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T H E P R A C T I C E O F

O R I E N T A L P S Y C H O L O G Y

Some notes for students


on the techniques used
in the Psychological
Practice of the ancient
East, adapted to Western
requirements

By Alan W. Watts

For private circulation


435 East 57th Street - New York City - N. Y.

1939
THE PRACTICE OF ORIENTAL
PSYCHOLOGY
*

WESTERN students of Oriental Psychology and Philosophy


often ask for details of specific, practical means of
applying its principles in a way suited to Western
traditions and mentality. The following details have
been gathered together to meet this request, and while
some of them are taken from Oriental sources, others
are of Western origin. The latter, however, are of
particular value for they not only apply principles
which are fundamental in Oriental psychology, but are
also examples of ways in which those principles can and
have been approached from a purely Western background.

As a rule the practice of Oriental Psychology

is called meditation (dhyana), but this word is very

inadequate. A better word is "realization", for dhyana

in its widest sense is the process of making certain

principles real to oneself. Oriental psychologists

distinguish between realization and action as means of

attaining the experience of spiritual freedom which they

term bodhi (enlightenment) or kaivalya (liberation).

This, they say, cannot be achieved by action, for

strictly speaking nothing can be done about it. That

freedom already exists in every being and it is therefore

mistaken to try to manufacture it by some form of action.

But its presence may be realized; by various means one


may become awakened to its existence as an already
accomplished fact — an accomplishment in which our own
personal efforts have played no part. Dhyana is of two
kinds: (1) A specific exercise which may be practised at
certain times; (2) A constant state of mind. Details of the
practice of both these kinds of dhyana are given below.

Not all of these practices will be suitable for


each individual, and everyone must do a certain amount of
experimental work to find out which are most useful.
The first, however, would appear to be essential except
in those cases where its objective has already been
achieved. This is the practice of detachment or
discrimination; it is a preliminary and partial stage
without which other practices mentioned here can bear
little fruit.
(1) Detachment or discrimination is the art of
distinguishing between oneself and one's desires, thoughts,
impulses, moods and emotions; it is also the making of
a distinction between oneself and one's faculties — the
powers of sense, feeling, intellection and intuition.
"Ignorance," says Patanjali, "is the result of an identifi-
cation of the Seer and the instruments of seeing." In
other words, the aim of this exercise is the capacity to
regard one's whole mental, physical and emotional make-up
from an objective point of view so that no part of it is
identified with oneself. It is based on the principle
that things of which you can be conscious are not really
you; as soon as you are conscious of them they become
objects, and the self is always the subject. Information
on this exercise is given in the fifth chapter of the
Bhagavad-Gita, which should be carefully studied. It
belongs to the second type of dhyana, for it is a constant
process of challenging the contents of heart and mind,
observing them and realizing that as you can observe them
they are not you. In other words, it is to think not,
"I am angry; I am stupid; I am clever; I am suffering",
but, "There is anger; there is stupidity; there is
cleverness; there is suffering." It is to realize that
although you are and will be held responsible for all
that you think, feel and do, your thoughts, feelings
and actions are performed by your instruments rather
than yourself.
This exercise is necessary because it is impossible to
define an attitude or relationship between yourself and
your mental and emotional circumstances until you have
clearly divided them. In the end it is necessary to
accept and own all that goes on inside oneself, but
this cannot be done until you know what you have got to
accept. You cannot walk until you become aware of the
muscles of your legs.
(2) An exercise which is of great assistance in this
is called "watching over the thoughts". It is of value
both in promoting detachment and in discovering what
there is in yourself from which you will have to become
detached. This is primarily a special exercise for
special times — a meditation in our sense of the word.
It involves being seated in a relaxed position and
allowing your mind to run on and think whatever it
likes. But the important part of the exercise is
that you remain constantly aware of what the mind is
thinking. It requires some practice before the thoughts
can flow in an unimpeded and uninhibited stream.
In time you will find that all kinds of surprising and
terrible thoughts are floating up from the depths of
your mind, because when you leave the mind alone its
contents rise to the surface. Many of those contents
will be things which, in the ordinary way, you try to
keep down, but in this exercise it is important to let
them come up quite freely. This exercise will also show
you the necessity of making objective your desires and
reactions in regard to the thoughts which appear; in
this way you will experience detachment and realize that
all your conscious reactions, desires, impulses and moods
bubble up from a subterranean realm of the mind like a
spring. When you clear away obstruction from the mouth
of the spring it will flow rather violently, but in time
its flow will be even and steady. Soon you will see that
even the consciousness of self (of which you can be aware)
is one of the things that arises from the spring, and that
this consciousness (which we call "ego") is not your real
self — the Observer — but a function of it. This is the
key to enlightenment. Neither this exercise nor the
following is to be recommended for people who suffer from
any kind of obsession or who are easily overwhelmed by
violent mental contents of seemingly autonomous and
irresistible power.
(3) This is a variation of the preceding exercise. Many
of the contents of the mind reveal themselves in symbolic
form whose meaning is not immediately recognizable. The
kind of thoughts discussed in the preceding exercise are
definitely recognizable desires, feelings and ideas.
But the deepest contents generally assume symbolic form
and appear more readily in actual fantasy. The exercise
of "watching over the thoughts" may easily develop into
fantasy, but sometimes fantasy may be produced by intention.
There are many ways of achieving this, though for some
people it can be brought about with great ease and without
resort to devices. The following are some of the ways
in which symbolic contents may be made to appear: (a) To
imagine yourself in certain surroundings (some people sit
before a picture and mentally walk into it) and from
that starting point just let your imagination run on
and see what happens to you. Do not interfere with the
spontaneous movement of the imagination; you will find
that when it is allowed to work freely it will function
as in dreams and that events will happen to you quite
unpredictably. (b) Following the same general principles
take pen or typewriter and write the fantasy. (c) With
pen, pencil or paints draw "spontaneous pictures" — i.e.
pictures, designs, forms, symbols that occur to you without
any premeditation, being produced by a free flow of the
imagination. The results of these methods will not always
be intelligible to you at first, but when considering them
after the exercise ask yourself what your feelings about
them are and especially what they mean to you. In reading
these symbols it is of the greatest help to have a knowledge
of mythology (always entertaining reading) for if your
results are obscure to you you will often find a satisfactory
interpretation or parallel in one of the ancient myths.
But don't accept an interpretation unless you are absolutely
convinced of it, unless you "feel in your bones" that
it's the right one. The purpose of this exercise is to
bring to light those impersonal, primordial contents of
the mind which have so powerful an influence on conscious
life without our knowing it. Even if you don't find
yourself much of an adept in interpretation, you will
generally experience a feeling of relief and detachment as
a result of having put the content in objective form.

