CLASSICAL BUDDHIST PSYCHOLOGY

Buddhism offers a psychology - an understanding of how the mind works - that has been applied for over 2,500 years in both study and meditative practice. It could be most succinctly described as concerned with the context of mind, while western psychology is interested in the contents of mind. Classical Buddhist thinking is taught in the southeast Asian tradition of Theravada, or "Way of the Elders." This lineage uses the earliest texts of the Buddha's teachings, before they metamorphosed into Mahayana or Vajrayana forms currently known in Zen and Tibetan Budddhism.