Psychology of Buddhism. Monograph

UDC 24

BBK 86.35

K80

Kozlov, Vladimir Vasilyevich.

К80 Psychology of Buddhism : monograph / V.V. Kozlov. — Moscow : IPR Media, 2026. — 178 p. — Text : digital.

ISBN 978-5-4497-4861-4

The monograph presents the psychology of Buddhism: from the biography of its founder to the psychological foundations and practical aspects of self-development within this spiritual tradition. The article describes the life and teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha, mythological representations of the Buddha as a deity, as a seeker of truth. The main texts of Buddhism are described and analyzed.

The monograph is intended for students studying in an enlarged group of specialties and areas of higher education “Psychological Sciences”, studying the discipline “Psychology of religion”.

Scientific digital edition

Cover by Ya.A. Kirsanov, S.S. Siziumova, photo bank Freepik

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In memory of Alexander Piatigorsky

“This is the psychology everybody will be studying twenty-five years from now”.

(about Buddhist psychology)

William James, 1903.

INTRODUCTION

If it had happened as the outstanding American psychologists and one of the founding fathers of transpersonal paradigm predicted, Buddhist psychology would have been woven into the fabric of European culture for already 80 years.

Alas, the great and mighty William James, as many other scientists, indulged in wishful thinking. But the trend was brilliantly predicted – the interest in Buddhist psychology has significantly increased during the last hundred years.

Buddhism is at the same time the oldest of the three world’s religions and the most complicated in terms of philosophical, psychological and mythological constructs. Christianity is five hundred years younger than Buddhism, Islam is twelve hundred years younger, Taoism and Confucianism also appeared a few centuries later. Buddhism is older than Hellenic philosophy. When Buddhist Arhats were looking for the answers to fundamental ontological questions, the barbaric Europe still wore clothing made of hides.

The largest number of Buddhist followers live in South, Southeastern and Eastern Asia: Sri Lanka, India, Nepal, Bhutan, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Mongolia, Korea, Vietnam, Japan, Cambodia, Burma, Thailand, and Laos. In Russia Buddhism has been practiced in Buryatia, Kalmykia and Tuva. In recent years, Buddhist communities appeared in Moscow, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Nizhniy Novgorod, St. Petersburg, Yaroslavl, as well as in the capitals of Baltic states (especially in Riga and Tallinn).

Since the late 19th - early 20th century, Buddhist followers have appeared in Europe, the USA, Australia and Africa. Today almost all significant Buddhist schools that exist in the East are represented in the Western world. According to the Center of Buddhism in Lumbini, nowadays there are about 600 million lay Buddhists and 1.5 million Buddhist monks and

nuns.

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Buddhism emerged more than two and a half thousand years ago in India as an existential and philosophical teaching. It created a great number of religious texts, unique in their scale and diversity, as well as numerous philosophical, psychological and religious institutions and schools.

The depth and flexibility of philosophical propositions, the subtlety of psychological interpretations and the universal character of Buddhist ethics contributed to its expansion and integration in different cultures, religions and ideologies.

Buddhism is multidimensional due to the complexity of its language, concepts and meanings, and can be regarded as a philosophy, a psychological system, a world model, a moral doctrine, a culture, as a way of life and, eventually, as a religion. The study of Buddhism is essential for understanding the social, psychological, ethical, political, economical and cultural systems of the countries with existing Buddhist communities.

The desire to understand the role of Buddhism in the history and culture of modern life led to the creation of Buddhology. It studies Buddhism and all problems connected with it. Over the last hundred years more than 150 thousand studies, articles, books and comments devoted to Buddhism have appeared in different languages all around the world.

The psychology of Buddhism is the area of Buddhology which investigates psychological properties, mechanisms and states of consciousness. Although Buddhism studies these concepts, it does not single them out as subjects of an independent discipline.

I have been fascinated by Buddhism for the last thirty years. I began to take interest in this Indian philosophical, psychological and religious system in 1981, when Professor Mikhail Semenovich Rogovin severely criticized my lecture “Psychological Aspects of Buddhism”, which I gave in the framework of our history of psychology course when I was a student.

Twenty eight years have passed, and though I have written a lot on my understanding of Buddhism (I wrote articles, including texts on Buddhist psychology in textbooks), I have arrived at the decision to write a whole book devoted to this subject only today, 3rd of May, 2009.

