Customer Reviews

Buddhism and Jungian Psychology

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book consists of 3 Parts: the authors' personal views, their analyses of Kuo-an's (Kuku-an in Japanese) Zen Ox Herding Pictures (OHP), & 6 prior articles by Miyuki, a Pure Land priest, Zen practitioner, & Japanese Jungian psychoanalyst. The OHP is central; 2 renditions (Kuo-an's & Pu-Ming's) are given. The authors compare Buddhist meaning with Jungian Individuation. Spiegelman, also a Zen practitioner & a Jungian analyst) provides a masterful analysis & compares other religious/psychological views. The differences between the 2 author's viewpoints is interesting as the Westerner looks East & the Easterner looks West: Spiegelman seems to emphasize Buddhism while Miyuki emphasizes Jung but only in degree as they share Buddhism & Jung-as does their friend Hayao Kawai, the 1st Eastern Jungian analyst (author of Buddhism & the Art of Psychotherapy, 0890966982). There are other key points--Miyuki points out difficulties of translation & false renderings of Buddhist terms into English: p. 31: "The Zen concept of `mind' refers to something quite different from the Western concept of the word," p. 124: "duhkha which has been translated as `suffering.' However, etymologically & dogmatically, duhkha is better translated as...'dis-ease'" & p. 141: "The terms `'non-ego,' `no-self,' `etc. are inadequate translations of the ideas expressed in the term anatman & such translations serve to further confuse what is a difficult concept to place in Western categories." Aronson (Buddhist Practice on Western Grounds, 1590300939) would agree. Thus, Miyuki states on p. 138: "In my understanding, the Buddhist tradition aids the individual to strengthen the ego through the integration of unconscious contents" & p. 142: "This process of dispelling the illusory identity & manifesting the true self cannot be identified with aiming at dissolution of the ego." This greatly differs from some Western Buddhist authors/teachers assertions! Avoiding Engler's Orientocentric & Eurocentric extremist views, both authors walk the Middle Path as illustrated in the "parable of the White Path." Thus, pp. 64-5: Spiegelman-"For the Freudian we find the face just after we were born...For the Buddhist, it is the face before we were born...For the Jungian, it is both of these. The link with collective, inner & outer, & the discovery of our Selves. So the Jungian might be the intermediary between the two; the psychotherapy which aims at healing, love, & work, & freeing from illusion, but at Enlightenment too" & p. 168: Miyuki-"The individuation process shares, in my opinion, many of the same underlying processes as found in Zen. I fully agree with Jung, therefore, when he says that Zen `can be understood as an Eastern method of psychic healing, i.e. making whole'" & p. 172: "It is my view that C. G. Jung's Analytical Psychology has provided the West with the first meaningful psychological avenue to approach Buddhism & other Asian religious experience." Finally, Miyuki argues the applicability of psychology to Buddhism: p. 127: "All human experience is essentially psychological, in the sense that immediate `reality' is perceived & apprehended in & through our psyches" as well as Buddhism to psychology: p. 172: "Buddhism aims at transformation of the ego in order to help an individual to overcome the `dis-ease' of life brought about by impermanence."

A series of essays relating the two subjects, but seemingly more focussed on Buddhism than Jung. Overall quite good, if somewhat repetitive. Spiegelman's essays superior to Miyuki's. Self/Ego illustrated in context of Buddhism in Spiegelman's analysis of the Ten Oxherding Pictures, in which Ego symbolically brings Self into harmonious relationship, with boy/man as Ego, and Ox as Self.