[Buddha-l] Things working OK?

[Per Drougge]

Hi there,
I sent a post to the Buddha-L some eight hours ago, but never received one of those automated responses so I just want to make sure it went through. In case there *was* a problem, I've pasted a copy of the original message below. 
Best wishes,
Per D



Richard P Hayes:
> 
> Incidentally, the Sanskrit word that is usually translated as "sin" does
> not mean "missing the mark". It means "damage". 
...
> In neither of these views of sin is there any requirement to feel guilt.
> Well, it's not quite that simple. Some psychologists (such as Jame
> Hollis in his book Swamplands of the Soul) distinguish between healthy
> guilt and neurotic guilt. Healthy guilt is just acknowledging that one
> has made a mistake and then resolving to find a way to avoid the same
> mistake in the future. A person who does not have THAT kind of kind may
> be a psychotic. But distinguished from healthy guilt is neurotic guilt,
> which is a feeling of deep-seated inadequacy and unworthiness that won't
> go away even if one changes one's conduct.

 
Yoshifumi Ueda has an interesting discussion about two Japanese concepts: zange and zangi, and their Sanskrit roots.  It could be worth quoting in this context:

'The original Sanskrit for zange is ksama or ksamana, it consists of zan (transliteration of the Sanskrit) and ge (translation into the Chinese). It means to regret and to make changes or to seek forgiveness...Zangi, in contrast, is composed of zan, from the Sanskrit apatrapaya. It means to feel a sense of shame so as effectively to stop evil actions.' 

(From 'Tanabe's Metanoetics and Shinran's Thought', in Unno & Heisig's 1990 volume 'The Religious Philosophy of Tanabe Hajime'.)

The distinction between healthy and neurotic guilt sounds reasonable enough, but I guess a notion of healthy shame just won't make sense, at least in English (or Swedish). This is perhaps more than simply a question of semantics, however. A few years ago, I did a small, comparative study on so-called repentance practices in Japan and Western Europe. It seemed as if the Europeans were much less willing to accept feelings of guilt (or shame) as a positive foundation for future action than were the Japanese practitioners. This fits almost too well with certain cultural stereotypes, of course. But it also raises some interesting questions about "sin", guilt, repentance et cetera in the context of Western Buddhism. 

About ten years ago, Victor S Hori had an article in Tricycle Magazine, where he decribed a Chan retreat where there were both Chinese and Western participants: 

'The white Americans spoke uniformly of how the long hours of meditation had helped them get in touch with themselves, given them strength and sanity to cope with the pressures of society, and assisted them in the process of self-realization. The Chinese contributions were very different. The first Chinese woman broke down in tears as she spoke. The week of meditation had made her realize how selfish she usually was; she wanted, right then and there, to bow down in apology before her family; she wanted to perform some act of deep repentance. The statements from the other Chinese people similarly revolved around feelings of shame and repentance. When the master asked the Americans if they felt repentance, one person replied, with a touch of impatience in his voice, "You always ask me that and I always reply, 'No.'" Although we had spent one week sitting together side by side with the same master, we seemed to be two groups who had experienced the same retreat in two very different ways. The white Americans felt it had strengthened their self-understanding and assisted with the process of self-realization, while the Chinese experienced it as moral self-examination.'

>> And I've seen a lot of churchcommunities and sects who bury themselves
>> in sin and certainly are not very conscious of their relatedness with
>> others.
> 
> If they feel any sense of sin at all, they are at least aware of their
> relationship with God. Now that doesn't count for much to a dogmatic
> atheist. As a humanist, I would prefer that people have a sense of
> relatedness to other people and to the environment than to God. 

One of the 'repentance practices' mentioned above is Naikan (often called a 'Buddhist psychotherapy', although I personally don't think that's a very good description), where the practitioner is asking him/herself the following questions: What have I received? What have I returned? What harm have I caused? in relation to specific others. As one would expect, working with these questions will often lead to intense feelings of guilt, and perhaps a sense of having commited innumerable 'sins'. What is interesting is that many people report that such feelings are balanced by equally strong feelings of gratitude, connectedness to others, and a heightened sense of responsibility. 

>From what I have read of Kierkegaard, he had completely mastered the art
> of cultivating neurotic guilt. 

He probably did, but Kierkegaard is also an interesting example of someone who managed to use his neurosis in a productive, and at times hysterically funny, way. Poor guy.

A final question to the practitioners on this list: Does meditation practice lead to a greater awareness of one's shortcomings as well as being a way of dealing with unhealthy or neurotic feelings of guilt?

Per D
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Per Drougge
PhD Candidate
Department of Social Anthropology
Stockholm University
S-106 91 STOCKHOLM
Sweden
www.socant.su.se
per.drougge at socant.su.se
+ 46 8 16 33 71 (office)
+ 46 70 436 55 02 (home)

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