Connecting Mindfulness Practice to Generative Semiotic Activity-Self-Other Referent in Umwelt and Semiosphere.
Masayoshi Morioka
Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science July 17, 2024 DOI: 10.1007/s12124-024-09851-x (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Intervention | Mindfulness meditation |
| Topics | Buddhism Meditation |
| Keywords | Humans Ego Tao Umwelt Mind and body Interoception Mead Rogers Buber Non-human I ching Tonus Referent Semiotic activity Semiosphere |
| Key points | Argues that mindfulness meditation, though seemingly an internal personal practice, is a semiotically mediated social process that can give rise to a new "I." Drawing on Buber and Rogers, Mead's "I" and "Me," Taoist and early Buddhist thought, and the concepts of Umwelt and semiosphere, the author proposes that meditation links self-formation to interdependence with non-human nature and to embodied interoceptive awareness of breath and tension-relaxation. |
Abstract
In this comment paper on von Fircks (2023a), I would like to focus on four issues and offer some reflections on them: first, what is happening in the process of a new I arising through mindfulness meditation practice? I would like to supplement the dialogue between Buber and Rogers in 1957 on the dynamism of I and Me, which is the basis of Mead's theory of self formation, in which I and Me separate, discover and meet a new self. The second, is that meditation, which at first glance appears to be an internal meditation practice and a personal activity, leads to a semiotic mediated social process. The Tao and early Buddhist ideas that form the background to the experiential process of mindfulness meditation will be reviewed, and the significance of people experiencing the interdependence of non-human nature and the environment through the practice will be discussed. Third, connecting this to the idea of Umwelt (Uexküll) and the semiosphere (Lotman), an attempt is made to extend the otherness as a collating body of self formation to Umwelt. Fourth, mindfulness meditation focuses attention on the breath. In relation to Mead's focus on the environment under the skin, i.e. corporeality, I will supplement the psychological meaning of cultivating the body's sense of interoception through the sensing of repetitive movements of tension and relaxation. Through the above, what kind of semiotic mediating function does mindfulness meditation have in relation to the construction of the new I, and how does it lead to the creation of social meaning? We would like to discuss these points. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: The article does not contain any studies with clinical trial. This, clinical Trial registration is not applicable.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mindfulness: A proposed operational definition. | 2004 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mechanisms of mindfulness | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| How Does Mindfulness Meditation Work? Proposing Mechanisms of Action From a Conceptual and Neural Perspective | 2011 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depression | 2006 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence (S-ART): a framework for understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of mindfulness | 2012 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |