Buddhism × Psychoanalysis
Two traditions, developed independently over centuries, each built sophisticated systems for classifying and understanding mental life. This project places them side by side — not to argue that they are "similar," but to discover what each reveals that the other cannot see, and what the comparison itself produces.
The Treatise on the Hundred Dharmas (百法明門論) classifies 51 mental factors into six categories. Psychoanalytic theory organizes affects through drives, object relations, and developmental models. Neither system is used to "explain" the other. The comparison is the method; the framework that emerges is the finding.
Method
Each mental factor is grounded in its own tradition before comparison begins. Buddhist side: original definitions, commentarial traditions, structural relations. Psychoanalytic side: how the relevant affect has been theorized across schools — including internal debates and competing frameworks.
For each mental factor: definition in source text, nearest psychoanalytic concept(s), points of correspondence, points of tension, blind spots on each side, and experiential verification from the researcher's dual practice.
The researcher's position as both Buddhist practitioner and psychoanalyst is formalized as an epistemic resource. When textual comparison produces a claim, lived experience — in meditation and in the consulting room — provides a third check. These judgments are explicitly marked as experiential.
Methodologically, this project is situated within hermeneutic dialogue: two horizons of understanding meeting in the researcher's dual position.
Progress
Findings
Same phenomenon, different ontological levels. Both describe a movement of the mind toward objects that "sticks." But rāga's object is existence itself (三有) — the clinging to being. Libido's object is always a specific relational other. One operates at the ontological level; the other at the relational.
Shared structure, divergent epistemologies. Buddhism treats rāga as a root affliction — the source of suffering, to be recognized and transformed. Psychoanalysis treats libido as life force — never itself the problem, only problematic when fixated.
Generative relations. In the Hundred Dharmas, afflictions have a generative structure: rāga obstructed produces pratigha (anger). Psychoanalysis treats libido and aggression as parallel drives, not as sequentially generated. This structural difference has no simple resolution.
A false neighbor: "greed." The common English translation misleads. Greed is a moral judgment about excess. Neither rāga nor libido is about quantity — one names a mechanism of clinging, the other a mechanism of investment.
Publications
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"Clearing the Ground: Psychoanalysis as a Structural Preliminary to Buddhist Practice"
A reconstruction of the relationship between psychoanalytic work and Buddhist practice, using the Buddhist concept of preliminary practice (前行) and obstacle purification (净障) as the structural framework. -
Mental Factor Coding Sheets
Ongoing
Six-dimension comparative analysis for each of the 51 mental factors. -
CPS Essays: Buddhism and Psychoanalysis
Ongoing
Essays emerging from the research when findings are rich enough. Published on Chinese Psychoanalytic Scene.
Roots
This programme draws on twenty years of Buddhist practice and seven years of psychoanalytic training. Formalising it as a research project in 2026 does not mark a beginning — it marks the point at which the accumulated experience became method.
First temple involvement
Weekly volunteer work and study at a Buddhist temple. Sustained practice begins.
Buddhist refuge (皈依)
Formal commitment to Buddhist practice.
First intersection
Concordia proposal: A Practice-based Study on Buddhist Psychology as a Framework for Therapeutic Game Design. Joined temple psychology group — first systematic attempt to combine Buddhist psychology with another discipline. Began writing《我佛》.
Psychodynamic training begins
Started personal analysis and psychodynamic training. Began thinking systematically about the relationship between Buddhism and psychoanalysis from inside both practices.
Early conceptual writing
First drafts exploring Buddhism × Psychoanalysis. Continued Buddhist study alongside analytic training.
Academic grounding
Self-elective: Buddhism vs. Psychoanalysis. CPS Substack subsection launched. Systematic restudy of the Hundred Dharmas (百法明門論).
Programme launch
"Clearing the Ground" paper draft completed. Buddhist app (Returning Path) prototype. Pilot coding: 贪 (rāga). Programme formally established.
Scholarly Dialogue
This project is in conversation with the sixty-year history of Buddhist-psychoanalytic dialogue, and seeks to extend it through systematic method and attention to the specificity of both traditions.
- Xu Xianjun (2026)
Yogācāra and psychoanalytic unconscious — the most recent comparative study, focused on ālayavijñāna. - Tao Jiang
Yogācāra and modern psychology — key comparative scholar at Rutgers. - Pilar Jennings
Psychoanalyst and Sakya Buddhist practitioner — a leading contemporary voice in the dialogue. - Maria Heim
Authority on emotion in South Asian Buddhist contexts (Amherst College). - Jack Engler (1983)
"You have to be somebody before you can be nobody" — the foundational sequential claim this project engages and extends.
About
Xiaomeng Qiao is a psychoanalyst in training, Buddhist practitioner, and independent researcher. His work explores the intersections of psychoanalysis, Chinese subjectivity, Buddhist thought, and queer experience. He writes at Chinese Psychoanalytic Scene and 何苦开心.
Contact: xiaomeng.qiao.ayame9joe@gmail.com