Advaita Vedanta and Jungian Psychology

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ADVAITA VEDANTA AND JUNGIAN PSYCHOLOGY:EXPLORATIONS TOW ARDS FURTHER RECO NCILIATION IN EAST-WESTDIALOGUES O N THE PSYCHEA d issertation sub mitted

byRAJA SELVAM

toPACIFICA GRADUATE INSTITUTE

in partial fulfillment ofthe requirements for thedegree ofDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHYinCLINICAL PSYCHOLOGYThis dissertation has beenaccepted for the faculty ofPacifica Grad uate Institute by:

/ G l e nSlater PhDAdvisor

Al Co llins, PhDExternal Read er

VeronicaGo6dqhild, PhD.^^--Dissertat ion Coordinator


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UMI Num ber: 3500725

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AUGUST 15,2008

Copyright byRAJA SELVAM

2007


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i i iABSTRACT

Advaita Vedanta and Jungian Psychology:Explorations tow ards Further Reconciliation in East-West Dialogues on the Psycheby

Raja SelvamThe two primary objectives ofthisdissertation were (a) an exploration of the

difficulty Jung had with Eastern claims of higher states of consciousness, and (b) anexploration oftheopinion among some Advaita Vedanta schools that enlightenmentcannot be achieved through intrapsychic means alone.

According to Advaita Vedanta, Jung's understanding oftheego as the only centerof consciousness (self-awareness) and his difficulty in imagining other centers ofconsciousness in the psyche are understandable given the inherent tendency in the psycheto super-impose (adhyasa) the subject of all consciousness (theBrahman)on objects ofconsciousness such as the ego (theahamkara). An analysis of Advaita Vedantaepistemology does not support J ung 's criticism that Eastern epistemology lacks a basis incritical philosophy. Numerous accounts of personal experiences from the East as well asthe West that meet Jung's criteria provide adequate empirical evidence for higher statesof consciousness. M ore recent quantum physics theories challenge Jun g's view that thereis a limit to which the unconscious can be made con scious and support Advaita V edan ta'stheory oftheconscious nature ofthesubstratum oftheuniverse. Jung's primarilyphilosophical objection to higher states of consciousness appears to soften when facedwith evidence of life after death, re-incarnation, and ego resolution in dreams.

Advaita Vedanta dem onstrates a superior understanding ofthenature and locus ofconsciousness in the psyche. Jung 's superior understanding of relationships and


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ivcommunications among levels of the psyche as archetypally driven offers AdvaitaVedanta insight on how m ediate knowledge for enlightenment could be attainted throughintrapsychic means alone. Eastern theories of dreams lack the understanding that dreamscould communicate compensatory knowledge from the selfto the ego. Limited dreammaterial is presented as evidence that mediate knowledge for enlightenment can beacquired intrapsychically through dreams.

The Jungian self is closer to Advaita Veda nta'sIsvarathan it is to the Brahman.Advaita Vedanta comp lements Jungian psychology w ith another level of self (theBrahman) and another goal for human consciousness inmoksa or enlightenment. Jungianpsychology offers Advaita Vedanta the means for acquiring psychological as well asspiritual prerequisites for enlightenment.


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DEDICATIONv

Dedicated to my father Ponvalam Muthu, my mother Kannammal,my grandmothers Muthulakshmi Am mal and Nallammal,

my grandfathers Nachimuthu Gounder and Ponnammbala Gounder,my granduncle Palaniswami Gounder, my grandaunt Ammani Ammal,

my m aternal uncle N. Jegadeesan, and all my ancestors.


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VI

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My decision to approach Dr. Glen Slater, PhD to be my dissertation advisor waspreceded by two dreams in which he was bathed in golden light. I will be eternallygrateful to him for his kind, gentle, precise, consistent, and helpful guidance. I havebecome a better person as well as a professional on account of having know n him. Dr. AlCollins, PhD, my external reader with an extensive backgroun d in Eastern philosophy,came out of nowhere to engage and challenge me to make this dissertation a much betterone.When I came to know that he had learned Sanskrit, I was hum bled. And for somereason, I was also moved. I could not have asked for a better external reader. VeronicaGoodchild, PhD , my dissertation coordinator, had impressed me with her willingness towrite about her personal experience of UFOs in her dissertation on synchronicity. I amgrateful to her for guiding me to Jung's writings on synchronicity where his thinking canbe seen as evolving in the direction of Eastern notions of nonduality.

There are many to thank for help and support in the writing ofthis dissertation,too many to count. Two I have to mention. To Sw ami Dayananda Saraswati, my Adv aitaVedanta teacher to w hom I was led by a voice dream, I bow in respect and in g ratitudefor higher know ledge by which every other know ledge is know n. I was so mov ed whenhe changed the topic ofthelast lecture of my first retreat with him toBrahma Vidyato

accom mo date my specific request for it. I imagine d that Arjuna migh t have felt similarlywhen Krishna gave him the higher know ledge. And ofDr.Richard Auger, PhD, myJungian analyst of 14 years,1can only say that it must either be my good karma or hisbad karma that he has been all that he has been to me over the years, a debt I can never


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viirepay in this life. He has been for me analyst, father, guide, wise elder, companion,friend, and occasional punching bag. When I am not discounting him defensively, Iwonder w hy I am so fortunate as to have had such a great hum an being in my life forsuch a long time, someo ne for w hom I do so little.


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Table of C ontentsvin

Chapter 1: Introduction 1Dissertation Overview 1Jung and Sankara 1Dissertation Objectives 2Personal Mo tivation 3Overview of Jungian Psychology and Advaita Vedanta 4Jungian Psychology 4Jung 's Methodology 4Advaita Vedanta 5Advaita Vedanta Methodology 6Jun g's Criticism of Eastern Claims of Higher States of Consciousness 6Criticism of Ju ng's Views on Eastern C laims of Higher States of Consciousness .... 7Research Objectives 8Methodology 12Chap ter Ou tlines 14Chapter 2 14Chap ter 3 15Cha pter 4 16Chap ter 5 16Chapter2:Literature Review 18Introduction 18Intercultural Dialogue and East-West Dialogue 21Means of Dialogue 21Benefits of Dialog ue 22Con troversies in Intercultural Dialog ue 23A Brief History of Western Explorations of Eastern Thought 25Dom inant Themes in East-West Dialogue 30Collective attitudes in East-West dialogue 30Controversies in East-West Dialogue on Relative Impact 32Jung in the Context of Larger East-West Dialogue 34Eastern Thought and Western Psychology 35Section Summ ary and Discussion 35Basic Concepts in Jungian Psychology 38Libido 38The Psyche and its Reality 38The Structure ofthePsyche: The Consciou s, the Personal Uncon scious, and theCollective Unconscious 39The Archetypes 40The Self and Individu ation 43The Nature of Religious Experience 46Jung's Theory oftheDevelopment of Religions 47Synchronicity and Psychoid Archetypes 47The Method ology of Jung 49Jun g's Interactions with the East 51


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History of Interactions 51Asses sme nt of Extent of Influence 55Specific Influences of Eastern Thou ght on Jung ian Psych ology 57Chinese Thought 58Indian Thought 60Kundalini Yoga 65Buddhist Thought 67Zen Buddhism 69Jung's Criticisms oftheEast 70Rejection of Eastern M etaphysics on E mpirical, Psychological, and PhilosophicalGrounds 70Criticism of Easter Introversion as One -Sided 71Criticism of Claim of Centers and States of Consciousness other than Ego 71Criticisms of Eastern Epistemology 74Rejection of Claim of Om niscience 75Rejection of Claim of Freedom from the Tension of Opp osites 76Criticism of Transcendence as a Value 77General Summary of the Dialogue on Jungian Psychology and Eastern Thought 78Jung and Eastern Thought: A Summ ary 78Literature on Jung and Eastern Thought: A Summ ary 81Criticisms of Jung on Eastern Thought 86Ambivalence 86Cultural Enclavism and Orientalism 87Psychological Stereotyping 87Psychologism 88Adequacy of Jun g's Method 89Adequacy of Jun g's Understanding 90Incompleteness of Jun g's Psychological Mod el 94Criticisms of Jung for his Rejection of Eastern Me thods for W esterners 94Lack of Practitioner Perspective or Direct Exp erience 95Assessment of the Positive Impact of Jun g's Eastern Explorations 96Research Stimulated by Jun g's Writings on Eastern Thought 98Com parative Studies Classified by Scope 98Com parative Studies Classified by Concep t or Me thod 100Com parative Studies Classified by Nature of Findings 101Studies that Employ Jungian Psychology to Interpret, Un derstand, or C omplementEastern Thought 103Studies that Employ Eastern Thought to Interpret, Understand, or Com plementJungian Psychology 104Studies that Analyze Ju ng 's Rejection of Eastern Me thods for W esterners 105Studies that Attempt to Clear Western Misunderstanding of Eastern Thought 106Studies that Engage Jungian Psycho logy and Eastern Traditions in Dialog ue 106Basics Con cepts of Adv aita Vedan ta 107History 107Basic Conc epts 109Sankara's Epistemology 115


