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Mental Illness and Buddhism
Cinorjer
Veteran
I've put this in advanced because I'm not talking about how meditation might help various diagnosed problems. I would like opinions on a more sweeping topic of how any Buddhist practice has to see people's destructive behavior as an illness of the mind, instead of something bad or evil. The sutras try to point out that this causes you to judge the person as less than worthy of compassion. It is such a hard step to take, I consider it the final hurdle to clear mind that most people are unwilling to jump over.
For instance, if you encounter a homeless begger on the street who believes Martians are trying to plant eggs in his body and wears tinfoil hats to keep out the brainwashing, you have no problem feeling compassion. The man is sick. He needs someone to take care of him, and if he lashes out and hurts someone in his delusion, you still feel compassion because you don't expect normal behavior from such an obviously irrational mind.
Suppose an otherwise rational behaving husband and father latches onto a delusion that the world is going to end at a certain time. This is not just a belief, but a certainty so strong that he spends every penny of the family's money and quits his job to warn people. If you try to tell him that he might be wrong and not to destroy his life, it's brushed off because this delusion does not allow him to consider even the remote possibility that this insane belief could be wrong. So in this case, we just say the man is stupid and not thinking of his family and gets what he deserves. People make fun of this person, with a little bit of feeling sorry for his family.
But both are recognized mental illness, only one masquerades as rational. A belief that begins to consume and damage your life and relationships is like addiction. People hold all sorts of beliefs, but some people lack the ability to test any belief against reality. Losing this connection to reality is the definition of delusion.
So to a Buddhist, where the Noble Truths expressly define the problem as a mental illness we are all prone to, where the sutras keep trying to say the problem is illusion and bad mental habits, not a fight of good versus evil, I say compassion requires you to see even the most depraved, destructive person as someone suffering and addicted to selfish desires.
So at what point does your compassion fail? We all have our limits, unless we're Buddha. Is it the psychopath who kills without remorse? The sociopath who destroys lives for his own gain? The unknown junkie who broke into your car last year to steal the radio? The boss who seems to enjoy making your life miserable? Or just the neighbor who insists on letting his dog bark all night long while you try to sleep?
Personally, I'm having trouble with that last one. I tried to approach him with my complaint, and he didn't want to hear it. Compassion, damn it!
For instance, if you encounter a homeless begger on the street who believes Martians are trying to plant eggs in his body and wears tinfoil hats to keep out the brainwashing, you have no problem feeling compassion. The man is sick. He needs someone to take care of him, and if he lashes out and hurts someone in his delusion, you still feel compassion because you don't expect normal behavior from such an obviously irrational mind.
Suppose an otherwise rational behaving husband and father latches onto a delusion that the world is going to end at a certain time. This is not just a belief, but a certainty so strong that he spends every penny of the family's money and quits his job to warn people. If you try to tell him that he might be wrong and not to destroy his life, it's brushed off because this delusion does not allow him to consider even the remote possibility that this insane belief could be wrong. So in this case, we just say the man is stupid and not thinking of his family and gets what he deserves. People make fun of this person, with a little bit of feeling sorry for his family.
But both are recognized mental illness, only one masquerades as rational. A belief that begins to consume and damage your life and relationships is like addiction. People hold all sorts of beliefs, but some people lack the ability to test any belief against reality. Losing this connection to reality is the definition of delusion.
So to a Buddhist, where the Noble Truths expressly define the problem as a mental illness we are all prone to, where the sutras keep trying to say the problem is illusion and bad mental habits, not a fight of good versus evil, I say compassion requires you to see even the most depraved, destructive person as someone suffering and addicted to selfish desires.
So at what point does your compassion fail? We all have our limits, unless we're Buddha. Is it the psychopath who kills without remorse? The sociopath who destroys lives for his own gain? The unknown junkie who broke into your car last year to steal the radio? The boss who seems to enjoy making your life miserable? Or just the neighbor who insists on letting his dog bark all night long while you try to sleep?
