Comparative Study of Psychoanalysis and Buddhism

Author: Yin Li
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-10-01
Features: The fundamental principle of Buddhist doctrine is the law of dependent origination. Due to dependent origination, there is the cycle of birth and death, and due to dependent origination, there is the cessation of nirvana. By truly understanding dependent origination, one can attain liberation. The law of dependent origination remains the same whether the Buddha is present or not; he merely discovers and witnesses dependent origination and then teaches the accordingly. The scriptures state that the Buddha told the monks, "The law of dependent origination is not made by me, nor by anyone else. Yet, it is eternal in the realm of reality. The Tathagata, having awakened to this law, attained perfect enlightenment and explained it to the, revealing and illuminating it." What is dependent origination? "It is said that 'this arises due to that, this is born due to that.' It means that due to ignorance, there is volitional formations, and so on, leading to birth, aging, sickness, death, sorrow, grief, and distress. It is also said that 'this ceases due to the cessation of that, this is destroyed due to the destruction of that.' It means that the cessation of ignorance leads to the cessation of volitional formations, and so on, leading to the cessation of birth, aging, sickness, death, sorrow, grief, and distress." In other words, all existing and arising things in the world arise due to various relationships, conditions, and factors, i.e., they arise due to causes and conditions. What arises due to causes and conditions also ceases due to causes and conditions. By understanding this, one can indeed know the possibility of liberation from birth and death. Everything in the world arises and exists due to causes and conditions, which is the middle way that avoids extremes and is just right, i.e., the fundamental principle of Buddhist dependent origination. Buddhist scriptures express the meaning of dependent origination from multiple perspectives. For example, dependent origination is called "dharma-abiding," meaning it is established and unchangeable; "dharma-realm," meaning it is the nature of all causes; "dharma-nature," meaning it is objectively as it is; "dharma-law," indicating that it is determined and unchanging, with causes and effects being precise; "truth," meaning it is and not inverted; and "suchness," indicating that it is as it is without variation. In summary, all of this demonstrates the reality of dependent origination. When it comes to dependent origination, the most complete and representative is the "twelve links of dependent origination," also known as the "twelve causes and conditions." They are: ignorance leads to volitional formations, volitional formations lead to consciousness, consciousness leads to name and form, name and form lead to the six senses, the six senses lead to contact, contact leads to feeling, feeling leads to desire, desire leads to attachment, attachment leads to becoming, becoming leads to birth, and birth leads to aging and death. Among these, the "aging and death" after the twelve links represent the suffering of real existence. Tracing the root of this aging and death, it is found that it arises due to birth, so there is aging and death, hence "due to birth, there is aging and death." Moving on to the conditions for existence in birth, it can be found that it arises due to "becoming," meaning existence in the cycle of rebirth. Being born into the cycle of rebirth is the reason for being born, so it is said, "due to becoming, there is birth." Therefore, the twelve links of dependent origination include the concept of rebirth. The existence of rebirth is suffering. If one investigates its root cause, it will be found to arise due to "attachment," meaning attachment, which is craving. Craving for existence becomes the condition that sustains existence, hence "due to attachment, there is becoming." Next, if one asks why humans are attached, it will be found that it arises due to "desire," meaning desire, which is thirst. Thirst leads to craving, and thus arises, leading to dissatisfaction, which then drives us to crave and seek attachment, hence "due to desire, there is attachment." In the experience of sentient beings, desire is a powerful psychological force, the root of immediate delusion about existence. Therefore, the first five links—desire, attachment, becoming, birth, and aging and death—are also separately called the "thirst for existence dependent origination." However, the activity of desire should also have conditions, which is "feeling," meaning the reception of objects. There are suffering, pleasure, and neutral feelings. Love arises only after perceiving external objects, hence "due to feeling, there is desire." The condition that gives rise to feeling is "contact," meaning