Chapter
Eighteen
Waking up
the idea that you are trapped in the wheel of birth and death: enlightenment is
freedom from samsara. So the yogin does not advise Shalipa to sue the owners
of the charnel ground, to delve into the meaning of wolf howls in his personal
history, or to endure his fate to obtain religious salvation. He teaches him to use
his own experience as a means of radical transformation. The new Shalipa has no
fear because he is free of illusion.
In the meeting between Buddhism and psychotherapy, one live question con-
cerns whether, fundamentally, the two endeavours are the same (Claxton, 1986b;
Pickering, 1997; Watson, Batchelor, and Claxton, 1999; Mikulas, 2007). The Brit-
ish philosopher Alan Watts (1961) brought Eastern teachings to the West in the
1940s and wrote extensively on Zen. He said that looking into Buddhism, Tao-
ism, Vedanta, and Yoga, we do not find either philosophy or religion as these are
understood in the West; we find something more nearly resembling psychother-
apy. Even so, he pointed out many differences, not least in the lengths of their
traditions and their different responses to the problem of suffering.
Although both aim to transform the individual, their methods are strikingly dif-
ferent, and so is the kind of transformation they seek. While psychotherapy aims
to create a coherent sense of self, Buddhist psychology aims to transcend the self.
Types of therapy differ widely, but broadly speaking they all aim to improve peo-
ple’s lives and to make them healthier, happier, and less anxious. So a successful
outcome for most therapy is a person who is happy, relaxed, well-adjusted to their
society, and able to function well in their relationships and occupation. A success-
ful outcome for a Buddhist might be the same, but it might equally be a hermit
who shuns all society and lives in a cave, a teacher who rejects all conventional
teachings, or a wild and crazy wise one whose equanimity and compassion shines
through their mad behaviour.
Claxton suggests that therapy is a special and limited case of the more general
spiritual search. While therapists and clients may agree to leave certain useful
defences in place, on the spiritual path nothing is left unquestioned. ‘The quest is
for Truth not Happiness, and if happiness or security or social acceptability must
be sacrificed in the pursuit of this ruthless enquiry, then so be it’ (1986b, p. 316).
For John Crook (1980), Zen training is more like ‘total therapy’ in which the cage
of identity is broken. This may be so to the extent that self is a cage, but Mikulas
warns of a common misunderstanding among spiritual practitioners, ‘that one
must undo or kill the personal level self in order to awaken; but this is not neces-
sary or desirable’ (2007, p. 34). Awakening is not about eliminating or devaluing
the self; it is about letting go of identifying with the self, or losing the sense that
self is separate from the rest of the universe. And this is what leads to freedom
and peace of mind.
For some, the spiritual enterprise takes off where therapy ends, implying that
psychotherapy must come before the greater task of seeing through the self. This
suggests a developmental or ‘full-spectrum’ model of consciousness leading not
only from infancy to adulthood, but from immaturity to full enlightenment. There
have been several attempts to develop such models, including the complex
multilevel schemes proposed by the Buddhist writer Ken Wilber (Wilber, Engler,
and Brown, 1986; Wilber, 2001) and the ideas of American psychotherapist and
Buddhist Jack Engler.