Buddhistic Psychology
Buddhist Psychology: An Inquiry into the Analysis and Theory of Mind in Pali Literature by
C. A. F. Rhys Davids
Review by: Walter E. Clark
The American Journal of Theology, Vol. 20, No. 1 (Jan., 1916), pp. 139-141
Published by: The University of Chicago Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3155823 .
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BUDDHISTIC PSYCHOLOGY 139
sionary to participate in the directing of the renascent religious life in
India without having made a careful study of this third book by Mr.
Farquhar as well as of his previous two. It will be invaluable for any
person who seeks information concerning modern religious tendencies
in the land of India and especially concerning the influence which has
been exerted in our modern times upon the ancient religions by the
religion of Jesus Christ.
R. E. HUME
UNION THEOLOGICALSEMINARY
BUDDHISTIC PSYCHOLOGY
The study of Buddhist psychology is of much interest to us because
of the fact that it gives us a carefully worked out analysis of mental
phenomena from the point of view of an entirely different "tradition of
thought." Its parallelism to and differencefrom our own psychological
thinking opens up many problems which are of the utmost importance
in the study of thought in general. A little volume of Mrs. Rhys
Davids' continues the pioneer work started in her article, "On the Will
in Buddhism"' and in her BuddhistManual of PsychologicalEthics, 1900o.
Whereas the last-mentioned work gives a translation and analysis of one
of the most important texts of the Abhidhamma-Pitaka this volume is
of much wider scope. It seeks to analyze the psychological material of
the earlier Nikayas, to describe the "tradition of thought" on which
Buddhist psychology is based, and to trace the general development of
that psychology through the later Pali texts.
Chap. i deals with general Buddhistic habits of thought. Chaps. ii
to vi treat the psychology of the Nikayas under the following heads:
(I) Mind in Term and Concept; (2) Consciousness and the External
World; (3) Feeling; (4) Ideation. Chap. vii deals with psychological
developments in the Abhidhamma-Pitaka. Chap. viii treats of the
psychology of the Milinda. Chap. ix discusses some mediaeval develop-
ments.
Buddha refused to speculate on metaphysical problems. He cen-
tered his attention on the problem of practical living and well-being
(sukha), and mapped out a course of practical ethics which should have
1BuddhistPsychology:An Inquiryinto theAnalysis and Theoryof Mind in Pali
Literature. By Mrs. C. A. F. Rhys Davids. London: G. Bell & Sons, 1914. 212
pages. 2s. 6d.
2
JRAS (1898), p. 47.
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140 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF THEOLOGY
to do with the fundamentals of religion and of life as he saw them. The
Buddhist sets up a phenomenalism against the animism and the soul-
theory of Brahmanism. He finds in man only states of consciousness
without a permanent entity as a subtratum. These states of conscious-
ness are caused. There is no mind present as an uncaused entity. This
concept is based on the idea that a permanent continuum can exert no
force, that cause and effect can be explained only by the theory of a
constant succession. Emphasis is laid on psychology because of the
necessity for controlling this stream of mental states in order to obtain
peace of mind. The thoughts are wayward and hard to control, and
on the least slackening of the reins pull like run-away horses or jump
from object to object as monkeys leap from branch to branch. The
practical ethical doctrine of Buddha discards metaphysics and bases
itself on a psychological analysis because mental training is necessary
as an ethical discipline. The study of mind becomes all-important.
It is usually said that Buddhism ends in an abject pessimism. This
conception is utterly erroneous. Everywhere in the texts is to be found
the conviction that the chief aim of the Buddhist discipline is the culti-
vation of the will. Sloth is regardedas the greatest of evils. The will
is, to be sure, directed to differentends from those to which the occidental
will directs itself; but it remains will and requiresconstant mindfulness.
There is, however, everywhere through Buddhist thought, as well as
through the Brahman systems of philosophy, a formalism which is curi-
ously like the mediaeval scholasticism of Europe. The psychology is
almost entirely descriptive. This is due to the lack of progressive
experimentation on the external world, which might overturn or modify
the original premises and make necessary a change of analysis in order
to meet this new knowledge. The fundamental premises remained
undisturbed. In India, as yet, a renaissance has not come.
The style of the book is loose and diffuse. .The chapters are not
summed up in a way which would make clear the most significant
features of each and give a clear conception of the progress of thought
during the different periods treated. Although after "twenty-three
centuries or more, we are still well within sight of our starting-point,"
there are nevertheless changes of emphasis and some innovations of
analysis. These could have been brought out more clearly. A little
more interpretation is needed to fill out the description.
One must not forget that the early relation of the Pali texts to the
Mahayana Sanskrit texts is as yet very uncertain, that scholasticismmay
have been at work even in the Nikayas, that the relation of the thought
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STUDIES IN JAPANESE CONFUCIANISM 141
of Buddha himself to that of the redactors of the Pali Suttas and their
commentators, and to that of the authors of the oldest Sanskrit texts is
very problematical. The Pali texts represent only one tendency of
thought, though that tendency may be closer to the thought of Buddha
himself than is that of the Mahayana texts; yet it may have emphasized
disproportionately one aspect of his teachings. His own attitude may
have been more agnostic, his psychology may have been less schematic.
The work of Mrs. Rhys Davids will be a powerful stimulus to the psy-
chological analysis of other texts. Much work of the same kind is needed
on the early Mahayana texts before any general psychology of Buddhism
can be written.
The book is of necessity full of Pali terms but it is addressed as much
to the general reader as to the professed orientalist.
WALTERE. CLARK
OFCHICAGO
UNIVERSITY
STUDIES IN JAPANESE CONFUCIANISM'
Confucianism has played a very important r6le in the development
of Japanese civilization. Its influence is particularly marked in the
field of intellectual training and of moral culture in Japan. To show this
influence of Confucianism, and to create a better understanding, by the
West, of Japanese character and life, Dr. Robert C. Armstrong, of the
Kwansei Gakiun, Kobe, Japan, has published his Studies in Japanese
Confucianism. The book is devoted almost entirely to a historical
survey of the schools of Japanese Confucianism in the period of the
Tokugawa government (roughly from i6oo to i868). Under the suc-
cessive Tokugawa rulers Japan enjoyed an unparalleledpeace for more
than two hundred and fifty years. It is at this time that several Con-
fucian schools made their influence especially felt in the life and thought
of the nation. A few words respecting these schools may answer the
purpose of this brief note.
Two main Confucian schools are the Shushi and the O-Yomei. The
Shushi School owes its origin to Choo He (I130-1200), a Chinese scholar
who sought, under the influence of Taoism and Buddhism, to give a
metaphysical ground to the principles taught by Confuciusand Mencius.
Metaphysically considered, the school founded by him stands for a
, Lightfrom the East. Studiesin JapaneseConfucianism. By Robert C. Arm-
strong. Toronto: ForwardMovementDepartmentof the MissionarySociety of the
Methodist Church, I914. xv+326 pages. $1.50.
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