Meditation has been shown to reduce various forms of suffering and increase well-being. However, its broad effectiveness raises the question: In what way does meditation reduce suffering? We explore this question systematically, proposing that meditation’s effectiveness stems not from addressing specific types of suffering but from dismantling underlying mechanisms that create the conditions...
Contemplative practices have been shown to elicit a range of experiences and insights often referred to as "nothingness". However, these encounters are frequently conflated and remain undifferentiated. Here we address this ambiguity and provide a nuanced understanding of two such events: 1) emptiness (lack of inherent existence in experience, i.e., no-thingness) and 2) cessation (“cut” or...