Can enlightenment be traced to specific neural correlates, cognition, or behavior? No, and (a qualified) Yes

Contemplative science has grown rapidly but mostly ignores the original soteriological goal of enlightenment, focusing instead on stress reduction and clinical health. This is a serious oversight because mindfulness practices in traditional Buddhist contexts aim at profound transformation across ethical, perceptual, emotional, and cognitive domains. Short-term interventions as brief as a few sessions already produce neuroplastic changes, suggesting that even secular practitioners may develop states and traits linked to progress toward enlightenment. To properly assess meditative interventions, it is essential to investigate whether enlightenment can be traced to specific neural correlates, cognition, or behavior.

Study at a glance

Abstract

The field of contemplative science is rapidly growing and integrating into the basic neurosciences, psychology, clinical sciences, and society-at-large. Yet the majority of current research in the con-templative sciences has been divorced from the soteriological context fromwhich these meditative practices originate and has focused instead on clinical applica-tions with goals of stress reduction and psychotherapeutic health. In the exist-ing research on health outcomes of mindfulness-based clinical interventions, for example, there have been almost no attempts to scientifically investigate the goal of enlightenment. This is a serious oversight, given that such profound trans-formation across ethical, perceptual, emo-tional, and cognitive domains are taken to be the natural outcome and principle aim of mindfulness practice in the tradi-tional Buddhist contexts from which these practices are derived. If short-term inter-ventions as short as a few sessions are now beginning to produce neuroplastic changes (Tang et al., 2010; Zeidan et al., 2010; Xue et al., 2011), it may be that even in secular contexts, practitioners are already developing states and traits that are associated with progress toward enlight-enment. In order to carefully assess the potential effects of meditative interven-tions it is of singular importance to ask whether enlightenment can be traced to specific neural correlates, cognition, or behavior.