佛教禅定：心理学方法论研究的一种新视角

佛教禅定作为一种佛家认知宇宙实相及自我意识的研究方法与操作技术,为中国人文主义心理学研究提供了一种觉知自我意识的极有效方法。本文从心理学方法论角度出发,结合佛教禅定的内证实践,系统阐述了禅定过程中的研究对象（识蕴）、研究方法（止观）等诸方面的内容和特点。佛教禅定的心理学方法论研究是有别于其他文化形态方法论研究的一种独特证知方法,是对西方心理学方法论研究的一种补充与超越。     

禅定与神通

本次研讨会的主题是“禅定与神通”。说到禅定,许多原理是显密相通的;而特殊的法门,也很难用这么短的时间介绍出来,所以,以下只把这个题目作一个纲要性的介绍。禅定的原理首先讲禅定的原理。在佛经里,曾将禅定用“心一境性”来形容,所谓心一境性,就是把心约束在一处一境。一般人做事心猿意马,心力分散,因此把无穷大的潜力埋没掉了。禅定的功能,就是要把无穷大的潜力开发出来;开发潜力,则一定要先对治散乱心,不让它东攀西缘。所以禅定不是一起步就什么都不想,而是要把所想的集结在一个所缘境上,这个时候就能达到所谓“制心一…     

教育心理学领域中动机与功效研究动态

当今教育心理学领域中,有关动机与功效的研究越来越多.研究者们普遍认为,在包括学习者变量、社会变量、教学变量的教育成就情境中,动机与功效是交互作用的。动机(motivation)是指目标指向性行为的激起和维持过程。功效(efficacy)意味着个体自信有能力控制生活的各个方面.起初,功效感能激起人们从事某一活动的动机,当个体体验到自己有所进步之后,功效感又起着维持动机的作用。     

禅定漫谈四 禅定三大法系

讲了佛法禅定三大系之后,有人希望详细介绍一下三大法系的内容。我想首先简要介绍一下如来禅法系的内容。下列两表可以图示如来禅定法系的大体分类及基本内容(见表一、二)。 如两表所列,如来禅有四大类,即:一、有漏禅——世间根本味禅 二。     

禅定漫谈(九) 禅定三大法系

第三、安那般那。这是调息的方法 梵语安那,意谓入息;梵语般那,意谓出息。安那般那,即持出入息。 这里首先要弄清“气”与“息”的联系与区别。     

禅定漫淡(七) 禅定三大法系

前面讲过如来禅的四禅八定的初禅,有人提出如何实修的问题。这就是我现在要讲的“数息观”。“数息观”与“不净观”为佛法修定的“二甘露门”。出家人宜偏重于修“不净观”,在家人则宜偏重于修“数息观”。本来“数息”是“六妙门”中“数息、随息、止息、观息、净息、还息”六个修息妙门之一,而且是首要之一,它既有显教的修法——显教六妙门,     

禅定漫淡(六) 禅定三大法系

《释禅波罗密多次第法门》卷五云: “明证未到地相[者]:由此欲界定,复身心泯然,虚豁,失於欲界之身,坐中不见头手床敷,犹如虚空,此是未到地定,所言未到地者,此地能生初禅故,即是初禅方便定,亦名未来禅,亦名忽然湛心。证此定时,不无浅深之相,今不具明。复次此等定中,或有邪伪,行者应证,其相非一。[今]略出二事[以说明之]:一定心过明,二者过暗,并是邪定。明者,     

禅定漫谈(十) 禅定三大法系

现在来谈谈什么是祖师禅 禅定视其研究的立场和角度而有各种分类,祖师禅也是如此。什么是祖师禅呢?我是就禅定法门自身性质而讲禅定分类,也就是就祖师禅自身性质而来浅谈祖师禅的。 前面已经说过,就禅法自身性质而言,禅定能修者为人自身,而所修者亦为人自身,斯即以人自身修人自体。显见于外,密藏于内,显在其中,密亦在其中。能修者人,人为息色心之一体,所修者人,亦为息色心之一具。故禅定修法,总不外息法、色法、心法三门。     

禅定漫谈(十三)──禅定三大法系

上面几期禅定漫谈中,我们概略地讲了如来禅和祖师禅,也就是由凡夫的禅而说到圣道的禅,又由小乘的禅而说到大乘的禅,又由渐教的禅而说到领教的禅。总之,就是由如来禅说到了祖师禅,愈说愈高,似乎已到极点。但是这些都只是显教的禅,现在要进一步说说密教的禅,也就是秘密禅。学密教的禅,一定要有学显教禅的基础,或者说要有显教禅的基本功,否则就难以“由显入密”。佛法是讲显密圆融的,但圆融不碍差别,修持还得有次第,才能如理如量。大家都知道,圆融显密,本不应分冷显密高下的,因为佛法是圆满具足的。但在修持过程中,为了教学…     

“禅定”与培养稳定的精神力量

现代社会,生活节奏快速、竞争剧烈、工作繁忙紧张、人际关系复杂、困难挫折等,使人的精神负荷加重,心理压力增强。因此现代人要使自己生活得优游稳健、轻松自在、成功幸福,就必须培养“禅定”的心理品质。     

Meditation and the scope of mental action

While philosophers of mind have devoted abundant time and attention to questions of content and consciousness, philosophical questions about the nature and scope of mental action have been relatively neglected. Galen Strawson’s account of mental action, the most well developed extant account, holds that cognitive mental action consists in triggering the delivery of content to one’s field of consciousness. However, Strawson fails to recognize several distinct types of mental action that might not reduce to triggering content delivery. In this article, we argue that meditation provides a useful model for understanding a wider range of types of mental action than heretofore recognized. Conclusions yielded by two distinct bodies of current psychological research on meditation and cognition, and meditation and introspection, buttress meditation’s suitability for this role.     

