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The Tao and Empathy : East Asian Interpretation |
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※ Reproduced from Pyschotherapy (정신치료) Vol. 7, No. 1, December 1993, Korean Academy of Psychotherapists, Seoul, Korea.
Presented at the 36th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of psychoanalysis, May 2nd, 1992.
The Tao and Empathy : East Asian Interpretation
Dongshick Rhee, M.D.
Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Yonsei University Medical Center, Seoul, Korea
The purpose of this paper is to show that the highest degree of empathy can be attained by purification of mind which is the core of East Asian tradition (Buddhism, Confucianism, Laotzu and Chuangtzu). Three veils, a 360 degrees transformation, transcending love and hate, three profound gates, and pictures of ten cows were presented to illustrate the process of purification of mind. Also the differences of the psychotherapy and cultural core of East and West were compared. It was pointed out that Western psychoanalysis, psychotherapy and philosophy are heading towards the Tao but always try to go back to ‘conceptual prison’, that is, theory.
Keywords : Tao, Zen, Psychoanalysis, Psychotherapy, Phenomenology
INTRODUCTION
The essence of the East Asian tradition is the Tao (Confucianism, Buddhism, Laotzu and Chuangtzu), in other words, purification of mind, removing complexes, pacifying the mind by accepting reality as it is, correcting cognitive distortion by removing projection.
Medard Boss (1976) maintained that in terms of the purification of the mind the best western psycho- analytic training is only an intro- ductory course.
In western psychoanalysis and psychotherapy the therapist's task is to make the patient express him- or herself as freely as possible, make him or her face his or her real self, and to remove the distortion of the patient (transference) and that of the therapist (countertransference). If you remove all these you will have perfect empathy, no barrier between you and the other.
In this paper the author will illustrate how to achieve perfect empathy by quoting Confucian, Buddhistic, Laotzian and Chungtzuan tenets.
HOW TO ACHIEVE PERFECT EMPATHIC CAPACITY
The Chinese character denoting holiness is sheng (聖). This character is composed of three characters : 耳(ear), 口 (mouth) and 壬 (clear). This definition of sheng (聖) in the dictionary is “No place not to be able to communicate” The “So-called holy man or sage (聖人) is the one who is versed in the great way, with change finds no obstacle, who can empathize with every being in the universe.” This is perfect empathy.
The one who achieves this stage of human maturity is called the sage in Confucianism, Buddha in Buddhism, perfect or true man in Taoism (Laotzu or Chuangtzu). Among these three kinds of Tao (Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism), in terms of the description of the purification of mind, Buddhism is most accurate and detailed. In this paper the author will illustrate the process of achieving perfect empathic capacity (purification of mind) by Buddhistic description. In Buddhism, if you want to reach subject-object congruence (perfect empathy), you have to remove three veils which exist between you and the object or reality (Fig.1.)
The first veil is the delusion by different experiences. This means the cognitive distortion which occurs by different experiences (personal emotional experiences). The second veil is the delusion by the same class. This is the cognitive distortion by the difference of culture. The last veil is the life and death mind. This means the fear of death. By removing the first two veils and by facing death without anxiety, in other words, over- coming the shackles of organism (body), one reaches complete freedom from cognitive distortion. This is reality as it is (Bhutathata) subject- object congruence, perfect empathy without distortion (projection).
In Zen Buddhism you have to make a 360 degrees transformation to reach your true nature (reality) (Fig.2.). When you start at zero point, mountain is mountain, water is water. At 180 degrees mountain is not mountain, water is not water. When you ask your client (analysand or patient) to report whatever comes into his or her mind, he or she will report the negative feelings which were repressed in the past. At this stage both the negative and the positive feelings are partially repressed. However, if the client pours out the negative feelings he or she had to repress in the past, he or she will be aware of the hostility to the degree of killing his or her mother, etc. At 180 degrees, the client will say “I want to kill my mother.”. This is the stage of “Mountain is not mountain, water is not water.”, the complete reversal of value. Love turns into hate.
