Meditation as cultivating knowledge-how
Christopher W. Gowans
March 14, 2022 DOI: 10.4324/9781003127253-13 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Topics | Meditation |
| Citations | 2 |
| Key points | Argues that the "metaphysical understanding model" of Buddhist meditation, which treats insight meditation as a source of knowledge that there is no self, should be questioned. Proposes instead a "knowledge-how model": mindfulness and concentration in the Nikāyas are primarily means of living without craving and clinging, so their main epistemic purpose is knowing how to live without suffering rather than knowing that there is no self. |
Abstract
This chapter calls into question a common view about the purpose of Buddhist meditation and offers an alternative interpretation. It is often supposed that a primary purpose of Buddhist meditation is to provide experiential knowledge that there is no self. This is typically taken to mean that some form of insight meditation (vipassanā), such as mindfulness, is a source of knowledge of the absence of self. This interpretation, what may be called the metaphysical understanding model of meditation, has some plausibility, but this chapter offers reasons to question it. Moreover, the two core meditation practices in the Nikāyas (early Buddhist discourses) – mindfulness and concentration – are better understood as enabling practitioners to live without craving and clinging, as the key step in overcoming suffering, the primary goal of Buddhism. Hence, the main epistemic purpose of these practices is, in Western terms, knowing how to live without suffering, rather than knowing that there is no self. This chapter defends this interpretation, what may be called the knowledge-how model of meditation, and discusses its implications for understanding the significance of the no-self teaching.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mindfulness: A proposed operational definition. | 2004 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mechanisms of mindfulness | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| How Does Mindfulness Meditation Work? Proposing Mechanisms of Action From a Conceptual and Neural Perspective | 2011 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depression | 2006 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence (S-ART): a framework for understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of mindfulness | 2012 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |