Cognitive operations in Buddhist meditation: interface with Western psychology

Abstract

This paper interprets Buddhist meditation from perspectives of Western psychology and explores the common grounds shared by the two disciplines. Cognitive operations in Buddhist meditation are mainly characterized by mindfulness and concentration in relation to attention. Mindfulness in particular plays a pivotal role in regulating attention. My study based on Buddhist literature corroborates significant correspondence between mindfulness and metacognition as propounded by some psychologists. In vipassanā meditation, mindfulness regulates attention in such a way that attention is directed to monitor the ever-changing experiences from moment to moment so that the practitioner attains the ‘metacognitive insight’ into the nature of things. In samatha meditation, mindfulness picks an object as the focus of ‘selective attention' and monitors whether attention is concentrated on the chosen object so as to attain the state of ‘concentration’. Nimitta that appears in a deep state of concentration resembles ‘imagery’ in psychology. Mindfulness consists in the wholesome functioning of saññā. A finding by psychologists supports my view that saññā can act as perception on the one hand and, on the other hand, it can produce nimitta ‘imagery’ in deep meditation where perception is suspended.