【普林斯顿大学】佛教与现代心理学-中英字幕

1、

western Buddhist don’t care much about supernatural things, but scientific ones

can have a naturalistic view to address religion questions

— sense of meaning to life, moral orientation

and peace and comfort of mind

not just secular

We don’t see the world clearly, can’t understand the truth about how the world works, cos the mind has certain distortion and illusions

suprem good lies in adjusting ourselves to this hidden truth and thus relieving suffering

Modern psychology to some extent supports buddhist ideas

Illusion is built in the mind by natural selection

but changeable eg. Meditation

this course tries to study whether meditation can mitigate illusion and natural tendency and make people happier (compatible with modern science and psychology)

Buddhism and evolution

Perception and illusion created by evolution

Nun: meditation helps us to see objectively the real nature of emotions (non-existent)

Experiment: music can influence our view on things

opinions, pictures and stories can be similar

Risk-adverse mentality from natural selection is reasonable cos avoiding danger and survival trumps everything, not seeing the world clearly

buddha’s thoughts are 2k years old

The truth of suffering and satisfaction -Duhkka

Liberation- Nirvana, ideal state, enlightenment

or, extinction: the thirst should be gone

Truth and the way the world works, and the way we should live-Dharma 道

First noble truth: suffering, dissatisfaction-苦谛

Pervasive

Even when having fun, we are always eager for the next pleasure; tend to cling on things

nothing is permanent 无常 including happiness

Causes:obsession

any good feelings will fade, including sensual pleasure, achievement

and u desire more — hedonistic treadmill

so it is with the bad things, anxiety, fear, worries— adversion of negativity

But don’t be obsessed or clinging to it

And why we can’t see clearly about the nature of pleasure

we focus on the pleasure, the lover, the dream job, not the fleetingness

We thought we reached the destination

Last for 0.3s only

Why natural selection does that?

Three principles to pass on genes

1.food, sex—pleasure

2.not lasting

3.focus on the pleasure yet to come

Anticipating the pleasure to come

When the reward is unexpected, the spike of dopamine is high-stimulation

but when it is expected, dopamine is much less

When something disappointing happens, dopamine levels drop

The goal of natural selection is reproduction, not happiness. Happiness is just a tool

Buddhism is somehow a rebellion to natural selection

the third and fourth noble truth

The third noble truth ：how to cure

The fourth noble truth

Three paths to focus on:

正语right speech: avoid saying lies, mean

words, gossip

difficulty: give up craving, abandon the aversion to unpleasant things

right view: seeing the reality

right mindfulness: experience and help us understand the impermanence of things

Monks want to have a better rebirth in the next turn

For us, spiritual practice is not for liberation, but to become a better person, to help others and to see the world more clearly; strip illusion, less stress

how it links to Buddhism

Meditation can make us feel sharper of the hardship, but at the same time we can have less trouble with it

If we can’t escape from it, we feel it

Meditation: focus on the discomfort but don’t confront it

Many different ways and schools of meditation

But many similarities: observing your mind

Focus on two basic kinds of meditation

Right concentration: focus on the breath, image, absorb in it

Reminder: don’t get attached to it

Meditation is not for concentration, happiness

or anything else; but for seeing the world clearly

objectively observe the positive and negative feelings, therefore it can’t control our mind

Go against natural selection

default network: active when not doing anything in particular

worrying about the future, regretting the past, but not the present

Meditation manages to make the default mode quiet

default mode might still come up, doing its job, using the free time

So you have to escape its involvement: observe the negative feeling without absorbing in it

Normally things are evaluated positively or negatively in our mind and they are occupying our awareness in that way. Again, natural selection (gut feelings, but not always trustworthy)

Older men feel that they are not noticed on the street

try to focus on the things that you are not usually interested in, then you will observe them more objectively

mindful eating: focus on the food we are eating now, not the next one

notice the fun and beauty we never had before

Focus on two kinds of feelings:

Anxiety and anger

the meaning of feelings: motivating behaviour

The feelings can be true for natural selection but the environment can change radically

we live in an environment where positives and negatives are radically different. Feelings are not always the correct indicators of the setting

