ABSTRACT
Buddhist philosophical psychology is especially interesting to Westerners because Buddhists deny that there are any such things as persons or selves while offering advice, philosophical therapy, about how best to live a good and meaningful life as a person. Although Buddhists are said to deny that there are persons and selves or persons with selves, this is not really so. Buddhist metaphysics privileges processes and events. Buddhist ethics is metaphysically rich and is in that sense cognitivist, or, to put it another way, being morally excellent, as conceived by Buddhism, requires seeing things truthfully without delusion or wishful thinking. Original sin, Buddhist style, consists of the three poisons of delusion, avaricious, greedy desire, and hatred. Overall the Buddhist techniques de soi are similar to some techniques of cognitive-behavioral therapy, but with a depth psychological twist, since the three poisons create mischief in multifarious, often sneaky ways.