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Nature of Indian Philosophy 116Paths to Moksa or Enlightenment in Advaita Vedanta 117Qualifications for Enligh tenm ent 120Studies on Vedanta and Jungian Psychology 121Future Directions for Jungian psychology and Eastern thought 123Chapter 3: Com plementary Role for Advaita Vedanta in Jungian Psychology 125Introduction 125Advaita Vedanta Perspective on J ung 's Rejection of Eastern Claims of Higher Statesof Consciousness 126Jung on Consciousness 127Advaita Vedanta on Consciousness 127On Jung's Difficulty with the Concept ofa Self-Aware Subject without an Object134Jung's Difficulty with the Eastern View oftheUnreality ofthe Phenomenal World138Ju ng 's Difficulty with the Concep t of Ego Reso lution 140Jun g's Difficulty with Eastern Claims of Omniscience Associated with HigherStates of Con sciousn ess 141The Two-Level Theory ofthe Advaita Vedanta Selfasa Reconciling Framework forApparent Contradictions in Jungian Thought and Advaita Vedanta 142Section Summ ary 146Jung and Eastern Epistemology 147Introduction 147On the Historical Developm ent of Vedic Systems of Philosophy 149The Form of Early Advaita Veda Source Books 152An Analysis of Jun g's Sources of Eastern Thought in the Collected Works 154On the Mixing of Different Disciplines of Kno wledge in India 158The Epistemology of Advaita Vedanta 161The Dual Nature of Advaita Vedanta 164The Process of Enligh tenme nt in Traditional Adv aita Vedan ta 166Examples from the Teaching Methodology of Advaita Vedanta 170Section Summ ary and Con clusions 172Analys is of Evidenc e of Higher States of Con sciousn ess 174Evidenc e for Higher States of Con sciousness 175Characteristics of Higher States of Con sciousness 177Mo dern Science and High er States of Con sciousness 179The Advaita Vedanta Perspective on Higher States of Consciousness 180Ju ng 's Criteria for Em pirical Evidence 185Discussion of Reasons of Jung's Rejection of Available Evidence of Higher Statesof Con sciousness 186Advaita Vedanta and Jungian Psychology from the Perspective of Quantum Physics192Jung, Synchronicity, Psychoid Archetype, and Unus Mun dus 192Adv aita Vedan ta, Tim e, and Space 193Consciousness, Jung, and Advaita Vedanta 193Relevant Findings in Quantum Physics 195


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XI

Implications of Recent Quantum Physics Findings for Jungian Psychology andAdvaita Vedanta 198A Scientific V iew that Advaita Vedanta Reso lves All Paradoxes in Q uantumPhysics 200Chapter 4: The Com plementary Role of Jungian Psychology in Advaita Vedanta 203W libur's Four-Quadrant Integral Model 204The Superior Aspects of Jun g's Understanding of the Psyche 207Com pensation, Karma, and Jung 209Dreams, Vedanta, and Jung 211The Differences of Opinion among Advaita Vedanta Schools on the Possibility ofObtaining the Necessary M ediate K nowledge for Enlightenment Solely throughIntrapsychic Means 214Reconciliation of the Differences of Opinion among Advaita Vedanta Schools on thePossibility of Enlightenment through Solely Intrapsychic Means from the JungianPerspective 218Intrapsychic Possibilities for Enlightenment through Archetypal Structures in thePsyche 219Reco nciliation of Differences of Opinion amo ng Adv aita Veda nta Schools 222Evidence of Mediate Knowledge for Enlightenment in Dreams 224The Value of Jungian Psychology in Acquiring B asic Psychological and SpiritualQualifications for Enlightenm ent in Adv aita Ved anta 229Basic Qualifications for Enlighten men t in Ad vaita Ved anta 230The Case for the Use oftheJungian Model in Advaita Vedanta for Acquiring B asicQualifications for Enlighten men t 231The Value of Jungian Psychology in Developing Basic 'Psychological'Qualifications for Enlightenm ent 234The Value of Jungian Psychology in Developing Basic 'Spiritual' Qualifications forEnlightenment 235Chapter 5: Conclusions 237Summary of Major Findings 237Research Questions Addressed in Chapter3: 237Summary of Major Findings in Chapter 3 239Research Questions Addressed in Chapter 4 244Summary of Major Findings in Chapter 4 245Incremental Contributions oftheDissertation to the Area of Research 249Implications for Clinical Psycho logy 253Limitations of the Dissertation 255In Conclusion 258

References 260Appendix A 282

Note: The dissertation ahheres to the stylistic and editorial standards ofthe sixthedition ofThePublication Man ual of the American Psychological Association (AmericanPsychological Association, 2010).


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Chapter 1Introduction

Dissertation OverviewJung and Sankara

Jung developed analytical psychology in the West in the 20th century as apsychological model that focused on the potential for growth in the consciousness of anindividual psyche, in part in response to what he believed to be a spiritual crisis in theW estern psyche that had lost its meaning in moribund images of an external God (Clarke,1992,pp. 57, 77). Sankara developed Advaita Vedanta on the basis oftheancient Vedas,the sacred texts of Hinduism, between the 6 l and 9f centuries CE, in part in response towhat he believed to be a spiritual crisis in the Indian psyche brought about by thefragmentation of Hinduism into sects that focused on rituals and devotion, in adisconnection from the eternal truth oftheuniversal spirit in the Upanishads,the endportions of the four Vedas also called the Vedanta (Radhakrishnan, 1923/1994b, pp. 17-18).Advaita Vedanta, a philosophy of monistic idealism, is a model of consciousness ofthe psyche oftheworld as well as a model of consciousness of an individual psyche inthat it asserts the equivalence of the two in the most-quoted Vedantastatement "Tat tvamasi"or "That thou art" (Radhakrishnan, 1923/1994b, p. 537). Jungian psychology andAdvaita Vedanta, developed in entirely different times and in different social, cultural,and religious contexts as mode ls of the individual hum an psych e, offer differentpossibilities for the growth and development of consciousness in the human psyche.


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Dissertation objectivesThis dissertation is a hermeneutical and phenom enological endeavor aimed at

further bridge building between these two models to explore the possibility ofamorecomprehensive model of the human psyche, ideally with greater possibility for thegrowth ofan individual psyche than offered by either model. In pursuit of the aboveobjective, the dissertation will examine specifically where the two models complementeach other and therefore offer possibilities for building on each other or overcomingdeficiencies in each other. The dissertation will also examine specifically where the twotraditions have appeared historically to differ irreconcilably from each other to examinesuch conceptual differences again through a dialogue informed by (a) deeperunderstanding from prolonged study of and personal immersion in both models in myown individuation process; (b) more recent theoretical developments in quantumphysics; and (c) relevant empirical evidence of higher states of consciousness fromEastern as well as Western spiritual and psychological traditions.

The actual history of dialogue between the West and East has unfolded over alonger period than generally believed (Schwab, 1950/1984, p. 117; Radhakrishnan, 1939)and has had a greater impetus in the West in certain periods such as enlightenment andromanticism reflecting the prevailing con ditions and needs in the W est (Clarke, 1994, p.28).At times, this dialogue has been quite broad in scope, acknowledging very general

differences between the East and West and the associated pitfalls of over-generalizationand stereotyping, and has been criticized for possible ulterior motives, includingdomination oftheother cultures (Said, 1978). At times, this dialogue has been narrowerin scope, taking the form ofa comparison of two specific systems (eg. Anand, 1980;


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Jordens, 1985a; Spiegelman and Miyuki, 1985; Spiegelman and Vasavada, 1987;Thornton, 1965; W hitfield, 1992). The dissertation, even though it belongs to the lattercategory of dialogue, has as its focus very general issues that still remain in the debatebetween Jungian and Eastern thought in particular and Western and Eastern thought ingeneral on the topic of the nature of human consciousness, its origin and its limits.

Personal m otivationThere is also considerable personal motivation in the writing of this dissertation. I

grew up in India for the first 26 years of my life and h ave lived in the United States fornearly as long. I have sought personal growth through Jungian psychology and itsderivatives for 16 years and through a formal study of Advaita Vedanta with an Indianteacher for the past 8 years, to whom I was led by a dream while writing a paper on Jungand Eastern thought for a class on Jungian psychology at the Pacifica Graduate Institute.The conflicts that arose in my psyche in embracing these two systems and my attempts toreconcile what appeared initially to be irreconcilable differences between the two havebeen a fertile ground (at times a psychic minefield ) for the development of thisdissertation. Specifically, the Jungian position that rejected Eastern claims of higherstates of consciousness that transcended the ego in the human psyche and the position inAdvaita Vedanta (at the school1have been studying it) that the knowledge of the ultimateknowledge of oneself cannot be arrived at intrapsychically by an individual forepistemological reasons both played equally important roles in heightening my personalconflict and motivation to write this dissertation.


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4

Overview ofJungian Psychology and Advaita VedantaJungian psychology

In Jung's model, the ego is defined as the only center of consciousness in thepsyche (Jung 1951/1969, p. 3). The psyche ofahuman being is divided into theconscious and the unconsciou s, with the unconscious further divided into a personalunconscious and a collective unconscious (Jacobi, 1973, pp. 5-9). Theself,the center aswell as the circumference ofthepsyche and an entity super-ordinate to the ego (Jacobi,1973,pp. 126-131), is unconscious and therefore needs the conscious ego to evolve(Adler & Jaffe, 1973a, p. 65). The individuation ofthehuman being or growth in theindividual psyche comes from the conscious ego successively encountering andassimilating the contents ofitsunconscious, first the personal and then the collective,with the ego increasingly surrendering its authority to the self over time (Jacobi, 1973,pp. 104-107). The individuation proces s is a dynam ic one in which both the ego and theself evolve over time with the help of each other. The impulse towards wholeness isuniversal, and its symbols appear to be indistinguishable from the phenomenology ofreligious experience in the human psyche (Jung, 1926/1964, p. 339).

