The Legacy of C. G. Jung’s Buddha: The Meeting of Buddhism and Western Psychology

This talk explores the intellectual history and reception of Jung’s depth-psychological interpretations of Buddhism. In modern culture, psychology has become one of the most prevalent frameworks through which to interpret Buddhism. Buddhist meditative practices are, prima facie, considered to be psychological techniques and popular commentators and authors on Buddhism frequently describe its doctrines and meditative practices as forms of noetic science. The psychologization of Buddhism, familiar to many today, does not have a homogenous history. Rather, Buddhism’s transmutation into a (supposedly) psychological tradition has taken many forms, from Buddhism as an ethical psychology to Buddhism as ‘mindfulness’. Scholars of Buddhism have referred to the significance of Jung’s depth-psychological interpretations in the history of the reception of Buddhism in the west during the mid-twentieth century and beyond. Yet there have been, to date, few studies detailing the context of Jung’s encounter with Buddhism and the legacy of his interpretation of it. I shall discuss Jung’s engagement with Buddhism, which developed out of his more general conception of ‘Eastern thought’ and the mutually fructifying impact of his collaboration with contemporary Indologists