PSYCHOLOGICAL ATTACHMENT,
NO-SELF AND CHAN BUDDHIST
MIND THERAPY

Wing-Shing Chan

The role of Chan Buddhism for mind therapy is distinguished from psychotherapy by the

objectives in diminishing or removing the deluded perceived self and the psychological

self of attachments and cravings, which are considered as the more basic origins for

psychological suffering and problems. The Buddhist concepts of impermanence, no-self

and emptiness are discussed to explain the Buddhist explanation for human suffering. A

four-stage theory is described to explain the common Buddhist meditation experience

toward the realization of no-self. Removing psychological attachment is found to be of

explanatory value for many enlightenment episodes of Chan masters. Meditation

concentration and reduction of self-attachment will mutually reinforce each other

toward a complete therapy of the mind. An innovative approach for psychotherapy in

going further to tackle a person’s basic life attachments is suggested.

Nowadays Chan (Zen) Buddhism is often understood as having therapeutic
value for the human mind, and there is a growing number of discussions and
applications associated with psychotherapy (for example, Brazier 1996; Miller
2002; Reynolds 1982; Young-Eisendrath and Muramoto 2002). Psychology and
Buddhism are deemed by many to have a similar goal of psychological betterment
or healing with no fundamental differences. For example, a psychotherapist and
Buddhist wrote:

The psychological and the spiritual are not mutually exclusive, nor is one vantage

pointer ‘higher’ or ‘deeper’ than the other. Like figure and ground, they represent

two dimensions of one reality. . . . Each practice brings with its own particular

perspective, its own advantages and its own pitfalls. (Magid 2003, 80 – 1)

Both disciplines work by understanding how the mind works and through

improving the quality of how the mind functions, whereby emotions, thoughts, and
behaviours can be significantly improved. While psychology adopts a comparatively
more objective and empirical approach, Buddhism takes on a meditative, theoretical
and introspective approach. Is Chan Buddhism, ignoring its already very few

Contemporary Buddhism, Vol. 9, No. 2, November 2008

ISSN 1463-9947 print/1476-7953 online/08/020253-264

q

2008 Taylor & Francis

DOI: 10.1080/14639940802556586

religious aspects, in essence a subset of psychotherapies but employing a different
approach or method? If it is not, are there basic theoretical and practical differences
between Chan Buddhism and psychotherapy for mind therapy? What really
characterizes Chan mind therapy?

To clarify the essential difference on mind healing between psychotherapy

and Chan Buddhism, the theoretical Buddhist concept of no-self (Sanskrit:
anatman), is required to contrast with the concept of self in psychology. The self is
an essential explicit or implicit concept across all psychological disciplines. All
psychological disciplines that involve the study of human personality or social
relationship such as social or psychoanalytic psychology make use of a personal
self as a central theoretical construct in explaining and improving how
people function. The present scientific psychology can in some way be viewed
as a self-psychology or psychology of the self. The self is either a central object
of study or a taken-for-granted reality used in either theory construction or
experimentation. Although some psychological disciplines focus on the study of
external behaviours (behavioural psychology) or internal brain processing
(cognitive psychology) without working through the macroscopic idea of a self,
few psychologists will deny that the person they study or the psychologists
themselves possess a self or a personality. And if their microscopic studies of the
bit and pieces of human behaviours or thinking finally combine into a total figure,
the image of a self influencing these fragments of behaviours and thinking will
also emerge. Self-integrity and good self-image in managing relationships
and life situations are commonly regarded in psychology as conducive to or
consequences of a healthy psyche.

No-self is one of the most significant postulates in Buddhist theory as it

represents the Buddhist’s truth of universal reality and the ideal human mind and
condition. Philosophically the doctrine of no-self can be seen as an extension of
the Buddhist doctrine of ‘Everything is impermanent’ (anitya). Buddhism views
that everything (mind or matter) in the universe arises or ceases due to the arising
or cessation of the other things in association with it—the doctrine of dependent
arising ( pratitya-samutpada). Everything can change at any moment according to
the causes and conditions that are exerting influences on it. Therefore things are
always subjected to change and definable only by their interactions with other
things. Hence it is not possible for anything to possess absolute constancy or
permanent being. This is the Buddhist idea of emptiness (sunyata), the emptying
of permanency, immutable self-nature or being. If everything is impermanent, and
therefore is of emptiness, so is the personal self.