In almost every dhyana exercise it is of

vital importance to know h o w to relax both the body and

the mind, not only for comfort and efficiency, but also

because the very goal of these exercises is a form of

spiritual relaxation — a "letting-go" or abandonment of

the ego to the power of which it is an expression, called

by the Hindus Brahman and by the Chinese Tao. This power


may also be known as "Nature-in-man", and though in the
ordinary way the ego imagines itself free and self-directing
it is in fact the unknowing instrument of this power and is
only aware of itself as an ego in order that that power
may express itself in a certain way. As Chuang Tzu says,
"Your individuality is not your own; it is the delegated
adaptability of Tao." Now it is often advisable to begin

the practice of relaxation with the body, for this has an

influence on the mind.


(4) Lie down on your back on the floor (not a bed) with
your legs uncrossed and your arms slightly extended on
either side. Then imagine that all your joints are
loose and that your whole body is as heavy as lead;
begin your imagining at the head and work down to the
feet. Then imagine that the floor is so insubstantial
that you drop through it and go on falling indefinitely.
At the same time close your eyes and imagine absolute
blackness, and regulate your breath to a slow, easy,
even, rhythmic pace. With a little practice this will
produce complete relaxation.

(5) A variant that can be used while working is to


walk about imagining that your legs are long sacks
filled with lead balls, tied with string at the knees.
If you are sitting down, imagine the same for your arms,
and also for the body so that it weighs down on the
seat of the chair as if to break the legs. A great
help to relaxation of movement is to watch the behavior
of cats, paradoxical creatures that fall so limply and
heavily that they make no sound and never hurt themselves.

