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Buddhist View
of Mind and Emotion
September 2003
Gross Lab presentation
Scientific Method
• “Principles and procedures for the systematic pursuit of
knowledge involving the recognition and formulation of a
problem, the collection of data through observation and
experiment, and the formulation and testing of
hypotheses.” Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary
• Does Buddhism include this procedure in its inquiry into
the nature of the mind and consciousness?
• Fundamental spirit of empiricism and skepticism
• Repeated examination of philosophical views, thirdperson reports, and first-person experience
Framework of Buddhist theory and practice:
Four Noble Truths
The truths of suffering
• recognize the nature and full range of conditioned suffering to which
humans are vulnerable
The source of suffering
• hypothesis that the fundamental causes of suffering are to be found
within the mind, specifically in terms of cognitive, emotional, and
attentional imbalances
The cessation of suffering together with its source
• afflictive tendencies can be incontrovertibly dispelled from the mind
The path leading to that cessation
• detailed procedures for collecting data by observing mental
processes and experimenting with techniques for understanding
core mechanisms and then adjusting mental processes and
dissolving the potency of afflictive components
The Buddhist Endeavor
• Primary emphases
– Normal mind is habitually conditioned to specific modes of attentional,
emotional, and cognitive imbalances, but is not intrinsically or
irrevocably dysfunctional
– Identification and extrication of primary cause of confusion:
invalid cognitions about ontological status of self and objects
– Facilitate development of long-term beneficial qualities
(i.e., patience, compassion, skillful means, clarity, insight, spontaneity)
• Fundamentally pragmatic orientation:
– Ethical conduct (ahimsa - not harming others and self)
• self-regulation of behavior, thought, and emotion
– Mental concentration (agility and awareness)
• attention training to dispel imbalances of laxity and excitation, and to attain
stable, lucid, and calm mind
– Wisdom understanding nature of existence (flexibility, non-dual
perception and cognition)
• free the mind of afflictions, obscurations, misconceptions
Is it possible to observe mental states
and processes with the mind?
Even with no mental training, we can detect:
• Emotional states
• Observe thoughts and images arising in the
mind
• Introspectively recognize from moment to
moment whether our minds are calm or agitated
• Perceive that we are consciously aware of:
– objects of consciousness
– the presence of our own consciousness of other
things
Madhyamaka “Middle Way” View
• Pinnacle of Buddhist philosophy
• Both physical and mental phenomena
have no independent or permanent
ontological status
• Mere localized appearances emerging
from a network of non-local correlations
• Things exist as dependently related
events, not as autonomous, inherently
existent, localized entities
5 Aggregates of Personhood
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Forms
Feelings
Discernments
Compositional factors
Consciousness
Consciousness
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Mind: cognizes the mere entity of an object
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6 types: visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory,
sensory, mental awareness
Mental factors: cognizes features of an object
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5 omnipresent, 5 determining, 11 virtuous,
6 root afflictions 6 root afflictions, 20 secondary
afflictions,
4 changeable
5 Omnipresent Mental Factors
Necessarily accompany all levels and states of mind
All 5 are needed to experience an object
• Feeling
– pleasure, pain, neutrality – the fruitions of previous virtuous and nonvirtuous actions
• Discernment
– Differentiation and identification of objects
• Attention
– Moves and directs mind towards its object in general; mental action of
intention
• Contact
– Serves as basis for feeling and distinguishing an object as pleasant,
unpleasant, or neutral
• Mental engagement
– Directs min to a specific object
5 Determining Mental Factors
• Aspiration
– Observes a contemplated object and seeks it
– Serves as basis for initiation of effort
– Faith, aspiration, effort and pliancy are the antidotes to laziness
• Belief
– Keeps the mind from being captivated by another view
• Mindfulness
– Non-forgetfulness, non-distraction for a familiar object
