Buddhism and Jungian Psychology

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This book speaks about Jung’s views on Tibetan Buddhism, India and Yoga, Chinese Taoism, Eastern meditation and Zen Buddhism, Western rationalism and Eastern Spirituality, how to integrate East and West. Buddhism and Jungian Psychology presents the findings, both personal and impersonal, of two Jungian analysts who have been propelled, by fate and psychic trajectory, to take up the encounter with the "other". It convincingly demonstrates the error of the Western assumption that Buddhism requires the "dissolution" of the ego.

J. Marvin Spiscelman

J. Marvin Spiscelman, PhD, is a Diplomate in clinical psychology and a graduate of the C.G.: Jung Institute in Zurich. He has taught at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and has a private practice as a Jungian analyst in California.

Mokusen Miyuki

Mokusen Miyuki holds a B.A. degree in Eastern Religions, an M.A. degree in Western Philosophy and a PhD in Asian Studies. A graduate of the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich, he is a professor at California State University. He practices as a Jungian analyst in the Los Angeles area and is a Buddhist Priest.

It is close to a quarter century since Jung died and about half a century since he wrote the remarkable essays on eastern religion found in Volume 11 of his collected works, Psychology and Religion: West and East. A present reader can only be dumbfounded by the perspicacity and perception demonstrated by Jung in his commentaries on Tibetan Buddhism, India and Yoga, Chinese Taoism as revealed in the I Ching, Eastern meditation, and Zen Buddhism. He not only understands what, for most western people, were opaque and rare religious experiences, but he also brings them into relationship with western perspectives of both a similar and different nature. It is hard to assess the impact of these commentaries and forewords to books published by scholars and friends of Jung. I think, however, that it will not be far wrong to think that Jung himself had a significant effect upon the introduction of eastern religion to a general western audience. Did not Jung’s introduction to the I Ching, for example, with his theory of synchronicity and his practical example of using the oracle, help in the understanding and popularization of a text which might otherwise have been seen as an abstruse magical book? Jung’s theory and impact have certainly aided in western appreciation of eastern religion and thought.

Yet, who would have imagined in the 1930’s or even when Jung died in 1961, that eastern religion would descend like an avalanche into the west and gobble up a significant proportion of spiritually hungry youth and adults within a short time? Jung, no doubt, would have been horrified by this wholesale embracing of alien religions and abandonment of western foundations. He keeps saying as much in warnings throughout his various introductions. In his "Yoga and the West," for example, in that same Vol. 11, he acknowledges a great appreciation of the psychological material revealed by yoga, but asserts directly that the technique is really bad for us westerners, since we need to open up to the unconscious and not to move away from the fantasies, etc. which emerge in meditation. Our western rationalism, he avers again and again, has caused us a cramp of consciousness and we must allow these contents to be embraced by us. (Parenthetically, it is generally known that Jung, himself, employed Yoga exercises when over- whelmed by emotion, in order to calm himself sufficiently, to even begin his confrontation with the unconscious via active imagination).

Eastern spirituality, with its age-old appreciation of introversion and receptivity to the non-material aspect of life, can well do what it does since it sinks into and rises out of its depth, rather like the lotus, whereas many of us - with our endless attempts at mastery for its own sake - will often kill it by an "engineering" attitude or succumb to ill-fitting ideas. Listen to a quote from Jung along these lines:

Jung did not know of the many westerners who, since that time, have done just that - evaporate on gazelle skins. It is quite true that of all the youth who began to uncritically submit to Eastern disciplines, many just "dropped out" of the work, when they discovered how much effort and devotion over a long period was really required. Others, just as Jung observed, emerged as strange creatures wearing Eastern peacock tails and seemed, at best, bizarre or foolish. There have been a significant number of people, on the other hand, who have been able to immerse themselves in Eastern techniques and viewpoints, not only at no cost to their psychic health, but with an expansion of consciousness that would not otherwise be possible.

Jung was not in error, however, when he pointed out that the mere assimilation of a new or foreign viewpoint, thus loosing ones roots, is not an attractive proposition. Better to hold one’s own - if we are Westerners - and apply our brand of criticism and attitude to imagination. Yet it is certainly possible to immerse oneself and appreciate our opposite number in order to arrive at a greater wholeness. This volume, indeed, presents the efforts of an Easterner, Dr. Miyuki, and a Westerner, myself, who do try to hold their own and yet integrate the "other". I did Zen meditation, alone and with my friend, Dr. Miyuki, for seven years, with great personal benefit and deepened understanding of the Buddhist experience. I did so without sacrificing Western ways of meditation and prayer. Others have done the same.

