ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on Early Buddhism, also known as Theravada Buddhism. The main texts of early Buddhism are called the canon, and are in the Pali language. Buddhism originated in Northern India several centuries before the Christian era. Joy Manne-Lewis has discussed the Buddhist concept of enlightenment, or perfection, in terms of the concepts of Western psychology. She argues that the Buddhist psychology of enlightenment provides a paradigm for a challenging new model that has relevance to modern psychology. One major aspect of Buddhist psychological practice that has already entered modern psychological therapy is meditation. In the Buddhist texts, meditation is given pride of place as an essential aspect of the individual’s religious endeavour. To recapitulate, there are several ways in which Buddhist psychology has implications for therapeutic practice. Buddhism possesses an array of behaviour change strategies, most of which bear striking resemblance to modern behaviour modification techniques.
