Encounters with Western Psychology

This blog summarizes forum discussions on the digestion of dharmic concepts and the stealth-appropriation of Hindu-Buddhist methods into western psychology - something that has been going on for a long time. Then the discussion also talks about practical ways and examples in which this digestion can be stopped. 

This post is divided into three parts below.

1. Rajiv Malhotra's lecture at SRCC on 'U-turn theory' provides a detailed description with evidence, on how the aforementioned digestion and appropriation has taken place. This gives the serious reader a background. For example, most in the world are unaware about the appropriation of dharmic ideas by Carl Jung.




2. In a March 2013 thread, Tripathi shared an interesting paper that Rajiv Malhotra introduced as follows:
"... A great bit of research that illustrates how Western Universalism (in this case in the field of psychology and ethics) has been wrongfully imposed upon other cultures. It is amazing how many "eminent" Indian psychologists have adopted such WU ideas."

".... interesting paper which states that broad claims about human psychology and behaviour based on narrow samples from Western societies are regularly published and questions the practise. It makes a very interesting read. Specially the term WEIRD (Western, educated, industrialized, rich and democratic) used for the folks of the west. Below is a part of the paper which you might like: 

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Research in moral psychology also indicates that non‐Western adults and Western religious conservatives rely on a wider range of moral principles than amorality of justice (Baek 2002, Haidt & Graham 2007, Haidt et al. 1993, e.g., Miller & Bersoff 1992). Shweder, Much, Mahapatra, and Park (1997) proposed that in addition to a dominant justice‐based morality, which they termed an ethic of autonomy,there are two other ethics that are commonly found outside the West: an ethic of communion, in which morality derives from the fulfilment of

interpersonal obligations, and an ethic of divinity in which moral decisions are based on the fit with a perceived natural order (for a further elaboration of moral foundations see Haidt & Graham 2007). In sum,the high‐SES, secular Western populations that have been the primary 27 Weird People 5-Mar-09 target of study thus far appear unusual in a global context, based on their peculiar reliance on a single foundation for moral reasoning (based on justice and individual rights).

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The paper also describes the commonalities and the nuances of American from the rest of the west. 

3. The summary was initiated by Dr. AB in a December 2013 thread in a discussion that spanned 3 months:
"I am a psychologist by profession and a Practicing Hindu...we everyday encounter 'digested' knowledge systems thrown at us in our professional life . Living in the west and practicing western psychology is different from how in India , these same concepts are adapted by and for Indians.

For example, ... in the field of psychosocial rehabilitation [PSR] for people with mental illness , [] has had the experience of applying the same constructs in India in a more holistic way than how it is practiced here in the west. This reality has made us discuss at length about the dharmic context in India, where we are able to influence better outcomes for PSR ,the reason being the context and not the PSR principles alone. We are now thinking of reframing this whole approach to PSR (psycho social rehabilitation) in India .
Like these , I can cite many instances where I come across appropriation of our own tantra and vipassana practices being called as mindfulness based stress reduction [programs] etc which is now becoming a core curriculum in school districts , both in Canada and in the US. We all know this.
The new form of therapy which is being researched with the intention of making it 'global' is called "Avataar therapy" ! Yes - this is already being rolled out in academia and therapy clinics to bring about behavior modification for people with psychosis, obsessive compulsive disorders, generalized anxiety disorders etc by using the virtual world media.

The Avataars are designed to help people suffering auditory hallucinations to engage with their own persecutory voices in a more comfortable way , than trying to make them go away . I would like to bring your attention that this is an ancient tantric practice of Kashmir shaivism (vijnana bhairava tantra) , where the mental formations of the mind is witnessed through 'saakshi bhaava' rather than controlling or trying to make them go away. ....at a conference recently....psychiatrist who is based in London dismissed what I was saying with the argument that the new therapy is a logical evolution of psycho drama etc. It was very evident to everyone that he was shutting me down, and I offered him the option to be intellectually honest to engage in a debate rather than shutting me down.

... what lens are we wearing when we are thinking of developing knowledge base and skill sets to understand different cultures? By generalizing cultural mores and traditions, we might miss the contexts of cultural development as a complex fluid process etc..."

Rajiv comment: "...  It is an area of my active research, both on how the west has adopted these techniques and how we can revive them within the dharma context.

