A CRITICAL ANALYSIS ON THE PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPACTS OF UKKHEPANĪYA KARMAYA IN COMPARISON TO THE PERSPECTIVES OF MODERN PSYCHOLOGY REGARDING SOCIAL REJECTION AND ISOLATION

Abstract

Ukkhepaniya Karmaya, which comes in the Vinayapiṭaka, is a punishment that was executed by the Buddha, under the law of Mahāsangha. According to Vinayapiṭaka, the Buddha executed this punishment on Channa Thero due to his reluctance to accept his impermissible behavior. With the punishment which included 43 rules, the rest of the Bhikkhu community was advised to subject Channa Thero to complete isolation and rejection within the community to allow him to reflect on his inappropriate behavior. Buddhist history reports that this punishment brought positive consequences, as it allowed the subjects to reflect upon their wrongdoings. However, the objective of this study is to discuss only the psychological impacts which can occur to a Bhikku by being a subject of Ukkhepanīya Karmaya while focusing on social rejection and isolation according to the perspectives of modern psychology. The results of social psychological experiments, Kip Williams’s neuroimaging study, and the ball-tossing paradigm were used in the analysis of this study. The application of the methodology reflected the result that social rejection and isolation can stimulate similar types of sensations that are caused by physical pain in a human being. Furthermore, it was clarified that social rejection and isolation can increase the likelihood of aggression in human beings. Therefore, as the conclusion, it can be said that according to the discoveries of modern social psychology, Ukkhepaniya Karmaya can effectuate aggression in the Bhikkhu who is being subjected, in contradiction to the expectations of executing the punishment. Moreover, the aforementioned conclusion solidifies that the respective punishment possesses the ability to cause negative psychological impacts on human beings.