike theistic religions that presume the soul, Buddhism proposes the theory of non-self, while rejecting the idea that the mind is identical to the brain, suggested by contemporary neuroscience. As a result, Buddhist psychology is a distinctive system of psychology that draws on the Buddha's teachings to investigate the workings of the mind. To facilitate critical, hermeneutical, historical, and constructive conversations among a diverse range of interested readers and academic scholars of religion, this Special Issue has identified three main directions for the study of Buddhist psychology. These are:

Interpretations and discussions of Buddhist theories of mind, which focus on consciousness, perception, emotion, memory, or other related topics as described in Buddhist texts.
Comparisons of Buddhist theories of mind with other philosophical, spiritual, or scientific traditions, aimed at highlighting the distinctive characteristics of Buddhist psychology.
Applications of Buddhist theories of mind to promote mental and physical health, including research into meditation, mindfulness, concentration, happiness, wisdom, compassion, and interpersonal relationships.

Authors interested in contributing to this Special Issue should first submit a proposed title and a 200-300 word abstract summarizing their intended contribution. These should be sent to the Guest Editor, Prof. Chient-Te Lin (bhadanta@gmail.com), and the Assistant Editor of Religions, Ms. Margaret Liu (margaret.liu@mdpi.com). Abstracts will be reviewed to ensure they properly fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo a double-blind peer review process. We look forward to receiving your submissions.

Prof. Dr. Chien-Te Lin
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

buddhist psychology
mindfulness
well-being
consciousness
self

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

25 pages, 1283 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Pleasure of Not Experiencing Anything: Some Reflections on Consciousness in the Context of the Early Buddhist Nikāyas

by Grzegorz Polak

Religions 2023, 14(11), 1347; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14111347 - 25 Oct 2023

Viewed by 1277

Abstract

The Nibbānasukha-sutta contains Sāriputta’s statement that the pleasure (sukha) of nibbāna lies in the fact that nothing is experienced (vedayita). This statement may be seen as complementary to the proclamation in the Kaḷāra-sutta that all that is experienced is unpleasant (dukkha). In this paper, I attempt to reconstruct the ideas serving as a philosophical backdrop to these radical and seemingly counterintuitive claims. I use a comparative and interdisciplinary approach, re-examining several key Nikāya passages, as well as drawing on modern cognitive science and philosophy of mind. I suggest that vedayita and the closely related concept of the five khandhas (and in particular viññāṇa) refer to various aspects of the type of consciousness whose content is phenomenal, introspectable, reportable and may be integrated into memory. I suggest that such consciousness is not a constant feature of our being engaged in the world and that its absence does not entail insentience or being incognizant. I hypothesize that a relatively low frequency of occurrences of such consciousness in the states known as absorption or flow contributes to their pleasurable nature and the altered sense of the passage of time and selfhood. I attempt to explain how the presence or absence of such consciousness is related to the states of dukkha or sukha, with particular focus on the role played by saṅkhāra. I also discuss the limits of introspection as a means of understanding what exactly makes experiences pleasurable or painful, and consider the possibility of non-introspectable forms of pleasure. In conclusion, I suggest that psychological transformation in early Buddhism is connected with a radical change of perspective, which involves no longer identifying with one’s own consciousness. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Buddhist Psychology: An Interdisciplinary Exploration of Buddhist Theories of Mind)