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What is the difference between therapy and Buddhist practice?
DairyLama
Veteran Veteran
An open question, prompted by some recent conversations here. Healing the self v. going beyond the self is an initial thought. Though the boundary seems blurred.
What do you think?
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Comments
There are a lot of very different types of therapies, all based on what you are trying to fix or work on.
To me, the main difference is that most people I know who seek therapy are looking to change something about themselves that they don't like. That might be good or bad, depending. Sometimes therapists are guides, like Buddhist teachers. Pointing you in the right direction by being a bit more objective.
My experience has been limited for myself, but the sense I got about it was that they were there to ask the right questions to get me thinking in a way that would help me solve the problems I was stuck on in a way that worked for me. In that sense, it can work very well within Buddhism. But there are other types of therapy that rather than help people accept themselves and work based on their strengths and weaknesses, they try to change people to an extent that it just causes more problems.
For me, Buddhism is more valuable. I prefer personal accountability. But others have much more difficult struggles than me. And other people have different needs, and want that objective support. My sister has been in therapy for many years, and she even calls her therapist on days she doesn't have appointments. But, sometimes I see my sister as using that therapy as a bit of a crutch. Perhaps one that she needs. Not all crutches are bad. But at some point we have to learn to walk without them and I think for a lot of people, they cling to their therapists desperately and I don't think that is a good or healthy relationship. Of course, some do that with their Buddhist teachers, too. Or with Buddhism in general.
The Buddhist practice is the law of universe actually a Dhamma which we label it Buddhist. Do good and get good in return. You reap what you sow.
Therapy is just trying to get good results without deeply realizing the natural law. Try and error kind of approach.
~As per my understanding~
Does it have to be 'Vs'....?
Cant you heal the self AND go beyond the Self?
Most people are not seeking nirvana, they just want an end to their endless dukkha. To gain Nirvana we require a reasonable degree of stability, therapy if neccessary.
The difference can be blurred but in essence Buddhism does not believe the ego is repairable as ultimately the conflicted, gibbering ego is the source of problems.
Therapy is the quest of healing the broken self, Buddhism is the quest for the cessation of all suffering, freedom from the mind and enlightenment. In many ways therapy is concerned with more immediate results, in this life, and as @karasti said, it has gone looking for many separate techniques, rather than an all-encompassing theory.
There is a theory that holds that most mental health problems are forms of post-traumatic stress disorder: it's all about what has happened to you, and which things left these deep traces of stress in you. Therapeutic processes can help you dig up the pieces and make sense of what happened, which is often a key step to healing.
Buddhism is much less concerned with healing the mind. I've spent some time looking at how buddhism approaches therapy - I am interested in Spiritual Emergency, the intersection between the spiritual and mental health emergencies - and I found very few areas where Buddhism is actually interested in healing a broken mind. Instead many buddhist teachers seem to hold that advancement along the path equates to health.
For example I have a friend who was set to be a buddhist monk in a well-known teacher's community here in Europe, except that he suffered a psychotic break when he started meditating seriously. He was basically sent home, and ended up relying on the normal psychiatric services to get back to something approaching normality.
Which is still better than what many monks in a similar position in the far east receive, often they are left to recuperate on their own in their cells for extended periods of time, while social isolation is often a negative factor in these cases.
I think the major difference would be the end goal. Therapy for most people will be focused on a specific behavior or “issue”. Granted, the desired results of therapy may be for a long term change of mindset or behavior. Those changes are still pretty specific.
In comparison Buddhism is more “all inclusive” with the goal of freeing ourselves permanently.
When ones gets down to the nitty gritty ....I would have to say "Nothing" ...Therapy is therapy and some techniques work better than others....For example for some, Buddhist practice works wonders...Bearing in mind Buddhist practice is in a sense just training the mind ...
However some might see Buddhism as a "religious" practice, but even with this mind set, it is still just training the mind ....
Remove all the cultural bells and whistles (that no doubt it has picked up over the centuries) and it's just plain therapy....(Well perhaps not just plain....it's revolutionary ...incredibly effective for some)
The Buddha so it's been said was a physician of sorts
Sure, that's where the boundaries seem to be blurred.