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Buddhism and the Construction of the ‘Enemy’

Dr Edward F. Crangle
Department of Studies in Religion, University of Sydney, Australia

ABSTRACT 

In a continuum of cognition, cognitive psychologists distinguish two preferred modes of perceiving that apply to numerous ar­eas of the individual's psychological functioning. Here, these are named ‘analytical style’ and ‘global style.’ Thus, analytical cognisers prefer to perceive items as discrete from their backgrounds. Their development of high levels of psychologi­cal differentiation results in analysis.  In the subsequent structuring of experience, the self is rigidly separated from the environment. In the context of this presentation, individualized, self identity is distinguished radically from the rest of humankind understood as the ‘Other.’ Analysis thus divides the ‘world as it is’ into an observing ‘subject’ over against an observed ‘object. This approach precludes the possibility of identity or unity between the ‘subject’ and ‘object,’ as appreciated according to the global style of cognition, and realised in Buddhist contemplative praxis.

Awareness of the roles of both cognitive styles permits one to recognise and accept tremendous diversity of experience as well as the unity or global aspect of experience, where personal experience is an authentic reference point for the realisation of profound identity between ‘subject’ and ‘object,’ in immediate association with the development of contemplative insight into the fabricated nature of the isolated ‘Other’ as the ‘Enemy.’

In earlier work, I state that, in essence, Buddhist contemplative practices aris­ing from right effort aim for purification.  That is, unskilled states of mind are converted to skilled states of mind conducive to release from painful rebirth (nibbāna), by way of conscious, judicious effort. Unskilled states are fraught with danger; they should be ex­pelled and nullified. In the canonical texts of the early Buddhists, the Buddha identi­fies the problem as follows:

Monks, according to whatever a monk pon­ders and re­flects on much his mind in consequence gets a bias that way. (Middle Length Sayings, v 1, p. 149. (My emphasis.)

Simply, Buddhist meditation indicates that reality is constructed according to one’s way of thinking. This observation is significant insofar as it relates to healing through the contemplative will or wish of the Buddhist meditator.

Particular meditative experiences can lead to contemplative encounters with what might be best referred to as extraordinary ‘energy’ and associated insight into the construction of reality. As such, these encounters suggest the access to a gateway leading to the transcendent source of wisdom. Such experiences convince one not only of the soteriological benefits derived from this profound association, but also of the secular forms of well-being that can be realised also as a result of appropriate contemplative practices that pass through the gateway to transcendent wisdom.

With the above in mind, my paper will address, to a degree, dynamics of healing in Buddhist meditation, wherein the meditator seeks the direct intuitive realisation of identity with the so-called ‘Other’ or ‘Enemy.’ Specifically, I will consider hitherto unappreciated aspects of quietude samatha practices, insofar as they reveal to some degree one’s 'relationship' to the ‘Enemy.’ In the Buddhist efforts to attain samādhi, the phases of consciousness are refined progressively until all false ideas of life, matter and the hindrance of thought are undermined.

By way of example, I will explore briefly the concepts of ‘analytical style’ and ‘global style’  in preferred cognitive styles, as well as their relationship to preferred meditative styles and associated healing methods in the context of Buddhist meditation. This will be with the aim of clarifying the dynamics of the psycho-social construction of the ‘Enemy,’ while realising the potential to facilitate the opportunity for spiritual healing through direct realisation that the ‘Enemy’ is indeed oneself, and should be treated accordingly.