Mistaken Compassion: Tibetan Buddhist Perspectives on Neuroethics.
Laura Specker Sullivan
AJOB Neuroscience 2022 DOI: 10.1080/21507740.2021.1939460 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Qualitative study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 11 |
| Population | Tibetan Buddhist monastics in India |
| Topics | Buddhism |
| Keywords | Consciousness Culture Enhancement Identity Religion |
| Key findings | Tibetan Buddhist monastics' perspectives on neuroethical issues reinforce theoretical work on Buddhism and neuroethics while also identifying new areas for inquiry such as community, compassion, and mental cultivation. |
Abstract
For more than 20 years, Western science education has been incorporated into Tibetan Buddhist monastics' training. In this time, there have been a number of fruitful collaborations between Buddhist monastics and neuroscientists, neurologists, and psychologists. These collaborations are unsurprising given the emphasis on phenomenological exploration of first-person conscious experience in Buddhist contemplative practice and the focus on the mind and consciousness in Buddhist theory. As such, Tibetan monastics may have underappreciated intuitions on the intersection of science, medicine, and ethics. Yet despite their overlapping interests, Buddhist perspectives are largely absent in contemporary neuroethical analysis, apart from conceptual arguments for their relevance. This article attempts to fill this gap by presenting the results of eleven semi-structured interviews with Tibetan Buddhist monastics in India on three issues in neuroethics: identity and authenticity, enhancement, and disorders of consciousness. The results of this empirical study reinforce the conclusions of theoretical work on Buddhism and neuroethics while also identifying future areas of inquiry, including the importance of community, the challenges in acting from compassion, and the value of self-directed mental cultivation.
Comparable studies
Other qualitative studies on buddhism, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The varieties of contemplative experience: A mixed-methods study of meditation-related challenges in Western Buddhists Western Buddhist meditation practitioners and experts in Theravāda, Zen, and Tibetan... | 2017 | Qualitative study with mixed-methods | |
| A phenomenology of meditation-induced light experiences: traditional buddhist and neurobiological perspectives American Buddhist practitioners | 2014 | Qualitative study | |
| Common Core Thesis and Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis of Mysticism in Chinese Buddhist Monks and Nuns Chinese Pure Land and Chan Buddhist monks and nuns | 2011 | Mixed-methods study | n = 139 |
| Anger regulation in traumatized Cambodian refugees: the perspectives of Buddhist monks. Buddhist Cambodian monks in Massachusetts | 2011 | Qualitative study | n = 6 |
| The Lived Experiences of Experienced Vipassana Mahasi Meditators: an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis Experienced Vipassana Mahasi meditators | 2018 | Qualitative study |
Citations in the library
Cites 3
- Compassion, ethics, and neuroscience: neuroethics through Buddhist eyes. Science and Engineering Ethics September 1, 2012
- Buddhism and neuroethics: the ethics of pharmaceutical cognitive enhancement. Developing world bioethics August 2009
- The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience 1991