Eg. Sweet food

road rage: we will not meet those people again, no point in showing the rage and revenge

anxiety of public speaking: in hunting society, what people think of us is important

but if it affect our normal life and sleep, it is too much; most of them are strangers after all

Thus we should view our feelings objectively and see which ones are reasonable

Be aware of the negative feeling and its negative effects, but not manipulated by it

observe the feelings but not act on it

Not: i am angry

But: I experience anger

P9 not-self

Got to understand the in-existence of self by experiential meditation

Not-self vs self

the structure of Buddhism

Five aggregates(五蕴）of human’s clinging:

Consciousness: subjective awareness, can include the four following things

form(body, physical things)

feeling (positive and negative)

perception (感知; touch, vision, taste, smell, hearing)

mental formations(emotions, desire, spirit, opinions

the properties of the five aggregates

impermanence-but self seems to be stable; continuous identity

uncontrollable - self should control the five aggregates but it can’t

P10

This is not mine, I am not like this, this is not myself

so we will let go of them-five aggregates

lose the thirst and craving and become calm

We will be liberated

that doesn’t mean that there is no self

there seems to be sth outside the five aggregates

we have thoughts and actions but we are not the controller

There are views that we should stay away from them, but that’s not appealing to us

we don’t need to follow the harsh methods that the monks do, and the interpretation leaves room for anyone

The self in modern psychology:

might be exaggerated

people might believe the untrue, made-up stories from the conscious self

and we might not know the actual motivation of our behaviours

P11

When we are exposed to some information in a subconscious way, our behaviours can still be affected 

And this process might happen subconsciously 

P12

An increasingly popular theory: Modular theory of mind 

We tend to make up reasons for our actions 

And the conscious self tend to do it

The conscious self is more like a press secretary: collecting, showing and communicating the useful information for us to live well, maintain a better reputation; but not a decision maker 

Like a computer: we see the input of vision, hearing, smell and we have outputs of thoughts, words, actions…

But we don’t really know how our mind process and make decisions, even though we say we do

We are just convinced that we are the kind of people that the mind portray us as 

And being coherent and reasonable is good for us 

— result from natural selection

But the decisions are made subconsciously - by modules 

Modular view of the mind

When negative things happen, we tend to blame sth other than ourselves 

Our illusions are more severe when we judge ourselves compared to those when we judge others 

We tend to remember the favourable things better 

Extroverts tend to remember more positive things while the introverts remember more negative things 

So we all have illusions

Caveats: this is just an opinion 

But it is coherent with Buddha’s suggestion: there is no permanent, decision-making self

P13

What is authoring our behaviours?

Nothing in particular: but the modules of our mind take turns to take charge 

In 1980s, psychologists think that the human brain is a blank learning machine

But the evolutionary psychologists suggest it has many built-in mechanisms (eg facial recognition) developed through natural selection

The modules are not set in certain areas

Some of the modules can mobilise others to do complicated tasks

Without a single unified self

regarding social behaviour, we are influenced by one of seven modules: sub-selves

They are the highest modules

Related to the 7 challenges to pass on genes

The activation of the modules depends on which module is most highly activated by that circumstances

Eg death threat—self protection module

Experiment: we might make different decisions when different modules are in charge — influenced by the environment

We tend to have different discount rates of time

Eg. When men see attractive women, they tend to want money now-high discount rate when the mate attraction module is activated

: want to have all possible resources to show off

Men tend to make broader promises and have bigger ambitions when the opposite sex is around, even when we can’t interact with them — self display, mate attraction module

But not true for female

People’s actual reaction might vary

Some other modules might be activated at the same time

tools of the modules: include anger, jealousy..