I dont like the term "avatara" in the above context as it distorts.

I prefer the term "sakshi therapy" which is also something my guru taught and its a term we can use in this way without distortion. In fact, much of so-called western therapy today is drifting towards the sakshi method. I hope it is possible for Dr. AB.. to use "sakshi".

I am presenting at a workshop in UK in April on this matter, to scholars specializing in the interface between psychology and religion/dharma. Most of the people I will need to argue against happen to be Hindus, who are propagating "mithya = illusion", world negation, otherworld-liness, etc. -- westerners love them as they can easily supersede such nonsense, and quietly digest Hindu-Buddhist ideas into western frameworks. My job in this Western+Indian select group is largely to point flaws in the Indians who will be present."

Dr. KM responds:
"..I have been in private practice as a psychotherapist in [the US] for the last 20 years and now in the prosess of moving back to India for retirement. My experience resonates with that of [Dr.AB]. I felt at times uncomfortable, at times crossed the speaker, couple of times gave talk at our local counselor's association about eastern spirituality and it's usefulness in psychotherapy, and often used it in my practice without clearly naming so!

Rajivji's identifying, understanding, and naming this whole process as "digestion" is unique and brilliant. This has given me deeper and clear understanding to what was I experiencing. It has also given boost to my desire to spend some time and energy of my retirement years towards reading/writing/collaborating towards the psychotherapy clearly rooted in our dharmic belief system. .."

Venkat shares an article:
The Americanization of Mental Illness

Dr. R (behavioral scientist) responds:
"I am one [of] a group of behavioural scientists working with the laboratory learning method. Our work is deep and transformative, but we are not therapists. I work with the yoga Sutras as the basis of my work, however, even among my colleagues the ideas from yoga are not as internalized as the western theories. The learning of our scripture from an authentic source is rare. The ideas that are internalized from their own families is not well founded. Books in English then form the source of their learning. The average translation even by the various Anandas is poor.

Not all of my colleagues have read read BD [Being Different book]. And the idea of India is often held in deep self hate. All of this makes the going very difficult when one is training the new generation. It will be a great to work on a theory that is based entirely on our scriptures and our practice....How can we share notes and develop a coherent theory and practice?"

Rajiv comment: Start with your OWN institution. Why is a western style degree required to be considered a legitimate scholar? Why is the Indian notion of an accomplished practicing yogi or someone with knowledge but not western-style certified insufficient? This fetish for western style certification even in Indian matters is a deep rooted form of colonization." 

Dr. CRS shares his experience:
"I work in the research field of Post traumatic stress disorder & Systems Biology.... The Systems Biology concept is more-so similar to Ayurveda in the context that both preaches holistic health. Difference is that the combination of Yoga and Ayurveda has higher success rate in preventing/curing diseases than the Molecular biology/Translational systems biology approach. Over these years, I have increasingly realized that Yoga and Ayurveda are the best cure available for Psychological disorders.

This research frontier is going to boom in the next 10 years especially because of the funding given by US government for the BRAIN initiative Such perks are going to pressurize researchers to look into alternative medicine and facilitate accelerated digestion of Indian concepts practiced by Gurus.

I believe that one way to retain our Native Apps in the Dharmic OS framework, is to perform scientific research (by setting up dedicated research institutes/departments) on these concepts and publish extensively. People like Benson & Denninger have to be beaten in their game by playing our strengths by engaging the best philosophers like Rajivji, the best Indian Gurus, best Indian doctors across the globe (with unique characteristics not seen in US /Europeans), best Indian IT people, botanist (studying herbs). The collaboration of such interdisciplinary team will produce significant results.

Another simple way is prevention of diseases and this frontier is effectively being led by Baba Ramdev at the grassroots level by encouraging people towards Yoga & Ayurveda."

Dr. AB follows up:
"In my therapy work, I use the core tenets of Advaita like "Tat team Asi","Sat chid Ananda " "mitya" etc as frameworks to experience self. Some of my clients have found this framework significantly different from the so called evidence based practices like cognitive behavioural therapy , dialectical behaviour therapy (by the way, this particular mode of therapy uses mindfulness as its core tenet for borderline personality disorders) etc.

...