Chuang Tzu says that when a drunk man falls out of a cart

he is not hurt be cause he offers no resistance; how much

greater, he reasons, should be the security of one who is

drunk with Tao. To relax to liquor; to relax to Tao --

the principle is the same but the application different.

From this we can go on to relaxation of the mind.

At the start remember this principle: Relaxation is not

achieved by an effort of will but by the use of imagination.


In other words, if you try to relax, your effort will
defeat your object. As a Chinese sage said, "If you try to
accord with the Tao, you will get away from it." Now to
be in accord with Tao is to be in accord with the flow of
life, to keep pace with time, to live in the "eternal Now".
A sage was asked, "What is the Tao?" he answered, "Walk
on!"

(6) Just as an exercise and in rather a limited way this


can be interpreted as living in the present. Time is
neither fast nor slow; it is even and continuous. This
is also true of the "flow" of life. Occasionally try
keeping your thoughts simply on what is happening at the
moment; just let your mind keep pace with circumstances.
This is an exercise that will come easily to extroverts.
Do not hurry; do not lag, just let events lead you along.
Think only of walking when you walk; think only of what
is right before your eyes when you look; think only of
eating when you eat. Deal with circumstances only when
they arise and forget them when they have passed by turning
your attention to what has become present. It is advisable
to use this exercise only for short periods because it by
no means fulfills the whole meaning of "Walk on!" But it
gives you the "feel" of that even, continuous movement so
important in relaxation. It also teaches the art of
immediacy which is the secret of doing things without effort.
When you wake up in the morning with the knowledge that
you have an early appointment and have to get out of bed,
just get out of bed. If you lie and think about having
to get out of bed your resistance to this uncomfortable
act will increase, and when the time comes to get out it
will cost you a lot of effort. Therefore when the time
comes, act deliberately before resistances can arise.

This "feeling of the flow" is important; it can be

experienced partially in the above exercise, but we should be


very limited creatures if we could only think of what was
happening at the present moment in the objective, physical
situation. But it soon becomes apparent that whatever we do
we cannot get away from the "eternal Now" and, whether we
know it or not, cannot stop "walking on". If we think about
the past or the future, our thinking exists in the Now;
whether we are joyous or miserable, angry or good-humored,
our thoughts are still flowing on and manifesting the Tao
in the same even, continuous way. And with this knowledge
and having once experienced the "feel" of that flow, there
is no longer any need to try to accord with the Tao. In this
way we find ourselves set free, knowing that the Tao or the
stream of life is our true self, and that ego-
consciousness and all possible thoughts and deeds are
its flowing.
Mental relaxation (acceptance of life) is of two
general kinds in accordance with its direction. It may be
known in relation to the external universe of circumstance,
or to the internal universe of the mind in its unconscious

aspect. It may also be active relaxation or passive

relaxation. The following exercises give examples:-

TO EXTERNALS. Active.
(7) Concentration on any given subject to be successful
must be relaxed. No one can concentrate by an effort of
will, because attention is directed to the effort instead
of to the object of concentration. Whether the object
of concentration be a book, a problem or anything else.
It is important to remember that concentration is not
a direct but an indirect mental achievement; it is
not a faculty that has to be summoned in order to do a
certain task. It is rather the act, the result or the
description of doing that task in an uninterrupted, even
and continuous way. If for some reason the task in
question is unedifying and boring, concentration will
only be achieved by the immediacy mentioned in (6).
The trick is to place your attention on the task before
resistances have time to accumulate, but if you do this
by a sudden, hurried, violent effort it will bounce back
and hit you in the face. Let the mind approach it with
the heavy, evenly and uninterruptedly moving firmness of
a large, deep river. Once you get the feel of that flow
it will stimulate your imagination and you will not want
to get out of it; you will enjoy it almost sensually,
and it will no more be your nature to turn back from the
object of concentration than for a river to flow backwards
to its source. If you want to practice this as a specific
exercise try counting your breath at a slow, even pace
and direct your attention to nothing but the numbers.
Passive:
(8) We suffer an enormous amount of mental tension and
exhaustion from minor irritations. Many people suffer
from insomnia because of repeated night-noises, sirens,
cars, wind, doors slamming, &c. They fail to sleep
(a) because they are trying to sleep and (b) because
they are mentally interfering with the noises and trying
to make them stop. Here the exercise is to allow the
noises to go on as much as they like and also to allow
your organism to stay awake if it wants to. The imagination
is stimulated here by the obvious relief and freedom from
tension that will follow from saying, "I'm not going to
bother; I'm just going to be utterly lazy and let them
all clamor as much as they like!" The words, "Live and
let live" apply here. Thus if your circumstances present
you with a host of minor irritations, the secret (if such
it may be called) is to allow the external universe to
behave just as it pleases, to let it go and experience the
relief of being rid of a very unnecessary responsibility.