the subjective and objective contact in cognition. Without contact, there would be no feeling, hence "due to contact, there is feeling." The condition for contact is "the six senses," also known as "the six sense bases," including the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind. If the subjective and objective are distinguished, they become the internal six sense bases and the external six sense bases of color, sound, smell, taste, touch, and form. Without specific means and objects, contact cannot occur, hence "due to the six senses, there is contact." The production of the internal and external six sense bases can be said to arise from the division of the world into matter and consciousness, i.e., "name and form." "Name" refers to the mind, and "form" refers to matter, including the human body, hence "due to name and form, there are the six senses." The root of the existence of the body and mind, name and form, is "consciousness," meaning the function of distinguishing, i.e., cognition. The difference between "name" here and the special meaning in the previous context lies in that "consciousness" is a deep-seated wish and function of distinguishing and unifying. It is due to this wish and function that the world is divided into the mind that can cognize and the object that can be cognized, giving rise to the distinction between consciousness and matter, hence "due to consciousness, there is name and form." At the same time, since the body and mind, name and form, exist, consciousness can then function, so it can also be said that "due to name and form, there is consciousness." Although they have a dependent relationship, consciousness, as a deep-seated function of distinguishing and unifying, has an active nature and is more fundamental than name and form. Tracing the condition for the existence of consciousness, it is found to be based on "volitional formations." Generally, "volitional formations" are explained as a dynamic process, the "formative force" of creating things, i.e., karma. Due to the force of "volitional formations," "consciousness" can exert its function of distinguishing, hence "volitional formations lead to consciousness." Further tracing the root of "volitional formations," it is found that the existence of karma arises due to "ignorance." Ignorance means the lack of right understanding (wisdom) and ignorance, unable to truly perceive the impermanence of "volitional formations," taking it as permanent, substantial, and real. Therefore, the Huayan Sutra says, "Volitional formations deceive the mind by calling it ignorance." Ignorance itself is not active, but when the active nature of cognition is influenced by ignorance, ordinary people see everything through the lens of ignorance, and all delusion arises accordingly. Just as a dreamer, upon realizing they are dreaming, wakes up from the dream, when ignorance is realized as ignorance, it disappears. Because it is understood, ignorance no longer arises. Therefore, observing dependent origination is to realize ignorance as its culmination, hence "due to ignorance, there is volitional formations," and it is also said, "the cessation of ignorance leads to the cessation of volitional formations." Additionally, Buddhist scriptures also discuss dependent origination starting from the dependence between consciousness and name and form, excluding ignorance and volitional formations, as the "ten links of dependent origination." Among the ten links, there are also those that exclude the six senses, explaining the "nine links of dependent origination" from self-name and form to contact. Or there are also the simpler forms of dependent origination mentioned earlier, such as the "thirst for existence dependent origination" formed by five links, and so on. Among them, the "twelve links of dependent origination" is the most complete explanation of Buddhist dependent origination. Dependent origination is both a dynamic process and an action. In this regard, in Mahayana Buddhism, the overall concept of dependent origination is also called "mind," meaning a "collecting" function and process. Therefore, the Huayan Sutra says, "All twelve links depend on one mind." For this mind, when it is clear, it is the true mind; when it is unclear, it is the deluded mind. The combination of true and deluded minds is the alaya consciousness of sentient beings, the Tathagata's storehouse. Thus, Buddhism transforms the doctrine of dependent origination into a metaphysics without a substratum, which can be called "name-based metaphysics." Buddhist schools are numerous, yet they are all considered part of the Dharma because they all acknowledge the truth of dependent origination taught by the Buddha. Whether it is early Buddhism or late Vajrayana Buddhism, they all take the law of dependent origination as the foundation and interpret, develop, and apply it from various perspectives and levels.
