Eastern Perspectives of Positive Psychology
Paul T. P. Wong Ph.D. C.Psych
Tyndale University College
Toronto, Ontario

What comes to you mind when you read “East meets West”? What are the implications for positive psychology with increasing importance of China on the international stage? What distinguishes the Eastern brand of positive psychology from the American counterpart? What are the influential schools of thoughts that have shaped Asian culture and the Eastern ways of living well? In this lecture and the next one, we will explore these questions.

Introduction

• There are many compelling reasons for taking into account the broader historical and cultural contexts in order to understand the different pathways to living well
• East Asia includes China, Japan and Korea. South Asia includes India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, etc.Southeast Asia consists of two geographic regions: the Asian mainland, and island arcs and archipelagoes to the east and southeast.The mainland section consists of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam.The maritime section consists of Brunei, East Timor, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore.
• One quarter of the world’s populations live in East Asia, while only 5% of the world’s population live in the US. Therefore, it is being presumptuous to assume that Western PP automatically applies to Easterners who have a very different kind of history and culture.
• The Chinese people have more than 5000 years of history. They must have learned some “secrets” of how to survive and thrive in all kinds of adverse situations. The ancient Chinese secrets are a treasure chest for positive psychology.
• We need to study not only just Eastern influences on positive psychology and research in America, but also the indigenous pp in Eastern cultures. We need to be careful not to be guilty of misappropriation of culture simply by taking some Eastern concepts and practices out of their cultural context and force them into the positivist paradigm.
• Western methods of research are not the only scientific method. Chinese traditional medicine and Chinese indigenous psychology are also based on thousands of years of empirical research in real life as a research laboratory.
  

An illustration of Chinese wisdom

“A good fortune may forebode a bad luck, which may in turn disguise a good fortune.” What does it tell us about the Eastern world view?

The parable of an old man who lost and found his horse (his most valuable possession) teaches us that loss may mean gain, and gain may mean loss; thus negative and positive are intertwined. This parable also teaches us that we need to take things in stride and accept life with equanimity.

Contrasts between East and West: An overview

• Easterners have a dualistic view as symbolized by Yin Yang. There is no clear distinction or separation between negative psychology and positive psychology from the Eastern perspective
• Seeking a dynamic balance between good and bad is contrary to the Western model of seeking to optimize the positive. There are the important implications for both research and applications of PP. A balanced approach will dictate systematic research on the benefits of balancing positives and negatives rather than simply focus on positives. In terms of application, a balanced approach will avoid the frustration of seeking perfection and prevent the danger of ignoring potential risks.
• Easterners are interested in being in harmony with natural while Westerns are interested in mastery over nature. For Easterners, family harmony is a more important criterion for the good life than individual success. Although there is no much research on harmony per se, there is considerable research on related areas such as group cohesiveness, team work, cooperation, collective coping, and filial piety.
• Easterners value enlightenment and wisdom while Westerners value information and knowledge. Enlightenment refers to inner awakening, as if the Spirit has ignited a divine spark or a light-bulb inside your head has just been turned on. It is an epiphany or a kind of A ha phenomenon. Wisdom is the application of knowledge to daily living. Information and knowledge without enlightenment and compassion can be deadly.
• Easterners seek to understand the transcendental or spiritual reality, while Westerners focus on knowledge of the material world. Easterners have always taken the transcendental reality seriously; fatalism, ancestor worship and the principle of karma are based on transcendental beliefs. Westerners focus on reason and the five senses.
• Easterners are more collectivist while Westerners are more individualist. Thus, Easterners are more concerned with group harmony, family harmony, collective coping and cooperation.
• Easterners value heritage and wisdoms from the past, while Westerners value the present and the future. Easterners have the advantage of drawing upon lessons and wisdoms from thousands of years of history in making business or personal decisions.
• Easterners think in circular and holistic fashion, while Westerns think in linear and binary fashion. These differences in perception and cognition seem to be hardwired. Thus, the culturally different approaches to positive psychology may be rooted in genes and the brain.
• Easterners learn from narrative, modeling and actions, while Westerns learn from didactic teaching.

I Ching and Eastern culture

I Ching or the Book of Changes is the oldest of the Chinese classic texts. In this section, I borrow extensively from Wikipedia.

I Ching is an ancient symbol system designed to identify order and regularity in the midst of constant change. This is similar to the scientific effort to discover laws and principles in the midst of chaos and flus.

History of I Ching

Traditionally it was believed that the principles of the I Ching originated with the mythical Fu Xi, one of the earliest legendary rulers of China (traditional dates 2800 BCE-2737 BCE). The wisdom of the 8 trigrams (ba gùa) was revealed to him supernaturally.

Later, during the time of Spring and Autumn (722 BCE - 481 BCE), Confucius is traditionally said to have written the Shi Yi (shí yì, "Ten Wings"), a group of commentaries on the I Ching.

The context of I Ching

The actual text of the I Ching is a set of predictions based on a set of 64 abstract line arrangements called hexagrams (guà). Similar to horoscope, I Ching can be used for divination.

However, the essence of I Ching is a system of philosopy that is the heart of Chinese cultural beliefs. We need to understand I Ching in order to appreciate the disctinctiveness of Chiese culture.

yì, when used as an adjective, means "easy" or "simple", while as a verb it implies "change” or “variability"

jìng here means "classic (text)", derived from its original meaning of "regularity" or "persistency"

Persistency refers to the essence of the substance, the unchanging principle in the universe.

Thus, the title means that text describes the persistent Ultimate Way which will not change throughout the flow of time and the constant flux of events.

Commented on by Zheng Xuan in his writings Critique of I Ching (yì zàn) and Commentary on I Ching ( yì lùn) of Eastern Han Dynasty.

The meaning of Baqua

It means the eight trigrams of abstract lines, each with it unique meaning and prediction, as shown in Figure 1.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagua_%28concept%29

Figure 1 A schematic representation of Baqua

There are two possible sources of bagua: The first is from traditional Yin and Yang philosophy. The interrelationships of this philosophy were described by Fuxi in the following way:

The Limitless (Wuji) produces the delimited, and this is the Absolute (Taiji)
The Taiji produces two forms, named yin and yang
The two forms produce four phenomena, named lesser yang, great yang (taiyang also means the Sun), lesser yin, great yin (taiyin also means the Moon).
The two forms and four phenomena act on the eight trigrams (ba gua), resulting in sixty-four hexagrams.

The hexagrams are mere mnemonics for the philosophical concepts embodied in each one. The philosphy represented by Baqua centres around the ideas of balance between opposites and acceptance of change: These two themes are fundamental to our understanding of Asian positive psycholoyg.

The impact of I Ching on Chinese culture

The concepts of Yin and yang permeate Chinese culture. They are especially associated with the Taoism.

I Ching is also considered as a Confucianist classic, because The Wings or Appendices of I Ching (not the I Ching proper) are attributed to Confucius, and this book is one of the Five Confucian classics required as part of the Civil Service Exams in Imperial China.

The biggest influence of I Ching on Asian positive psychology is the deeply ingrained concept of luck or fortune as essential part of happiness and the good life.

The concept of luck is more profound than random chance or happenstance. Luck is related to such transcental beliefs as karma and fatalism.

The concept of luck or fortune is closely linked to the belief system that human beings are not the masters of their own fate or captains of their own destiny, because one needs to take into account transcendental and macro forces that are beyond one’s control. There is nothing much one can do in times of bad luck except to accept the reality and wait for the tide to change. To the Chinese mind, acceptance is hopeful.