The Three Buddhist Personality Types

Dhr. Seven, Amber Dorrian, Maya, Wisdom Quarterly; Wisdom-Books.com

The Couch, originally used for psychotherapy, Freud's office, England. Note Buddhist statuary.

  

Buddhist Character Analysis (Aukana)

Drawing from ancient Theravada Buddhist teachings, authors Robert Mann and Rose Youd present the three main human character types and their three counterparts.

 

This Abhidharmic "Buddhist Psychology" is preserved in The Path of Purification (Visuddhi Magga) by Buddhaghosa, All individuals possess each of the three traits and their flipside, but some personality types may be dominant in one or two.

 

These roots of character condition everything we do:

1. greed (craving) vs. confidence (faith)
2. hatred (ill will) vs. wisdom
3. delusion (confusion) vs. speculation (clarity).

Joyful novices (wellhappypeaceful.com)

Buddhist Character Analysis is the study of these psychological or "personality types." It gives greater insight into human behavior patterns, karmic habits, rebirth, and the nature of reality.

Observing how these roots permeate all aspects of our behavior -- mental, verbal, and physical -- we can begin to appreciate the depth and subtlety of the Buddha's insight and formulation of the Teachings.
   

The cause of and cure for suffering: ignorance vs. wisdom (balancedexistence.com)

  
Attraction, aversion, and delusion (lobha, dosa, and moha) are personality features we are all born with. They linger in our hearts manifesting to greater or lesser degrees.
  
Enlightenment is the result of attenuating them long enough for wisdom to uproot them. They are harmful tendencies, in an ultimate sense, although conventionally we may assume we are unable to do without them.
  
They have conditioned our karma for countless aeons leading to all manner of upset -- craving, resentment, wrong views, culminating again and again in disappointment and distress (suffering). So have their direct opposite categories: non-greed, non-hate, non-delusion. The positive personality types -- faith, wisdom, speculation -- are the other side of the coin. They are not ultimately good in and of themselves but lead to that ultimate good: nirvana as non-clinging because things are seen as they are really are and always have been.
 
We will not magically see things just as they are. We have carried the burden of delusion and ignorance for inconceivable lengths of time (uncountable maha kalpas). The Dharma, or what may really be called "Buddhism" is not ultimately a set of beliefs; it is a set of instructions on how to see the liberating Truth for ourselves. That knowledge-and-vision liberates. Faith, belief, allegiance, words, and books do not.

• Which Buddhist Personality Type Are You? 
• Transforming the Three Poisons (of the heart/mind)

(Khanh Hmoong/flickr.com)

Our understanding of human nature is considerably enhanced and much of the distress entailed in relating with people is smoothed out of our lives when we understand the types.

   

If we follow the "path of purification" laid out by the Buddha and gathered from wise scholar-monks by Buddhism's most famous commentator -- author not only of The Path of Purification but also the parallel work preserved in Chinese, The Path of Freedom (Vimutti Magga) -- we can utilize this increased sense of calm and ease as an essential step on the road to the beyond-beyond.

 

We can restrain craving, anger, and confusion; we can cultivate confidence (faith), wisdom (intelligent discernment), and speculation (clarity, non-confusion). And by developing understanding of the true nature of reality, we can finally transcend them all. Long before that, we can rein them in. And by doing so we reduce our suffering and increase the happiness and security of any realm we are in.

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The Buddha's "Sane Asceticism"

Wisdom Quarterly; The Path of Purification; Palikanon.com

A wandering Hindu ascetic sleeping on a bed of nails in India (petermalakoff.com)

Siddhartha the ascetic realized that self-mortification was not the way to enlightenment or liberation from samsara.
 
But while the Buddha was not pro-asceticism, he did not condemn all ascetic practices. He suggested 13 difficult but practical austerities.
  
This "sane asceticism" can be helpful for individuals wishing to overcome negative tendencies in their character -- such as greediness, grasping, clinginess, attachment, discontentedness, laziness, and so on.
  
Wisely undertaking them  one is able to cultivate contentedness, renunciation (non-clinging to what one has), energy (inspiration for the goal), knowledge-and-vision, and so on.
  
No one need practice all of them, nor necessarily any of them. Moreover, they are contraindicated for "hate" (dosa) types who, not paradoxically, are most willing to undertake them. They will only increase aversion for such individuals rather than balancing and making greed (lobha) more manageable.
  
Under a wise teacher, particularly in a monastic setting, they can be helpful. Some are so useful that they have become set features of Theravada monastic life.

13 Ways of Shaking Off

1. "Using Discarded Cloth" is the sane ascetic practice of utilizing found cloth as material for making robes and sewing it in a patchwork. At the time of the Buddha, such cloth was readily accessible from charnal grounds which people avoided. (It has been suggested that the origin of the words bhikkhu and bhikkhuni, Buddhist "monk" and "nun," may be "rag gatherer").
  
2. "Three Robes" is the practice of using only three robes (upper, lower, and outer) as garments.

Merit is made by sharing and supporting the Sangha. Here parents and neighbors in Laos offer food to young novices (Franco Beccari/flickr.com).

   
3. "Gathering Alms" (pindapata) is the practice of eating only what one collects on alms round, which one shares with others or remains contented even if one gets nothing at all. Monastics are not allowed to beg or ask for food and requisites except under special circumstances. One observing this austerity declines meal invitations and instead offers the bowl to all without distinction who may want to share or give food.
  
4. "Unbiased Alms Gathering" is the practice of not omitting any house on alms round and avoiding returning again and again to the same house where one has received delicious food. In this way one is able to avoid becoming attached, expectant, full of preferences, or greedy for treats.
  
5. "One Eating" is the practice of partaking of one's alms food in one place at one time rather than eating a little in one spot then more in another.
   
6. "Limited Food" is the practice of eating only a certain measured amount of food from one's alms bowl rather than indulging one's appetite and using many dishes.
   
7. "No Food After Time" is the practice of not accepting any extra food after one has started to take one's meal.
   
8. "Dwelling in a Peaceful Place" or forest living is the practice of residing in a peaceful rather than noisy or busy place that distracts one from meditation and contemplative exercises. Peace and quiet and withdrawal (mental and sometimes physical) are needed to develop the stillness needed to potentiate one's insight practices. [See First Stop Then Insight.]
   
9. "Dwelling Under a Tree" is the practice of not dwelling under a roof.
   
10. "Dwelling in a Dewy Place" is the practice of residing neither under a roof nor a tree but in the open simply using one's robes as shelter.
   
11. "Charnal Ground Dwelling" is the practice of residing in a graveyard. Charnal grounds in India are desolate places where corpses are left in the open intact or only partially cremated. Wild animals, hungry ghosts, and frightening spirits may dwell in such places which are rarely frequented by humans. These are ideal places to contemplate foulness.
   
12. "Any Chanced Upon Place" is the practice of accepting any safe place as a bed wherever it happened to be. Buddhists monastics were, after all, wandering ascetics, recluses, hermits who did not tend to settle in one place (except during the Rains Retreat period) so as not to become attached or colloquial but free and open minded travelers.
   

Some monastics stand up (tibetanaltar).

13. "Not Lying Down" is the practice of not laying down to sleep but remaining seated, usually propped against a wall or even in a firm meditation posture. This discourages excess sleepiness as the body and mind (through behavior) becomes accustomed to remaining wakeful.

These are "13 Sane Ascetic Practices" (dhutangas) suggested by the Buddha in special cases.

• With Robes and Bowl: Glimpses of the [Dhutanga Monastic] Life by Ven. Khantipalo

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