The Linguistic View of Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis employs a unique form of talk therapy. In a quiet and dimly lit analysis room, the patient lies on a comfortable sofa chair and tries to say anything that comes to their mind. The analyst spends most of the time listening. Therefore, at least on the surface, the only tool used in psychoanalysis for treatment is language. Freud stated that in this process, "once an event that caused a hysterical symptom is recalled clearly, the associated emotions are reawakened. If the patient describes the event to the best of their ability and expresses the emotions in words, then each such symptom immediately and permanently disappears." This is known as the "principle of placing the unconscious under the control of consciousness." Given the crucial role of language in psychoanalytic therapy, Freud began to contemplate and study it, while it was truly the French psychoanalyst Lacan who completely unveiled the mystery of psychoanalytic language therapy. Freud had already discovered that there was a correspondence between the symptoms of neurotic patients and their words. When these symptoms were transformed into certain words, they would disappear. He believed this was because the inner psychological processes themselves had no "substance" and were not easily perceivable, making them unconscious. Language allows us to perceive our internal psychological processes as if they were external objects, which means it enables a higher level of psychological activity—consciousness. Therefore, if unconscious psychological activities are to be perceived and enter consciousness, they can only do so through a connection with word perception. When the neurotic symptoms, which are manifestations of internal psychological processes, are made conscious, they flow away and disappear along with the fluidity of consciousness. This is the mechanism of language therapy. Lacan, on this basis, conducted a systematic psychoanalytic study of language.
1. The Subjectivity of Language
Lacan demonstrated to us how language has a subjective individual foundation by using an example of an 18-month-old child's game as described by Freud in "Beyond the Pleasure Principle." This is a game where the child holds a string in one hand and throws a loop with the other hand under the bed. When the loop rolls under the bed and disappears, the child murmurs "oooh." This "oooh" can be understood as "far" or "away" in German. Then, when the child pulls the loop back into view, they happily exclaim "da," welcoming the loop's return. "Da" can be understood as "this is." The background of this game is that the child's mother is away for something, and the child is accustomed to being left alone for long periods. Freud considered this a symbolic game with the meaning of self-denial. It allows an 18-month-old child to endure the repeated absence and return of their mother without protest. Through playing with an object (the loop), the child repeatedly experiences the mother's departure and return. In the game, the child plays an active role.
Buddhism and psychoanalysis are both rooted in practice, with the goal of liberation from and alleviating psychological obstacles. Although their levels differ, they both face the same therapeutic subject—humans—and inevitably exhibit certain stylistic similarities in their practical operations. As for human thinking, it has a self-protective nature and tends to repeat itself unconsciously within predetermined frameworks, making it difficult to break free from habitual constraints. Even when encountering problems that cannot be solved with past experience, they will instinctively revert to old patterns in search of answers. Although the limitations of fixed thinking patterns make their efforts to solve problems futile, people never give up, preferring to face their own helplessness and inability rather than abandon their thinking habits. The result is that unsolved problems still exist, forcing them to repeatedly try to sort out their thoughts within the old framework, seeking breakthroughs, but the more they try, the more chaotic it becomes. The more chaotic it becomes, the more they need to sort it out, eventually leading to self-entanglement within fixed thinking patterns, forming an inescapable "knot of." Every person's every thinking pattern has its origins. Behind stubborn thinking habits, there is generally one (or a series) of deeply rooted beliefs that the person is unaware of. These beliefs stem from long-term education, cultural, and significant experiences in personal life. Once formed, they have a long and powerful influence on individuals, shaping the tone of their lives and accumulating over time into the channels of life, regulating future life directions and thinking paths. On one hand, people gradually accept the concepts of family, society, and the times without realizing it, while on the other hand, they fully cope with external challenges in major experiences, with no time to pay attention to the changes in their own beliefs. As a result, life largely flows passively within the channels constructed by thinking patterns, unable to see their own limitations, and even more so, unable to transcend them—unless the original channels are broken. Both Buddhism and psychoanalysis are engaged in this work of breaking through the limitations of self-thinking.
We will take the psychoanalysis of the Lacan school as an example. Lacan himself had studied Chinese diligently and obtained a university diploma in Chinese. In one of Lacan's discussion groups, he discussed Freud's style and considered himself to have a Zen style. Style is often difficult to articulate in words; it is more of a feeling. Therefore, we will first look at a case of Lacan's psychoanalysis. Here, the analyzed person themselves (who is also a psychoanalyst) describes their feelings, showcasing the characteristics of Lacan's psychoanalysis.