The personal self is often analysed in Buddhism in terms of the functions of

the five aggregates (skandha), consisting of form or bodily phenomena (rupa),
feelings (vedana), recognition or labelling (samjna), volition (samskara) and
self-consciousness or awareness (vijnana) (Gethin 1998, 135 – 136). As these five
aggregates change from moment to moment, no permanent self other than these
changing experiences can be substantiated. The philosopher David Hume had
also put forth a similar argument for the non-existence of being or personal self

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other than the existence of those constantly changing human perceptions and
recollections (Hume 1921, 245 – 259).

Theoretically the essence of human suffering, anguish or pain (duhkha) can

be analysed in Buddhism in a very concrete way, as being summarized very
succinctly by Rupert Gethin:

That something which is impermanent must be regarded as ‘painful’ (duhkha)

follows, of course, from principles we have found expressed in the second of the

four noble truths: if we become attached and try to hold on to things that will

inevitable change and disappear, then we are bound to suffer. (1998, 137)

It follows that, to remove human anguish or pain, we must remove the attachment
(upadana) or craving (trsna) of our mind from various things or concepts that we
are attached to. This idea, as we shall see, forms the central approach for Chan
mind therapy.

The truth of emptiness or no-self does not render the use of personal name

or expectations about personality meaningless, as many people have mistakably
assumed. Because of our emotional attachments or cravings, we are less
changeable than we really should be, and cling excessively to substance, past
events and personal characteristics, things and concepts that are more subject to
change than we expect or hope them to be. That is why the Mahayana Heart Sutra
states: ‘Form is emptiness. Emptiness is form’. Its meaning is about training
ourselves until we actually perceive all forms (things and concepts) simultaneously
as empty. Functions of all forms continue but there is no emotional clinging.

A common misunderstanding about no-self is to understand the term

merely through its philosophical meaning; that the so-called self is empty of a
permanent immutable being. People often think that this philosophical
understanding of no-self alone is sufficient to lead to the state of no-self or
enlightenment. Quite the contrary, human anguish or pain is essentially a
psychological experience; the successful removal of personal anguish or pain has
to be achieved psychologically, not merely conceptually. Whenever there are
emotional gains or losses coupled with attachment or craving, the sense of self,
the one who suffers from emotional strains, definitely exists. This sense of self
cannot be extinguished by mere conceptual understanding of the empty nature
of the personal self. From this we can see that attachment and craving can form a
useful psychological definition of the ordinary people’s self. There cannot be a self
without attachment or craving, for the self is the simultaneous antithesis to the
objects that we are attached to or crave. And whenever there is attachment
or craving, the self exists simultaneously, being responsible for the one who is
attached or who craves and suffers.

Besides the psychological definition of self by means of attachment or

craving, there is also a perceptual or self-aware definition of self. For most people
the self refers to the things immediately connected to their body, and more
importantly to their mind. And the mind is characterized by the ever ongoing
thoughts and volitions that control the body and respond to events. The ever

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ongoing internal dialogues in people’s mind that make various evaluations and
judgements seems to most people be representing I. It seems self-evident that
perceptually I am the mind and the mind is I.

Buddhism regards these ever ongoing internal dialogues as illusive,

discursive or scattered thoughts. These thought processes originate involuntarily
like a chain reaction, with one thought continually eliciting another thought with a
momentum owing to past attachments, cravings or conditionings. Many of these
thoughts are emotionally loaded with psychological fear, apprehension, distress,
delusions or excitements, and so forth that merely by themselves are causes for
vexations, distorted perceptions, misjudgement and wrongful behaviours. These
mostly involuntary scattered thoughts in a series seems like a movie story
that consolidates the perceptual idea of the existence of a central I or self that is
responsible for directing the discursive thoughts. For these reasons this deluded
perceptual I or self is a major goal for elimination in order to get rid of human
anguish or pain. The central remedy employed in Buddhism is through
meditation; by calming the mind’s scattered thoughts and watching what the real
mind is about when it is rid of most or all of its discursive thoughts. The next
section will describe the stages of this meditative journey towards realizing the
real mind of no discursive thoughts, often regarded as enlightenment or no-self.

