What
can we learn from Zen? A review and some speculations
J. Radford |
Concepts
deriving from Zen Buddhism have come to form part of popular Western
culture during the last twenty years or so. These concepts are often
vague and misleading. This paper suggests that Zen can be usefully
characterized as a set of techniques designed to bring about specific
changes in behaviour and experience. This is also often held to be
one of the aims of psychology. As yet, psychologists have paid relatively
little attention to Zen, judging from the published literature. This
literature is reviewed. Suggestions are made as to what psychologists
might learn from Zen; in particular by contrasting the approach of
western psychology with that of a highly sophisticated system from
a very different advanced culture.
|