“The east is east and the west is west, the twains shall never meet’ is an often repeated quote, which very well summarizes the distinct characteristics of the two civilizations and culture and their rather opposing ways of looking at everything, including human life. The former is committed to the intuitive and subjective mode of thinking and the latter deeply rooted into the scientific and objective traditions.

Psychological thoughts of the east, as contained in the literature of its dominant religions like Hinduism, Buddhism and others, though remarkably different in its aims, objective and methodology from west, is prolific in psychological truths and insights and has dazzled many western thinkers by its great riches and sophistication.  

Psychology and Values

Psychologist Stanton Jones says that in large part, psychology is in fact a “moral enterprise”. In creating a concept of what is healthy, there must inevitably be an engagement not only of scientific, but also of philosophical questions. Dr. Jones explains that psychotherapists are members of a “secular Priesthood”, which holds to its own metaphysical and moral presuppositions. Psychology conveys a worldview that teaches what is ‘good’ (translated into clinical sounding terms such as healthy, whole, adaptive, realistic, rational, mature, etc.,) and what is ‘bad’ (translated clinically as abnormal, pathological, immature, stunted, self-deceived, etc.,) Thus; psychology is concerned with moral and philosophical questions.

Clients are inevitably affected by their therapist’s worldview. Studies have shown that psychotherapy tends to change a client’s values, and therapists tend to rate those clients as ‘more successful’ whose values change to fall into line with the therapist’s personal worldview. Thus no client will be immune to the therapist’s ethical influence.

Even supposedly ‘neutral’ disciplines such as behavior therapy contains a prescriptive, ideological component; a favored mode of thinking, and implicit criteria for making judgments. On the other hand, without pre-orienting conceptions of some sort, we cannot perceive data at all and the world would be confusing. It is our biases that allow us to perceive and understand anything at all. But the most limiting and dangerous biases are those that are unexamined-and hence; exert their effect in an unreflective manner. 

All the Western psychologies are based on pathology, and a real psychology is needed that is based on the healthy person. The perfect psychology has to be based on Buddha like people, not just healthy people.

So there are three types of psychologies. One, pathological: all Western psychologies are pathological. Only very recently some holistic trends which think about the healthy person are gaining strength, but they are just at the beginning. There are psychologies of the second type, which think about the healthy person, which are based on the healthy mind—those are the Eastern psychologies. Buddhism has a very, very penetrating psychology; Patanjali has his own psychology. They are based on healthy people: to help a healthy person become healthier, to help a healthy person attain to greater health. Pathological psychologies help the ill to become healthy.

Then there is a third type can be termed, as ‘the ultimate psychology’ is as yet undeveloped. That type has to depend on a Self-realised soul, such as a Buddha, Christ, Ramakirthna or Ramana. It has not been developed yet, because where to go to study a Buddha, and how to study a Buddha? And only one Buddha won't do, you will have to study many. Then only can you come to conclusions. But some day that psychology will happen, it is a must. It must be there because only that can give you the total perception into human consciousness.

Freud, Jung, Janov, they have never worked it out on themselves. Stumbling in the dark, groping in the dark, they come to some fragments and then they think that those fragments are complete systems. Whenever a fragment is claimed as a complete system it becomes a lie. A fragment is a fragment. Amalgamating those fragments we cannot arrive at the total.  

Eastern psychologies are for healthy people, to help you to become more whole. There is a need to work out a psychology of the third type, because that will give the perfect penetration into the whole of human consciousness.

Psychologies based on pathologies are good; they help ill people. But that can never be the goal. It is good, but just to become healthy, normal, is nothing much. Just to be normal is nothing much because everybody else is normal. It is bad to be ill because you suffer, but it is not much good to be normal because normal people are suffering in millions of ways. In fact, to be normal means only to be adjusted to the society. The society itself may be abnormal; the whole society may itself be ill. To adjust to it only means you are normally abnormal, that's all. That's not much of a gain. You have to go beyond social normality. You have to go beyond the social madness. Then only, for the first time do you become healthy.

Eastern psychologies: Yoga, Zen, Sufism, all help healthy people to become more healthy and holy.
The third type of psychology is needed, urgently needed, because without it you don't have the goal, the perception of the very end. That has to be worked out. The great saints and liberal thinkers of yore tried their best and succeed to develop a system of philosophy with the blend of psychology called “Vedanta”. The psychology of the ultimate is a totally radical standpoint. One has to go into one's own consciousness without dividing it, without analysing it, without judging it, without evaluating it, without condemning it, without saying anything about it. Just go into it and have a feel of it—what exactly it is. The whole mind has to disappear, only then will you become aware of what it is—because the mind goes on creating ripples on the surface, and the mirror remains disturbed and the mirror goes on distorting. When the mirror disappears completely the mind disappears completely, and then there is pure silence, kokoro, nothingness, satori, samadhi—that samadhi is the non-analytical state of your being. That is your primal state.

Psychology is moving beyond itself, psychology is moving into religion by and by. Sooner or later, psychology will become a very firm foundation for a religious leap. Nobody can be born into a religion. Religion has to be consciously chosen. In the very conscious choice it becomes significant; otherwise it is meaningless. And unless psychology becomes a firm foundation for the spiritual jump, it will not have any meaning. It will get its meaning only when it becomes a step to the temple of God.