ABSTRACT

The Buddhist tradition offers an ingeniously simple model of the human psyche that has much to offer the modern understanding of them. The three-way interaction between organs, objects, and moments of knowing is the seed around which much of Buddhist psychology crystalizes, and exemplifies the fundamental interdependence of consciousness with its material constituents. The Buddha also stressed the value of enhancing the mind-body relationship by the systematic awareness training of bodily sensations. The five components or functions of the mind are material form, consciousness, feeling, perception, and emotional states. In the Buddhist analysis, delusions of stability, gratification, and selfhood are mistaken views that have developed from mis-perception and mis-thinking, and to the extent they are functioning in any given moment of consciousness one is sure to suffer. Buddhists sound something like Sigmund Freud when they identify three fundamental or root emotions that are unhealthy, namely greed, hatred, and delusion.