Today I am a leader of a retreat in Lumbini, Nepal. It is the very place where twenty five hundred years ago Siddhartha, the founder of Buddhism, was born.

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Although since 1997 I have led retreats in many countries where Buddhism was significant as a religious system (Thailand, Laos, Burma, Malaysia, Mongolia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Republic of Buryatia), it is my lecturing in Lumbini that led to the decision to shape this material into a whole book. I want to give a special thanks to doctor of psychology Christina Martinsone from Riga, who advised me to organize my lectures in Lumbini into a book, and Konstantin Stolpovskikh from Novosibirsk for his friendly support.

This book is the result of both theoretical research and a deep immersion in the Vipassana, Tantric practices and psychotechnics of various Buddhist schools, which I practiced in different countries of the world. The most intensive experience was the one I got in the “places of power”: on the lake Baikal, on the Lake Teletskoye (Altai), in Buryatia, the

Southern Urals (Lakes Iremel, Zyuratkul, Dolgobrodskoe), Tien-Shan, Karkaralinsk in Kazakhstan, Issyk-Kul, the Baltic Sea, the Black sea, etc.

The training groups I led over my career have been very diverse: in terms of education – from students to academicians, in terms of income – from unemployed to millionaires, in terms of age – from 18 to 65, people of different races and nationalities. And everyone required a unique approach, a special language and states of consciousness chosen to fit their particular level.

It is impossible to reproduce all the lectures on Buddhism I have given, but when writing this book I feel that I am still able to reproduce the stream of consciousness, the fabric of my thinking, which has once been born during the presentation of theoretical material in front of the participants of my trainings.

It is this feeling that gives me hope that the book will come into existence and will be useful to thousands of students who attended my seminars and to other people interested in the refined culture of philosophical and psychological Buddhist thinking.

I am aware of the fact that it is impossible to learn all the aspects of Buddhism. A life and intellectual power of one person is not enough to master even one particular school. As I write this book I will try to follow the principles of clarity and simplicity. It does not mean that Buddhism is simple. This philosophical and psychological school has really been developing and undergoing changes during two and a half thousand years and in the most difficult times such development has been even more intense and profound.

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It greatly pleases my heart that Buddhism has always been an attempt to understand Buddha. The thinking of a Buddhist is different from that of mine, my friends, colleagues, students, postgraduates and doctoral students. The European way of thinking is different from the Buddhist way in terms of its goals and values.

We often say that the truth is the greatest value of thinking.

As to the Buddhist model of thinking, the truth has already been revealed by Buddha. And in great detail. He has not only revealed the truth, but has provided us with particular instruments to master it, showed us the way to it. In terms of time, the truth has already been revealed, and it has been there for hundreds and thousands years. The only thing a person can do is to understand it, to come into contact with the treasure. If he is lucky enough – to master the treasure that has long been discovered and shown to the world. The epistemological model of Buddhism can be described as a systematic reproduction of the full, unwavering, reliable truth that has already been disclosed by Buddha of the Shakya clan.

The European way of thinking is diametrically opposite. Everything that has already been said is not the truth. Europeans are captivated by the idea of evolution; they believe that the truth can be disclosed at a particular wonderful stage of human development. It has not yet been revealed. Somebody has to come and make an epistemological breakthrough, to discover the truth, to obtain it.

The truth is always somewhere ahead, in the future, but as humanity advances, “new horizons” continue to appear, representing new possibilities to disclose it. There is always a place for an optimistic “tomorrow”, while “today” is perceived with pessimism and boredom. Critical attitude to authority with a touch of irony, skepticism and disbelief is a common case. Respect and reverence are simulated. Every theory is considered to be inadequate, incorrect and incomplete.

In a sense, European mentality does not have either intellectual or emotional support. Perhaps that is why Europeans never trust anybody or anyone completely. They are always concerned about the reliability of their life and understanding. At the same time, a European is an eternal child, asking “Why?” and never finding the final, correct answer, because of his suspicion that adults are lying.

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While describing Buddhism and my understanding of it in this book, I address a European, with a full knowledge of his attitude to any text and authority. It is worth saying that this book will not be useful for Buddhists, as they already have a competent text on Buddhism, according to the tradition they follow, and a guru whom they revere.

