[Buddha-l] FW: Three year Research Associate, UK, Indian & Buddhist theories of self

[Katherine Masis]

Richard Hayes wrote:

"Does anyone have any reactions to Thanissaro
Bhikkhu's claim in the   Summer 2007 issue of
Tricycle? An oversimplified summary of his claim is
that ego is an indispensable part of the psyche and
that whatever else Buddhism may be teaching, it is
definitely not encouraging people to dump their egos."

Note:  When I say Self, I mean Ego right now.  

(1) Back in 1984, Buddhist psychotherapist Jack Engler
coined the well-known phrase "you have to be somebody
before you can be nobody."  Nineteen years later, he
modified his position by claiming that the two
processes don't have to happen sequentially, but may
go hand in hand, providing feedback to each other. 
Engler has also said that in the West there seems to
be a conflation between the concept of a
psychologically differentiated self and an ontological
notion of self or "the feeling or belief that there is
an inherent, ontological core at the center of our
experience that is separate, substantial, enduring,
self-identical" (J. Saffran, ed., *Psychoanalysis and
Buddhism*, Wisdom, 2003, p. 52).  

(2) It may well be that in the Buddha's time it was
far easier to have a strong sense of psychological
self than it is today for us in the West.  After all,
he taught the Brahma-Viharas in a certain order:  Send
metta to oneself, then to a benefactor, then to a
neutral person, then to a difficult person.  In other
words, start with what's *easy*, then proceed to the
most difficult.  But what was easy in the Buddha's
time and place might not be easy now, at least for us
in the West.  As we commented on in several July posts
(see the thread "The Dalai Lama on self-loathing"), we
Westerners seem to have problems with self-esteem. 
Arinna Weisman, a Western teacher of Buddhist
meditation, admitted in one of her books how hard it
was for her to start metta practice by sending good
wishes to herself alone.  She had to include herself
as part of a collective unit in her metta practice for
a long time before feeling worthy enough to receive
metta for herself.  This seems to be more common among
Westerners than we think.   

(3) Most psychotherapists in the West accept the fact
of a socially-constructed sense of Self over time. 
Most Western social psychologists describe the Self is
not a closed, isolated system, but the ongoing
"result" of its potential and its relationships with
its own contents (however conditioned and
unsubstantial) and with the environment (however
conditioned and unsubstantial).  

(4) If anybody has been guilty of reifying the self or
the ego in the West—especially in the last two
decades—I would say it has been some Western teachers
of Buddhism who have conflated the concepts of a
healthy psychological self with an ontological self. 
These teachers have engaged in non-stop vilification
of their conflated concept of "Ego."  In vilifying
Ego, they have elevated it to the status of Big Enemy
to be attacked, despised and ashamed of.  A better
reification than that couldn't be concocted.  

Katherine Masis



       
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