Personally, I'm having trouble with that last one. I tried to approach him with my complaint, and he didn't want to hear it. Compassion, damn it!
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Comments
Granted, they may be the strongest of all Buddhists among us, but they do exist.
:skeptic:
To be more than words, the test is, you have to care.
I'm certainly not saying people aren't responsible for their own behavior, or that all mental illness is treatable with a course of 8-fold path.
As an example, I loved my dear, recently departed sister deaply, but she was the most irresponsible person I've ever known. I watched her stumble through life from one self-inflicted problem to another, along with never seeming to catch a break. I don't excuse her behavior, but I felt compassion for the suffering person who just, for some reason I could never figure out, never got a grasp on reality.
a loss of contact with reality, usually including false beliefs about what is taking place or who one is (delusions) and seeing or hearing things that aren't there.
Seem like this would fit most everyone.
Take for instance the homeless guy that sits around drinking beer all day and making other people's lives a little bit harder. It's so easy to look at that person and say "Oh, how despicable, how condemnable," but there's craving in that method of thinking. There's clinging and emotional attachment.
However, if we can shift our perspective to seeing that the person truly just does not understand, and that his actions are born of this lack of understanding, we naturally develop a more detached and compassionate perspective. We start to see that weather his actions are right or wrong is of quite insignificant importance, and instead recognize that he is causing him self and others suffering purely out of a lack of knowledge, and rationality.
Instead of a painful, and aggravated "WHY?!?" it becomes "How can such a thing actually occur?" and "What can I do to help this person understand?"
Is that what you are trying to say?
@cinorjer
I dont agree with the difference between the homeless guy and the apocalyptic family man. I think they are very similar cases. I also think the person who looks down on the apocalyptic man will also look down on the homeless man and vice-versa. People might laugh at the apocalyptic man but I think thats more because of religion and how ppl see these stupid things as evidence against religion. So they like to point and laugh.
Now where is the limit for compassion? There shouldnt be one. But I dont think compassion implies acceptance. A psychopath serial killer should still go to jail but that is not to say that there shouldnt be compassion shown toward him.
Although I think that the more heinous the crime the harder it is to have compassion. Its hard to have compassion for Hitler just thinking about 1/10 of what he did. So you might be right that people have a compassion limiter. I dont think I have any compassion for Hitler...
Ajaan Fuang Jotiko (Thanissaro Bhikkhu/Ajaan Geoff's teacher) once had a student who was a vendor in the market. When word spread she was a serious practitioner people began to haggle with her more, suggesting that a serious dharma student wouldn't charge her (fair) prices. When she told Ajaan Fuang of her trouble, he said, "Next time it happens just tell them you don't practice dharma to be stupid!"
The most important person to be compassionate to is yourself. When you do this first and sufficientlty, you'll better know the difference between corrupt compassion and genuine compassion.
Our brains do what they do; and only occasionally it bothers to make some of it consciously available to “us”.
The brain starts executing its decisions a split second before the information reaches the conscious mind. That’s when “we” consciously “decide to do” what our brain told us was going to happen next.
So when people behave in an undesirable manner there really is just a technical problem.
It can be a difficult, complicated and acute problem, but its nature is technical.
I don’t remember where I picked up this story; was it from Ajahn Brahm?
I guy is in a boat when he sees another boat approaching. It is going to collide. And in spite efforts to avoid it, the other boat keeps a collision course.
The guy starts to shout at the other boat; “Keep your side of the river!” Don’t you know the rules?!’ You idiot!”
When the boats hit however, he sees the other boat is empty.
He shouting and calling names was pointless. There was no-one in there who could have done anything.
"Why is it, Master Kaccana, that ascetics fight with ascetics?"
"It is, Brahmin, because of attachment to views, adherence to views, fixation on views, addiction to views, obsession with views, and holding firmly to views that ascetics fight with ascetics."
We are all mentally ill to some degree unless we are an Arahant (enlightened).