Theravada Buddhist literature represents Gotama the Buddha as an ordinary man on an extraordinary quest for liberation from the world of suffering. His path of transformation was an arduous one, for he abandoned a secure and princely life for the uncertain existence of a wandering ascetic. It was the inward journey, however, that brought Gotama to his goal: the profound psychological state known as nibbana.
Though Gotama's personal achievement stands eclipsed by history's cultural and philosophical embellishment, nevertheless, the Buddha's search was a universal one, for all creatures long for true meaning and happiness in this very life.
The psychology of Theravada Buddhism stands apart from other schools of psychology for its psycho-ethical imperative and its profound understanding of personal transformation towards supramundane states.
The psychology of the Buddha reaches beyond ordinary degree of moral progress into a realm of complete psychological freedom where freedom is defined as the cessation of suffering. Because cessation of suffering includes, psychologically, a continually transcending mental condition characterized by a dispassionate disposition towards all forms and, phenomenologically, freedom from re-birth Buddhism has been more often categorized as a religion rather than a psychology.
The Buddha's understanding of the mind and its inherent possibility for significant transformation was, however, intertwined with a psycho-ethical view of all relationships, starting with oneself and amplified to include all creatures, human and non-human. Though Gotama is seen as having 'left the world', in fact, the social success of his most personal endeavor is based on his insight into the interdependence of all levels of life and the need to consider at every moment one's fellow beings. Happiness in one's life as a social creature can be achieved through the cultivation of a beneficent attitude towards one's self and through the manifestation of that attitude in harmony-producing speech and action.
The progressive detachment from that very world and any desire for it gives Buddhist psychology its transcendental character. However, the final goal of Buddhist psychology, nibbana, does not lie outside our understanding; it is really within our reach. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.)
