Modern psychology centers itself on a sense of self that seeks actualization and fulfillment. It looks for the blocks that keep people from attaining their full potential in whatever endeavor they undertake. It actually affirms that each one of us is a self or has a self that needs to move towards completion. Whether we are artists or office workers, we are looking for happiness and rewards. Modern psychology attempts to help us navigate through our paths and come out happier and more successful in a meaningful life.
Buddhism, on the other hand, sees this whole striving to complete and perfect the self as illusion. It is part of the suffering of being in the physical to think that anything impermanent is of lasting value. Better to find out who you really are, behind your cultural conditioning and personality traits. You can still do a great job and fulfill all your talents, but don’t think that’s all there is. Any of that can be destroyed in an instant.
Modern psychology is a failure on many fronts, as we can see by the huge numbers of depressed people on medications. Ultimately, this is what it has come to. People who can afford it either talking about their egos and blaming their parents to the tune of thousands of dollars, or people taking massive doses of medications to keep their miserable thoughts at bay.
Modern psychology does not go deeply enough into the problem of mental health. It is still treating the mind, which is dysfunctional, with the dysfunctional mind’s arsenal: Pills, talking, and intense interest in me, me, me. The numbers of mentally ill people wandering the urban centers attest to the failure of modern psychology. They are stuck in their minds and their minds have created a catastrophe.
Buddhism is not about the human mind. It’s about recognizing the mind as a tool but not as anything that is truly who we are. The Buddha understood that it can be an enormous source of suffering for anyone who pays attention to it. So he proposed a way around its tricks. Buddhism is not a failure. After thousands of years it has proven to be a sure way to peace and inner wisdom. It bypasses the mind and goes straight to the Soul, which beats in harmony with the rhythm of the Universe.
Buddhism, on the other hand, sees this whole striving to complete and perfect the self as illusion. It is part of the suffering of being in the physical to think that anything impermanent is of lasting value. Better to find out who you really are, behind your cultural conditioning and personality traits. You can still do a great job and fulfill all your talents, but don’t think that’s all there is. Any of that can be destroyed in an instant.
Modern psychology is a failure on many fronts, as we can see by the huge numbers of depressed people on medications. Ultimately, this is what it has come to. People who can afford it either talking about their egos and blaming their parents to the tune of thousands of dollars, or people taking massive doses of medications to keep their miserable thoughts at bay.
Modern psychology does not go deeply enough into the problem of mental health. It is still treating the mind, which is dysfunctional, with the dysfunctional mind’s arsenal: Pills, talking, and intense interest in me, me, me. The numbers of mentally ill people wandering the urban centers attest to the failure of modern psychology. They are stuck in their minds and their minds have created a catastrophe.
Buddhism is not about the human mind. It’s about recognizing the mind as a tool but not as anything that is truly who we are. The Buddha understood that it can be an enormous source of suffering for anyone who pays attention to it. So he proposed a way around its tricks. Buddhism is not a failure. After thousands of years it has proven to be a sure way to peace and inner wisdom. It bypasses the mind and goes straight to the Soul, which beats in harmony with the rhythm of the Universe.
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