Four stages of mind realization through Chan meditation

Most Buddhist meditation helps calm the mind, clear involuntary discursive

thoughts and lets meditators see more clearly what is inside the mind. As
meditations progress, they eventually realize that their mind or self was an illusion.
For clarity let us describe the process of realization by the following four stages
(cf. Chan 2004, 52) commonly found in Chan Buddhism:

(1)

I am the mind—when ordinary people or beginning meditators introspect, they

find continuous chains of thoughts, or discursive thoughts, intermingled with

their acts of thinking and volition. It seems that I must be doing all this thinking

that gives rise to these moving thoughts and thus that the mind represents me

and is I. The thoughts as observed in the mind and the observer, the meditator,

cannot be separated subjectively. That what does the thinking is unmistakably

an ‘I’ is also the common human experience that Descartes (1960) in Discourse on

Method depended on to establish his famous ‘Cogito ergo sum’ (‘I am thinking,

therefore I am’), regarded as the most indubitable real existence that can be

taken as the first principle of philosophy.

(2)

I am not the mind—as meditation progresses and discursive thoughts settle,

the observed thoughts that arise in the mind are clearly separated from the

person who contemplates them. Alas, all those ongoing thoughts that I used to

consider as representing my self cannot be me, as I am now able to observe

them clearly from a distance. The self that these discursive thoughts are made

up of is not I; it is just a misinterpretation of a series of illusive events. The

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separation between the observed (discursive thoughts) and the observer is now

complete.

(3)

No-mind—when all discursive thoughts vanish, the mind is non-moving with no

content. The state within meditation is just absolute clarity and serenity. There is

no mind to be found in the sense that the illusive mind comprising of the

integrated interpretation of scattered thoughts is completely gone. If such a

mind suddenly exists no more, it certainly is just an illusion. The meditator can

now be regarded as having seen Buddha nature, self-nature, or having an initial

enlightenment experience. The elimination of discursive thoughts as essential

for the revelation of self-nature, or enlightenment, has been a tradition of

thought in Buddhism. For example, Master Hongzhi Zhenghue, the great Chan

Master of the Southern Song dynasty who invented the practice method of

silent illumination, proclaimed:

If there is any minute movement or disturbance, at that instant you will be

drifting around by karma. When cessation is to the utmost, with no more

possible cessation; that is Bodhi. The mind of supreme purity and brightness;

is not to be obtained from someone else. (Taisho Collection of Buddhist Texts

1924, T2001 (48): 0059c17)

When there is still a contemplator, or an observer contemplating the observed

clarity in the mind, there is still I or a self. There is still dualism between the

observed clear mind and the observer who contemplates.

(4)

No-self—less and less effort of contemplation or concentration is required to

sustain the clear non-moving enlightened mind. When the enlightened mind

absolutely clear of even the finest dust of discursive thoughts can be allowed

to persist effortlessly with the letting go of any slightest effort of meditation,

the observer representing the meditative contemplation exists no more. This is

often represented figuratively in Chan Buddhism by an empty circle with

nothing in it; for the observer, the effort of contemplation can be allowed to go.

Loosening up all practice effort or endeavour (referred to as accomplishment)

is needed for attaining ultimate enlightenment, as stressed by Chan Master

Hongzhi Zhengjue:

In boundless space wisdom streams, inwardly forgetting accomplishment,

straight down to shed away all loadings, and to turn the body around into

position, . . . There will no longer be a hair or a dust that belongs to things from

the outside. (Taisho Collection of Buddhist Texts 1924, T2001(48): 74c18)

Opposition between the observed (illusive thoughts or the realm of the clear mind
maintained by meditation effort) and the observer (meditative contemplation
or effort) vanishes. The perfect non-opposing state of no-self, a thorough
enlightenment experience, is realized. The deluded perceptual self vanishes and
so do the vexations and delusions that accompany with discursive thoughts.
Other than the task of relinquishing the psychological self of attachments, the goal

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of perfect Buddhist mind therapy is partly accomplished. Even for different
traditions of Buddhism, the stages toward enlightenment are in essence quite
similar.

Buddhism therefore has indeed a different goal from psychology for

ultimate psychologically well-being because it aims at the complete dissolution of
the old self for reaching the new state of no-self. In psychology, even when
internal psychological conflicts are resolved and cognitive errors rectified by either
personal growth or psychotherapy, identity with the perceptual self remains. The
confusions caused by discursive thinking, rigid behaviours and personal
attachments due to identity with the illusive self persist. If the self we depend
on is illusory, our actions will definitely be illusory and fail to correspond suitably
to the reality of life for ourselves and others. Even a person with what
psychologists consider a healthy psyche is not immune to relationship rupture,
great personal or material loss, or being capable of boldly facing life and death
issues. More generally speaking, psychologically normal people are often unable
to keep a good and balanced mood most of the time. The realm of Buddhist
therapy thus tackles a more basic level than psychology about the source of
human suffering—the illusive self and its attachments. With an objective of giving
up the (illusive) self, Chan therapy may be more appropriately named as mind
therapy rather than psychotherapy because, even after successful psychotherapy,
the self remains.

Mind therapy by Chan Buddhism

Excerpts from a classic gongan will illustrate how Buddhism claims to solve

and pacify a mind full of problems.

The second patriarch of Chan Buddhism, Huike, when as a student went to

Shaolin to see Bodhidharma. However Bodhidharma kept meditating everyday

by facing the wall without giving a word of instruction. One evening Huike stood

before Bodhidharma without moving. There was great snow falling from the sky.

At about daybreak snow had accumulated beyond Huike’s knees. With a mind of

compassion Bodhidharma asked him what he wanted. Huike said, ‘My mind is

disturbing. May the master pacify it?’ Bodhidharma replied, ‘Pass me your mind

and I would pacify it for you.’ Huike searched everywhere for his mind and then

said, ‘Nothing can be found in searching for the mind.’ Bodhidharma replied,

‘I have completed the pacification of your mind.’ (Taisho Collection of Busshist

Texts 1924, T1565(80): 40b24)

This gongan ends with the solving of Huike’s mind problem, from which he
developed to become the second patriarch of Chan Buddhism. Apparently
Bodhidharma did not give any instruction or teaching, nor did he even talk much.
What had contributed to Huike’s successful therapy? The crucial factor is Huike’s
failure in locating his mind that used to disturb him. In fact, he found no mind; or

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as a result, realized no-mind. The mind, the illusive discursive mind, that troubled
him existed no more and so were the problems associated with that mind.
Standing through the evening until daybreak apparently established suitable
conditions for his mind to completely settle to the point where the discursive
mind shrank to a minimum and vanished. This enlightening moment occurred
because Huike’s mind could have been adequately prepared through meditation
or practice and Bodhidharma had caught just the precise opportunity to initiate it.
Ordinary people or beginning meditators cannot, of course, reach the state of no-
mind or no-self in a short time. But to the extent the discursive mind diminishes
through meditation or practice, the problems and agitations associated with the
illusive mind also diminish accordingly.

In fact, behavioural or psychological problems may not be completely or

permanently resolved without solving the problems at the source level within the
hierarchy of psychological manifestation. At the outset of the hierarchy is the overt
behavioural level, followed by the cognitive level, then the social or
psychodynamic level and, finally, by the Buddhist level of no-self. In psychology
the self is the source of most social, cognitive and overt behaviours, whether
consciously or unconsciously. Therefore behavioural problems need be further
resolved by the cognitions that direct them, and cognitive problems further
resolved by the social or psychodynamic aspects for which the self acts as the
base. To completely remove psychological sufferings, Buddhism considers that
the illusive self serving as the source of problems has to be completely dissolved
so that the spontaneous outflow of compassion, wisdom and perfect freedom of
action can occur at the level of no-self. In other words, Buddhism further
completes the therapeutic job where the reach of psychology ends.

The Buddhist approach regarding problem sources in mind therapy appears

diagonal to that of psychology. Common psychotherapy locates the personal
sources of the problems, if possible, and solves the problem through dealing with
the sources. Therefore therapists inquire into our life histories and look for
personal or interpersonal connections to the present psychological problems.
However, Buddhist masters do not often give direct personal counselling to
students; instead they teach and counsel students about the correct views and
ways of practice. Students practice meditation to pacify their mind, observe the
reality of the mind and improve the way of connecting with the mind. With the
lessening of the problems of the discursive mind, the students understand and
utilize the mind better and accordingly control better their behaviours and
improve the relationship with others. The theory is that when the conditions of the
mind improve through less discursiveness and better clarity, all psychological
functions and behaviours on the surface of the mind will eventually improve. As
meditation matures, especially when their mind is calmer and more concentrated
or focused, people can often gain personal insight into the source of their
problems similar to what psychologists can assist them with. They may also
understand what hitherto was considered to be of subconscious or unconscious
motives, because, after all, every motive can be easily revealed when the mind is

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completely clear to the finest detail. This Buddhist lack of interest in problem
sources is because, although it can have a psychotherapeutic effect, it is not meant
for psychotherapy of the self. It is geared toward the goal of removing all human
anguish and pain through correcting the basic delusion of the illusive self and
eliminating the mind’s attachments and cravings.

Buddhist enlightenment can produce very powerful psychological

transformation. A famous example comes from Linji, the founder of the Linji
sect within Chan Buddhism.

When as a student he was urged by the first-seat (the most senior disciple) to ask

Master Huangbo about the Way, ‘What is the essential meaning by which the

Patriarch (i.e. Bodhidharma) came from the west?’ The Master hit him. He asked

the same questions three times and he was hit every time. He therefore

considered himself stupid and by next day he saw Huangbo for leaving.

Huangbo advised him to see Master Dayu. Linji then told Dayu exactly what

happened when he asked Huangbo for instruction. Dayu replied, ‘How

conscientious was Huangbo to persevere for you in still looking for your faults!’

Linji was at once greatly enlightened and said, ‘There aren’t that many children

born by Buddhism!’ When being questioned about his realization, Linji gave

Dayu a fist at the chest. Dayu let him return directly to Huangbo. When being

questioned he also gave Huangbo a slap. Huangbo bursted into great laughter.

(Taisho Collection of Buddhist Texts 1924, T1565(80): 220c08)

Before his realization Linji appeared to be an innocent and obedient student,
insisting on asking the same questions although being hit three times. After
enlightenment he dared to hit back the Masters. And eventually Linji developed to
be one of the most assertive, independent and aggressive masters in Chan history
and founded the Linji sect, which is famous for teaching Chan through the
powerful means of shouting and hitting.

Psychological de-attachment: the forceful-change approach for
enlightenment

Besides the ‘slow-cooking’ approach (i.e. continuous meditation) used in

effecting change from the internal mind and thereby influencing the external
behaviours, Buddhist masters sometimes make use of the external circumstances
in eliciting forceful change of the internal mind—generally a means to remove
certain strong personal attachments of the student, which sometimes results in an
enlightening experience. The word ‘enlightening’ is used instead of ‘enlight-
enment’ here because sometimes an enlightening experience may not necessarily
lead to ultimate, complete or even initial enlightenment; therefore the former can
be used in a wider scope of breaking-through experiences within meditation or
practice. The following are some selected examples.

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Among the most dramatic enlightenment experiences in Chan gongans was

the story about Master Shigong, then a hunter, who while chasing deer ran into
the temple of Patriarch Mazu and was enlightened on the spot.

Shigong asked, ‘Have you, the monk, seen the deer ran by?’ Patriarch: ‘So who

are you?’ ‘Hunter.’ Patriarch: ‘Do you know how to shoot?’ ‘I know.’ Patriarch:

‘How many can you shoot with one arrow?’ ‘One for one arrow.’ Patriarch: ‘You

don’t know how to shoot.’ ‘So you monk knows how to shoot?’ Patriarch: ‘I

know.’ ‘How many can you monk shoot with one arrow?’ Patriarch: ‘Shoots a

herd.’ ‘Since both of us are lives, what’s the need to shoot a herd of them?’

Patriarch: ‘If you understand this, why don’t you shoot yourself?’ ‘If I have to

shoot myself, I find no place to lay my hands on.’ Patriarch: ‘This guy’s ignorance

and vexations since countless kalpas now suddenly come to a halt.’ Shigong cut

his hair with his knife and followed Mazu to be a monk. (Taisho Collection of

Buddhist Texts 1924, T1321 (69): 0003c24)

In this example Shigong had an enlightenment experience with no previous
experience of meditation or knowledge of Buddhism. He was even a hunter who
earned his living by shooting animals—against the most basic Buddhist precept of
no-killing. The technique that Patriarch Mazu employed was to elicit the basic
human compassion of the hunter, by dramatically revealing the cruelty of
shooting a whole herd of deer with a single arrow. While Shigong began to realize
the value of the equality of life and the absurdity of one life killing another life
without compassion by uttering ‘Since both of us are lives, what’s the need to
shoot a herd of them?’, Patriarch Mazu forced Shigong further into a corner of no
return by saying ‘If you understand this, why don’t you shoot yourself?’ This was
one of the most masterful displays of enlightenment initiation in Chan history.
Overwhelmed by intrinsic compassion and the realization of the equality of life,
Shigong instantly shed away his attachment to the habits of using killing as a
means of living and the attachment to cruelty living. As he was having an
enlightening experience, he replied: ‘If I have to shoot myself, I find no place to lay
my hands on’. His illusive thoughts and sense of the self had at least temporarily
come to a halt.

Generally speaking when a certain significant psychological attachment of

the self is being released suddenly, the psychology and physiology related to the
attachment is relocated or changed and an enlightening or enlightenment
experience is thus perceived or felt.

Huihai (Master Great Pearl) traveled to Jiangxi to see Patriarch Mazu. The

patriarch asked, ‘Where do you come from?’ ‘From Temple Dayun in the state of

Yue.’ Patriarch:’What do you come here for?’ ‘For getting Buddhadharma.’

Patriarch: ‘What are you doing here, running wild from home and disregarding

your own treasure? I have nothing here, how are you able to get

Buddhadharma?’ The master thus prostrated and asked, ‘So then what is the

treasure owned by Huihai?’ Patriarch: ‘That who is asking me now is your own

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treasure. It is all-adequate, short of nothing, functions freely and spontaneously.

What need if any is there to search from the outside (of the mind)?’ With these

words the master realized his own mind, through not his perception or intellect.

(Taisho Collection of Buddhist Texts 1924, T1565(80): 0079a06)

This gongan shows certain self-conflicts of Huihai. Huihai travelled a long journey
to see Mazu for Buddhadharma, for of course Mazu was a famous patriarch.
However Huihai did not prostrate to the Patriarch until he was challenged by his
words to direct attention toward his own treasure. At the first meeting he had not
shown the customary respect of prostration to a senior great master, which had
been commonly held in the Buddhist tradition. Apparently his long quest for
Buddhadharma was inconsistent with his self-pride. Therefore Mazu received this
student in an intentionally arrogant tone; to reduce the latter’s self-pride. In one
way Huihai was confident with what he had understood, but in another way he
felt himself inadequate and therefore he travelled far to seek Mazu for
consultation. Speaking the truth, Mazu directed Huihai’s attention toward his own
treasure—the real mind (which ‘has nothing there’) that is behind the confused,
discursive and illusive thoughts. Such mind is by itself adequate, which had never
departed with him, and that Huihai himself is self-adequate. There was needed no
place for self-pride to act. Apparently having ripped off his self-pride and self-
conflict and being able to direct his attention to his own non-discursive mind,
Huihai had an instantaneous realization or enlightenment about his real mind.

The previous enlightenment gongan of Linji can be analysed in a similar

de-attachment way. Apparently Linji, as a student, was very obedient and non-
assertive. These ‘merits’ for studentship in some sense are also psychological
attachments that hinder the free manifestation of no-self. Therefore, three times
when he earnestly asked for instruction he was being hit by his master. Upon hints
from Master Dayu, Linji understood what fault his master Huangbo was finding
about him. It was not with his practice, which had no fault anymore; what was at
fault was his submissiveness and his not realizing and recognizing that he already
had no fault (with his practice). Realizing this, Linji shed away the part of self of
submissiveness and let his no-self be revealed. This was his enlightenment, and he
began a new era of Chan training based on the concept of non-attachment and
de-attaching the self aggressively. The above examples are not meant to say that
all Chan enlightenment is based solely or mainly on the shedding of significant
psychological attachment. They only illustrate that many enlightenment
experiences can be understood by the principle of psychological de-attachment.
The realization or attainment of a non-discursive mind is just as important in
reaching enlightenment, no-self and liberation from vexations.

Personal problems or difficulties are mostly dealt with by psychological

methods through analysis of the conscious or unconscious self-inclinations or self-
interests with the goal of achieving self-congruency or self-integrity (for example,
Roger 1961). For example, job-choice problems can be improved by guided
understanding of self-inclinations or self-interests through tests or counselling

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that leads to making decisions that enhance self-fulfilment. Buddhism, however,
considers the attachments related to job choice here to be the ultimate cause of
the psychological anxiety. Underlying attachments such as the desire for personal
esteem or personal security, and so on, may be analysed, discovered and let go of.
Even though self-congruency is being reached, psychological problems can
re-occur if the basic attachments are not removed. The acquired insight into and
the ability to let go of the psychological attachments depend on the power of
concentration (meditation) and the resulting clarity and serenity of one’s mind.
Buddhism not only aims at alleviating the problems of job, family and life; it strives
to let go of attachments to job, family and life themselves. With the loosening of
basic attachments, while there can still be personal problems, they pose no
psychological problems. Even with events beyond control, one can live with,
adjust to and make the best use of life outcomes one way or another. One can
even be more capable of making wise decisions and judgement for the better
because one is no longer so emotionally burdened by attachments or cravings.

Meditation concentration and reduction of self-attachments mutually

reinforce each other toward a complete therapy of the mind. Progress in meditation
concentration will decrease discursiveness and improve psychological clarity, which
could improve psychological ease and insight for removing self-attachments. The
removal of self-attachments generally will diminish discursive thoughts related to
those attachments and therefore make it easier for concentration or contemplation
in meditation. The combined progress of the two will eventually lead to the
diminution of all discursive thoughts and the letting go of the most significant life
attachments such as those to money, sex, and life and death, leading to the
realization of enlightenment or no-self, the perfect model of mind functioning in the
Buddhist’s viewpoint.

Relieving basic attachments associated with personal psychological

problems and difficulties could suggest a particular innovative approach for
psychotherapy. As in our job counselling example, the focus of therapy or
counselling will then go beyond the issues of understanding a person’s self, such
as interests, aspirations and problems, for arriving at an integrated solution that
fulfils the person’s desire to analyse and resolve the basic personal attachments
associated with job status such as self-esteem or personal security. When a person
with a satisfying job faces the uncertainty of losing the job, psychological anxiety,
difficulties or problems may develop if attachment to either self-esteem or
personal security exists. When such attachments are let go, psychological problem
will not develop even though there are job difficulties with life.

For almost all vexations, the approach of Chan mind therapy can be used to

analyse the associated attachments in helping a person let go of those
attachments and thereby attain a certain freedom from the effect of such
vexations. Meditation or any way that helps with calming and focusing the mind
from the effect of discursive thoughts can be used as general psychological
medicine to decrease the mind’s confusion and improve a person’s self-
determination, self-insight and general psychological health. When a person has

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regained general psychological health, the approaches of Chan mind therapy may
then be directed toward the more superior goal of attaining enlightenment or no-
self through the dissolution of the perceptual and psychological selves.

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China. E-mail: [e-mail]

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WING-SHING CHAN