Luis Gómez: "Spirituality and Mental Health: Traditional and Contemporary Buddhist Views"

Abstract:

This is a spin off from a talk I have given in three different versions in Oxford, Hamburg and Heidelberg (I will make available the draft of the latest version), dealing with contemporary psychotherapy techniques that use mindfulness meditation. The lecture I will offer at Shinnyo-en will focus on the general notions of "well-being" in Buddhism, using as my springboard the trope of the Buddha as Supreme Physician and the way this trope has been used in the recent history of Buddhism. The main question to be considered will be the uses and misuses of the authority of the Buddha or Buddhism to defend various contemporary notions of "health" and "wholeness."

Bio:

A graduate of Yale University, Professor Gómez teaches at El Colegio de México and is Arthur F. Thurnau Professor Emeritus of Asian Languages and Cultures and Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Religious Studies at the University of Michigan.  His research interests include Indian, Tibetan, and Chinese Buddhism, with a particular emphasis on the literature and religious vision of the Mahāyāna. His publications include The Land of Bliss: The Paradise of the Buddha of Measureless Light (1966), a translation of the Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtras; and Studies in the Literature of the Great Vehicle: Mahāyāna Buddhists Texts (1989, with Jonathan Silk).  Professor Gómez also holds a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology (Michigan, 1998), and is a practicing clinician.