Abstract:
This dissertation begins with a critical review of the religious background and
conditions into which the Buddha was born, explaining why and how the Buddha
deviated from the traditional approach based on theology, metaphysics, mysticism etc.,
and adopted a psychological approach to explain the human predicament, qualifying
Buddhism to be the most psychological teaching. This novel approach led the Buddha
to view everything including the mind, as dependently arisen, and that the mind is the
vital factor with regard to the problem of human predicament (dukkha) as well as to
freedom from it.
This novel approach helped the Buddha to delink the mind from the concept of the
soul, discord the beliefs in God and other factors that were then considered as sources
of human predicament. On this understanding the Buddha gave primacy �o the spiritual
life of the individual, and located all suffering and happiness in the mind itself, thus
making the individual himself responsible for what he is.
Arguing on these lines, this dissertation attempts to highlight the role played by the
mind, the importance of analyzing and understanding the mind, culturing and
sharpening it for the purpose of regulating all emotions and strengthening the view, and
using it for both secular and spiritual progress of the individual.