Jung's methodologyJung's philosophical outlook was much influenced by Western phenomenology

on the one hand and the empiricism of Western science on the other (Jung, 1933/1961,pp.134-138). Even though Jung argued for the reality of the psyche and stronglydisagreed with science that the psyche was a mere epiphenomenon of matter, he appearsnot to have broken completely free ofthemodern Western scientific notion of


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consciousness that it arose ultimately from matter in part or whole and is in a continuousstate of evolution in which hum an beings play a central role, despite com ing close tobreaking ranks with this world view more than once in his lifetime as in his writings onsynchronicity and the psychoid archetype (Clarke, 1992, p. 198).

Advaita VedantaIn Sank ara's Advaita Vedanta m odel, an immutable, eternal, infinite, all-

pervasive, self-existent, and self-aware pure consciousness called theBrahman is positedas the transcendent as well as immanent basis of all existence and consciousness,including human, in the plurality ofthe relative or dual universe (Radhakrishnan,1923/1994b, pp. 566, 602); dual or relative be cause it is dependent on the nondual orabsolute reality oftheoneness of theBrahmanwhich does not depend on anything elsefor its existence and consciousness through the mystery of creation called maya(p. 572).The Brahman is the sole source of existence and consciousness for the universe (Isvara)(p .555) as well as the sole source of existence and consciousness for the individual (jiva)(pp. 475-485). All individuals have the inherent capacity to achieve the highest awarenessof themselves as theBrahman (pp. 513-514). Such achievement, calledmoksaorenlightenment, offers the individual orjiva freedom from the endless cycle of birth,death, and rebirth (pp. 644, 646). Such possibility is hidden from view in the individ ual'sconsciousness throughavidyaor ignorance due tomaya(p. 507). Images of Gods andreligions are but symbols formed by the human psyche in an attempt to grasp thewholeness ofitsnondual nature as theBrahman and are ultimately transcended inmoksa(p .649). The impulse towards wholeness is inherent in the individual in the sense of


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6limitation that is unavoidable in the limited consciousness ofthesubject in the subject-object duality ofthe universe (Dayananda, 2002, pp. 1-6).

Advaita Vedanta methodologyAlthough some A dvaita Vedantins such as S ankara claim that these eternal truths

in the Vedas are based on the personal experiences of enlightened yogis and aresubjectively verifiable by others either on their own or through the Vedic pramanas ormethodologies (Ra dhakrishnan, 1923/I994b, pp. 513-514), others such as Badarayana(the author oftheBrahma Sutras and the founder ofthe Vedanta tradition) claim thatindividuals are epistemologically inlierently incapable of arriving at these truths on theirown, constrained by the structure of their psyche, and therefore they require the help ofthe externalpramanas or methodologies in the Vedas to becom e enlightened(Radhakrishnan, 1923/1994b, p. 435). The latter group holds the Vedas as revelationsfrom God to man.

Jung's criticism of Eastern claims of higher states of consciousnessJung rejected Eastern claims of states of higher consciousness in which the ego

consciousness is transcended, the experience of the tension of opposites is overcome, andthe duality of subjects and objects is dissolved (Jung, 1953/1969, pp. 484-485;1954/1969b, p. 505). Jung rejected these Eastern claims on the basis that they had noscientific and empirical basis (Coward, 1985,p.61; Jung, 1929/1967, p. 54) and that theylacked the rigor of logic and reasoning ofa sound critical thought and philosophy (Jung,1929/1967, pp. 50, 54; 1944/1969, p. 580; Adler & Jaffe, 1973b, p. 438). Characterizing


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the higher states of consciousness claimed by the East as states of trance orunconsciousn ess (Jung, 1939/1959, p. 288) or as participation mystique (Jung,1954/1969b, p. 504), Jung stated that such states claimed by yogis probably arose fromEastern intuition over-reaching itself (Jung, 1954/1969b, p. 505) without the safeguard ofa critical philosophy on the one hand and a scientific and empirical world view on theother. Jung also offered as one reason for his objection to W esterners practicing Easternmethods his rejection of higher states of consciousness claimed by the East (Borelli,1985a, pp. 79-92).

Criticism of Jung's views on Eastern claims of higher states of consciousnessApart from the controversy stemm ing from Jun g's view that Eastern methods are

unsuitable for Westerners, Jung's rejection of Eastern claims of higher states ofconsciousness and his reasons for rejecting them and the ensuing criticisms have beenone of most active and controversial areas in the literature on Jung and Eastern thought.Jung has been criticized for misunderstanding the nature of the higher states ofconsciousness (Sen, 1943 & 1952; Jacobs, 1961; K rishna, 1975; Ajaya, 1983; Coward,1985; Reynolds, 1989; Wilbur, 1990) as trance states (Guenther, 1975; Bishop, 1984), orstates in which the ego is dissolved (Parker, 1967; Avens, 1980; Miyuki, in Spiegelman& M iyuki, 1985; Whitfield, 1992) with some attributing Jung 's m isunderstanding to theinadequacy of his psychological model (W elwood, 1989; Jones, 1989) with which hetried to reduce to psychological understanding what are essentially spiritual states(Jacob s, 19 61; Ajaya, 1983 ; Cow ard, 1985; Rey nolds, 1989; W ilbur, 1990; Aziz, 1990;Leon, 1998).


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8Jung has been criticized for rejecting Eastern claims of an empirical basis for

these states (Jordens, 1985a) or for overlooking the empirical evidence for such statesfrom the personal experiences of individuals in the East as well as West throughouthistory (Schultz, 1934; Moacanin, 1986). He has also been criticized for overlooking thetradition of critical thought and philosophy in the East (Clarke, 1994). His rejection ofhigher states of consciousness claimed by the East has been attributed to lack of personalexperience (Jo rdens, 1985a); a practitioner perspective (Rey nolds, 1989; von M oltke,2000); inability to imagine the possibility of consciousness outside the context of subject-object duality (Watts, 1973; Welwood, 1979); Western scientific bias (Jacobs, 1961); anda fundamental East-West philosophical difference regarding the perfectibility of humannature (Coward, 2002 ). Jung 's empiricism has also been understood as one level ofexperience in Advaita V edanta (Thornton, 1965).

Using Jung's theories ofthepsychoid archetype and synchronicity or his ownstatements that indicate a changing position with respect to his views on higher states ofconsciousness, karma, and re-incarnation, some (Jordens, 1985a & 1985b; Seeman, 2001)have inferred willingness on Jung's part to re-examine his earlier outright rejection ofhigher states of consciousness claimed by the East and his reasons for rejecting them butconclude that he did not go as far as to embrace them more fully in his lifetime.

Research ObjectivesThere are two primary and overall research objectives, each of which is broken

down further into several secondary and specific objectives.1.Primary and overall objective:


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9Can a dialogue between the specific Eastern tradition of Advaita Ve danta and

Jungian psych ology shed further light on any misunderstanding that Jung might have hadof Eastern thought especially in relation to the nature of higher states of consciousnessand the possibility for attaining them in the hum an psyche ?

Secondary and specific objectives:a. Theoretical perspective: Jung criticized Eastern claims of higher states of

consciousness on philosophical grounds laid by Kant. Accordingly, he argued that theself cannot be known directly. He defined the ego as the only conscious function in thepsyche . And he understood consciousness as always implying a subject-object context.From the pe rspective of Ve danta, it has been observed that Jungian thought is dualisticand that it is pertinent to one order or level of reality in Vedanta (Thornton, 1965). Andaccording to Advaita Vedanta, a my sterious force called maya makes it extremelydifficult for the human psyche to grasp its infinite nature (Radhakrishnan, 1929/1994b, p.507).To wh at extent and in what specific w ays can an in-depth study of AdvaitaVedanta's multilevel model of the psyche with dual and nondual levels of consciousnesshelp explain and reconcile Jung's difficulties with, rejection of, and misunderstanding ofEastern thought, especially in relation to higher states of consciousness beyond the ego?

b. Epistemological perspective: One reason Jung offered for rejecting Easternclaims of higher states of consciousness is that Eastern epistemology lacked the logicalrigor of W estern post-Kan tian critical philosophy. Indian philosopher Radhakrishnan(1923/1994a) disagrees: "It is untrue that philosophy in India never becam eself-conscious or critical. Even in its early stages rational reflection tended to correct religiousbe lie f (p. 27). Does an in-depth analysis of Advaita Vedanta epistemology offer insight


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10on this difference of opinion on wh ether Eastern philosophy and epistemology have acritical basis? W hat is the basis of Jun g's conclusions in this regard?

c. Empirical perspective: One of Jung 's criticisms of Eastern claims of higherstates of consciousness was that they were not based on empirical evidence. Whatempirical evidence is there in the East as w ell as the West for the attainment of higherstates of consciousness? W hat are their characteristics? To w hat extent do they meetJung's criteria for empirical evidence?

d. Scientific perspe ctive: Jung rejected Eastern claims of higher states ofconsciousness as scientifically untenable. However, in his formulation of the concept ofsynchronicity and reformulation ofthepsychoid archetype on the basis of em ergingscientific findings in quantum physics, Jung speculated on a commo n third out of whichthe duality of psyche and matter arose and appeared to be moving in the direction ofAdvaita Vedan ta's understanding ofthe nature of psyche as the fundamental substratumof the universe. D o findings in quantum physics since Jung bring the Jungian and A dvaitaVedanta models closer?

