Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Daoism has a rich tradition of working with psychological issues and phenomena, speaking variously of the spirit and the mind, acknowledging various forms of souls, and engaging with a plethora of mental functions and emotions.
It also works with several distinct dimensions of the body: the integrated organism that connects people to nature and the universe, the physical form that runs life along its specific trajectory and contains its own wisdom, and the culturally defined and individually sculpted personal body that determines people’s identity in the greater society.
The conference focuses on the exploration of these aspects of the Daoist tradition, both in history and the contemporary world, with the goal of shedding new light on the integrated dynamics of human psychology from a Daoist perspectives.
Daoism, Psychology and Psycotherapy - The Dao of Dialogue
From Analytical Psychologist Carl Jung’s exploration of ‘inner alchemy’, to Humanistic Psychologist Abraham Maslow’s plea for a more ‘Taoistic Science’, to pioneering person-centred therapist Carl Rogers’ embrace of wuwei, Daoist teachings have played a consistent, subtle but significant part in shaping popular approaches in Psychology and Psychotherapy.
Contemporary cognitive therapies are also being increasingly informed by Daoist principles and cultivation practices—including the emergence of Chinese Daoist Cognitive Therapy. In this lecture, I briefly outline the past, present and future of this cross-cultural dialogue, before reflecting on my own Daoist encounters and inspirations that have led to my pursuit of more Transpersonal research methods and Ecological endeavours. I will demonstrate how our undergraduate Environmental Psychology module has been informed by Daoist teachings, further supplemented with insights from Deep Ecology and Ecopsychology. Our current global predicament is largely the result of a prevalent, insidious, largely unquestioned anthropocentric mindset, which reduces the natural world to ‘natural resources’.
It is my firm conviction that a more Daoistic worldview may prove to be a potent antidote to this detrimental, default way of thinking and more vital than ever when faced with impending climate crises and catastrophe—bridging the psychological, ecological and soteriological.
Ji Kang on Abandoning Life to Preserve the Body
In his debate with Xiang Xiu, Ji Kang puts forth a Neo-Daoist philosophy of life-nourishment that is rooted in the harmonization of body, heart-mind, and spirit. Unlike people who indulge their bodies to the detriment of their heart-mind, or deplete their spirit by over-exerting the heart-mind, Ji Kang argues we must cultivate our inborn nature to protect the spirit and quiet our heart-mind to preserve the body. Unless we can harmonize the body and spirit, longevity will elude us regardless of the amount of exercise we perform or medicine consumed.
To know the principle of nourishing life is to know the source of our ailments lies hidden within us, and that said ailments can only be defeated if we empty ourselves of desires, use wisdom to accord with the Dao of life, and blend with the world in oneness.
By acknowledging the presence of the Dao and its virtue within us, and not chase things that will come back to harm us, we can abandon life and thereby preserve our body.