Today I came to know that an organization in California has customized a training program for mindfulness for all schools in North America. This is now a sought after training program which is offered online for school districts, mental health professionals etc. 

http://www.mindfulschools.org/

I have already started reading IN (Indra's Net). The poison pill and porcupine strategy has to be applied creatively in this field too.

Rajiv responds:.. I am doing a book on how Hindu-Buddhist ideas are getting digested/distorted."

Dr. J adds:
"I have also been trained and engaged in psychotherapy, and had similar observations. I keep looking for ways to channelize it. [], where I am teaching a course 'Mind, Life and Consciousness'...: The course content is heavily dependent on Indian systems of psychological knowledge. I am having my observations and learning in the process. I would be happy to collaborate and share notes with anyone interested in this field."


NS adds:
"I .. have read 9 chapters [of Indra's Net] till 'Traditional foundations of social consciousness'  and I find it such an admirable companion of BI (Breaking India) and BD. Having tread BI and BD , I feel one may read IN first and thereafter go to BD. From, my point of view In is an extraordinary review of BD and BI and its most admirable feature is its its beautiful narration that does not take away its scholarly content. " 

Dr. AB shares important feedback:
"..a heart rending story of a woman who was murdered because she tried to write a thesis on the dispossession of Indigenous women in Canada. It strikes parallel to what's going on for Hindus , the motive to eliminate us and our symbols methodically.

I feel for the indigenous people in North America. Their story resonates so deeply with ours. .. a theme in their stories- they see  all their mental health issues  stemming from loss of their indigenous culture and world views.  They do not connect to the western interpretation of their problems. They are quite vocal and articulate about the superficiality or even the credibility of western solutions to their problems. 

It's interesting that this is where we differ in India. Our deeply entrenched colonized mindsets do not get the layers and nuances of colonization and its impact on our mental health. Here, I see an opportunity to do some Conscious raising programs in the field.."

Ananth asks Dr. AB:

"You have mentioned that you use Indic concepts in your work, e.g., vijnana sakshi tantra, sat chit ananda, etc.  Have you used these concepts on your Indigenous clients?  If so, did the clients relate well to them? Or did Indic concepts help you to get a good command of your clients' problems?"

Dr. AB provides a detailed response and provides some amazing feedback on the practical use of non-translatables, poison-pill strategy (in Indra's Net), and other ideas introduced by Rajiv Malhotra in 'Being Different'.

"I have used the concepts of Atma, Sakshi bhaava, understanding the different mental states as vritti and the nature of vritti etc, which my clients can apply in the moment as opposed to a cognitive exercise.

I go back and forth to explore various concepts depending on what my clients are ready for. Some of them are ready for doing some advanced vijnana Bharirva tantra practices like Dharana on negative states of mind. They discover that through dharana, the sakshi bhava gets strengthened and there by they can see the mental states as dynamically changing. Some of them cannot move being Shavasana!

For those who are ready and willing,I sometimes even go further, to use a mantra of their choice while they are doing dharana. ...They begin to understand the 'mithya' nature of these inner experiences and are then able to see the one who labels each experience negatively or positively.

These concepts are well taken both by Indians and also westerners. I have seen that the westerners have a hard time to see the experience as different from themselves. This is where I introduce our terminologies and not use English. The minute you give them English translation, they objectify the knowledge, rather than go into the experience. I have also noted that some of these practices creates resistance for them. They still want to hold on to their core beliefs.

I had an [middle east] client, who was very open and articulate about her inner experiences through the Indic practices. At some time, she brought up great resistance, when we were exploring the concepts of Advaita....She could not bring herself to consider that that at some level all beings are interconnected,... That's when she began to distance herself from the process and terminated the sessions with me. ... I fully accepted her limitations and had a closure with her.  Now, I appreciate the poison pill strategy. She could not be part of the open architecture. She excluded herself out!

I also want to highlight the importance of using non-translatables. Recently I had a client who had suicidal ideation. This person is an Indian and we started exploring the meaning of the word "atma hatya'. I allowed this person to first understand what Atma means and then went on to further inquire whether it is then possible that atma and hatya could go together. This was such a revelation to this person about the paradox in the term itself. It is a myth going on in western academia that certain cultures are intolerant and have a big taboo around suicide. However, the reality is , on inquiring honestly about self (through our worldview not the western worldview) , killing oneself is a fallacy. This is the power of using our own non-translatables in this work. I will stop here. I am fascinated by what we can achieve to re-create a Grand Narrative through different streams of knowledge."