(9) If the above, as stated, does not work, allow your


emotions to be irritated as much as they like. It is a
question of progressive detachment, working inwards,
and thereby making more and more of your so-called
internal structure belong to external circumstances.

(10) A more serious question is that of acute pain.


An attempt to struggle away from it adds one tension
on top of another and so makes things twice as bad as
they need be. A Chinese Buddhist teacher on being
asked how to escape the heat said, "Go right down to
the bottom of the furnace." It sounds insane, but it
happens to work. Figuratively speaking, right in the
center of any pain there is a calm spot, as in a
hurricane. This calm spot is reached by what might be
called the "higher masochism", by letting the pain have
its way with you as much as it likes, by telling it to
do its worst, and by directing your attention to its
acutest point. Not only is much of the pain's sting
taken away, but you also realize your adjustment to that
aspect of the Tao or of Life which is suffering and
darkness. Both the light and the dark are essential for
its manifestation, and if you would be in accord with it
(or, rather, realize your accord with it) you must accept
all or nothing. For if you shut out the dark side in
your external circumstances it will come back at you from
the other side, from your inner depths.

(11) Here as in (9) an alternative is to let your emotions


react as they please to the pain. Even if you do not
actually scream and shout and fight, the very feeling that
you are absolutely free to do so as wholeheartedly as you
please itself heals the tension and in the same way brings
realization of accord with Tao in its dark aspect.
The above examples apply, of course, to both physical
and mental pain, and it will be seen that in examples
(9) and (11) how naturally the acceptance of the external
must lead into acceptance of the internal. These two
examples also show the natural and inevitable relation
between passive and active relaxation, for, although they
come under the passive heading, strictly speaking they are
active forms. Here follow examples of active relaxation
to our internal nature:-
TO INTERNALS. Active:

(12) Western students are often disconcerted in their


study of Oriental Psychology by the capacity of some of
the "wise men of the East" for violent emotions. We have
the impression that Oriental sages should be utterly calm
and "controlled" under all circumstances. But this
expectation is something which a certain puritanic element
in the Western mind, a certain cold, intellectual desire
for superhumanity and ultra-efficiency, has projected
into Oriental Psychology. That statement is made with
certain reservations, for that same element undoubtedly
exists in some of the philosophies of India, notably in
Hinayana Buddhism. It must be remembered however that
in a tropical climate vital energies, though abundant,
are not particularly forceful. Chinese Buddhism is
more lively, and its history contains innumerable
instances of the capacity of its initiates for displays
of almost elemental emotion, particularly anger. One
has only to look at the demonic aspects of the gods
and Bodhisattvas in Tibetan, Chinese and Japanese
iconography. If anyone imagines Buddhism to be a way
of pure passivity they should see some of the Chinese
paintings of Achala! They might also visit some of the
living masters of Zen Buddhism. For the art of
becoming reconciled and at ease with those aspects of
the natural man which correspond to storm and thunder
in the natural universe is to let them rage. Just as
there is an incomparable beauty and majesty in thunder
and lightning, so also there is something awe-inspiring
in the abandoned and uninhibited anger of the sage, which
is no mere loss of temper or petty irritability. This
is, indeed, lack of the wrong kind of self-control,
for we have to judge it from a psychological and not from
an intellectual-moral point of view. Thus to anger you
say the same thing as to pain, "Go ahead as much as you
like, do your worst and make it a good worst." No one
completely identified with his anger could ever say that.
But there may not always be an outward manifestation of
the emotion, for here as in (11) we see that the very
feeling of being free to be as angry as you like is
generally sufficient release of itself. Sometimes, however,
it is useful to be able to produce an outward manifestation
for the sake of effect.
The next example is particularly important, and unless it is
carefully considered, the student will fail to grasp the
"non-dualistic" character of the experience of kaivalya
or liberation. Paradoxically, dualism is one-sidedness,
which is to say exclusiveness or failure to be all-embracing;
non-duality requires both of any pair of opposites; duality
strives to have only one, feeling the other as a limitation
instead of a liberation.
(13) We have spoken of the ego, the consciousness of " I " ,
as the "delegated adaptability of Tao" or Nature, and it
might be imagined that the aim of these exercises is to
yield the ego entirely to the Tao, to make it realize
that its apparent freedom is a mere device. It must
therefore, we might say, realize its utter subjection to
and dependence on the Tao, seeing that it is as much a
function of Tao as speech is a function of the human being.
But ego-consciousness is as essential to Tao as speech is
essential to the human being — more essential. Therefore
there can be no true accord with the Tao unless we affirm
also its instrument the ego, unless we can allow it to be
an ego, relaxing actively to its legitimate egoistic
demands. In other words, unless you can wholeheartedly
let yourself be free to be an ego and to behave as if
you were self-directing, you cannot fully accept and accord
with the Tao or with Life. For as the ego is that by which
Tao is manifested as self-conscious man, however much we may
object to it from a philosophic standpoint, it is rather like
a case of "Love me, love my dog."
Passive:

