Jonardon Ganeri's Attention, Not Self is groundbreaking. It shows a way to transform the rich theoretical vocabulary in Pāli commentarial tradition for concepts of mind, consciousness, and conscious states into an empirically informed philosophy of mind. The book is focused on commentaries attributed to a single philosopher, the fifth-century Theravāda monk Buddhaghosa. The title of the book...
The eponymous hero of The Tale of Genji has been frequently described as promiscuous and morally reprobate. This essay explores the construction of selfhood in the novel and suggests that Genji goes on a moral journey. It draws on the work of the American philosopher Herbert Fingarette, whose classic analysis of the Analects of Confucius posits ritual as the main influence in the construct of...
Abstract Introduction Associations between psychological stress and the development of cardiovascular events and stroke have been established. Meditation is recognized as a method to reduce the stress. The aim of this study was to investigate the anthropometry, serum glucose and serum cholesterol status in monks practicing Samatha and Vipassana meditation living in forest hermitages. Methods...
Mindfulness interventions are becoming increasingly popular across a wide variety of clinical and non-clinical settings where they are often employed to promote psychological well-being. Mindfulness in its original context presented in Buddhist practice is used to systematically understand one’s moment-to-moment experience, and to gradually develop self-knowledge and wisdom. Buddhist teachings...
Phenomenological studies suggest the existence of enhanced cognitive states, termed flow or peak experiences, in which specific cognitive processes (e.g., attention, perception) can be dramatically increased for limited durations. Here we review new scientific evidence that shows that specific types of meditation that developed out of certain religious traditions such as Vajrayana (Tantric...
This dissertation explores the debate over mental content (ākāra) between the Indian Buddhist philosophers Ratnākaraśānti (ca. 970–1045) and Jñānaśrīmitra (ca. 980–1030). After a general consideration of the study of Buddhist philosophy in the introduction, I compare Ratnākaraśānti's and Jñānaśrīmitra's positions and styles broadly by considering their poetic introductions to their works in...
This roundtable grew out of the 2017 meeting of the Catholic Theological Society of America (CTSA), for which Karen Enriquez organized a panel on the topic of contemplative pedagogy for the Buddhist-Christian Studies Group. As part of that session, Maureen Walsh and Anita Houck presented early versions of two of the essays that follow. That session inspired some members of the College Theology...
Abstract: Activity changes in dopaminergic neurons encode the ongoing discrepancy between expected and actual value of a stimulus, providing a teaching signal for a reward prediction process. Previous work comparing a cohort of long-term Zen meditators to controls demonstrated an attenuation of reward prediction signals to appetitive reward in the striatum. Using a cross-commodity design...
Chapter 8 unpacks the modern American concept of “mindfulness.” Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn in 1979, provides a model for mindfulness-based programs (MBPs), such as Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT). MBSR is nominally “secular” and supported by scientific research, yet infused at every level—concept, structure, teaching training, and graduate...
Chapter 9 assesses MindUP, Mindful Schools, and Calmer Choice as representative examples of mindfulness-based programs (MBPs) with a mission of weaving “secular mindfulness” into the fabric of public-school curricula and school culture. Public-school MBPs foreground neuroscience, while avoiding religious-sounding terms such as “Buddhism” or “meditation.” Many MBPs were developed by Buddhists or...