Batchelor: was Buddha a therapist?
Well, this opens up a lot of questions.
He compares himself quite literally to a doctor.
He compares his dharma his teaching, to a medical treatment.
He compares his community to a kind of nursing staff.
with existential matters rather than psychological issues.
But nonetheless, the therapeutic paradigm is already there.
And this is also the case with, say, certain aspects of Greek philosophy.
as a therapist, in other words.
tends to overlook Its therapeutic origins.
they burn incense, and they do all these things.
But you could argue, I would argue, in fact, that this is what the dharma became.
consider to be an Indian religion like Hinduism or Jainism or Buddhism.
the practice of mindfulness is a very problematic one.
The dharma, I think is.
monastery in Burma and is doing mindfulness practices for weeks on end.
But basically, what they're doing is exactly the same.
description of its functions as you'll find in a traditional Buddhist setting.
is being directed towards to seek to resolve.
Well, weirdly, that happens to be the Buddha's idea as well.
that mindfulness practice does carry with it elements of what the Buddha taught.
others and that arguably serves a whole different set of needs.
rituals performed at important parts of your life, and so on and so forth.
like coming to live more effectively with the suffering that we undergo in life.
in our lives in a completely different way, from a different perspective.
I believe that perspective is essentially the perspective of nirvana.
often in a neurotic, in a kind of sometimes destructive way.
mindfulness as found in Buddhist contexts.