Neuroscience and Meditation
The Oxford Handbook of Meditation February 10, 2021 Ronald E. Purser, David J. Lewis
A style of thought that privileges molecular biology and cognitive neuroscience as the sole valid foundation for studying mind and mental life has gained popularity despite a lack of progress and a positive prognosis. Neuroscience creates a false sense of achievement and meaning that dominates scientific and popular debate. This chapter examines how neuroscience communications, including fMRI brain imaging, function as persuasive discursive formations that promote the conception that mind is simply brain activity. The implications for meditation practice are considered using Madhyamaka Buddhism, with analysis drawing on post-modernism, especially Michel Foucault. The neuronal-self concept arguably strengthens the sense of ultimate materiality of mind and self, impeding meditative realization of emptiness.