V. N. Abaev on the understanding of mental culture in Zen Buddhism

The article analyzes the problem of mental culture in the works of N. V. Abaev, who is the largest researcher of Chan Buddhism. According to the author, the appeal to the ideas of Chan Buddhism, found in the work of N. V. Abaev, seems quite understandable. Firstly, the 80s of the 20th century in the Soviet Union were the time when the Soviet ideology not only dealt with social problems, but also became interested in man as a subject of the historical process in its special psychological manifestations, and secondly, in the sphere of scientific interests of N. V. Abaev was Buddhology, and knowledge of Chinese, Japanese and English made it possible to get acquainted with extensive literature on the issues of interest to him. N. V. Abaev showed that the culture of mental activity is capable of so profoundly transforming the structure of the personality and the subject of activity that even the levels of the subconscious and the “inexpressible” change. He emphasized that the Chan culture of mental activity was thoughtful and diverse, combining Buddhist and Chinese practices of personality structuring and avoiding chemical effects on the human body through alcohol and drugs. One of the leading positions of Chan / Zen Buddhism psycho training is meditation, which is the concentration of consciousness at one point of “gazing” of the meditator with his inner gaze into the “emptiness”. Meditation leads the adept to enlightenment, which was considered by N. V. Abaev as a reproduction of a special state of consciousness. Being in this state, a person goes beyond the framework of his individuality and is freed from his “I”. The author comes to the conclusion that N. V. Abaev was the first in Soviet literature to describe a personality type that is able to regulate both activity in relation to an object and its own internal activity.