The trigger of anger: when our welfare is undervalued compared to our evaluation of the relationship

It is for interpersonal bargaining

“Deserve to be better treated”

Jealousy:

Eg activated when your spouse goes to a party in beautiful clothes

built-in, difficult to shut off; uncontrolled by “us”, if any

The information of the environment enters our mind and shifts the frame of it unconsciously

The modular view of mind is coherent with Buddhism - not self and meditation

lots of mechanisms activate-default mode

compete to get attention (by arising feelings)

no CEO in charge : decentralised

Get quieter when meditate

mindfulness meditation can help to determine which module take charge and thus mitigate the negative impact of the feelings

When sb that we think are good do good things, we think that is because of their attributes; when they do sth bad, we explain it with environmental reasons. And vice versa

Feelings that make us approach the good and distant from the bad — natural selection

Some modules are motivated to do certain things, like eating chocolate

while other are motivated to do others, like promoting long term health

we prefer to have reasons to make decisions

And the reasons can be communicated to others

The modules gets more powerful when they win— addiction, short-term gratification —food and sex—natural selection

Usually we either overcome or subdue to the craving

but the better way is to do neither. Observe it rises and goes

If we don’t feed it, we weaken it

Like operant condition

Doesn’t mean that we should give away the likes and dislikes

actually the aesthetic judgement can be better and purer (without the corruption of other secular things)

Just spend less time on the judgment of ourselves and others

Can love without a controlling way

nevertheless it is challenging

in Buddhism, the cultivation of empathy and compassion is emphasised

By natural selection we tend to love and be biased towards loved ones

By meditation our world view is clearer and our compassion and sense of justice is more balanced

Long time meditators have the experience of not-self

but hard to explain

not self and emptiness

we live in the interconnected universe

We interact and influence each other

Not I control the world, but the consequences of the world (input) affect me and my actions (output)

The exterior of not self: the feeling inside of us (eg. pain) is somehow the same as the signals outside of us (singing of the birds)

the boundaries dissolve; openness

like we don’t exist but we are everything

Meditators resonate this experience

The default mode might be active during meditation but it will be quiet when we don’t meditate

less self reference thoughts

We can feel we don’t exist within ourselves but perceive that everything is all one thing

don’t identify people or things

Just the empty still presence

because when we meditate, we view our feelings objectively and disaggregate the self internally. Thus we sense our feelings less and the exterior more

moral implications: we are one. We should not harm each other

selflessness

emptiness

But common in meditation experience

Eg. Apple: the shape is real, the colour is real, but not the essence of the apple; imposed by us

The patients see sb they know or love, but think that they are liars and cheaters

Reason: the part of emotion and visual processing is disrupted

Thus the patient’s vision does not carry the emotions it once does

Things evoke less emotional response than they normally do

so we feel more emptiness and less about essence

we have less positive and negative feelings about things we see

Psychologists: we are essentialists in nature

we tend to apply intuitive judgment and distinctive identities to things

When we know the story behind the things, we apply special essence, aura to it: eg. Things that celebrities used

And our feelings are established

Psychologist’s argument: not the things but the implied narrative behind them, give us the pleasure and sorrow

We have less biases towards people and things and more sense of emptiness

but it doesn’t mean that we become indifferent and numb

we care less about the story behind, or the expectation or reaction of people, but the qualities of things, and thus have a more direct understanding to them

formless, complete, satisfying space

so far we are not evolved to suit the modern society

Natural selection can evolve to suit the modern society but it takes time

cultural evolution comes first to change and adapt- science, philosophy, technology, etc

the environment can also steer our mind towards different tendencies: eg risk-taking/averse

Darwinian: I am special. My interest is paramount. I will only help my kin and mates. I approach favourable things and avoid unfavourable ones

essentialism in groups: nationalism and racism; even worse than in individuals

Formless and emptiness is strongly against it

Things might evoke good or bad feelings in us, but they are no good or bad to the world

the world is formless. The form is imposed on it-essence, emotions…

Our perception of the world inherently involve imposing meaning

the meaning and essence of sth is different to different people and species

four elements of enlightenment:

a. not-self: exterior

objective truth:na

moral truth: we are not special species or privileged people

b. Emptiness, formlessness:

objective truth:

moral truth: same

c.not-self interior

objective truth: aligned with modern psychology. Reality of the mind

moral truth: reveal the selfishness nature of human

d.impermanence

objective truth: reality of the world

Buddhism does not suggest that a all-power god dominates the world and people are in a certain place to serve to accomplish their meaning of life