Steve,
Yes, I am interested in chatting about these ancient Buddhist personality temperaments and their application to practice. --ED "... the Buddhist personality types, a 1,600-year old system of typology set forth in the Visuddhimagga, or "The Path of Purification," which summarizes and interprets the teachings in the Pali canon. One of the principal non-canonical works, the Visuddhimagga was composed eight centuries after the Buddha's death and has been attributed to Buddhaghosa, the great fifth century Theravada commentator. The discussion of Buddhist personality types arises in the chapter on choosing a meditation object on which to focus during concentration practice; the types are described as part of Buddhaghosa's commentary on the canonical text that explains that a teacher should give instructions that "suit the temperament" of the student. The Visuddhimagga offers descriptions of six personality temperaments: three unwholesome types and three wholesome types. The text suggests that the unwholesome and wholesome types "parallel" each other. The modern-day application of the personality-type system focuses primarily on the three unwholesome types and pairs them with their positive attributes. The three types of Buddhist personalities, paired with their positive tendencies, are Greed/Faith, Aversive/Discerning Wisdom, and Deluded/Speculative. The Greed/Faith personality type is characterized by craving and optimism, the Aversive/Discerning type by criticism and clarity, and the Deluded/Speculative type by doubt and equanimity. Each type has its neurotic tendencies and its awakened tendencies, and the spiritual task is to learn how to strengthen the awakened aspects." http://www.tricycle.com/feature/which-buddhist-personality-type-are-you <http://www.tricycle.com/feature/which-buddhist-personality-type-are-you\ > --- In [email protected], "SteveW" <eugnostos2000@...> wrote: > > Hello. I have personally found the theory of Buddhist Personality Types > to be very useful in my practice. The Types are: Hate Type, Greed Type, > Confusion Type, Discursive Type, Faith Type and Wisdom Type. This goes > back to the Pali Canon and really isn't a Zen thing, but I was wondering if > anyone else here was interested in this. > Steve
