In the last couple of podcasts, I’ve been talking about the pratyaya of object relation: the principle that the mind is conditioned by its object; and one of the sub-principles that came out of this was, that if you change the object, you change the mind.
Some of you will have watched the talk by Dr. Andrade (link see below) when she talked about her experience of working with post-traumatic stress situations in the world; and you will remember from that the little boy with the kite. I was quite struck by this. There was a happy little boy playing with a kite, yet he was in a disastrous situation. Dr. Andrade had realized that this activity of making and flying kites could occupy the boy’s mind in such a way that he would have some relief from the terrible stress of his disastrous situation. When he was flying the kite, his mind was on that object, and so it was not on the fact that all his relatives, her parents, his brothers and sisters had died in the war.
This is a situation where distraction can play a very important therapeutic role. By having some periods, when he flew his kite, the little boy was able to balance his mind. When we are overwhelmed by oppressive thoughts or difficulties in our life, having some break in this is very important.
In Buddhism we talk about samatha, “samatha meditation,” we say. Samatha literally means Stop! To do samatha is to create a break, to create a space; and you can create a space in an obsessive thought by having something else that takes the mind. So, in Buddhism we offer wholesome objects that may break into the flow of the samsaric mind. The nembutsu is a perfect example.
So, now we have two very different, almost opposite processes, whereby a therapeutic effect can be brought about:
- On the one hand maybe this method, the method of the kite, in which troublesome, painful, unwholesome objects of mind can be driven out, at least temporarily, by the insertion of a new object, that has enough energy to hold the attention of the person. This is the method of distraction, and don’t belittle it – it is very powerful.
- On the other hand, there is the method that we talked about in the last podcast, whereby you hold with an object. You don’t drive it out, you keep it, you polish it, you look at it this way, you look at it that way. This is what in Buddhism is called investigation of Dharma.
This is the second of the Factors of Enlightenment. The first two Factors of Enlightenment are mindfulness and investigation of Dharma. Investigation of Dharma, we can say, basically means to find the truth about something. So, in this option, you hold on to the object, you try and find the deeper truth of that object, you penetrate into the object until you find the Dharma in it.
So, these two, apparently opposite, but really complementary methods need to be in the repertoire of any therapist or spiritual guide. Driving out an unwholesome object by turning attention to a wholesome one, may happen in a big way or may happen in a myriad of small ways. Repeating the nembutsu, no matter what happens, is an example of this.
So, that’s one method and the other method is to investigate the Dharma, investigate the truth, penetrate into the object.
Ultimately, it’s all about discovering the Dharma: discovering the Dharma in a new, wholesome object or discovering the Dharma in the existing objects that are populating one’s life already. All are Namo Amida Bu.
Namo Amida Bu
Thank you very much
Dharmavidya
David
The podcast refers to the talk of Dr. Andrade.
You can listen to it on Youtube: https://youtu.be/vKvizb5_IpQ
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