Mental Attention, Consciousness, and the Progressive Emergence of Wisdom

I discuss the mental–attentional mechanisms of consciousness, meditation, and the emergence of wisdom. A developmental (neoPiagetian), dynamic flash-light model of mental attention is used. I model the initial stages of consciousness in infancy, showing that the growth of consciousness is influenced by the number of schemes that attention can coordinate. I discuss ordinary consciousness in adults and the stages/levels of adult development in consciousness. Wisdom is defined as an expectable but often missed outcome of adult development. To accelerate access to wisdom, two complementary paths are mentioned: a natural life-experience path and a meditation path. Maturational organismic factors and the role of mental attentional mechanisms in these two paths are discussed, and a constructivist neuropsychological model of what happens in the brain during meditation, and in higher consciousness, is sketched. Processes involved in higher stages of consciousness are then examined from this perspective.     

A single bout of meditation biases cognitive control but not attentional focusing: Evidence from the global–local task

Recent studies show that a single bout of meditation can impact information processing. We were interested to see whether this impact extends to attentional focusing and the top-down control over irrelevant information. Healthy adults underwent brief single bouts of either focused attention meditation (FAM), which is assumed to increase top-down control, or open monitoring meditation (OMM), which is assumed to weaken top-down control, before performing a global–local task. While the size of the global-precedence effect (reflecting attentional focusing) was unaffected by type of meditation, the congruency effect (indicating the failure to suppress task-irrelevant information) was considerably larger after OMM than after FAM. Our findings suggest that engaging in particular kinds of meditation creates particular cognitive-control states that bias the individual processing style toward either goal-persistence or cognitive flexibility.     

Who am I? Differential effects of three contemplative mental trainings on emotional word use in self-descriptions

In a large-scale longitudinal mental training study, we examined whether learning different contemplative practices can change the emotional content of people’s self-concept as assessed through emotional word use in the Twenty Statement Test. During three 3-month training modules, participants learned distinct practices targeting attentional, socio-affective, or socio-cognitive capacities, or were re-tested. Emotional word use specifically increased after socio-cognitive training including perspective-taking on self and others, compared to attentional and socio-affective compassion-based trainings, and retest-controls. Overall, our findings demonstrate training-induced behavioral plasticity of the emotional self-concept content in healthy adults and could indicate greater emotional granularity. These findings can inform future interventions in mental health, given that alterations in self-referential processing are a common contributing factor in psychopathology.     

运动员的心理训练：中国文化修为方式的贡献

传统中国哲学的目的在于理想人格塑造,人的心灵提升,其核心是身心调节与控制。中国文化的精妙之处在于,不仅拥有完整的思想体系,更有与之相应的践行方式,既有见地的开悟,又有修为的精进,在系统阐述人生境地的同时,拥有成熟的修为方法。近15年,国内外关于中国文化与心理学关系的研究呈现显著增长态势,但在竞技体育领域却鲜见运动员心理咨询和心理训练引入传统文化思想和技术的相关研究。多元文化视角下的理论与实证研究的国际心理学发展趋势,以及中国竞技体育制度特征,都诱发了对心理训练和心理咨询本土化发展的需要。本文立足于中国文化与心理训练的契合,总结提炼能够为运动队心理训练服务所借鉴的传统修为技术与方法。这些方法包括1）改变思想态度的撰写日记以内省、读书以养浩然之气;2）控制妄想杂念的静坐、数息、站桩;3）调节情绪心境的正念训练、琴棋书画等。将中国文化的思想与方法引入运动员心理训练尚面临困境,包括1）中国文化独特的神秘特性导致其缺乏可操作性,诸多概念难以精确测量,修为效果尚待实证检验;2）研究人员严重不足,潜心钻研的学者匮乏;3）研究深度缺乏,挖掘整理系统性不足;4）对传统文化存在错误认知,难以保证心理训练技术顺利进入运动队。     

Intensive mindfulness training-related changes in cognitive and emotional experience

This study examined the role of intensive mindfulness training on changes in day-to-day experiential processing, psychological symptoms, resilience, and well-being in two groups of community adults (N = 69). Using both quasi-experimental and longitudinal methods, the study found that intensive training, operationalized as 10–12 hours of formal mindfulness practice per day for 1 month, was significantly related to increases in training-specific experiential processing capacities, namely trait mindfulness and decentering (reperceiving), in comparison to pre–post-training wait-list controls. In both training groups combined, mindfulness, decentering, and acceptance increased over the pre-training to 1-month follow-up period. Intensive mindfulness training was also related to declines in anxiety and enhanced both subjective well-being and self-compassion from pre-training to follow-up in the two training groups. Finally, increases in trait mindfulness and acceptance were related to improvements in psychological symptoms, well-being, and resilience. Future directions for this novel area of mindfulness research are discussed.