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Chinese intellectuals started to engage in Buddhist psychology in the early 20th century, a time when Western culture was greatly influencing the country. Taixu criticized Western psychology and proposed his Buddhist psychology. He proposed a tripartite psychology based on Buddhist doctrine: psychology on affection (qing 情); psychology on reflection (xiang 想); and psychology on wisdom (zhi 智). Perceiving Western psychology as lacking in both theoretical depth and breadth, he specifically criticized behaviorism. He integrated the interpretation of “sense faculties” (indriya) from the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, thereby reconstructing an Ideal Behavioral Science, a philosophical system that centers on behavior and encompasses all aspects of life. This paper argues that Taixu’s critique of Western psychology and his construction of Buddhist psychology responded to the ideological trends of his era. In Taixu’s conceptual system, Buddhist psychology was part of his theory on “Buddhism for human life” (rensheng fojiao 人生佛教), serving not only to explain the psychological state of human but also to guide cultivation and lead people to enlightenment, bearing practical significance. Taixu’s study of worldly knowledge, including psychology, attempts to comprehensively construct a modern Buddhist system that integrates Buddhist Dharma and secular learning.

The article presents the author’s interpretation of the information space of the ancient Kalmyk tanka Green Tara, created for the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty, which was celebrated in the Bolshederbetovsky ulus in 1913. There is no doubt that the creation of the iconographic image of Green Tara was a deeply thought-out act of the Buddhist clergy and sovereign noyons of the Bolshederbetovsky ulus in whose power was the ulus. The object of this study is the Kalmyk tanka “Green Tara” as a Buddhist monument of the pre-revolutionary period of cultural and religious life in the Kalmyk steppe. The purpose of the author is to show the versatility and spiritual significance of the Buddhist icon “Green Tara” in the life of the Kalmyk people, its role in the formation of national ethno-religious consciousness in the aspect of Buddhist psychology. The article discusses the history of its creation, analyzes its artistic, cultural and iconographic features. The relevance of this topic is due to the author’s approach to the study of the symbolism of Buddhist iconography in the psychological aspect on the example of the traditional image of the Bodhisattva Green Tara. The psychological interpretation of the information field of the Kalmyk tanka is an absolutely new direction in the study of Buddhist iconography, which opens up a huge field for further understanding.

This article highlights the potential role of the “brahmaviharas,” a Buddhist concept which emphasizes certain spiritual dimensions and have been interlinked with dance movement therapy combined with other expressive arts, in responding effectively to the unpredictable life changes during pandemic situations such as the COVID-19. A multiple therapeutic–expressive–creative movement sequence model and meditation practices were collaboratively developed by movement therapist Tripura Kashyap and expressive arts therapy practitioner Anubha Doshi to address each of the brahmaviharas: loving–kindness (mettā), compassion (karuṇā), sympathetic joy (muditā), and equanimity (upekkhā). This article specifically reveals how the embodiment of concepts from Buddhism through movement can help in concretizing and embedding meditative practices in the mind–body continuum. Finally, the article explores the relevance of practicing the brahmaviharas by utilizing specifically crafted movement rituals, such as body preparatory routines, mindful movement, body scans, embodiment, gratitude rituals, interspersed with visual art and the use of props to focus on enhancing people’s resilience, mental health, and well-being. All these experiences were creatively adapted to the virtual medium during the COVID-19 pandemic period.