2. Primary and overall objective:Can a dialogue b etween the specific Eastern tradition of Advaita V edanta and

Jungian psycho logy help resolve the differences of opinion among Adva ita Vedantaschools on whether hum an beings have the inherent capacity to achieve enlightenmentthrough solely intrapsychic m eans without an external source of knowledge such as theVeda s? Can such a dialogue also lead to the formulation ofa more comprehensive modelofthepsyche with greater means and ends for psychic growth?

Secondary and specific objectives:


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11a. W hat is the nature of the epistemological argument in some schools of

Advaita Vedanta against the possibility of enlightenment through solelyintrapsychic means?

b. Can Jungian psychology, especially with its well-developedunderstanding of the archetypal structure of the psyche and of theintrapsychic axis of commu nication between the ego and theself,helpin understanding and if possible resolving the above differences ofopinion among the Advaita Vedanta schools?

c. W hat unde rstand ing is there in the East of the possibility of intrapsychiccom munication between the self and the ego of archetypal realities,especially through dream s, which are considered to be an importantconduit of such com munications in Jungian psychology?

d. Is there any em pirical evidence for intrapsychic ego-selfcomm unication that is on par with the core mediate knowledge aroundenlightenment in Advaita Vedanta?

e. In what ways do Jungian psychology and Advaita Vedanta complementeach other? Is it possible to arrive at an overarching model of thepsyche by integrating the two models that offer greater possibilities,goals as well mean s, for human psychic achievement? Given thefindings ofthedissertation, what revisions or changes have to be m adein the fundamental assumptions of the two systems to make themcompatible?


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12Methodology

The dissertation will engage Advaita Ved anta and Jungian psychology in a mutualhermeneutic dialogue in the pursuit of its research objectives. The hermeneutic dialoguewill also involve the scientific paradigm of quantum physics on the one hand and thephenomenology oftheexperience of higher states of consciousness from the East as wellas West on the other to lend two additional perspectives to the inquiry. The hermeneuticinquiry will attempt to take special note of the relevant historical, social, cultural,religious, political, racial, philosophical, epistemological, literary, artistic, scientific, andtechnological contexts of the two models as much as possible, with special emphasis onthe philosophical and epistemological contexts for reasons presented later.

The wordhermeneutics,derived from the Greek word for interpreter, relates tothe Greek god H ermes and has the basic meaning oftheprocess of making the meaningclear. Gad amer who offered a philoso phical accou nt ofthe conditions that characterizedhuman understanding suggests that hermeneutics is a dialogue and that a realunderstanding required a "thorough immersion in the subject its el f (Palmer, 1969, p.199). Gadamer, a pupil of Heidegger, understood that all thinking was h istoricallyembedded and presupposed a tradition in which a thinker was im mersed; and thatadequate understanding requ ired not only a careful evaluation of the context of thethought being studied but also the context oftheperson studying it; and that it alsoinvolved a "hermene utical circle, "a continuing dialectical exchange . . . by reiterativeinterplay of meaning between part and whole, between text and context, betweeninterpreter and interpreted" (Clarke, 1994, p. 43). According to Reason and Ro wan


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13(1981), "all understanding is hermeneutical, taking place, and to a very large extent,determined by our finite existence in time, history, and culture" (p. 132).

That a great deal of attention needs to be paid to the relative contexts of thesesystems of thought to minimize m isunderstanding follows naturally and logically fromthe fact that the dissertation compares two systems of thought that evolved in verydifferent cultures and times in an attempt at reconc iliation acros s time, space, and culture,with differing philosophies and epistemologies. The reasons for the special emphasis inthe dissertation on un derstanding the philosophical and epistemological contexts of thetwo models are to be found in the literature on Jungian psychology and Eastern thought.As we saw earlier, Jun g's view that the East lacked a sound critical philosophy has beencriticized as inaccurate. We also saw that Jung's criticism of lack of empiricism inEastern claims of higher states of consciousness has also been challenged. Jo rdens(1985a) points to Jung 's lack of grasp ofa differing style of scholarship among Easternthinkers such as Patanjali who belonged to a tradition that considered natural thetransition from experience and reasoning to metaphysical statements, suggesting thatsuch statements therefore are not to be construed as lacking either reason or empiricism(p. 164).

Jung's negative view ofthemixture of psychology, philosophy, ontology,metaphysics, spirituality, and religion in the East contrasts with a more integral Easternview that holds the ontological analysis of the fundamental nature of one's being as thecentral science around which all else need to revolve and finds it odd that it has oftenbeen the other way around in the West, with religion and science dom inating the dialoguein relation to all other disciplines in different periods in its history (Radhakrishnan,


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141923/1994b, pp. 22-24). In contrast with the criticism that Eastern metaphysics at timeslacked logic, Banerjee (1988) holds that a metaphysical system must be creative andgrounded in one's deeper quest for identity and finds totally lacking or missing inWestern philosophy a "pre-logical" insight into reality. And according to Radhak rishnan(1923/1994b), Sankara holds the view that the ultimate understanding of one's nature isbeyond all logic ofthe dual empirical world of subjects and objects (pp. 512-513).

The study of philosophical and epistemological perspectives that underpinnedJun g's thinking is important to understanding Ju ng's interactions w ith the East andEastern thought. For example, according to Clarke (1994, p. 198), Jung's views onhuman consciousness and epistemology, despite his case for the reality ofthepsyche,appear to have been tethered deep down to some extent in the prevailing scientificnotions of consciousness as evolving and material in nature (in part or whole) and thatperspective might have contributed to his difficulty in being open to certain Easternconcepts such as pure consciousness or awareness as the fundamental ontological realityof being, even though Jung appeared to move beyon d both psyche and matter towards athird underlying p ossibility in his writings on synchronicity and psychoid archetypes.

Chapter O utlinesChapter 2

The second chapter, presented in 13 sections, contains a detailed outline in itsintroduction. In addition to an extensive review oftherelevant literature, the chapterconsists of sections covering (a) general issues in inter-cultural dialogue; (b) an overview


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15of East-West dialogue; (c) basic concepts in Jungian psycho logy; and (d) basic conceptsin Advaita Vedanta.

Chapter 3The chapter contains four sections. In section 1, Jung's rejection of higher states

of consciousness beyond the ego is explored from the point of view of Advaita Vedanta.Jung criticized the East for lacking critical philosophy a la Kant and for conflatingpsychology, philosophy, and religion. In section 2, Advaita Ved anta's epistemology andits basic assumptions are explored and compared with Ju ng 's, especially in relation to theconcept oftheself.Whereas Jung's selfisunconscious, the Advaita Vedan ta self isconscious or self-aware. The objective of this analysis is to understand w hether J ung 'scriticisms reflected adequate understanding of Eastern epistemology and its basicassumptions. In section 3, the empirical evidence for higher states of consciousness fromthe East as well the West is studied. The objective is to determine the generalcharacteristics of descriptions of higher states of consciousness and their adequacy asempirical evidence with respect to Jung's criteria. In his later writings on synchronicity,Jung appears to expand the boundaries ofthepsyche, attempting to provide an analogy ifnot scientific basis for it in early developments in quantum physics. Section 4 presents aperspective that findings in modern quantum phy sics support Advaita Ved anta's claim ofnondual consciousness as a basic characteristic of all reality and explores whether Junghimself might have b een evolving in the direction of Eastern notions of the psyche.


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16Chapter 4

The chapter is organized in five sections. In section 1, Wilbur's four-quadrantintegral model is used as a conceptual framework to assess the strengths, weaknesses, andpotential com plementarities in Jungian and Advaita V edanta models. In section 2, thesuperior aspects of Jung 's un derstanding of the structure ofthepsyche, his understandingof relationships and com munications among its many levels and his theory of archetypes,is discussed. In section 3, the differences of opinion among Advaita Vedanta schools onthe ability of an individual to obtain the necessary mediate knowledge for enlightenmentthrough intrapsychic means alone is presented and explored. In section 4, the Jungiantheory of archetypes is brought in to understand and reconcile the differences of opinionamong Ad vaita Vedanta schools and establish the po ssibility of obtaining the necessarymediate knowledge for enlightenment through intrapsychic means alone. In section 5,some dream material is presented and explored as possible evidence of mediateknowledge for enlightenment that is on par with the core teachings in Advaita Vedanta.And in section 6, the complementary role that the Jungian model can play in helpingthose on the Advaita Vedanta path with acquiring the basic psychological and spiritualqualifications for enlightenment is discussed.

Chapter 5Chapter 5 consists of five sections. Section1 presents the major research

questions and the summary of major findings, by chapter. Section 2 presents the specificincremental contributions ofthisdissertation to the area of research. Section 3 exploresthe potential contribution ofthedissertation to the theory and practice of clinical


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17psychology. Section 4 reflects on the limitations ofthis dissertation and section 5 pointsto possibilities for future research and study in the area of scholarship.


