A Critical Study of the Psychological Importance of the Theravada Analysis of Mind with Reference to Early Buddhism

Abstract

This dissertation begins with a critical review of the religious background and conditions into which the Buddha was born, explaining why and how the Buddha deviated from the traditional approach based on theology, metaphysics, mysticism etc., and adopted a psychological approach to explain the human predicament, qualifying Buddhism to be the most psychological teaching. This novel approach led the Buddha to view everything including the mind, as dependently arisen, and that the mind is the vital factor with regard to the problem of human predicament (dukkha) as well as to freedom from it. This novel approach helped the Buddha to delink the mind from the concept of the soul, discord the beliefs in God and other factors that were then considered as sources of human predicament. On this understanding the Buddha gave primacy �o the spiritual life of the individual, and located all suffering and happiness in the mind itself, thus making the individual himself responsible for what he is. Arguing on these lines, this dissertation attempts to highlight the role played by the mind, the importance of analyzing and understanding the mind, culturing and sharpening it for the purpose of regulating all emotions and strengthening the view, and using it for both secular and spiritual progress of the individual.