Gestalt Thinking and Buddhism

Abstract

Impermanence In the oldest forms of Buddhism, monks were reluctant to answer metaphysical questions. If answers were offered, they were expressed undogmat-ically: take it or leave it. Even if true, a philosophical opinion might be of little help, or even a hindrance on the Eightfold Path. Permanence, even eternal being, is often asserted of substance (Descartes, Spinoza) and of some other types of metaphysical entities beyond or behind "appearance." Gestalt ontology considers these entities to be entia rationis, abstract constructions created (by reason) to facilitate rational analysis. The concrete structure may have a lower or higher degree of permanence. The structure of an ecosystem may show notable change during a century or practically none at all. It may show a short or long half-life, in the sense that this term is used in the theory of radioactivity. Abstract structures are timeless, but reason employs them for a short or long time. The concrete contents of reality are shifting. Discontinuity and universal impermanence characterize the world of gestalts, 1 perhaps not quite in the sense of Buddhism, but in a closely related sense. Anatmavada and Self-Realization The "doctrine of no (permanent) Self " is essential to both Buddhism and gestalt thinking.