Abstract
Several recent publications in the study of esoteric traditions have drawn together insights from scholars of religions and philosophy, contemplative communities, metaphor and conceptual blend theories, cognitive sciences, neurosciences, and physical anthropology. These interdisciplinary explorations revolve around contemplative practices (meditation, mindfulness, ritual traditions, etc.). This includes both ethnographic and textual expressions of these traditions. This paper is a response to the questions and insights of some recent articles, books, and two 2015 conference papers, with the specific purpose of contributing to what Glen Hayes (2014) called “the need to develop and ‘new vocabulary’ for this interdisciplinary study” of contemplative and esoteric traditions (Hayes’ call was specifically in reference to Hindu Tantra). To do this, I have referred to some other scientific approaches to which the scholars of esoteric and contemplative communities have not made much mention, and then to offer a form of reflection and meditation on what this new vocabulary and these research projects call us to do: their concepts, logic, and meaning. To this end, I have given some careful attention to the concepts of confusion, mindfulness, humor, and dispassionate vulnerability to help us better understand what we are doing, and where we should go from here.
Highlights
Lidke’s Bi-Directional GazeIn Jeffrey Lidke’s “The Potential of the Bi-Directional Gaze,” [2] he forms a hypothesis that is summarized in his numbered conclusions, 1–5
Even if we discovers that none of these other modes of inquiry are already showing productive ways to proceed, we will have done a certain kind of due diligence and self-reflection that will push us to construct this “new vocabulary” in a more developed way
This is not to thoroughly or radically vilify the conclusions or results of these other research programs—part of what I want to suggest is that this “not knowing what we are doing” is probably a productive and philosophically valid place to inhabit, at least in some ways that I will articulate. These kinds of confusion are constructive. They show that to the extent that we think that we know how precisely to study lovingkindness, mindfulness, Tantric meditation, or ritual processes in a laboratory, we discover our communities, in their fluid variability, impressively do a better job than even cats do at frustrating our intentions and challenging our assumptions
Summary
In Jeffrey Lidke’s “The Potential of the Bi-Directional Gaze,” [2] he forms a hypothesis that is summarized in his numbered conclusions, 1–5. In peaceful meditation practices (such as with śamatha and vipaśyanā or similar) the effects of tuning on the CNS shift the balance to dominance of the rest function (trophotropic), with some activity in the arousal function (relaxed but alert behavior); tuning in ecstatic trance both rest and arousal are heightened Tantric traditions employ both peaceful and ecstatic practices as part of their total body of ritual and meditation training). Brains and nervous systems share many structurally universal features but functions might have many culturally specific expressions and differences Their claims were that ritual trance (in Lex’s broad meaning) was likely a human cultural universal, but exploring all the particular details and moving such study into laboratory conditions faced many unknowns both in terms of the hard science and the cultural influences. One needs to keep important focus on the practitioners of Tantra, but adding this broader perspective on ritual trance offers resources that investigations purely into meditation might have missed
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