Grief Management and Buddhist...
Transcript of Grief Management and Buddhist...
Aims
1. Introducing the Nature of grief
management process in Buddhist
counseling and Psychotherapy
2. Techniques of grief Management in
Buddhist counseling and Psychotherapy
Limitations
1. Grief due to death
2. Theravāda Buddhist literature
Introduction
1. Bhisakko (physician)
2. Sallakatto (Surgeon)
3. Bhisakko (as a great counselor)
4. Sallakatto (as a great Psychotherapist)
Mahādhammasamādāna Sutta (MN)
Sunakkhatta Sutta (MN)
Ayurveda Medical system
Bhisakko (as a great counselor)
• Mahādhammasamādāna sutta (MN)
• Counselling is for less disturbed people,
dealing with conscious problems and
requiring a single-issue focus
Throne, B. Psychotherapy and counselling:
the quest for difference, pp. 244, 248.
Sallakatto (as a great
Psychotherapist)
Sunnakkhatta Sutta (MN)
Psychotherapy is for more disturbed people
who exhibit less apparent constellations of
problems.
Ibid, pp. 244 – 248
Buddhist Counselling and Psychotherapy
for grief Management
I. Noble washing (Dovana Sutta, AN)
II.Noble vomiting (Vamana Sutta, AN)
III.Noble Purgation (Tikicchaka Sutta, AN)
IV.Noble draining out (Niddhamaniya Sutta, AN)
V.Noble bath without water (Anodakasināna)
(Najῑrati Sutta, SN)
Carl Gustave Jung
My task was the treatment of Psychic suffering, and it was that
impelled me to become acquainted with the views and Methods of that
great teacher of humanity (the Buddha) whose principal theme was the
chain of suffering, old age, sickness and death… There may be some
afflictions which seem unendurable and require treatment just as
much as a direct illness. They call for a kind of moral attitude such as
is provided by religious faith or a Philosophical belief. In this respect
the study of Buddhist literature was of great help to me, since it trains
one to observe suffering objectively and to take a universal view of
the causes
(Jung C.G, - Psychology and the East, 1978, p. 209)
Robert H. Thouless
(Cambridge Psychologist)
I think that primitive Buddhism must be understood as a system of Psychotherapy.
Acceptance of the Christian faith may, of course, also give relief from mental burdens,
but this is only incidental, where as the Psychotherapeutic aim of Buddhism is
fundamental. This is why, I think, we can feel much of the teaching of the Buddha as
relevant to our needs in a way that would have been impossible to our grandfathers,
because we have accepted and become used to the aim of psychotherapy. There are of
course, other elements in Buddhism much more alien to our way of thinking, but there
is also another element which brings it close to modern way of thinking this is the fact
that it is a system of taught dominated by the idea of cause and effect.
Thouless, Robert H. Christianity and Buddhism, pp,5
William James (1842 – 1910)
(American Psychologist)
This is the psychology everybody will be studding twenty five
years from now.
Fields, Rick – How the swans came to the lake. (A
narrative history of Buddhism in America, 1986, p. 134)
Stages of Unsatisfactoriness
1.
Dukkha
Physical
Psychological
Cosmic
Stages of Grief
1. Dukkha – dukkha (Intrinsic dukkha)
2. Viparināma – dukkha (Dukkha in change)
3. Saṁkhāra – dhukkha ( Dukkha due to disposition)
Terms
Soka
Parideva
Domanassa
Upāyāsa
Saccavibhaṅga Sutta (MN)
Dammacakkapavattana Sutta (SN)
What is Soka
It is the grief, sorrow, sorrowfulness, inward grief,
the inner pain of one visited by some kind of
calamity or other, smitten by some kind of ill or
other.
Saccavibhaṅga Sutta (MN)
What is Parideva
It is the crying, the wailing, the act of crying, the
act of wailing, the state of crying, the sate of
wailing of one visited by some calamity or
smitten by some kind of ill or other.
What is domanassa
It is mental suffering, mental disagreeableness
arising from an impingement on the mind and
experienced as suffering as disagreeableness.
Saccavibhaṅga Sutta (MN)
What is Upāyāsa
It is despondency, despair, the state of despondency,
the state of despair of one visited by some calamity
or other, smitten by some kind of ill or other.
Saccavibhaṅga Sutta (MN)
Psychology of Grief
Born of affection
For householder,
grief, sorrow, suffering, lamentation and despair
are born of affection or originate in affection for
children, spouse, parents, lovers
Piyajātika Sutta – MN
Psychology of Grief contd.
Not getting what one desires, that too is anguish
Grief is the five groups of grasping that are anguish
Clinging (upādāna) Psychological tendency
Saccavibhaṅga Sutta (MN)
Psychology of Grief contd.
Survival tendency as (biological and psychological)
Taṇhā (craving)
Chanda (impulse)
Rāga (desire)
Nandi (enjoyment)
Sineha (love)
Pipāsa (thirst)
Psychology of Grief contd.
Desire (taṇhā)
1. Kāma taṇhā (craving for self-gratification)
2. Bhava taṇhā (craving for self-preservation, self-
continuity, personal immortality, self-assertion,
self-display, self-respect)
3. Vibhava taṇhā (craving for annihilation)
Disorders of Grief
Piyajātika Sutta
i. Case – father whose son died
Going constantly to the cemetery, he wailed, “whereare you, little only son? Where are you, little onlyson?
ii. Case – daughter whose mother died
Since her passing away, she (the daughter)unbalanced and unhinged, went form street to street,from cross-road to cross-road saying, “Have you notseen my mother? Have you not seen my mother?