This mixed method research aimed to study the results of self-development based on Buddhist psychology principles to enhance the competency of engineering personnel. The 64 samples, using the G * Power were divided into 32 people in experimental groups and 32 people in control groups. The research tools were the competency measurement, behavior observation and self-development program. The experimental training was divided into phase I for 3 days, 2 nights, phase II for 1 month and follow-up period for 1 month. Research data were analyzed by T-test, Two-way repeated measures ANOVA and content analysis. The research found that he competency enhancing program consisted of 14 activities and IOC of the program was between 0.875 –1. The program is suitable and effective for reduction to practice. The comparison of the average scores of the competencies shown that the engineering personnel competencies after the experiment were higher than before the experiment and higher than the control group with statistical significance at the level of .05

The Buddhist notion of nonattachment relates to an engagement with experience with flexibility and without fixation on achieving specified outcomes. The present study sought to define, create and validate a new measure of nonattachment as it applies to notions of the self. A new construct of “nonattachment to self” (NTS) was developed, defined the absence of fixation on self-related concepts, thoughts and feelings, and a capacity to flexibly interact with these concepts, thoughts and feelings without trying to control them. Two studies were conducted in the development of the new scale. With expert consultation, study 1 (n = 445) established a single factor, internally consistent 7-item scale via exploratory factor analysis. Study 2 (n = 388, n = 338) confirmed the factor structure of the new 7-item scale using confirmatory factor analyses. Study 2 also found the new scale to be internally consistent, with evidence supporting its test-retest reliability, criterion, and construct validity. Nonattachment to self-emerged as a unique way of relating to the self, distinct from general nonattachment, that aligned with higher levels of well-being and adaptive functioning.

This paper analyzes studies of mindfulness and the self, with the aim of deepening our understanding of the potential benefits of mindfulness and meditation for mental health and well-being. Our review of empirical research reveals that positive changes in attitudes toward the self and others as a result of mindfulness-enabled practices can play an important role in modulating many mental and physical health problems. Accordingly, we introduce a new concept—the “mindful self”—and compare it with related psychological constructs to describe the positive changes in self-attitude associated with mindfulness meditation practices or interventions. The mindful self is conceptualized as a mindfulness-enlightened self-view and attitude developed by internalizing and integrating the essence of Buddhist psychology into one’s self-system. We further posit that the mindful self will be an important intermediary between mindfulness intervention and mental health problems, and an important moderator in promoting well-being. More generally, we suggest that the mindful self may also be an applicable concept with which to describe and predict the higher level of self-development of those who grow up in the culture of Buddhism or regularly engage in meditation over a long period of time.

Mindfulness plays a prominent role in traditional and modern Buddhist meditation practice. This paper examines the theoretical background of the concept of mindfulness (sati) as presented in the early Buddhist sources, recorded in Theravāda Buddhism. It outlines the definitions and presentations of mindfulness (sati) in the Pāli Canon and examines how it is embedded within the fundamental models of Buddhist discourse. Then it investigates mindfulness within the philosophical framework of the Abhidhamma, where it is presented as one of the mental factors (cetasika) involved in cognitive processes; it outlines its characteristics, functions, conditions, and compatibility with other mental factors, which occur as components within the interdependent processes of consciousness (citta). The article shows how mindfulness has a special role as a component on the Buddhist path to liberation from suffering (dukkha) and how it is integrated within the soteriological and ethical goals of Buddhist practice.

The enactive approach to cognition is developed in the context of music and music education. I discuss how this embodied point of view affords a relational and bio-cultural perspective on music that decentres the Western focus on language, symbol and representation as the fundamental arbiters of meaning. I then explore how this 'life-based' approach to cognition and meaning-making offers a welcome alternative to standard Western academic approaches to music education. More specifically, I consider how the enactive perspective may aid in developing deeper ecological understandings of the transformative, extended and interpenetrative nature of the embodied musical mind; and thus help (re)connect students and teachers to the lived experience of their own learning and teaching. Following this, I examine related concepts associated with Buddhist psychology in order to develop possibilities for a contemplative music pedagogy. To conclude, I consider how an enactive-contemplative perspective may help students and teachers awaken to the possibilities of music education as ‘ontological education’. That is, through a deeper understanding of ‘music as a manifestation of life’ rediscover their primordial nature as autopoietic and world-making creatures and thus engage more deeply with musicality as a means of forming richer and more compassionate relationships with their peers, their communities and the ‘natural’ and cultural worlds they inhabit.