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18Chapter 2

Literature R eview

IntroductionThe rather lengthy review ofthe literature is presented in several sections. The

first section reviews select literature on intercultural dialogue in general and East-Westdialogue in particular. The possibility, extent, means, benefits, and risks of interculturaldialogue as well as the history of East-West dialogue, its major themes and controversies,are covered in this section. The second section presents the basic concepts of Jungianpsychology. T he third section presents a chronological history of Ju ng 's interactions withthe Eastern traditions. The fourth section presents a detailed analysis of the influences ofdifferent Eastern traditions on Jung's thinking. The fifth section presents the majorobjections that Jung raised in relation to Eastern thought. The sixth section presents quicksummaries of Jung on Eastern thought and ofthe dialogue that has ensued since on Jungand Eastern thoug ht. The seventh section presents in greater detail the criticisms thathave been leveled at Jung on his writings on the East. The eighth section presents positiveassessments of Jun g's contributions to the W est as well as East stemming from hisinteractions with the East. The ninth section presents the major categories of research thatJun g's writings on the East have spawned in the field of psychology. The tenth sectionpresents the basic concepts of Advaita Vedanta and the eleventh the literature on AdvaitaVedanta and Jungian psychology. The twelfth and final section offers an assessment ofthe possibilities for research in the interface between Jungian psychology and Easternthought as revealed by the survey oftheliterature.


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19The length of the literature review chap ter is justified in part in terms of the

inclusion of the basic concepts ofthemodels of Jungian psychology and AdvaitaVedanta, the dialogue between the two forming the body ofthedissertation. The length isalso justified in terms of the inclusion ofthe first section on intercultural dialogue ingeneral and East-West dialogue in particular for the reasons presented below.

This dissertation has as a background personal long-term im mersion on my p art intwo systems of thought that stand alone as distinct and narrow traditions within theirrespective cultures. They owe their existence to two extraordinary men, Sankara of Indiaand Carl Jung of Switzerland, who each in his own way interpreted or reinterpreted theextant understanding ofthepsyche to rejuvenate their respective cultures. One reason forincluding section on intercultural dialogue and East-West dialogue is to bring at theoutset a broader perspective to the dissertation that compares two narrow traditionswithin their cultures, even though the scope ofthe inquiry by these two traditions, acomprehensive mapping of the human psyche, is by no means narrow.

Another reason for including the section on intercultural dialogue and East-Westdialogue is to better understand the intercultural context in which the dialogue hasevolved, a context that in itselfhasevolved over time. A hermeneutical endeavor tounderstand and to contribute to an intercultural dialogue requires an understanding of notonly the internal contexts of the two cultures involved in dialogue but also an

understanding oftheattitudes with which they have engaged each other over time.The understanding of the array of characteristic or collective attitudes that the

East and West brought to their encounters over time was personally very important. Ithelped me to become aware ofthe impact of such attitudes on those engaging in the


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2

dialogue, includingmyself,and to set them aside as much as possible to engage the topicon a deeper and more sub stantive level without being unduly distracted b y them. T heattitude of racial or cultural superiority that the West is often accused of bringing to thedialogue and the Eastern attitude that its superior understanding ofthepsyche precludesany significant contribution to it by the West can be seen as examples of suchcharacteristic attitudes with the potential to polarize one side against the other bytriggering defensive reactions counterproductive to mutual understanding.

I am an Easterner who lived in India for the first 26 years of my life and who haslived in the West for nearly as long, immersed on the one hand in the study of AdvaitaVedanta with an Indian teacher now for 8 years and immersed in the study and practice ofJungian psychology, including a personal Jungian analysis now in its 13th year, on theother hand. Such attitudes on both sides triggered much emotional difficulty and manydefensive reactions on personal as well as collective levels of my psyche as soon as Istarted to engage the topic in earnest. Therefore, it became extremely important for me tobecome conscious of such collective attitudes on both sides as well as their potentialimpact in terms of counter-productive and polarizing reactions so that I could lookbeyond them not only to engage the topic on a deeper and more substantive level but alsoto convince myself that the endeavor was indeed worthwhile in the first place. Theinclusion of more discussion and personal conclusion in the first section on interculturaldialogue and East-West dialogue than in other sections ofthe literature review that followis a reflection of this personal struggle w ith such collective attitudes on both sides andmy attempts to come to terms w ith them. As a conseq uence, the first section of thischapter adheres less to the format ofatraditional literature review. Also, for the same


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reasons, the review of the literature on intercultural dialogue and East-West dialogue inthe first section is not exhaustive but selective to serve the purpose of unearthing themajor themes and the collective attitudes involved.

In the literature on Jung and Eastern thought, I found the contributions of Clarke(1992; 1994; 1997) to be the most com prehens ive, researched, reasoned, and b alanced.Clarke also brings to his work on Jung and Eastern thought the unique vantage point of ahistorian of ideas interested in the history of larger East-West dialogue over time.Cla rke ' s In Search of Jung (1992) is a comprehensive analysis of Jungian thought in thecontex t of the history of ideas in the West. Cl ark e's Jung and Eastern Thought: ADialogue with the Orient (1994) is a com prehen sive analysis of Jung and Eastern tho ughtin the context of a longer his tory of East-We st dia logue over t ime . And C larke 's OrientalEnlightenment (1997 ) is a com preh ensiv e analysis of the history of the larger Ea st-W estdialogueitself. I wo uld like to ack now ledg e my deep heartfelt gratitude to Clark e, onwho se work I have re l ied substant ia l ly for the l iterature review o n Jung and Easternthought, and for inspiring in me what I hope is a more reasoned and balanced attitudetowards the topic .1 would also l ike to acknowledge my grat i tude to Coward (1985) ,whose scholarly contribution to the dialogue on Jung and Eastern thought is next only toCla rke ' s .

Intercultural Dialogue and East- West DialogueMeans of dialogue

Migration of people or ideas across cultures and new civilizations forming out ofold ones through migration contribute to intercultural dialogues in an obvious manner.


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The possibility of such dialogue on a more subtle level through morphogenetic fields(Sheldrake, 1981) and archetypal structures (Jung, 1954/1959) has also been theorized,with some evidence.

Benefits of dialogueUnderstanding of self andother.All dialogues offer a potential to enhance

understanding on both sides, not only in understanding the point of view oftheother butalso in helping to clarify one's own point of view (Coward,1990, p. 148; Eliade, 1960,pp. 10-11;Spiegelman & M iyuki, 1985, p. 172). In his own words, Cow ard (1990) statesthat such dialogues are important

not just in the building ofabridgehead between the two traditions, important asthat is initself,but the benefit is also one ofa deeper self-understanding achievedby examining o ne's own thinking in relation to the thought oftheother. Moresimply put, it is through others that we come to know ourselves, (p. 148)Correction of imbalances in self andother.The opportunities for critically

appraisingoneself, complementing/balancing/broadening one's perspective, andrecovering what has been lost in one 's perspective using the perspective provided byanother culture, have been cited as benefits of intercultural dialogue b y man y writers.Schweitzer (1936, p. 17) sees the opportunity for discovering complementarities,Radhakrishnan (1939, p. 252) the opportunity for self-renewal, and Abegg (1949/1952,pp . 336-337) the opportunity for discovery and rediscovery of things lost in one's owntradition in the tradition oftheother.


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Controversies in intercultural dialogueCultural enclavism.With respect to the extent to which intercultural dialogue

migh t be fruitful and even po ssible, there are alternative views. The view characterized ascultural enclavism by Clarke (1994, p. 14) holds that cultures are encapsulated entitiesthat grow out of their unique historical, cultural, ethnic, linguistic, religious, andconceptual frameworks that the possibility and benefit from intercultural dialogue andunderstanding is quite limited. The idea of cultures as mutually incommensurableconceptual frameworks is examined in Bernstein (1983), Davidson (198 4), Feyerabend(1978),and Popper (in Lakatos & Musg rave, 1970, pp. 51-58) in general, and withrespect to East-West dialogue, in particular by Bernstein (in Deutsch, 1991,p. 85).Bernstein in (Deutsch, 1991, p. 92) and Rorty in (Deutsch, 1991, p. 4), are critical of thenotion that cultures are encapsulated entities having little in common with limitedpossibility and benefit from dialogue with other cultures. Maclntyre (1988) discusses thecommensurability of different linguistic traditions (chapters 1 and 2). Halbfass (1988, p.165) argues that the difficulties presented as possibly insurmountable in interculturaldialogue often exist just as much in dialogue between subgroups within the same cultureand that the possibility for misunderstanding exists just as much across divisions withincultures as between them. Clarke (1994, p. 46) writes that there is enough evidence in thehistory of man kind of exchange s between cultures throughout the ages. The following

observation from B. K. Matilal (quoted in Deutch, 1991) is worth reproducing in itsentirety:

Cultures and societies . . . are not like watertight compartments, which m ayseldom confront one another in reality and interact. They do interact with eachother, sometimes generating violence, sometimes peacefully and almostunconsciously accepting value trade-offs and value rejections, (p. 151)


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Orientalism. The need to maintain historical, cultural, religious, political,economic, intellectual, or racial dominance, superiority, and hegemony has been cited asa factor contributing to misinterpretation, depreciation, and marginalization of othercultures to the advantage of one's own. In the East-West dialogue, such tendencies on thepart oftheWest towards the East that do not promote real understanding but on the otherhand have been used by the West to define the East and to wield hegemony over it havebeen termed critically asorientalism by Said (1978 ). Dev eloped initially in relation tothe West's encounter with Islam and the Middle East and later extended to the East ingeneral,orientalismis a theory that the W est's understanding oftheEast is a "system ofideological fictions" to maintain Western superiority, developed in the context of "arelationship of power, of domination, and varying degrees of complex hegem ony" (Said,1978,pp. 321 &3 25 ).