If you pour out all the negative feelings toward your mother and understand the reason for hate, you start to feel the love you received from your mother. If you accept the hate and love without disguise and understand the reason, there is no love and no hate. This is the complete acceptance of both negative and positive feelings. Mountain is mountain, water is water again. This is a 360 degrees transformation and reality (inner and outer) without disguise or projection (Fig.2.).
Bojo who is a Zen master in 12th C. in Korea mentioned testing the results of Tao practice in the following way. The ripened Tao means the resolution of love and hate towards the past object. Complete liberation means no love and no hate towards the new object. At this stage you have only compassion without love and hate towards any particular object.
He also introduced three profound gates as the methods to cure 10 diseases of Zen practice. The first gate is to understand the highest scriptural teaching (theory) as conceptual knowledge. The second gate is to forget the theory, focusing on “here and now” through Zen dialogue. This is the perception of “here and now” (outer reality). The 3rd and the most profound gate is cutting by silence for a while, complete silence, striking with a stick, shouting, pounding the table, etc. This aims at the perception of inner reality.
At this point it seems to be relevant to show the process of purification of mind by pictures of 10 cows (Hsin-niu-t'u) (Fig.3.1-10.). One starts to look for the Cow. Then sees the traces of the Cow. Sees the Cow. Catches the Cow. Herds the Cow. Comes home on the Cow's back. The Cow forgotten and the Man alone. The Cow and the Man gone out of sight. Returns to the origin, back to the source. Enters the city with bliss-bestowing hands.
Looking for the Cow, seeing the traces and the Cow correspond to understanding the central dynamics. The Cow is the central dynamics or nuclear emotions. At frist these are negative emotions. Catching the Cow means feeling and being aware of these emotions without repressing them. Herding the cow means holding and controlling and beginning to resolve the conflicts, and the emerging and growing of positive feelings. Coming home on the Cow's back is the acceptance of the problem and reality. The Cow is white ; this means purification, no love and hate. The Cow forgotten and the man being alone mean the resolution of conflicts but the self is not completely transcended. This is the limit of Western psychoanalysis and psycho- therapy. Cow and Man out of sight is complete non-attachment or emptiness (sunyata). This is complete liberation and self-transcendence. Returning to the origin is seeing oneself and reality as it is without projection or returning to one's original nature. Entering the city is to become a Bodhisattva to help others after solving your own problem.
PURIFICATION OF THE UNCONSCIOUS
In the Great Awakening of the Faith (1967) the relation between the unconscious and its mechanism of projection is most clearly and succinctly shown. The activating mind (業識) is the reservoir of past experience both positive and negative (Fig.4.).
The process and mechanism of projection of the unconscious are as follows. The activating mind (the unconscious) is turned into the evolving mind (轉識). This evolving mind is turned into the reproducing mind (現識). Up to this point all are unconscious. Next comes the analytical mind (智識) and then follows the continuing mind (相續識). These are conscious and the product of projection. These are philosophy and knowledge and their derivatives. All are considered as the projection of the unconscious, that is, delusion.
If all the evolving, reproducing, analytical and continuing minds are purified and only the trace of the activating mind remains unpurified, it is Bodhisattva, if even this trace is completely purified, it is Buddha.
Buddha means no projection, no unconscious, always awakened, no thought. The essence of the teaching of Buddhism is “Do not take the outside appearance, illumine your own mind (不取外相 自心返照). Correcting the cognitive distortion through the purification of mind.
The essence of Zen-Buddhism is described as follows : Outside teaching, transmitted separately. Not founded on words and letters. Pointing directly to the human mind. Seeing into one's nature and attaining Buddha- hood. Confucius said he was only describing and not creating (述而不作). In the Tao, words, concepts and theory are only means to point at reality. In Buddhism they call it finger pointing at the moon (reality). “Leave the Words! And cut the thoughts! Get the meaning and forget the words. Then you become friendly with the Tao. Leave the name and cut the appearance, etc.!" Laotzu says ”The student learns by daily increment. The Tao is gained by daily loss. Loss upon loss until it comes to wu-wei (doing nothing).“ This means that when you study theory or conceptual knowledge, your knowledge increases everyday. However, when you practice Tao, you lose your neurotic motivation until you lose it completely. This is the meaning of wu-wei (doing nothing).
