Sound, Touch, Form, Taste, and Smell as Pathways for Meditation – A Review of Classical and Neuroscience Texts

Meditation research can be enriched by integrating neuroscientific findings with classical philosophical frameworks. This review examines the hierarchical meditative states described in Patañjali's Yoga darśana, using an information flow model from Sāṅkhya and Yoga philosophy. It focuses on sense perception as a path to higher meditative states, detailing how practitioners use gross sense objects (sound, touch, form, smell, taste) to enter the Vitarka state, then progress to the Vicāra state by replacing them with subtle sense objects. The review also discusses sense transduction—how sensory stimulation converts to neuro-electrical signals—and summarizes ayurvedic, classical, and contemporary yogic practices related to each sense pathway.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Meditation has emerged as a useful tool to address various mental health issues and hence has become a fertile area of interdisciplinary research. Contemporary research is focused on evaluating the effects of meditation using different neural correlates and also on developing theoretical models to explain different meditative states. The value of these neuroscientific studies can be enhanced by integrating them with time-tested philosophical framework of classical meditation practices. This work attempts to review and summarize philosophical underpinnings of meditation with the help of hierarchical meditative states discussed in Patañjali’s Yoga darśana and an information flow model proposed based on Sāṅkhya and Yoga darśana. Sense perception as a vehicle to achieve higher meditative states is the focus of this review. Usage of gross sense objects via sense pathways of sound, touch, form, smell and taste to establish in Vitarka state and then moving to Vicāra state by replacing them with subtle sense object has been discussed in detail. A brief discussion on fundamentals of sense transduction has been discussed, which explains how sense stimulation in gross world gets converted to subtle neuro-electrical signals via multiple ionic processes. A summary of various ayurvedic, classical and contemporary yogic practices related to each sense pathway has also been presented.