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Medical Analogies in Buddhist and Hellenistic Thought: Tranquillity and Anger

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 April 2010

Christopher W. Gowans
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Extract

Medical analogies are commonly invoked in both Indian Buddhist dharma and Hellenistic philosophy. In the Pāli Canon, nirvana (or, in Pāli, nibbāna) is depicted as a form of health, and the Buddha is portrayed as a doctor who helps us attain it. Much later in the tradition, Śāntideva described the Buddha’s teaching as ‘the sole medicine for the ailments of the world, the mine of all success and happiness.’ Cicero expressed the view of many Hellenistic philosophers when he said that philosophy is ‘a medical science for the mind.’ He thought we should ‘hand ourselves over to philosophy, and let ourselves be healed.’ ‘For as long as these ills [of the mind] remain,’ he wrote, ‘we cannot attain to happiness.’ There are many different forms of medical analogy in these two traditions, but the most general form may be stated as follows: just as medicine cures bodily diseases and brings about physical health, so Buddhist dharma or Hellenistic philosophy cures mental diseases and brings about psychological health—where psychological health is understood as the highest form of happiness or well-being. Insofar as Buddhist dharma involves philosophy, as it does, both renditions of the analogy may be said to declare that philosophy cures mental diseases and brings about psychological health. This feature of the analogy—philosophy as analogous to medical treatment—has attracted considerable attention.

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Papers
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Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements , Volume 66 , July 2010 , pp. 11 - 33
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Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy and the contributors 2010

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References

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4 For example, with respect to Buddhism, see Gombrich, Richard, Theravāda Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benares to Modern Colombo (London: Routledge, 1988), pp. 2 and 59CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and with respect to Hellenistic philosophy, see Nussbaum, Martha, The Therapy of Desire: Theory and Practice in Hellenistic Ethics (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994)Google Scholar and Annas, Julia, ‘Philosophical Therapy, Ancient and Modern,’ in Kuczewski, Mark G. and Polansky, Ronald, eds., Bioethics: Ancient Themes in Contemporary Issues (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2000), pp. 109–127Google Scholar. They are briefly compared in McEvilley, Thomas, The Shape of Ancient Thought: Comparative Studies in Greek and Indian Philosophies (New York: Allsworth Press, 2002), pp. 596–7Google Scholar.

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12 There has been some scholarly discussion of the claim that the Four Noble Truths are based on a medical model. For a review of this literature, and scepticism concerning the claim, see Zysk, Asceticism and Healing in Ancient India: Medicine in the Buddhist Monastery, pp. 38 and 144–5 (n. 2).

13 See Nāgārjuna, , Buddhist Advice for Living and Liberation: Nāgārjuna’s Precious Garland, Jeffrey Hopkins, , tr. (Ithaca, New York: Snow Lion Publications, 1998), pp. 114, 143 and 144Google Scholar (2.142, 4.372, and 4.376), and Śāntideva, The Bodhicaryāvatāra, pp. 69 and 101 (7.22 and 8.144).

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18 See Āryadeva, Āryadeva’s Catuḥśataka: On the Bodhisattva’s Cultivation of Merit and Knowledge, p. 65 (VI 5) and Śāntideva, The Bodhicaryāvatāra, p. 41 (5.81).

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20 In the Pāli canon, the Buddha’s teaching is said to be a purgative that always succeeds; see Woodward, F. L., tr., The Book of the Gradual Sayings (Anguttara-Nikāya), vol. 5, (London: Luzac & Company (for The Pāli Text Society), 1961), pp. 153–4Google Scholar (10.108). However, in this text, the claim is that right view purges wrong view with no suggestion that right view then purges itself.

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25 Quoted in Annas, ‘Epicurean Emotions,’ p. 158.

26 See Lucretius, On the Nature of Things, pp. 75–6 (3.309–22). For a survey of Epicurean views on anger, see Harris, William V., Restraining Rage: The Ideology of Anger Control in Classical Antiquity (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001), pp. 99–104CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Nussbaum, The Therapy of Desire: Theory and Practice in Hellenistic Ethics, Ch. 7.

27 Long, A. A. and Sedley, D. N., eds. and trs., The Hellenistic Philosophers, vol. 1: Translations of the Principal Sources, with Philosophical Commentary, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), p. 155Google Scholar (25C). For discussion of the medical analogy in Epicureanism, see Nussbaum, The Therapy of Desire: Theory and Practice in Hellenistic Ethics, Ch. 4.