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Recommended reading related to this topic at the forum:

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/RajivMalhotraDiscussion/conversations/messages/4107

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/RajivMalhotraDiscussion/conversations/messages/4116

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De-spiritualising tantra-chapter 8-part 1

Go to Chapter 7

Pdf of the book is available for free download here.

This chapter concerns a scholarly book, Kiss of the Yogini: Tantric Sex in its South Asian Context. Its author, Prof. David Gordon White, a protégé of Wendy Doniger, received his PhD in the History of Religion from the University of Chicago in 1988. In an online discussion with Professor Jeffrey Lidke (a former student of White), Malhotra identified the book’s purpose as an effort to undermine the deep roots of Tantra’s inherent spirituality. This chapter is based on that online discussion that took place in May 2004.

White had previously authored The Alchemical Body: Siddha Traditions in Medieval India, a well-received book that helped him achieve the stature of a highly acclaimed scholar of Tantra and Hinduism Studies. His earlier book was based on original sources and his interpretations were broadly accepted by Tantric practitioners. This authenticity provided political and professional credibility for the author in the academy and the Hindu community. His new book caught many Indian scholars and practitioners of Tantra, and Hindus in general, by surprise. This is a good example of Malhotra’s U-Turn Theory, which describes how some Western scholars study Indic traditions respectfully, and then later repackage the subject to suit their own personal agendas or the needs of institutions, peer groups or the marketplace.

Malhotra’s review of the Kiss of the Yogini can be summarized as follows:

1. The book positions Tantra as a system of decadent South Asian sexuality. Furthermore, this decadence was seen as the result of the social suffering of Indian subaltern (lower caste) people in classical times.

2. Eminent Tantra scholars, such as Abhinavagupta, Kashmir Shaivism’s towering eleventh century figure, evidently did not know or did not want to know the ‘real’ Tantra the book purports to have uncovered. This is yet another example of how the natives, native scholars and actual practitioners are not trusted for their own interpretations, even including eminent thinkers whose works have been studied by Westerners and others, for centuries.

3. The bottom line, according to the Kiss of the Yogini, is that Tantra is not a legitimate spiritual process.

4. Doniger wrote a glowing review of the book, further extending its political import. She not only gives it the benefit of doubt without seriously challenging many of its presuppositions, but explicitly blames ‘Hindu chauvinists’ for repackaging Tantra as spirituality. She alleges that this was done to make Hinduism look good in the face of the British colonialists’ Victorian values. Hence, her thesis is designed to help postcolonial Indian scholars to undo colonialism by rejecting the spiritual purpose of Tantra.

5. Those who dare deny this thesis are assumed to be ‘Hindu nationalists’, ‘fascists’, ‘right-winger’ and so forth.

6. Doniger then cites Schweder’s popular new theory that native societies do not own their culture—a theory that Doniger asserts as true even though it is simply one point of view in an ongoing and controversial debate. Thus she accuses the Hindu diaspora and ‘Hindu right-wing chauvinists’ of claiming the right to interpret their culture and says that they have no such rights.

7. The implication is clear: No one can dare challenge the White-Wendy scholarship for fear of being branded a BJP chauvinist. And Indians have no special standing as insiders in their culture. What a tragedy for the academy that such a ploy works!

A long-time scholar of Kashmir Shaivism and a Tantra practitioner confided that he finds the book ‘disgusting’—in methodology, conclusion and its demeaning tone.

Ziauddin Sardar has attacked similar positions by illustrating how non-Western cultures are ‘for sale in the supermarket of postmodern nihilism’. Malhotra asserts that White is similarly introducing a ‘new product’ in the postmodern ‘bazaar of realities’. Doniger does a followup to reconfigure it into yet another derivative intellectual product:

Displaying her manipulative prowess, she claims that those who profess Tantra to be a spiritual process are somehow associated with a hardline right-wing political party in India. Thus the choice before Indians is between abandoning Tantra and facing disgrace as fascists—a pretty bleak either/or situation. The middle ground of spirituality without a political agenda is made unavailable as an option. Ironically, this apolitical middle ground has been the hallmark of Hinduism and is a distinguishing feature of considerable relevance in today’s world of exclusivist dogmas.