As we grow older we come to understanding that books are not read in search for the truth. Joy, sorrow, sadness, enthusiasm, delight, excitement, compassion – these are just some of the feelings that a book can give us.

And still, the most important thing a book can give us is the realization and understanding of an important life problem, the disclosure of the vastness of knowledge, which is accompanied by a great feeling: “This is what it really is”.

Books can make readers think. Provoking independent thinking about one’s being is no less important than spiritual enlightenment. It is the independence of thinking and understanding of reality that makes us human and contributes to the evolution of human civilization.

This book is for those who want to get a clear picture of the mythology, philosophy and psychology of Buddhism. I will try to achieve this goal with a minimal loss of the meaningful ideas that are inherent in it.

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Chapter 1

BIOGRAPHY OF BUDDHA

I have no name

I do not wish for joy

I am the voice that speaks.

What do I announce, - the truth,

What do I search for, - just freedom,

Freedom from suffering

For everybody and everything that is alive.

Ashvaghosha. “Life of the Buddha”

If I was a genius I would have written the biography of Buddha “as it really happened” and given a vivid description of Shakyamuni.

It is not enough to be a Buddhist or a Buddholog to write a credible biography of the founding father of this radically new Aryan world-view.

It is not enough to be a historian or a writer, a poet or a highly qualified psychologist to give an appropriate description of this outstanding personality.

I undertake to describe Buddha’s personality for two simple reasons.

First, I do not know any other biography in such detail. Neither the biography of my father, nor the one of my mother, brothers or sisters.

Secondly, in my opinion, Buddha is an ideal personality. He is an example of the most complete human fulfillment. I would argue with those who think that his life is not an ideal, that it has just been idealized by thousands of people who studied his personality.

I will try to make the description of Buddha’s life as credible and reasonable, as possible.

The majority of modern scholars, who study the history of Buddhism, this philosophical and psychological doctrine and religion, using written sources that have survived, believe that the founder of Buddhism was a real historical figure.

If you read authentic Buddhist texts, folklore (hymns and legends), fiction or

scientific studies, you will find that different names are used to denote the founder of

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Buddhism. He is a prince by birth, named Siddhartha (or Siddharta) Gautama of the Shakya clan (Shakyamuni means “a man of the Shakya clan”). His other names are Buddha (or the

Buddha), Tathagata, Gina, Bhagavan, etc.

All of them reflect his characteristics and personal traits. Some define him as a real, worldly man. Others are based on the qualities of a divine being, described by religious and mythological texts. These were necessary to replace the real personality with the personality of the wise guru, and finally with a God, who exists only in the transcendent dimension.

Five texts are known to describe the biography of the Buddha: “Mahavastu”, written in the 2nd century AD; “Lalitavistara”, which appeared in the 2-3rd century AD. The third one is “Buddhacharita”, written by Buddhist philosopher and poet Ashvaghosha (1-2nd century

AD). The fourth is “Nidanakatha” ( 1st century AD). And finally, “Abhinishkramanasutra”, a work written by Buddhist scholar Dharmagupty.

In spite of the fact that Buddha is considered to be a real historical figure, exact dates of his life are not clearly defined. The difference is whole six hundred years, from 9th to 3rd century BC.

According to the Buddhist calendar, Gautama was born in 623 and died in 544 BC. The majority of historians believe that his exact date of birth is 564 BC, the date of

death 483 BC. Sometimes these dates are rounded to 560 and 480 BC.

Recently, I was in the place where Siddhartha was born, and I saw the dates 564 and 483 BC written in a temple in Nepal.

While presenting the biography of the Buddha, we have to remember that it exists in three languages, which are organized into three canonical teachings of Buddhism:

1) The language of myths and fairy tales, didactic stories and parables, where Buddha stands for the sovereign virtue and is represented as a divine being with the super abilities of a God on Earth. This is a language of images and symbols. It is found in the texts of Hinayana (“the smaller vehicle”) and some of the Mahayana sutras.

The majority of people have always felt a need for such a language. Today, as two and a half thousand years ago, a large number of people in the East and the West have a mythological way of thinking and feel the need for worshipping Gods, rather than following in the footsteps of the man who has discovered the truth. The same tendency is observed in

the “Large Vehicle” sutras.

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