28 Epicurus, ‘Letter to Menoeceus,’ p. 28 (122).

29 Long and Sedley, The Hellenistic Philosophers, vol. 1: Translations of the Principal Sources, with Philosophical Commentary, p. 156 (25J). The remedy says: ‘God presents no fears, death no worries. And while good is readily available, evil is readily endurable.’ Cf. Epicurus, ‘Letter to Menoeceus,’ p. 31 (133).

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34 Philodemus, On Frank Criticism, p. 71 (Frs. 63–4).

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37 Quoted in Nussbaum, The Therapy of Desire: Theory and Practice in Hellenistic Ethics, p. 137.

38 Seneca, Epistles 66–92, Richard M. Gummere, tr. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1920), p. 449 (92.3).

39 Seneca, , ‘On Anger,’ in Seneca, Moral and Political Essays, Cooper, John M. and Procopé, J. F., eds. and trs. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), p. 114Google Scholar (3.42.1).

40 See the passages on pp. 211–12 of Graver’s edition of Cicero’s Tusculan Disputations. For discussion of the medical analogy in Stoicism, see Nussbaum, The Therapy of Desire: Theory and Practice in Hellenistic Ethics, ch. 9.

41 Quoted in Nussbaum, The Therapy of Desire: Theory and Practice in Hellenistic Ethics, p. 324.

42 See Epictetus, , The Discourses of Epictetus, Gill, Christopher, ed., Hard, Robin, tr. (London: J. M. Dent (Everyman), 1995), pp. 188–89Google Scholar (3.21.18–20).

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44 Seneca, Epistles 93–124, Richard M. Gummere, tr. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1925), p. 333 (116.1).

45 Seneca, Epistles 66–92, p. 143 (75.11).

46 Seneca, ‘On Anger,’ p. 23 (1.6.1).

47 See Empiricus, Sextus, Outlines of Scepticism, Annas, Julia and Barnes, Jonathan, trs. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), p. 9Google Scholar (1.23–4).

48 Sextus Empiricus, Outlines of Scepticism, p. 10 (1.25).

49 Sextus Empiricus, Outlines of Scepticism, p. 5 (1.10).

50 See Nussbaum, The Therapy of Desire: Theory and Practice in Hellenistic Ethics, pp. 313–15 and Sorabji, Emotion and Peace of Mind: From Stoic Agitation to Christian Temptation, pp. 27–8 and 198–200.

51 Sextus Empiricus, Outlines of Scepticism, p. 216 (3.280).

52 Sextus Empiricus, Outlines of Scepticism, p. 216 (3.280–81).

53 Sextus Empiricus, Outlines of Scepticism, p. 118 (2.188).

54 In various ways, all of these outlooks maintained that physical disease was to be avoided.

55 See Sextus Empiricus, Outlines of Scepticism, p. 7 (1.16–17).

56 For example, see Nussbaum, The Therapy of Desire: Theory and Practice in Hellenistic Ethics, p. 403, and Nussbaum, Martha, Upheavals of Thought: The Intelligence of Emotions, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), p. 394CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

57 Cicero, Cicero and the Emotions: Tusculan Disputations 3 and 4, p. 5 (3.6).

58 See note 6 above.

59 There are some tendencies in Mahāyāna Buddhism to put less emphasis on our own capacity for enlightenment and more emphasis on the assistance of bodhisattvas. This does not change the fact that enlightenment brings tranquillity in the face of fortune.

60 See Williams, Bernard, ‘Do Not Disturb,’ review of Nussbaum, The Therapy of Desire: Theory and Practice in Hellenistic Ethics, London Review of Books 16 (October 20, 1994), pp. 25–26Google ScholarPubMed.

61 For example, see Śāntideva, The Bodhicaryāvatāra, p. 53 (6.42) and Seneca, ‘On Anger,’ pp. 65–6 (2.28).

62 Seneca, ‘On Anger,’ p. 51 (2.10.7).

63 Seneca, ‘On Anger,’ p. 34 (1.16.4).

64 Śāntideva, The Bodhicaryāvatāra, p. 56 (6.65); cf. p. 53 (6.33).

65 Śāntideva, The Bodhicaryāvatāra, p. 61 (6.120).