Self introduction
I’ve been a social worker for more than twelve years. Other than working as a school social worker, I also worked as a family counselor in the first six years. As a social worker, my primary duty is to offer assistance to those people who are in needed by rendering counseling service and/or introducing tangible resources. Therefore, everyday, I’ve a chance to meet people who are, in a general sense, suffered. In other words, I was given a valuable chance to reflect on what life is and how we can attain a better life. Actually, I am still on the way of searching. I resonated with what my teacher said, ‘we should be thankful and respectful to our clients as it’s our privilege to listen to their story of struggle, we witness their pain, suffering, transcendence, and we learned.’ On the other hand, for particular moment, I was also surprised by some clients who were so stubborn in tackling with their problems such as marital problem. Their mistakes were repeated again and again. It’s unfair to draw a thin conclusion on the problems as they are usually quite complicated. They may involve personal, structural and cultural factors. Some problems can be solved by helping the clients to develop a strong and coherent self and some, on the contrary, are originated from self-indulgent.
I’m interested in Buddhist approach, was not because of the ineffectiveness of the western approach, but was attracted by their commonalities as well as the differences which mentioned in my self introduction. I think the problem of modern people, is not because of shortage but the mode of being. The shortage is an illusion. We used to get more than what we need. In order to satisfy those endless wants, our quality of life is then sacrificed. And I think that Buddhism can give a comprehensive answer and echo with the need of the modern societies. Specifically, I think modern people need to be awakened, in the sense of how their lives were structured and informed. At least, I think everyone should examine their lives and livings. Although we cannot do what Buddha did but I think he gave us a good example. He is genuine to life and is bold to renounce for a perfect life.
My understandings of Buddhism
It is really a big question. I think Buddhism can be concluded by‘Four Seals’. They are:
- All phenomena are impermanent. This simple means that anything that has causes will change moment by moment, even of that change is imperceptible.
- All contaminated things are miserable. Everything in our experience is ‘contaminated’ because it is ultimately the product if our ignorance. That is, intentional actions (karma) performed while misunderstanding the way things exist are the forces that cause our own births and the formation of the cosmos itself. All of those things are ‘miserable’ in the sense that impermanence itself is a kind of suffering.
- All phenomena are selfless, ‘Self’ refers to what non-Buddhist schools describe as our true selves: a permanent (i.e., unchanging), unitary (i.e., indivisible), independent entity at the core of our being. No such ‘self’ exists and there are no objects that are used by such a ‘self.’
- Nirvana is peace. Nirvana is not a place or a kind of consciousness but the absence of the afflictions of desire, hatred, and ignorance.
Moreover, another closely related concept is dependent origination. It is, of course, a concept cannot be understood easily. This involves different level of understandings. Dependent origination is a very important concept which the modern education overlooked. For example, we show our kindness to somebody not only because we love, but also we are interdependent. Fragmentation is also a misery. And as mentioned before, it is only a metaphor, our society is a sick person and Buddhist perspective to certain extent, is a medicine.
My experience on using Buddhist thoughts in social work practice
When I interested in Buddhism four years ago, I spent a lot of time on readings and tried to figure out the principle concepts. After I read some books, it took much time. I began to appreciate its philosophy and tried to map out the whole picture. Now the work is continuing. And then I tried to integrate the technique of introspection in my counseling sessions for promoting self-understanding, anger control and stress management. Meanwhile, I was also attracted by Narrative Therapy. Its questioning skills can strengthen the process of introspection. On the other hand, for my personal life, six years ago, I have developed a habit to note down my speculations. The practice is extremely help for me to integrate the Buddhist thoughts into my work and life. From the note, I can trace the change and development of my understandings of Buddhism. And from my personal experience, I even attempted to develop and model for counseling and self reflection. The theme is how to transform emotional disturbance to compassion. Moreover, in this year, I also develop two programs for S.1 and S.4 students by integrating the techniques of mediation and self observation on behavioral control for the S.1 students and the other one was to promote concentration and learning motivation. As both of them are only pre-mature attempts, the effectiveness was yet quite significant. But I think they are valuable to me. Additionally, from the process, I was also concerned about how to assist the adolescents to develop a better understanding of Buddhist perspectives and leads to a better life quality. Actually, I am looking forward to the research findings of the Orientation Life Enhancement Project which jointly launched by your centre and different secondary schools.
Difficulties anticipated
I think I need to take more time to familiar with the technical terms of Buddhism such as those from Pali and Sanskrit. Moreover, Most of my previous readings are Chinese; I think I should spend more time on reading more English literatures.
Future plan
Of course, I will continue to try to integrate the Buddhist approach into my professional practice. In the past four years, my attention is on searching for personal enlightenment and liberation and how to integrate in individual counseling or programs. A few days ago, the relationship between non-violence, another core concept of Buddhism, and social justice drew my attention. I am quite happy because it widened my perspective. In the other words, it expended my understanding and concern from individual to community.