A brief review of the extensive literature onorientalism that gained mostprominence through Said (1978) can be found in Oldmeadow (2004, pp. 7-16). Only afew writers with a more balanced view of orientalismare presented below. Gabrieli(1965) is oftheview that the presence oforientalism in Western colonialism cannot bedenied but it has been "unjustly exag gerated, generalized, and embittered " (p. 81). Eliade(1982) is in agreement that the West has indeed pillaged other cultures but points out that"there have been other Westerners who have deciphered the languages, preserved themy ths, salvaged certain artistic masterp ieces" (p. 68). Oldm eadow (2004, p. 15) andClarke (1997, p. 9) both share the view that the equating of all Western interactions withthe East with imperialism is overstated and unbalanced and that it ignores the positivemotivations and outcomes of many Western encounters with the East.


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Radical postmodernism. Although for different reasons, radical postmodernismmight also lend support to the view that the possibility of intercultural communication,dialogue, and understanding might be limited. Postmodernism holds that reality iscontextualized on specific cultural perspectives or interpretations to such an extent that,in order to understand another culture, one has to adopt completely the point of view ofthe other, which is made next to impossible by the extent to which the other's perspectiveor interpretation is considered to be extremely unique (Wilbur, 2000, pp. 168-170).Therefore, radical postmodernism like cultural enclavismruns the risk of minimizing thecommonalities that might exist among cultures and maximizing the differences amongthem , lowering the probability of fruitful intercultural dialogue.

The challenges seen byorientalism, cultural enclavism,and radicalpostmodernism to intercultural dialogue might appear daunting. However, C larke (1994,p.23) offers the hopeful view that the demonstrated ability on the part of the West forcritical self-reflection, an increasing need in the West for universalism or the need forcommon principles that can bring humanity together, and an approach based onhermeneutics that respected and sought to understand the multiplicity of contexts broughtto such interactions, can together effectively counteract the divisive and distortingtendencies in intercultural dialogue.

A brief history ofWesternexplorations of Eastern thoughtThe brief account of Western explorations of Eastern thought presented below is

not exhaustive. It is a selective account and its primary purpose is to sketch the historical


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26contexts in which such explorations took place and to understand the major motivationsthat stimulated the dialogue in each period.

Ancient and M edieval periods. According to Radhakrishnan (1939), the East-West dialogue has gone on for a much longer period and to a greater extent thancommonly believed. Almond (1986), Garbe (1959), Gruber and Kersten (1995), Guenon(1941),Halbfass (1988 ), McEvilley (1982), Mackenzie (1928), Marlow (1954),Radhak rishnan (19 39), Tarn (1938), W est (1971), and Wilson (1964) offer descriptionsof East-West cultural interactions during ancient and medieval periods. Clarke (1994, p.8) cites Needham as characterizing East-West exchanges as a 3,000-year cross-fertilization. Schwab (1950/1984, p. 117) cites as evidence the discovery of an ivorycarving of an Indian god in Pompeii to establish an ancient date for East-West exchanges.Halbfass (1990, pp. 8, 12), Isichei (1991, pp. 66-67) and Oldmeadow (2004, pp. 1-2)write about the encounters between ancient India and Greece involving Socrates,Herodotus, Pythago ras, Alexander the Gre at, D iogenes, Clement, and Plotinus, theRoman philosopher w ho studied in Alexandria. Aristotle, who tutored Alexander theGreat, is said to have held as an ideal the "marriage" between Europe and Asia (Halbfass,1988,p. 7).

Danielou and Hurry (1979) present links between Greek mystery religions andHinduism. B uddhist m onks were known in the Hellenic world and the Indian emperorAsoka in the 3 rdcentury BC sent Buddhist monks west to spread B udd ha's messagethrough Greek and Aramaic translations (Clarke, 1997, pp. 37-38). Halbfass (1988, p. 17)and Harris (1982) presen t links between Indian thought and Neop latonism . Halbfass(1988,pp. 17-18), Radhakrishnan (1939, p. 126), Thundy (1993) and W elburn (1991)


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present links between H induism and Gnosticism which played an important role in theearly development of Christianity. Of the evidence on relationship between Christianityand Eastern traditions, Clarke (1997) offers the following opinion:

Much of this is again speculative . . . but what remains certain is that any attemptto separate out Western from Eastern tradition is highly artificial. Even thoughdirect lines of influence are difficult to trace, it is possible to make much bettersense of emergent Christianity, especially its concern with the soul and itstendency towards mysticism, ifweview its origins within a wider context, (p. 39)Interrupted by a rise in Islam starting in the 7 ncentury, the intellectual

exploration of the East by the West gained momentum again starting with the Jesuitmissions ofthe late 16thcentury to China, India, and Japan. Their primary motive wasconverting Asians to Christianity, but the West also sought to outflank Islam, to find newtrade routes to the East, and to expand its markets. However, those who went to the Eastin this period also carried with them the intellectual openness from the Renaissance(Clarke, 1997, pp. 39-40).

The era of enlightenment a nd Chinese thought.Eastern thought brought over bythe Jesuits starting in the second half ofthe16th century, mostly from China and to alesser extent from India, had a profound influence on the formation of the ideas of theEnlightenment in the 17th and 18th centuries (Edwardes, 1971, p. 103). Malebranche,Bayle,Wolff, Leibniz, Voltaire, Montesquieu, Diderot, Helvetius, and Quesnay areimportant Enlightenment thinkers who showed much interest in Eastern thought.Voltaire and his contemporaries found in Chinese thought, especially Confucianism, anonreligious, philosophical, hum anistic, and rational basis for social order and personalmorality with which to challenge the dogmas of Western Christianity and the social orderand personal mor ality based on it (Zhang , 1988, p. 11 8). Leibniz, whom Jung greatly


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28admired, found in Chinese thought, espec ially the me taphysical universal principles ofTaoism, the basic inspiration (Needham , 1956, pp. 496-505) or the needed corroboration(Mungello, 1977, p. 15) for his approach to reconciling the religious beliefs and practicesofthewarring C atholics and the Protestants.

The era of romanticism and Indian thought.The Romantic period, which datedfrom the end ofthe18th century to the first half of the 19th century, saw considerableWestern interest in Indian thought, especially among the German Romantics such asFichte, Schleiermacher, Novalis, Tieck, the Von Humboldts, Herder, Goethe, andSchelling, the Schlegel brothers, and Schopenhauer (Dumoulin, 1981; Halbfass, 1988;Hulin, 1979; Iyer, 1965; Marshall, 1970; Said, 1978, p. 50; Schwab, 1950/1984, p. 11;W illson, 1964, pp. 239-40). The translation of Sanskrit texts by European scholars m adepossible by the collapse of the Mog ul em pire in the second half ofthe18th century was asource of inspiration for the Rom antics. Rom anticism was a response to the Europeandisillusionment with the unsatisfactory spiritual foundations of Judaeo-Christianity on theone hand and "the m aterialism and anti-religious stance of the Enlightenment whichappeared to abolish the possibility of spirit altogether" on the other (Clarke, 1997, p. 55).The German Romantics found remarkable parallels between their Idealist philosophy andIndian metaphysics (p. 32). To the Romantics, the Indian VedasandSanskritgave anorigin that predated Homer and the ancient Greeks and possibly the Bible itself that ledHerder to point to India as the source of all civilizations and Schlegel to point to it as theprimary source of all ideas (Iyer, 1965, pp. 194 & 200). The Rom antics, in search for asolution to the loss of sense of oneness with nature and of oneness with all of mankind,found in the possibility ofauniversal religion with a single God in Indian thought a way


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29to unite all of hum anity, to re-unite it with nature, and heal the fragmenting natu re ofEuropean thought and religion. Schelling thought that the Vedasoffered a bas is for thehistorical truth of the primitive unity of mankind (Schwab, 1950/1984, p. 218) andSchlegal thought that Asia and Europe formed a single great family and their literaturesneed to be seen as one continuous development (Iyer, 1965, p. 200).

Buddhism in J9' -century Europe. In the middle of the 19th century, the discoveryof Buddhism by the Wes t by the likes of Schopenhauer, W agner, and Nietzsche onceagain offered the possibility of another nonmetaphysical alternative to the Judaeo-Christian tradition that did not depend on an ontological abso lute (Almond , 1988, p. 100;W elbon, 1968, p. 219). The pre-dating of Christianity by Bu ddhism also led tosuggestions that Christian beliefs might have had a source in Buddhism, independent ofJudaism . Schop enhauer, even though he had been familiar with the ideas in theUpanishads for many years before the publication ofhismajor work, The WorldasWilland Idea, denied that the basics of his philosophy were influenced by them. However, hedrew close parallels between his philosophy and Hinduism and used the latter liberallyfor illustrating, articulating , and clarifying his ideas (Halbfass, 1988, p. 120).