(14) A visitant from the internal universe is the type


of mood which comes upon us irrespective of our wishes --
usually a form of depression. Here the technique is
much the same as in (10), the acceptance of pain. We not
only invite the mood to stay and make itself at home, but,
in the words of a famous psychologist, to "speak to us"
and reveal its background, its cause. Moods are symptoms
of things that want to arise from the inner depths, of
conflicts seeking the light of consciousness, just as
physical pain is a symptom of internal, physical conflict.
The appearance of such a mood is an opportunity to try the
"watching over the thoughts" exercise described in (2).
If and when the conflict behind the mood appear it may
well be an even harder visitant to entertain. But the
important thing is to entertain it and not let it be
forced out of sight by feelings of repulsion. Active
relaxation to the feelings it arouses will help here,
allowing the repulsion to exercise itself without
driving out the conflict. And conflicts usually remain
conflicts because the repulsion attached to them is
not released.

The final exercise under this head must be considered

in conjunction with (13), the acceptance of the ego, for

the following is its apparent converse, the realization

of utter dependence on the Tao.

(15) As a meditation it may be approached by using the


relaxation described in (4) as a preliminary. But here
the relaxation must not be with the body only, but with one's
whole being. Imagine also a heaviness and impotence
throughout the mind and know yourself, your ego, as something
utterly incapable of helping itself, seeing that all its
motions (which it is enabled to rationalize as its own) are
in fact unconsciously directed by the superior and
ineluctable forces of Life and Tao. To this end employ
every device of the imagination. See yourself as the
minute speck that you are in relation to the universe, and
realize how by unconscious direction and the logic of
causality every thought and deed that appears to come
from the ego is predetermined by that universe and that
you as ego are as powerless as a dead leaf blown on the
wind. Accept the extreme of fatalism. But this is
the death before the resurrection, and from the ashes
comes the Phoenix.