Doniger evades the implications of her political thesis when it’s applied to Tibetan Buddhism. The heart of Tibetan Buddhism is Tantra and there is a very intimate relationship and sharing of Tantra between Buddhism and Hinduism.

Using Credibility as Defense

Prof. Jeffrey S. Lidke, a former student of David White, and hence someone whom Doniger regards as a grandchild of her lineage, posted a response attempting to dismiss the critique by claiming that Malhotra ‘did not know the purva-paksha (i.e. opponent’s position)’, and that he had ‘misrepresented the White-Doniger position’. Lidke approached the debate as a knowledgeable scholar of Tantra who had spent several years reading White’s writings. Therefore, ‘with no small amount of confidence’ he could claim that the above synopsis of White’s thesis made two inaccurate claims: (For more on Lidke’s argument, please read page 76, chapter 8)

Lidke then resorted to a tired old comeback that RISA scholars often use, by claiming that criticism by outsiders is spurious because ‘obviously’ they didn’t read the book. The only defenses that Lidke offered were based on acclaim and association, not content and substance. Besides he claimed that White and Doniger had benign intentions even though their quotes may suggest otherwise. This line of argumentation denies the lay reader the same rights that the scholars themselves claim, i.e. freedom to interpret Indic texts according to contemporary sensibilities and theories, in whatever worlds of meaning they wish, and without reference to the author’s intent or vivaksha.

Analysis of White’s Position

Malhotra posted a three-part response online to argue that his assertions about White were well-founded. His posts are summarized below, followed by a brief criticism of White’s work by an Australia-based scholar of Tantra.

Tantra’s history, according to the White-Doniger thesis, went through two stages. In its early history, Tantra was a system of sexual magical acts that were not spiritual. Doniger explains, “In David Gordon White’s account, the distinguishing characteristic of South Asian Tantra in its earliest documented stage is a ritual in which bodily fluids—sexual or menstrual discharge—were swallowed as transformative ‘power substances’.” So Tantra was a system of practices to achieve magical powers by swallowing sexual fluids.

Then came stage two, according to White-Doniger, when, Abhinavagupta, the leading proponent of Tantra and Kashmir Shaivism, reconstructed Tantra into a spiritually contextualized system that was more suitable for Brahmin appropriation. Doniger says, “A significant reform took place in the eleventh century, when certain elite Brahmin Tantric practitioners, led by the great theologian Abhinavagupta in Kashmir, marginalized the ritual of fluid exchange and sublimated it into a wider body of ritual and meditative techniques.”

Doniger refers to Abhinavagupta’s system as ‘soft-core, or High Hindu’, whose purpose was to allow double-standards among Brahmins so that they could indulge in forbidden sexual acts and yet publicly not “threaten the purity regulations that were required for high-caste social constructions of the self in India”. Thus, Doniger maintains that hypocritical Brahmins allowed themselves to indulge in the ‘drinking of female menstrual discharge’ because they could depict it in philosophical language as ‘a programme of meditation mantras’.

Doniger explains that this ‘soft-core’ became a mask to cover up the ‘hard-core’ real Tantra which remained underground: “In this way the earlier, unreconstructed form of Tantra, the hard-core, persisted as a kind of underground river, flowing beneath the new, bowdlerized, dominant form”. Doniger’s and White’s terminology is meant to evoke a certain image which equates Tantra with current pathologies in America—hard core and soft core pornography that are a significant part of American society today. We find that Doniger and White equate esoteric techniques of Tantra with something familiar to most Americans in an anti-social sense. Thus it is not to be seen as a powerful and valid cultural and religious alternative to American norms, but something familiar, something dismissible as ‘been there, done that’, and, moreover, something that is ‘sexy, seedy and strange’.

White-Doniger claim that the transition from hard-core to softcore was a discontinuity—a ‘reform’ by ‘elite Brahmins’ that ‘sublimated’ the past practice of ‘sexual fluid exchange’. Obviously, this point-of-view is found not only in Doniger’s review and analysis, but it is the central thesis cited in White’s book:

In about the eleventh century, a scholasticizing trend in Kashmirian Hindu circles, led by the great systematic theologian Abhinavagupta, sought to aestheticize the sexual rituals of the Kaula. These theoreticians, whose intended audience was likely composed of conformist householder practitioners, sublimated the end and raison d’être of Kaula sexual practice—the production of powerful, transformative sexual fluids—into simple by-products of a higher goal: the cultivation of a divine state of higher consciousness . . . (p.xii.)

