The Psychology of Emotions and Humour in Buddhism
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The Psychology of Emotions and Humour in Buddhism Padmasiri de Silva The Psychology of Emotions and Humour in Buddhism Padmasiri de Silva Monash University Clayton, Melbourne, VIC, Australia ISBN 978-3-319-97513-9 ISBN 978-3-319-97514-6 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97514-6 Library of Congress Control Number: 2018949615 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2018 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifcally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microflms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. 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Cover illustration: © Melisa Hasan This Palgrave Pivot imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Humour is playful and non-reactive response to the tragic contradictions in the world Ajahn Cha Ajahn Brahm Ñāṇavīra Thera for integrating a deep sense of humour into Buddhist pedagogy FOREWORD Professor Padmasiri de Silva (b. 1933) holds an impressive and long-last- ing academic career. He has been as an infuential teacher, scholar, edu- cator, and academic leader. He inspired several generations of academics. He guided many like me by being very kind, understanding, and gen- erous, and extending a helping hand. Before 1989, Prof. de Silva was very much rooted in Sri Lanka. He guided and led the Department of Philosophy and Psychology at the University of Peradeniya by taking over headship from the late Prof. K. N. Jayatilleke (1920–1970). In 1985, Prof. de Silva was the visionary who introduced the novel idea of studying comparative religion to the Sri Lankan university setting. In 1990, he had moved to Singapore and then to Monash University, Melbourne. In the last decades, he has adopted Australia as his home while venturing into new felds such as psychotherapy, psychoanalysis and contemplative practices. Professor de Silva graduated from the University of Ceylon with an Honours Degree in Philosophy. His early training was in the philos- ophy of mind, which enabled him to earn both an M.A. and a Ph.D. in East-West comparative philosophy for a thesis on Buddhist and Freudian psychology from the University of Hawaii (1964–1967). In the 1980s, he held both the professorship of philosophy and also guided the Department of Philosophy and Psychology at the University of Peradeniya as its head (1980–1989). After leaving Sri Lanka at the height of ethnic violence in the late 1980s, he held a teaching position at the National University of Singapore, several visiting positions at the ix x FOREWORD University of Pittsburgh, and was involved in the ISLE programme (Intercollegiate Sri Lanka Education Program). He also held a position at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. Since 1994, in his adopted home in Melbourne, Australia, he has been a Research Associate in the School of Philosophical, Historical and International Studies at Monash University. In the later years of his academic life, he has developed pro- fessional skills by obtaining an Advanced Diploma in Counselling (2006) and practised as a professional counsellor developing his own method. Those in the feld of Buddhist psychology and comparative philos- ophy do not need any introduction to Prof. de Silva’s academic career or publications. His signifcant publications include: (i) Buddhist and Freudian Psychology (1973), (ii) Tangles and Webs: Comparative Studies in Existentialism and Psychoanalysis of Buddhism (1974), (iii) Value Orientations and Nation Building (1976), (iv) An Introduction to Buddhist Psychology (1979), (v) Twin Peaks: Compassion and Insight: Emotions and the ‘Self’ in Buddhist and Western Thought (1991), (vi) Environmental Philosophy and Ethics in Buddhism (1998), (vii) Buddhist Ethics and Society: The Conficts and Dilemmas of Our Times (2002), (viii) An Introduction to Buddhist Psychology and Counselling: Pathways of Mindfulness-Based Therapies (2014), (ix) Emotions and The Body in Buddhist Contemplative Practice and Mindfulness-Based Therapy: Pathways of Somatic Intelligence (2017a), and (x) The Psychology of Buddhism in Confict Studies (2017b). Readers may fnd that Prof. de Silva’s newest publication The Psychology of Emotions and Humour in Buddhism: Mindful Emotions through Anger, Greed, Conceit and Humour is extremely enriching. As well as dealing with later traditions, this new book makes substan- tial contributions to the understanding of psychology embedded in early Buddhism. Rather than limiting the scope of investigation to Theravāda Buddhism alone, it successfully integrates materials outside the main- stream South Asian tradition. It sheds valuable insights in understand- ing how basic emotions such as anger and greed, which are foundational emotions in the Buddhist scheme of analysis both in personal lives and soteriology, shape and affect human lives in signifcant ways. In a crea- tive and appealing manner, the book is well organised to engage even the unfamiliar reader with new materials drawn from Buddhist traditions. The Psychology of Emotions and Humour in Buddhism is both enter- taining and insightful. It highlights the signifcance of a normal thing—an ordinary aspect of life for healthy living. We all smile; mostly FOREWORd xi naturally, sometimes deliberately; we often like to have good humour and undoubtedly become very disappointed with bad humour. However, we rarely contemplate this natural activity; let alone philosophically. This work looks at humour from a philosophical standpoint. The data that it concentrates on is Buddhist. Its analysis cuts across various boundaries such as East and West that obstruct our understanding of the human phenomenon and its conditions. It contains rich and humorous stories; at the same time, its treatment is scholarly. On the whole, it is a valuable and long-lasting contribution to our knowledge of both Buddhism and psychology, a feld that is growing fast in the West, both in the univer- sity setting and outside it, in applied areas such as health care. This work demonstrates Prof. de Silva’s mature scholarship as well as his personal outlook on human well-being and fourishing, with many penetrating insights to make human lives more successful and rewarding. A signifcant contribution in understanding the role and impact of emotions from Buddhist points of view, The Psychology of Emotions and Humour in Buddhism is built upon the investigations that Prof. de Silva carried out over three decades ago with his paper ‘The Psychology of Emotions in Buddhist Perspective’, which he delivered initially as the Sir Don Baron Jayatilaka (1868–1944) Commemoration Lecture in 1976. It is worth noting here that this recent work brings together Prof. de Silva’s mature insights on the psychology of Buddhism developed over a period of fve decades since the early 1960s. Bath, UK Mahinda Deegalle Bath Spa University PREFACE I have been fortunate to publish two monographs in the Palgrave Macmillan and Springer, Pivot edition series: Emotions and the Body in Buddhist Contemplative Practice and Mindfulness-Based Therapy: Pathways of Somatic Intelligence1; and The Psychology of Buddhism in Confict Studies.2 The encouragement and appreciation I have received from the editorial staff of Palgrave Macmillan was immense and the feedback from interested readers within this short time was greatly reas- suring so that I continue these projects with something new, a theme hardly explored yet by any other scholar in the way that I have presented. My interest is in the practical concerns of Buddhist pedagogy: working through ‘mindful emotions’ integrated with humour; the use of humour as satire and a critique of social pathology; and giving a new interpre- tation of Buddhist humour as an incongruity theory—this is not a pas- sive piece of research. I wish to do far more than to collect references to humour in Buddhist discourses but rather to present a theory of humour, the incongruity theory across Buddhist and Western existential- ism, along with other alternative theories; and to link this study to the social dimensions of humour and above all to ‘mindful’ emotions. This, in short, is the thematic perspective of the present study. In the West, existentialist philosophers like Søren Kierkegaard have already presented an incongruity theory of humour. It must be clearly stated at the beginning that this study is basically focused on early Buddhism (Theravāda) in which I have been immersed for many long years and where I have, over the years, studied the original sources. My xiii xiv PREFACE understanding of Zen is limited to secondary sources but the material on Zen is quite illuminating, especially techniques like ‘category rever- sal’ and the embracing of the opposites. While the ‘incongruity theory is central’, I have included a wide array of materials which depict Buddhist perspectives on ‘humour’. But, working on my last book, I developed a very insightful under- standing of Zen which in fact generated an added incentive to look at Zen humour.