Buddhist Self-Enlightenment Psychotherapy

The chapter introduces Buddhist Self-Enlightenment Psychotherapy (BSEP) and has three sections. The first section introduces a brief biography of the founder of Buddhism. The second section is the background of theory. On the basis of Buddhism, the nature of the self and human is that the self can be changeable. This is because the self does not possess permanent and independent characters or nature. For this reason, we have the opportunity to change ourselves, which is the most important assumption of BSEP. Clinging to or being obsessed with the delusional self is the major cause of suffering. The cultivating self-enlightenment form the self nonself provides the solution to diminish or eradicate mental disturbances or suffering. The theoretic foundation of BSEP is the three-level Buddhist Self-Enlightenment Model (BSEM) presented to elucidate the complete Buddhist wisdom and its deep self-enlightenment structure. This three-level BSEM was used to develop Nonself Theory (NT), along with its psychological process from the self to nonself leading to authentic-durable happiness. The third section introduces BSEP psychotherapeutic process. There are three therapeutic goals. There are 24 kinds of clinging to or being obsessed with the delusional self that can be used to assess the sources to cause the mental disturbances or suffering. The therapeutic process has five steps. The third step is the act and it contains five levels. There are nine wisdom techniques to conquer 24 kinds of clinging to or being obsessed with the delusional selves. (1) The requirements for living environment. (2) Twenty-four kinds of clinging to or being obsessed with the delusional self can be weaken or extinguished by strengthening the 11 kinds of good self. (3) The wisdom truth of death. (4) Death contemplation. (5) Asubha meditation. (6) The focused attention meditation contains the nine stepwise levels. The nine stepwise levels are also systemic and comprehensive training and practice for self-awareness, along with six wisdom techniques. (7) The compassion (bodhicitta) technique has two methods. But before cultivating compassion, one needs to cultivate equanimity. The first method is the seven dependent originations (causality) compassion, including seven steps and the other method is Tonglen compassion, inclusive of five methods. (8) Good deeds. (9) Teaching Buddhist wisdom. The requirements for a therapist and the relationships between a therapist and a client are offered. The relationships and applications among mindfulness technique, Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Gestalt Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Naikan Therapy, and BSEP are provided. In the end, how to select an authentic Buddhist teacher is discussed.