The Self in Meditation

Meditation is an art of self-shaping that sculpts the plastic structures of the mind, contrasting modern views of healing with traditional aims of permanent self-transformation. The mind's architecture of attention, involving selective attention and cumulative self-structures, is explored through absorptive, deconstructive, and narrative meditation forms. These practices shape the inner world, revealing the self as a dynamic, self-creative system constantly transformed by sensory stimuli, where meditation acts as a selective factor determining which elements predominate. Classical meditation aimed to align the self with broader realities, unlike modern concerns with individual autonomy.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Abstract This chapter outlines a theory of meditation as an art of self-shaping, by emphasizing meditation’s efficacy as a tool for sculpting the “plastic” structures of the mind. First, it considers modern views of meditation as a form of healing that brings the mind “back” to its natural functioning. This stands in contrast with most traditional views of meditation as a way to change the self in permanent—and sometimes radical—ways. Second, it sketches a model of the mind’s “architecture of attention”—exploring the role of selective attention in cognitive processing and the cumulative structures of the self. Third, given this model of the mind, it considers some examples of how absorptive, deconstructive, and narrative forms of meditation shape the inner world of the practitioner. From this examination of meditative functions, there emerges an ontology of the self that recognizes its self-creative malleability. Less an atomic individual or an outward-shining power of perception, the self appears as a kind of dynamic weather system that is constantly transformed as it takes up the raw materials of sensory stimulus. On this model, meditation functions as the selective factor that allows different elements of that system to predominate and thereby shape the others. Finally, the chapter reminds that, far from the modern world’s concern with individual autonomy, classical meditation’s subtle artistry aimed to bring the self into alignment with broader realities.