What Kind of Suffering Does Meditation Reduce?

Meditation reduces suffering not by targeting specific types of distress but by dismantling the underlying mechanisms that generate suffering. The authors examine suffering through three frameworks: well-being (hedonia/eudaimonia), contemporary mindfulness (non-reactivity), and traditional Buddhist practice (ignorance). Although these approaches may produce similar states of reduced suffering, they reinforce different habits, affecting the likelihood of future suffering. Using the action-perception cycle as an analytical tool, suffering is cast as self-reinforcing cycles, with reliable reduction as stable equilibrium. Meditation progressively reveals that suffering, typically perceived as passive, is actually a pattern of action we engage in, providing a reliable way to reduce enacted suffering.

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Abstract

Meditation has been shown to reduce various forms of suffering and increase well-being. However, its broad effectiveness raises the question: In what way does meditation reduce suffering? We explore this question systematically, proposing that meditation’s effectiveness stems not from addressing specific types of suffering but from dismantling underlying mechanisms that create the conditions for suffering. We examine suffering from three frameworks: well-being (hedonia/eudaimonia), contemporary mindfulness (non-reactivity), and traditional Buddhist practice (ignorance). While these approaches may correspond to phenomenologically similar states with less suffering, they reinforce different underlying habits, thereby affecting the probability of suffering arising in the future. Second, we highlight this difference using the action-perception cycle as our analytical tool. Particularly, we cast suffering as self-reinforcing action-perception cycles, and unreliable/reliable reduction from suffering as unstable/stable equilibrium in action-perception cycles. Third, we propose four stages through which meditation facilitates a reliable reduction by progressively revealing that suffering, typically perceived as a passive experience, is in fact a specific pattern of action we are engaged in (i.e., meditation provides a reliable way to reduce enacted suffering). Our framework provides a foundation for mathematically formalizing and computationally modelling non-reactivity, ignorance (in the Buddhist sense), and suffering, and has implications for the larger goal of understanding perception, action, and conscious experience.