Disorders of Grief contd.
iii. Case – lovers
A certain woman went to her relation’s family. Those
relations of hers, having forcibly taken her from her
husband, desired to give her to another, but she did not
want him. Then, that woman spoke thus to her husband:
“those relations of mine, master, having forcibly taken
me from you, want to give me to another, but I don’t
want him.” Then, that man, having cut that woman
in two, thinking ‘we will both come to be hereafter’,
destroyed himself,
Disorders of Grief contd.
Sokasallaharaṇa Sutta (AN)
iv. Case - part one
Bhaddā, the dear and beloved Rāni of Rāja Muṇḍa,
died, and because of the loss of his dear Rāni
Bahddā, he neither bathed nor anointed himself
nor, partook of any food, nor concerned himself
with any affairs, but day and night clung in grief
to her body as though a swoon.
Disorders of Grief contd.
Part two
Friend, Piyaka, place the body of Rāni in an oil
vessel made of iron and cover it over with
another iron vessel so that we shall see her body
longer.
Disorders of Grief contd.
One who has strong desires in his character
experiences the perpetual suffering and dejection
that are born of desire (AN Vol. ii 149)
Disorders of Grief contd.
He who is overwhelmed by desire plans his harm and
others, and the harm of both, he performs immoral acts
in deed, word and thought, he cannot understand, as it
really is… his own profit, that of others, or that of both.
Desire is the cause of blindness, of not seeing, of not
knowing, of loss of understanding: it is associated with
trouble and not lead to Nibbāna.
(Aṅguttara Nikāya Vol. I 216)
Grief Management Phases
i. Tadaṅga pahāna
Temporary treatment
Behavioural transformation
Sīla
ii. Vikkhambhana pahāna
Periodical treatment
Mental development
Samādhi
iii. Samuccheda pahāna
Everlasting solution
Paññā
Strategies
Giving time to grieve
Release of the intensity of grief
(behavioural transformation)
The Story of Kisāgotamῑ
Kisāgotamῑ -: sire, do you know any medicine that will be good for my child
Buddha -: yes, I know of some, I want some mustard. You must get it from some
house where no son, or husband or, parent or slave has died.
Kisāgotami -: very good sire,
Kisāgotamῑ met people and tried to find mustard from a place where nobody has
died and she realized that every one dies.
Buddha -: Have you the Mustard
Kisāgotamῑ -: sire, I have not. The people tell me that the living are few, but the
dead are many.
Rhys Davids, T.W. Buddhism, Being a sketch of the life and Teachings of
Gautama, the Buddha, London, 1912 pp. 133 – 34
The Story of Visākhā
Buddha -: O Visākā, do you come here at unseasonable hours, with hand and hair wet (with tears)?
Visākhā -: sire, my dearly loved grandson is dead. That is why I come here, at unseasonable hours, with hands and
hair wet (with tears)
Buddha -: Do you find, O Visākā, that there are sons and grandsons in proportion to the number of men in Savatthi
Visākā -: I find sire.. That there are sons and grandsons in proportion to the number of men.
Buddha -: And how many men of Savatthi, Visākā, die daily?
Visākā -: Some time ten men of Savatthi die daily, some times. Nine, eight. Seven, six, five, four, three, two, some
times, sire, only one man dies, in the days. Of men dying in Savatthi, there is no lack sire.
Buddha -: What think you, Visākā, have you found at anytime or anywhere, men whose garments have been unwetted
(by tears), whose hair has been unwetted (buy tears)
Visākā -: Not so, sire, how is that possible with so many sons and grandsons?.
Buddha -: Those, Visākā who have a, hundred dear one, have a hundred sorrows, Those who have ninety dear have
ninety sorrows… Those who have one dear one sorrow. Those who have no dear one, for them there is no sorrow
No dears
No Sorrow
The Udana; or the solemn utterance of the Buddha, Tr. Storing, D.M, London, 1902, pp. 126, 127
Strategies contd.
The story of lady Ubbari
The Buddha: Why are you crying?
Lady Ubbari: I am crying for my daughter, sir.
The Buddha: In this burning ground, 84,000
daughters of yours have been burnt. For which
one are you crying?
Spiritual transformation
Strategies contd.
• Nobody can escape
from being ageing
from being sick
from death
from destruction
Mental development
(Sokasallaharaṇa Sutta)
Strategies contd.Only one way to get rid of grief
Four Foundation of Mindfulness
i. Mindfulness of body (being aware of postures,
somatic sensations and breath)
ii. Mindfulness of feelings (being aware of
qualities of pleasantness, unpleasantness and
neutrality arising in mind.
iii. Mindfulness of mind states (being aware of states of
mind that may color the mind such as destructed mind,
happy mind ,angry mind, etc.
iv. Mindfulness of mind objects (being aware of contents of
the mind such as thoughts and being aware of they
are conditioned in both physical and mental
processes.
Application of Grief Management in Sri
Lankan Context
1. Private Sector
1. Lanka Tiles PVT
2. Lanka Floor Tiles PVT
2. Academic
1. Hon’s Degree in Buddhist Psychology
2. Postgraduate Diploma in Buddhist
Counseling
3. Master Degree in Buddhist Counseling
3. Health Sector
1. Cancer Patients
Conclusion
1. Sīla (behavioral transformation)
2. Samādhi (mental development – tranquility)
3. Paññā (cognitive transformation – insight)