Zen and the Psychology of Transformation: The Supreme Doctrine [Paperback]

Hubert Benoit (Author), Aldous Huxley (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1990

Man cannot live fully until he has considered the great questions of life. It is for this reason that we turn to Western psychology and metaphysics for help in solving our problems.

The approach of psychology and psychotherapy is based on "statistical normality," or the behavior of the greatest number. In an effort to conform, we focus on our problems rather than our possibilities, emulating a norm that falls drastically short of our full capacity for development.

Oriental thought, and Zen thought in particular, seeks to activate the true potential of men and women--to transform our lives, and thereby enable us to shed our problems and suffering.

The Supreme Doctrine applies the essence of Oriental Wisdom to the pursuit of self-knowledge and transcendence. The first step in a holistic psychology is to begin examining the true “state of man,” rather than its aberrations. In so doing, we can give new direction and purpose to our lives.

The author does not advocate “conversion” to Eastern thought, but rather an integration of East and West, wherein Western psychological thinking and reasoning can be enriched and clarified by Oriental wisdom.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Should be read by everyone who aspires to know who he is and what he can do to acquire self-knowledge."
(

Aldous Huxley

)

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French

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Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: Inner Traditions; Revised edition (March 1, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0892812729
• ISBN-13: 978-0892812721
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #729,757 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perhaps the profoundest book ever written on Zen, May 6, 2002

By 

"therecordingangel" (Underground) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Zen and the Psychology of Transformation: The Supreme Doctrine (Paperback)

Zen is probably the most radical approach to existence devised through human history. Authentic Zen has nothing New Age or feel-good about it: it promises no comfort or self-aggrandizement, only absolute existential salvation, and THAT only have a laborious emptying out of the cup of ego that runneth over.

Most Zen masters refuse to discuss the discipline or explain it. Hubert Benoit takes the opposite, and for intellectually-inclined Westerners, the more accessible path, and discusses Zen in exhaustive detail in terms of psychology and philosophy--especially phenomenology and existentialism. I was skeptical of this approach until I actually read this book. Benoit writes at an extremely high level of abstraction (something quite alien to traditional Zen, which deals mainly in parables) but any experienced meditator will concur that practically every word Benoit writes rings with utter truth and fidelty to the workings of consciousness. He is clearly a man who has absorbed the Zen teachings and then examined the workings of his own mind with unfailing rigor and perceptiveness; he has taken those findings and translated them into language with a care and accuracy that nobody else, to my knowledge, has ever matched. The results are utterly profound.

Indispensable for anybody interested in Zen or the expansion of consciousness.

28 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A profound classic!, March 4, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Boulder, Colorado) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Zen and the Psychology of Transformation: The Supreme Doctrine (Paperback)

I have read this book several times over the course of five or so years; a rare occurence for me. The fact that Aldous Huxley writes the foreword should speak volumes in itself. In Huxley's own words this profound classic seeks to break through all that "obstructs the flow of life and grace and inspiration." A challenging read, but I doubt that you would regret having this book in your life. Consider it yeast!

31 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ancient Zen for the Modern World, February 19, 1999

By 

J. Grupp, 28, [e-mail], anthropology st... (Albuquerque, New Mexico) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Zen and the Psychology of Transformation: The Supreme Doctrine (Paperback)

Few of us have the opportunity to retreat into an actual monastic way of life for years and years in order to sink into the nature of Zen experience. Therefore, many branches of Zen, with their emphasis on monastic methods, are often somewhat anachronistic amid the modern world of busyness, speed, information, and seemingly continual bombardment from every direction. Hubert Benoit's Zen and the Psychology of Transformation goes back to the impetus of Zen--a philosophy called Chan that derived in China in the 7th century from an illiterate philosopher named Hui Neng--in order to offer a form of Zen that is fully possible in the context of modern life. Chan is not centered in sitting meditation, or in traditional zazen techniques, but rather simply in a restful type of introspection that leads one directly to the core of Zen experience. Benoit details the mechanics of this introspective life in poetic and technical form, and in a way that leaves one with a clear and simple knowledge of how one is to live one's life according to the restful life of Zen.