Jung’s great gift was to discriminate and integrate, a rare commodity in the world, and one for all of us, East and West, to cultivate in ourselves. Let us quote once more from Jung’s writing, this time from his commentary for "The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation," in which he compares East and West:

Jung goes on to say that even though the East has an introverted attitude, it can deal with the external world, and that the West deals with the internal world of psyche via the Church. They both have value and insufficiency, but it is a mistake to mix them up. He goes on:

Then, finally, Jung informs us:

Since Jung’s day, East and West have met even more fully. Japan is more efficient than the West at its own game, and it is clear that Eastern spirituality has invaded the United States and Europe in an unexpectedly powerful way. The issues that Jung pointed out are still with us today. After twenty-five years, it may be time to re-examine those issues once more. That is the background for this book.

When I was studying in Zurich in the late 1950’s, there was only one representative from the East, a Hindu professor from India (Arwind Vasavada), who proved to be the first of that region to become a Jungian Analyst. Since that time, only a few more Easterners have undergone Jungian training, from Japan primarily, but also from Korea. It is likely that the number of Asians involved with Jungian Analysis will increase dramatically and now might be the time to take stock. The present book presents the findings, both personal and impersonal, of two Jungian Analysts who have been propelled, by fate and psychic trajectory, to take up the encounter with the "other." How successful we are at that, we leave the reader to decide. I believe, however, that Jung would be very pleased, indeed, to have his works so seriously studied by a Japanese Buddhist priest of many generations inheritance. Dr. Miyuki is certainly the first Jungian to be fully steeped in both Eastern Religion and Western tradition, so that his work, gathered from several places, is especially welcome for those of us similarly propelled to engage in the East-West encounter. I feel privileged to be sharing this book with him. Our relationship has been part of that "ecumenical" process that the collective psyche has been =engaging in for some time. Who of us can forget, after reading Jung’s Memories, Dreams and Reflections, his discovery in his dream of the Yogi, that he was both meditator and meditated upon? The psyche, at work with him as a forerunner, continues its development and it is a pleasure for us to offer our own results dedicated to his spirit.

In Part 1 of this book, Dr. Miyuki and I each write an account of how East and West have met each other in our own souls. My contribution is one that 1 presented in Tokyo in the spring of 1982 at just such an occasion of an East-West symposium. Dr. Miyki’s is written expressly for this volume. I think that the reader will be as moved as I was upon reading this profound account of East-West experience in a man who so deeply embodies the Eastern psyche, yet was literally assaulted into coming to the West and finding a unification of these opposites. In reading it, I was once more reminded of my own dream of him, when I first met him, and long before there was any idea of him becoming a therapist. In it, he had the mark of the fox cult upon his face, which was said to be a sign of a healer. Shortly after I had this dream, I read an article in which the fox cult of ancient Japan was described. In that cult, the fox was connected with the shaman. At that time, Dr. Miyuki had no interest whatsoever in becoming an analyst or healer; he had entered analysis to further understand East and West in himself and to pursue his own development. It was only several years later that this possibility presented itself and he went to Zurich to study.

I am very grateful to have shared this long relationship and to experience, with him, the "sense of boundlessness" together.

Part II is taken up with those marvellous images of the Zen path to Enlightenment, the Ox-herding Pictures. Dr. Miyuki’s contribution is from a previously published article. My article was expressly written for this work and is one! am particularly pleased to have had the chance to do. The pictures have been a friend to me for more than a quarter-century and I am grateful for the opportunity to put on paper the reflections and insights I have gleaned from them over the years. The tale of The Ronin, which follows, is taken from my fictional story of individuation in ten people, The Tree. It represents a Western man’s way of honoring that part of his psyche which was Japanese and Buddhist.

Part III includes several of Dr. Miyuki’s papers on various aspects of Buddhism and Jun:zian psychology, in which he convincingly demonstrates the error of the Western assumption that Buddhism requires the "dissolution" of the ego. Rather, he points out, the ego is strengthened in meditation, and what is "dissolved" is ego-centricity. One becomes "Self-centric," as he describes in both story and concept.

Finally, as an "Afterword," I have presented some further thoughts which may bring the matter up to date. In all, our work can be seen as an offering to, and carrying on of, the very spirit of "Jung" that Dr. Miyuki writes about. It is to the embodied Jung to whom we both owe a thanks which goes beyond our capacity to express adequately.