• Stabilization
– One-pointedness of mind for an imputed object; mental
equipose; serves as the base for vipassana (special insight)
• Knowledge/wisdom
– Differentiates faults and virtues of objects of analysis; overcomes
doubt
11 Virtuous Mental Factors
• Faith (clarity, conviction, with to attain)
• Shame
– avoidance of misconduct due to one’s own disapproval)
• Embarrassment
– (avoidance of misconduct due to others’ disapproval)
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Non-attachment (for this cyclic existence and its content)
Non-hatred (absence of intent to harm)
Non-ignorance (analytic prowess)
Effort (mental delight in virtue)
Pliancy (of mind and body towards virtue)
Conscientiousness (keeps mind from contamination,
distortions)
• Equanimity (evenness of mind)
• Non-harmfulness (compassionate attitude)
6 Root Afflictions
Cause mental imbalance
• Desire (that generates suffering)
• Anger (that intends to harm)
• Pride (enhanced and mistaken self-view)
• Ignorance (obscuration with respect to
intentional action and their effects and to mode
of existence of all phenomenon)
• Doubt (ambivalence)
• Afflicted view ( 5 types; self and others)
20 Secondary Afflictions
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Belligerence
Resentment
Concealment
Spite
Jealousy
Miserliness
Deceit
False countenance
Haughtiness
Harmfulness
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Non-shame
Non-embarrassment
Lethargy
Excitement
Non-faith
Laziness
Non-conscientiousness
Forgetfulness
No-introspection
Distraction
4 Changeable Factors
Become virtuous, non-virtuous, or neutral by
the power of motivation
• Sleep
• Contrition (remorse, regret)
• Investigation
• Analysis
Four Applications of Mindfulness
1) contemplation of the body as impure
2) contemplation of feeling as suffering
3) contemplation of thoughts as impermanent
4) contemplation of all phenomenon as devoid
of inherently existing self
Emotion in Varjayana Practice
• Commitment not to reject the five poisons – the
emotions of attachment, anger, ignorance, pride
and jealousy – because they are the basis of
realizing wisdom, since they will never be found
anywhere other than in the emotions
• Necessary to work with the different objects that
give rise to emotional reactions in order to
experience the corresponding wisdom
• The very objects of attachment, hatred and so
forth, become the means to liberation from
emotional conflict
• Extracting the energy, dissolving the affliction
Buddhist View of Emotion
• A definite feeling in the mind that is both a reaction and a driving force
• A mental state that starts the instant the mind functions in a dualistic
mode, long before the normal person is conscious of it
• The habitual clinging that makes us automatically categorize our
experiences according to whether our ego finds them:
– attractive (desire, grasping at an object)
– unattractive (anger, aversion, rejecting, repulsion)
– neutral (ignorance that drives a view of reality that induces suffering;
a definite state of mind which causes us to act in a certain way)
– considering our own experience as predominant (pride)
– judging our own position in relation to the object perceived (jealousy)
• These are the 5 poisons because these reactions poison and obscure
our mind and prevent the development of balanced mind and wisdom.
• The more clinging there is, the stronger our reactions will be, until we
reach a point where they finally break into our conscious mind and
manifest as the obvious feelings we usually call emotions
• Ideal qualities: spontaneous, instantaneous compassion, skillfulness
and penetrating wisdom of all contexts, people, and states of mind
Meditation and Immune
Research Findings
• randomized, controlled study 8-week mindfulness meditation stress
reduction program applied in a work environment with healthy
employees
• significant increases in left-sided anterior EEG activation, a pattern
previously associated with positive affect, in the meditators
compared with the nonmeditators 4 months post-program
• significant increases in antibody titers to influenza vaccine among
subjects in the meditation compared with those in the wait-list
control group
• magnitude of increase in left-sided activation predicted the
magnitude of antibody titer rise to the vaccine
Davidson et al. Psychosom Med. 2003 Jul-Aug;65(4):564-70
Eight-fold Path
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right view
right thought
right speech
right action
right mode of living
right endeavor
right mindfulness
right concentration