Twentieth century.J ung 's interest in Hinduism, B uddhism, and the new arrivals ofZen and Taoism in the first half of the 20th century reflected a wider ongoing interest inEastern systems of thought in Europe and North Am erica (Clarke, 1994, p. 35). The Westturning to the East in the 1960s over the disillusionment of Western values can beregarded as yet another instance of an earlier pattern of the West turning to the East forself-criticism and rejuvenation.


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Dominant themes in East-West dialogueThe brief review ofthe literature on Western explorations of Eastern thought

reveals the following motives on the part ofthe West. The West used Eastern thought forself-criticism with which to challenge its traditions and to widen its outlook. The Westused Eastern thought as a source of inspiration as well as corroboration for reformulatingits conceptual frameworks. The West also used the East as a framework for findinguniversal principles for uniting all of mank ind and for uniting mankind and nature,fragmented by Western thought, science, and Christianity. During enlightenment,inspired primarily by ancient Chinese thought, it took the form of criticism of Christianityand sought to reconcile the religious and consequent political antagonisms that weretearing Europ e apart. During R omanticism, inspired primarily by ancient Indian thought,it took the form of criticism of science and sought to re-integrate man and nature as wellas all of mankind into a spiritual whole. During the Victorian era, it found in Buddhismnonmetaphysical principles to challenge orthodox Christianity that postulated anontological absolute.

Collective attitudes in East-WestdialogueIndividuals from one culture engaging another culture in a dialogue can bring to

the dialogue, consciously and unconsciously, certain attitudes that their culture orsignificant subgroups in their culture have towards the other culture at the time. Anunderstanding of the inevitability of the involvement of such collective attitudes in anintercultural dialogue can help in overcoming the potential distraction that they can causeto focus more on the fundamental v alue of the dialogue. An exam ple of such attitude on


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31the part of the West is the tendency to view East-West differences in terms of strongpolarities with "the extravagant assum ption ofabasic dichotomy in mod es of thought andways of life" (Iyer, 1965, pp. 5 & 7). Such important collective attitudes found in theliterature on both sides of the East-West dialogue are presented below:

"An endemic Eurocen trism, a persistent reluctance to accept that the West couldhave borrowed anything of significance from the East, or to see the place of Easternthought within the Western tradition as much m ore than a recent manifestation. . ."(Clarke, 1997, p. 5); the exclusion of Eastern philosophies in histories of philosophy anddismissal of Eastern philosophies in the West with the attitude that philosophy is strictlyWestern, with origin in Greek thought (Critchley, 1995, p. 18; Halbfass, 1988, pp. 145-159);the understanding of the Eastern psych e as distant, unknown, to be feared, "therepository ofall that is dark, unacknowledged, feminine, sensual, repressed, and liable toeruption" (Batchelor, 1994, p. 234); the tendency to view E ast-West interactions as"clash of civilizatio ns" involving fundamental an d mo num ental differences (Hun tington,1993);or in terms of mutually com plementary opposites such as viewing the basicorientation of the Eastern mind as inward and that of the Western m ind as outward(Rad hakrish nan, 1939, p. 48); the racist and other attitudes of superiority involved incolonialism that perceived the East as an inferior com plement to the West to be ruled"armed with gun-and-gospel truth" (Koestler, 1960, p. 11); the attitude of unqualifiedadmiration, elevation, and emulation oftheEast on the part of some in the West whoassumed the role of a "pilgrim in sackcloth and ashes, anxious to prostrate himself at theguru's feet" (Koestler, 1960, p. 11); the attitude of outright dismissal of Eastern thoughtby some as in Maca ulay's condemn ation of Sanskrit texts as "less valuable than what


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may be found in the most paltry abridgements used at preparatory schools in E ngland "(Young, 1990, p. 728); the use of strong stereotypical dichotom ies in understanding anddescribing East-West differences such as "a rational, democratic, humanistic, creative,dynamic, progressive, and masculine West versus an irrational, despotic, oppressive,backward, passive, stagnant, and feminine East (Oldmead ow, 2 004, p. 8); the tendency tocriticize and distrust all of Western interactions with Eastern thought in terms of arisingfrom and distorted by the self-serving power dynamic of colonialism (Said, 1978, p. 104;Guenon, 1941, p p. 135, 156; Gellner, 1992, p. 39); the tendency to lump together andovergeneralize to diverse Western as well as Eastern traditions conclusions from analysesof specific Western and Eastern traditions (Faure, 1993, pp. 5-6; Mackerras, 1989, p. 3;Almond, 1988, p. 5); the characteristic attitude on the part of many Indian thinkers "thatIndian wisdom is superior to the recent visions of W esterners" that borders on arrogance(Borelli, 1985b, p. 193); and the dismissal of Western explorations of Eastern thought as"imaginative escape" from reality (Bishop, 1993; p. 16) and a retreat from the modernworld into irrationalism (Clarke, 1997, p. 18).

Controversies in East-West D ialogue on relative impa ctImpact o f the East on the West.There are differences of opinion in the West itself

and between the West and East on the extent to which the dialogue with the East has been

useful to the West and the extent to which Western thought has been influenced byEastern thought. In the West, as to the usefulness of the East, the opinions have rangedfrom outright dismissal to unqualified admiration: Voltaire claimed that the West owedeverything to the East, Schopenhauer equated his ow n philosophy to Bud dhism and


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Hinduism, Heidegger wrote that it was urgent that the West engaged the Eastern thinkersin a dialogue, while C.S. Pierce expressed contem pt for Eastern m ysticism, and ArthurKoestler dismissed Ea stern religions as absurd (Clarke, 1997, p. 3). How ever, over time,in the final analysis, "there is a persistent reluctance to accept that the West could haveborrowed anything significant from the East (p. 5). Underscoring the need for a greaterunderstanding ofthe impact oftheEast on the West, Dutch theologian Kraemer (1960)states that "there is also an Eastern invasion oftheWest, more hidden and lessspectacular than the Western invasion, but truly significant" (p. 228). On the much overlooked impact of Eastern scientific thinking on the West, Needham (1969, p. 57) notesthat Chinese precedents were "important influences on modern science during theRenaissance p eriod" in the W est (p. 57).

Criticisms oftheWest on its failure to adequately acknowledge the East rangefrom not understanding or acknowledging the extent to which the East has influencedWestern thought (Radh akrishnan, 1939) to appropriating or usurping Eastern thought intoWestern thought and denying the origins oftheformer in the latter (Said, 1978).Radhakrishnan (1939), in his bookEastern Religions and Western Thought, develops thecase for the probable influence of Indian thought on Greek thought and Christianity,through Alexandrian Judaism, C hristian Gnosticism, and Neo-Platonism. Radhakrishnanthen goes on to argue that Christianity, which came from an Eastern background and gotidentified with the European culture early on in its development, will find its rebirth in arenewal of alliance with its Eastern heritage.

Impact of the West on the East. Clarke (1997) notes that in comparison to therelative lack of studies on the impact oftheEast on the West, "the transformation and


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modernization of Asia through the varied instruments of Christianity, science,technology, capitalism, socialism, and d emocracy have becom e the objects of extensivestudy" (p. 18). The East did not in most instances seek this dialogue out but had itimposed upon it by the West (Halbfass, 1988, p. 380 ; Kraemer 1960, p. 230). ManyIndian thinkers regard Eastern wisdom regard ing the psyche superior to Western w isdomwith the latter having little to contribute to the former (Borelli, 1985b, p. 193). How ever,the Indian philosopher Mehta (1985, p. 163) is of the view that the English language andWestern philosophical and religious concepts have played an important role in the revivalof traditional Vedanta philosophy in the 19th century.

Jung in the context of larger East-West dialogueJung's interest in Eastern thought had a lot to do with finding external support for

the perspectives he was evolving in his understanding ofthepsyche that differed from theprevailing psychological, scientific, and religious views in the West. In reaching outsideof one's culture to develop or to support a point counter to the prevailing modes ofthought within on e's own culture, Jung was following a tradition of W estern thinkerswho sought the East out for inspiration or confirmation of their thinking in differentperiods in its history. Jung's efforts were a part ofalarger movement in the West over alonger period of time to critically appraise and re-imagine its own psyche and correctimbalances in it by eng aging in dialogue other c ultures with points of view different thanone's own (Clarke 1994, p. 25).

Jung was a significant contributor to the overall dialogue in the West to help bringthe Western understanding of the psyche and the world back into balance from


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imbalances introduced in it by enlightenment on the one hand and scientific materialismon the other (Clarke, 1994, p. 179). Enlightenment and scientific materialism canthemselves be regarded as part ofthedialogue in the West in modernity to further itspremodern understanding ofthepsyche and the world and to help correct the imbalancesin it; just as the modern and perhaps postmodern dialogue to which Jung was a significantcontributor can be regarded as part ofthedialogue to shift the W est's modernunderstanding of the psyche and the w orld and to help correct the imb alances in it.

Eastern thought and WesternpsychologyThe interest in integrating Eastern wisdom into Western psychotherapy has

increased in the West, in part due to Junghimself. Apart from transpersonal psychology(eg.,Grof, 1985; Wilbur, 1990), Buddhist psychotherapy (eg., Epstein, 1995), andpsychoanalysis (eg., Fromm, 1960/1986; Welwood, 1979), the growing interest inintegrating Eastern thought into Western psychotherapy can be found in a number ofsmaller integrative schools such as psychosynthesis (Assagioli, 2000). Walsh and Shapiro(2006) review a large number of studies on the meeting of Eastern meditative disciplinesand W estern psychotherapy.