White claims that until the eleventh century the heart of Tantra practice had been the ‘oral consumption of sexual fluids as power substances’, and that it was never practiced for the spiritual expansion of consciousness. He alleges that Abhinavagupta re-packaged it as a ‘consumer  product’ for sale to Kashmiris whose ‘bobo profile’ could be compared to modern New Age seekers.

If such a thesis were true, there would be no spiritual legitimacy in the systems that flowed from Abhinavagupta onwards. Their origin would be merely the repackaging of superstition and sexual magic for a consumer market of ‘wily Brahmins’ who wanted to indulge secretly in wild sex while pretending it was a spiritual practice. This is quite a bombshell dropped on any serious spiritual practitioner of Kashmir Shaivism, Tantra and many other Hindu-Buddhist systems.

The following counter arguments by Malhotra challenge the primary thesis of White and Doniger:

1. Hinduism was never enforced by centralized institutional authorities—very different from the Abrahamic religions. There is no historical evidence of any such political movement across all of South Asia that dramatically imposed a ‘soft-core’ system upon the previous ‘hard-core’ system. The mere emergence of scholarly texts does not necessarily bring any social revolution in the case of Hinduism given the absence of a centralized and authoritarian Church in the mode of the Christian one.

2. Tantra was exported from India to other parts of Asia (such as Tibet) where it was seen by the receiving Asian cultures as a spiritual tradition. Therefore, the Indian Brahmins’ sociopolitical exploitation that White-Doniger allege would also have to be proven in the case of all other Asian societies that imported Tantra. Since the domicile of Tantra practice has extended well beyond the geography of India, and especially since it has extended into territories where Brahmin social influence was not operative—such as Tibet, among others—the thesis of White-Doniger remains unproven until they examine Tantra outside of India and outside

the scope of Hinduism.

3. Such scholarship arbitrarily classifies as ‘Hindu’ certain ‘secular’ practices and some obscure texts cited may even have never been practised (and certainly not ‘enforced’). There may also have been many entirely unrelated multiple spiritual traditions from which the scholar indulges in a cut-and-paste exercise to fit his thesis.

One of the readers of this online debate was Prof. Jayant Bapat, (incidentally, also a Tantra practitioner) at Monash University, Australia. He found White’s arguments both unconvincing and reductionist: (For more on Prof. Bapat’s views, please read page 79 and 80, chapter 8)

Malhotra cited four specific examples from Doniger’s School that could be seen as assault on a whole spiritual tradition:

1. Assault on mantras: Because the Tantrics were not elitist Brahmins and lacked access to complex Sanskrit mantras, Doniger notes that they “derived their mantras of nonsense syllables from the inarticulate moans that the Goddess made during intercourse . . .” (For more on this please read page 81, chapter 8)

2. Assault on bindi: White’s explanation of the meaning of the bindi (the sacred mark worn by most Hindu women today) is that “the image of a drop (bindu) that recurs, across the entire gamut of Tantric theory and practice” was originally referring to a physical drop of menstrual blood, but was later explained using the language of mantras and yantras so as to be seen as abstract symbolism about speech and divine consciousness.

3. Assault on mudra: Doniger explains the meaning of the word mudra in the texts: “White argues that mudra . . . refers to ‘the technique of urethral suction by means of which the Tantric yogin, having ejaculated into his partner, draws his semen together with her sexual emission back into his penis’ (the so-called fountain-pen effect)”. In this interpretation mudra signifies the practitioner’s/consort’s vulva, and, by extension, the fluids from the vulva.

4. Assault on Srividya: White culminates his arguments showing that many popular contemporary Hindu systems of symbolism emerged out of this ‘intellectual whitewash’ done by Abhinavagupta. The Srividya tradition as practised widely today was just that—whitewashed pornography and wild sex practices. It gave a spiritual gloss to hard-core practices by making them seem intellectual and spiritual.

Read chapter 8 part 1 from page 73 to 81

Pdf of the book is available for free download here.

Go to chapter 8-part 2