Psychotherapy, on the other hand, resolves psychological problems by making a
patient realize how they have been and are being produced according to some
psychological law. Therefore, Buddhism is expected to learn from psychotherapy
much about empirical matters like what is going on in a person’s mind and how to
handle a therapeutic relationship with the patient, whereas psychotherapy can learn
from Buddhism much about essential things like the nature of human being.
Buddhist counseling advocated by Kiyoshi Fujita (1907–88) is an attempt to
integrate Buddhism and psychotherapy. In Fujita’s view, the Buddha’s sermons were
akin to counseling practiced in the West, but their specific Buddhist features were
very flexible, varying in accordance with whom he spoke and where he was, and that
he revealed the illusory nature of apparent problems by making one aware of the
attachment to one’s perspective. The goal of Gishǀ Saikǀs Buddhist counseling is the
development of spiritual awareness which is realized when the subject and the object
are experienced as one. In my view, Buddhism, especially Zen, and psychotherapy
share the goal of the development of creativity.
There are two psychotherapies that were developed in Japan and are also now
known in the West as well: Morita therapy and Naikan therapy. Masatake Morita,
the originator of Morita therapy, claims his therapy to be based upon Western
medicine. Given the fact that it advises patients to give up the attachment to their
ideals and to accept things as they are, it seems to be indebted to Buddhism, especially
Zen. It is very likely that he was influenced by Inoue’s writings as well.
Naikan in Naikan therapy, meaning introspection, derives from mishirabe, a
method of self-exploration traditionally practiced in the True Pure Land School of
Buddhism. Ishin Yoshimoto, practicing mishirabe, got Enlightenment, and developed
Naikan-ho, a method of self-exploration free from its religious background. He lent
this title to the book The Method of Naikan (1936) by Ynj Fuiikawa, a pious believer
of the school who also lectured on educational pathology at Toyo University.
Like psychoanalysis, Naikan therapy uses recollection as the fundamental healing
agent. But unlike psychoanalysis, it confines what is to be remembered to definite
themes in one’s relationship so far to one’s significant other, who are mostly one’s
parents and teachers. They are formulated in three questions: ‘What good things have
they done for me?’; ‘What good things have I done for them?’; and ‘What troubles
have I given them?’ In the course of therapy the patient is forced to confront himself
with the extraordinary selfishness in his relationship to them, and is overwhelmed by
guilt and remorsefulness. Then his attitude will totally change with deep gratitude,
realizing that they still love him despite his unworthiness.
Indeed, Naikan therapy emerged from the Japanese, Buddhist, and Confucian
cultures, but seems to be universally valid, as is evident from the fact that not a few
Westerners have already experienced it. No matter what external environment we
may live in, human happiness depends upon our acceptance of it as it is, feeling happy.
That is what Naikan therapy makes possible. The trainee observes himself or herself
with another’s eyes and becomes aware of distortions in perception; by accepting
oneself as one is, one gets peace of mind, which enables one to perceive and realize
things anew; one is alive here and now.
242 THE DEVELOPMENT OF BUDDHIST PSYCHOLOGY IN MODERN JAPAN