Modern people, it is said, are under a lot of stress from a fierce struggle for existence. The stress threatens their mental health and causes them depression, which has increased the suicide rate of people. Many people are suffering from the stress that is called a silent murderer. The strain responses at an evolutionary process of human species were necessarily required to survive in the primitive times. However, in these days such a kind of environments disappeared but most of people are still strained by various kinds of things or situations they encounter in daily life. Although the strain responses of men used to help to survive in primitive society, now they threaten their survival and cause physical and mental illness.
From the viewpoint of Buddhism, mental illnesses are induced by the discriminating mind and afflictions which hinder people from being aware of objects as it is real. These obstacles can be overcome when they attain enlightenment through Buddhist practice. The enlightenment, knowing and seeing their Buddha natures, is the fundamental way that is able to heal all kinds of diseases they face in their lives. Therefore, it is the ultimate goal of Buddhist practice. If they expect to become free from all of mental disorders and to become fully healthy, in other wards, to get enlightenment with practice, the first of all it is one of the most important points that they must reach the spiritual realm of being delivered from worldly existence in which self and object become one equal mind.
If they can moderately adjust their own stress perceived like strings on musical instruments to which Buddha compared the madhyam?-pratipad, a considerable number of modern people''s diseases could be prevented with doing that. If they can control the switch of the strain and the relaxation to their own will, various kinds of modern people''s diseases will not occur.
As a variety of psychotherapy methods developed in western, they have contributed greatly to improving the quality of life for human health and a feeling of happiness. But feeling that these methods are not yet enough to understand and care for the essence of the pains and ills of human beings, many of western psychotherapists are attempting to seek the solutions to that problem in Buddhism.
Most of Buddhists, it seems, do not know well that Buddhist practice is the most common mental treatments for disorders and depression resulting from stress perceived in their lives. This study is in order to help them realize that Buddhist practice itself is not only a meditation good for mental and physical health but also a scientific healing agent, and is to boost them the motivations so that they can be even more interested in and like the Buddhist practice.
This study emphasizes that Buddhist practice is to reach forward to nirvana or vimutti out of suffering and at the same time brings its practitioners the effects of scientific healings.
Scientification of meditation techniques was attempted by Herbert Benson''s study for the first time in the middle of 1970 in America, who was a professor of mind-body medicine at Harvard medical school. At that time he wrote the well known book titled the Relaxation Response which could be considered as that attemption.
In 1968, he was asked that he would carry out an experiment by transcendental meditators. They came to him saying that since they could reduce their blood pressure for themselves only with the transcendental meditation, they earnestly asked him for such an experiment. With their persistent requests he began to study meditation then. He was a pioneer of psychosomatic medicine who scientifically proved the effects that Buddhist practice made the state of strain with stress responses properly eased. The book, Beyond the Relaxation written by him, it is known, scientifically showed the fact that the mind-body of Buddhist monks are one system in which mind leads body and broadened the horizons of scientific grounds for the relaxation responses.
As his study starting in his laboratory was developed to the stage of a clinical trial and spread widely over Asian, he played an important role as the bridge between medicine and religion, the West and the East, and science and faith.
This thesis compares and confirms the effects of mind-body healings resulting from both the faith factor meditation and the Buddhist invocation practice, and also refines the notion of the method of the Buddhist invocation practice for effectual mind-body healings, considering the way to apply the relaxation response.
This study will be an expedient for propagation of Buddhism to allow people to learn Buddhism more easily and have a better feeling toward it, and in addition help to make Buddhists have pride in themselves as being a Buddhist and have self-confidence in the Buddhist practice.
Buddhists, who believe in and practice Buddhism, I expect, are able to enlighten self-nature and be the main character of their own happy lives in which they can keep mind-body health through the invocation practice of Buddhist tradition.