COMPARISON OF THE PSYCHOTHERAPY AND CULTURAL CORE OF EAST AND WEST
In Plato's Phaedo, Socrates said death is the separating of soul from body. Body is sensation, pleasure and emotion which is the shackle of the body creating illusion. Knowledge is illusion. To reach the truth(wisdom, reality) you have to die. So he was glad to die because he would reach the truth by his death. But after his death, in the Western tradition since Plato, they tried to purify the mind (catharsis) by intellectual pursuit (theory building), whereas in the East they practiced the Tao. Nirvana (complete liberation) is liberation from bodily shackles (which create Illusion) while alive. Socrates believed you have to die in order to be liberated. This is the crucial difference between East and West tradition. In Western psychotherapy through the experiences of many psychotherapists and psychotherapy research, it turned out that the therapist-patient relationship is the crucial factor in psychotherapy, and this therapeutic relationship is created by the personality of the therapist who can empathize with the patient. The therapist's empathic perception and response create the atmosphere in which the patient can be liberated and feel safe to resume his or her growth without anxiety or threat. Carl Rogers (1980) noted empathy is curative. whereas Heinz Kohut (Goldberg, A., ed., 1980) recognized the importance of empathy as nutrient and curative, but he wanted to use empathy for data gathering, for building theory in order to be recognized by others.
In western culture you have to coin new words, new concepts, new theories to be recognized. The need for recognition is neurotic motivation. Westerners always try to return to a ‘conceptual prison’ (William Barrett, 1956) as soon as they see the truth or reality.
At this point it seems to be relevant to compare the core or the emphasis of the Eastern and Western culture (Table 1.1-2).
STOP PROJECTION, ILLUMINE YOUR INNER WORLD.
The final, ultimate or supreme goal of psychotherapy or Tao practice is removal of projection which creates illusion, therefore conflicts.
In Buddhism the essence of the Tao practice (meditation) is stop and seeing. Do not take the outside appearance, illumine your own mind. In Confucianism, do not seek outside, seek within yourself. In Husserl's phenomenology, this Taoistic “stop” corresponds to epoche (suspension of judgement) and phenomenological reduction. In psychoanalysis “stop” corresponds to free association by the analysand and evenly hovering attention by the analyst.
Transpersonal psychotherapy aims at the same goal as the Tao by trying to transcend the self. Existential psycho- therapy and Daseinsanalysis are also approaching the Eastern way (Tao).
In conclusion, with his personality the therapist brings the spring to the patient who lives in a frozen land. The core of the supreme therapist is the spring which is named compassion (慈悲) in Buddhism, Jen (仁) in Confucianism, God's grace in Christianity.
References
Barrett, William (ed.) (1956), Zen Buddhism (Selected Writings of D. T. Suzuki), Donbleday Co., Mc. Garden city, New York.
Tan Ho (Transl.) (1973), The Analects of Bojo, Academy of Whaum, Seoul.
Boss, M. (1976), Indienfahrt eines Psychiaters, Huber, Bern.
Feng, G.F. (English J., transl.) (1972), Lao Tzu : Tao Te Ching, Vitage Book, New York.
Hakeda, Yoshito (transl.) (1967), The Awakening of Faith, Columbia University Press, New York & London.
Goldberg, A. (ed.) (1980), In advances in self psychology, International Universities Press, New York.
Legge, J. (transl.) (1971), Chuang Tzu, Ace Books, New York.
Logge J. (transl.) (1984), Confucian Analects : in the classics, 2nd ed., vol. 2, London.
Rhee, D. (1990), The Tao, Psycho- analysis and Existential thought, Psychother. psychosom, 53:21-27.
Rogers, Carl R. (1980), A way of Being, Houghton Mifflin, Boston. |
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