This type of fatalism when taken to its uttermost limits


bursts into freedom, for at the end must come again the
recognition that the ego and all its implications has just
as much claim to acceptance as the fate which determines it.
Certainly every act of the ego is predetermined by the
whole universe; but each act of the ego also effects that
universe in return, so that in one act there is vast
responsibility and vast irresponsibility. In each act
you are both the mover and the moved, for kaivalya, the great
liberation, is neither the subjection of the ego to the
power of the universe nor the acquisition of that power
by the ego so that it becomes inflated to the size of God.
The great liberation is this: when the Tao acts, you act;
when you act, the Tao acts. But here it cannot be said
in either instance that one leads while the other follows,
that one is active while the other is passive, for while
there appear to be two agents there is only one act. In
this, leading and following, action and passivity, are
the same movement.
(16) Consider this: that while freedom certainly
exists, its attainment is a fiction. When you see
this you will laugh at yourself for not having seen
it before. There never was a time when you and the
Tao did not perform that one act in perfect accord.
Only that which has no opposite can be two things at
once. If you ask yourself where you stand at this
moment you will see that one act. But it needs a
great humility to see so obvious a fact.
That which we are seeking is right before us,
but it is so self-evident that we are not aware of
it. When you realize that you are Tao and Tao is
you and that there never was anything but accord
between the two, you will also realize the freedom
of non-duality. If the Tao was a principle of duality
the world of opposites could not be, for only the
non-dual can take two courses at once and be free to
move in two directions. This Tao can neither be
found nor lost. The eyes cannot see themselves, neither
can they avoid themselves; for this reason they are
both mysterious and obvious, and therefore are like the
Tao. What kind of meditation will enable you to
understand this? Ask yourself what is the most obvious
thing in the world, and having found it, look at it.
If you ask to be shown the great liberation, we point
to your state of mind at this very moment. Take a look
at it, and know the abandonment of pride.
When a Chinese Buddhist teacher was asked whether
meditation was assisted by reading books, he answered,
"There are no by-roads, no cross-roads here; the hills all
the year round are fresh and green; east or west, in
whichever direction, you may have a fine walk." When that
is understood books are no longer needed, but in the meantime
they may be useful. Therefore the following are suggested
and the numbers at the head of each group refer to the
practical examples we have given.
(1) The Bhagavad-Gita. Trans.Annie Besant. Various edns.
The Yoga of the Bhagavad-Gita. Sri Krishna Prem.(Watkins)
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Trans. M.N.Dvivedi. (TPH)
Yoga & Western Psychology. Geraldine Coster. (Oxford UP)
(2 & 3) Two Essays on Analytical Psychology. C.G.Jung.
Especially the second part.
The Secret of the Golden Flower. Wilhelm & Jung. More
particularly the commentary by Jung. (Farrar).
(4 & 5) Concentration. Ernest Wood. (TPH)
The Freedom of Life. Annie Payson Call.
Collected Papers on Philosophy. William James. Eap.
Chap.2. (Everyman)
The Organism of the Mind. G.R.Heyer. Esp.chaps 4 & 6.
Of particular interest from medical viewpoint.
(Routledge & Kegan Paul, London).
(7 to 11) Tao Te Ching. Trans.Ch'u-Takao. (Buddhist Lodge)
Musings of a Chinese Mystic. Trans.Lionel Giles. (Dutton)
Taoist Teachings. Trans.Lionel Giles. (Dutton)
The Rhythm of Life. Henri Borel. (Dutton)
The Open Way. Howe & Le Mesurier. (Methuen, London)
War Dance. E.Graham Howe. (Faber, London).
(12) Essays in Zen Buddhism. Vol.1. D.T.Suzuki.(Marshall)
( Jones)
Introduction to Zen Buddhism. D.T.Suzuki.(Marshall Jones)
Initiations & Initiates in Tibet. A.David-Neel. (Dutton)
Asiatic Mythology. J.Hackin & others. For iconography.
(Harrap, London).
(13 & 14) Books as for 3, 3 & 12.
(15) Varieties of Religious Experience. Wm.James. (Longmans)
Essays in Zen Buddhism. Vol.2. D.T.Suzuki. Especially
chap.4. (Marshall Jones)
Also books as for 7 to 11.
(16) Himalayas of the Soul (Upanishads). Trans.J.Hascaro.
(Dutton)
A Buddhist Bible. Ed.Dwlght Goddard. Eap.Lankavatara
Sutra and the Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch.
The Legacy of Asia. A.W.Watts. (Chicago UP)
Manual of Zen Buddhism. D.T.Suzuki. (Marshall Jones)
The Gateless Gate (Mu-mon-kwan). Kyogen Senzaki.
The Religion of Non-Religion. Friedrich Spiegelberg.
(Buddhist Lodge, London)
The Psychology of Acceptance. A.V.Watts. (Analytical
Psychology Club).
Of general interest:-
Concentration & Meditation. Ed.Buddhist Lodge, London.
Spiritual Exercises. Aelfrida Tillyard. (SPCK,London)
Works of Swami Vivekanada. (Advaita Ashrama, Almora)
In New York City the above can generally be obtained from
either the Gateway Bookshop, 30 E 60, or Orientialia,59 Bank.

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