Section summary and discussionEast-West dialogue has continued to unfold, in particular in philosophy,

psychology/psychotherapy, and religion/spirituality, the domains of immediate interest ofthis dissertation. It also appears that the dialogue over the value oftheEast-Westdialogueitself,its benefits, its harmful effects, and the relative con tributions of the East


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36and West to the dialogue and to each other continue to be sifted, sorted, assessed, reassessed, and corrected. Both of these trends might be cited as evidence for the ongoingusefulness ofthedialogue, for at least one side.

From the above, it appears that the dialogue among cultures has been going on fora long time, and through varied means, although its duration and extent not alwaysgrasped. Intercultural dialogue appea rs to have been an important part of how m ankin d'soverall knowledge of the psyche and the world has grown. Factors that make suchdialogues at times inherently difficult can also make cultures encapsulated. Hurtfulattitudes and m otives can be brought to the dialogue which can also m ake culturesself-protective. But the cultures do not appear to be so encapsulated that meaningful dialoguecannot take place betwe en them, given that those who engage in such enc ounters bring tothem certain attitudes and sensitivities to ensure that misunderstanding and harm areminimized and understanding and benefits maximized.

Even when a dialogue has been imposed upon a culture from the outside withnoticeable harm, it is not always without some benefit to the culture on which thedialogue has been impo sed. This is in part because the motives and attitudes with w hichcultures have engaged have not been all negative, even in colonial contexts. How ever, atthe same time, potential harm from such exchanges should not be overlooked. Norshould the possibility that a particular dialogue might have been all negative bediscounted. There is a need for caution in taking at face value assessments ofthe relativecontributions of the cultures to the dialogue, and of their relative influence, and theinterpretations ofone culture by another. They might be all biased by a need on the partof one culture to maintain its hegemony over the other culture. It is also important to be


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aware of and separate from counter-productive, distracting, and emotionally chargedcharacteristics or collective attitudes that two cultures can bring to each other so as tograsp the essential value ofthedialogue between them.

Given the nature of the topic of the dissertation, a cross-cultural enquiry thatspans a great deal oftime,from premodernity to modernity to postmodernity, it isimportant, while acknowledging the possibilities for distortion or exploitation in cross-cultural dialogues and the hurt and damage they have the potential to cause, to hold aswell an understanding based on the long-term history of mankind that interculturaldialogue is worth the while after all. This is because ongoing dialogue appears to be theway in which the knowledge of the nature ofthepsyche and the world has beenincrementally revealed to m ankind through w hat appears to be a rough and tumbledialogical proc ess, with its gifts as well as curses. W ith increasing migrations of peoplesacross national and cultural boundaries, made all the easier by the breakdown in travel,language, and political barriers, the likelihood, the need, as well as the unavoidability ofintercultural dialogue greater than ever, the potential for fostering mutual understandingamong cultures and reaping the fruits of intercultural dialogue appears to be greater thanever as well.

Next, the key concepts in Jungian thought are presented first before therelationship between Jungian psycho logy and E astern thought is reviewed. Thisexposition ofthebasic concepts ofthe two systems is at the introductory level. Thereader is referred to the relevant readings in the references and the appendix for furtherstudy.


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38Basic Concepts in Jungian Psychology

LibidoOne of the fundamental differences that led to the break between Freud and Jung

early on in Jung's career was over the nature of libido or psychic energy hy pothesized asthe fundamental basis and motivation for all human experience and behavior. WhileFreud maintained that the sexual libido or energy and its sublimation was behind allhum an endeavors and pathology, Jung thought that it was a much broader phen omen onwith sexuality as only one ofitsaspects (Jacobi, 1973, pp. 52-55), an argument in whichJung would eventually prevail in the course of development of Western psychology.According to Jung, the libido is "an energy-value which is able to communicate itself toany field of activity whatsoever, be it power, hunger, hatred, sexuality, or religion,without ever being itselfa specific instinct" (Jung 1952/1956, p. 137). Munroe states thatJung gave the term libido "a different meaning that is at once more monistic and morepluralistic. He means by the term a life energy underlying all natural phenomena,including the human p sych e" (Munroe, 1956, p. 541). In his formulation ofamoregeneral theory of the libido, Jung appears to have been inspired or supported by Easternconcepts such ascitta, rajas,andBrahman (Coward, 1985, p. 31).The psyche and its reality

Influenced deeply by Western phenomenology in general and Immanuel Kant in

particular, Jung argued that psychic reality is all that can be known by a human being andthat physical reality is only our psychic experience of it. "All our knowledge isconditioned by the psyche which, because it alone is immediate, is superlatively real"(Jung, 1933 /1961, p. 220). Jun g's argument that our "purely" psychic experiences such


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39as thoughts, dreams, and visions are even more im mediate than our experiences ofphysical reality and therefore ought to be given as much v alidity as the latter is his casefor establishing the reality ofthepsyche. "The psy che is endowed w ith the dignity ofacosmic principle, which philosophically and in fact gives it a position coequal with theprinciple of physical being" (Jung, 1957/1974, pp. 46-47). Jung argued a case for thereality of the psyche at a time when Western science held that matter alone was real andthat consciousness was a mere epiphenom enon of matter in a view of realitycharacterized asepiphenomenalismby Goswam i (1995, p. 17). Jung found the emphasison the psyche in Eastern thought supportive of his case for the reality ofthepsyche(Adler & Jaffe, 1973a, p. 128; Adler & Jaffe, 1973b, p. 128).

The structure o f the psyche: The conscious, the personal unconscious, and the collectiveunconsciousThe Freudian model of the psyche consisted of the conscious and the

unconscious, with the unconscious merely a repository of an individ ual's life experiencesthat have become un conscious. The Jungian mo del ofthepsyche consisted of theconscious, the unconscious according to Freud that Jung termed the person alunconscious, and a layer oftheunconscious he termed the collective uncon scious thatJung theorized an individual shared as an inheritance of evolved general psychicdispositions not just with one's culture but with the rest of mankind (Jacobi, 1973, pp. 5-9). Jung b elieved that all individuals, regardless of culture, were alike in the depth oftheir psyches because they shared a collective unconscious psychic inheritance of generaldispositions from the entire history of all ofmankind. "The collective unconscious


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comprises in itselfthe psychic life of our ancestors right back to the earliest beginnings"(Jung 1929/1960, p. 112).

However, these general dispositions of the collective unconscious were less ofaspecific content such as a specific cultural image of God and more ofageneraldisposition towards experiencing and m aking sense of oneself and the world such as ageneral tendency to create a God image w hich could be observed cross-culturallythroughout the history of ma nkind. Jung writes that "the autonom ous contents of theunconscious . . . are not inherited ideas but inherited possibilities . . . for reproducing theimages and ideas by which these dominants have always been expressed" (Jung,1927/1960, p. 372). Jung called the layer oftheconscious psyche that an individualshared with the rest ofthe collective as the collective conscious.

Although Jung often emphasized the general dispositions of the collectiveunconscious such as the tendency to form images of wholeness or God in the psyche ofahuman being across all cultures, he also allowed for the possibility of layers of thecollective unconscious in the individual psyche that carried images ofaparticular culture,race, tribe, and nation to which the individual belonged (Jacobi, 1973, p. 34).

The archetypesThe general dispositions ofthe collective unconscious, called archetypes of the

collective unconscious by Jung, ultimately formed the basic structure of all aspects of thepsyche, the conscious as well as the unconscious, in the Jungian model (Jacobi, 1973, pp.39-51; Jung, 1916/1966a, pp. 90-113). Jung theorized that all structures and processes inthe psyche, conscious and un conscious, had archetypal underpinnings in the collective


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41unconscious. Even the ego, defined as the only center of consciousness in the psyche, hadits roots in an archetypal disposition in the unconscious, as did all complexes, understoodas constellations of tendencies towards experience and behavior in the personalunconscious of an individual such as the good mother or bad mother complex. "Themother archetype forms the foundation of the so-called m other-complex" w rote Jung(1938/1959, p. 85). it is through archetypal dispositions that all psychic activity,conscious and unconsciou s, was structured in the psyche ofahuman being. This includedperception, the sensing in the psyche ofthe world through the five senses; apperception,making sense of what is sensed through the functions of thinking and feeling; andintuition, making sense of what is sensed through archetypal dispositions in one'sunconscious.

The Jungian typologies ofthe psyche, introversion/extraversion, thinking/feeling,and sensing/intuiting, dispositions that were theorized to account for variations amongindividuals in how they energized themselves and how they understood themselves andthe world around them, also had archetypal bases in the collective unconscious and inturn served as conduits through which archetypal contents were psychically apprehended(Jung, 19 20/1971, pp. 376-77). The shadow, the unconscious d isowned or undevelopedaspects of being human which is usually projected on others, also had an archetypaltemplate in the collective unconscious.

Of all the archetypal dispositions in the collective unconscious, three played amajor role in the psychology of Jung: the anima, the animus, and theself.The anima wasthe contrasexual opposite in the psyche ofamale and the animus the contrasexualopposite in the psyche of the female, which, when relatively divested of their personal


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unconscious contents attached to them in the form of complexes, had the potential to bean individual e

Advaita Vedanta and Jungian Psychology

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