Contemplative Science Research Articles

A Social Psychology and Contemplative Science Perspective on Character and Virtue

A Social Psychology and Contemplative Science Perspective on Character and Virtue

The phenomenology of attentional control: a first-person approach to contemplative science and the issue of free will.

There are two basic aspects of attentional control. The ability to direct attention toward different objects is typically experienced as a fundamental indicator of attentional freedom. One can control what one attends to and directing attention is a relatively simple task. In contrast, sustaining attention on a chosen object proves to be difficult as mind-wandering seems to be inevitable. Does the problem of sustaining attention, mean that we are fundamentally unfree? We discuss this issue in light of an introspective study of directing and sustaining attention, looking specifically into the question of whether it is possible to experience the source of attention, i.e., the subject enacting freedom through attention. The study involved six persons performing different attention tasks over the course of about a month. Common experiences and contrasting reports are presented. This forms the basis for a discussion of the method of introspection and in particular of how to approach conflicting reports.

Contemplative Science Comes of Age: Looking Backward and Forward 20 Years After Baer (2003).

Contemplative Science Comes of Age: Looking Backward and Forward 20 Years After Baer (2003).

Techniques for Managing Stress According to the Process of Contemplative Science for Secondary School Students in a Disrupted Classroom Situation

The objectives of this research were to 1) study the stress levels of secondary school students in a disrupted classroom situation and 2) propose techniques for managing stress according to the process of contemplative science for secondary school students in a disrupted classroom situation. It is action research. The research samples are 1) 300 secondary school students and 2) 9 experts in learning management and contemplative education, totalling 309 people, using the purposive sampling. The research instruments were 1) a stress level questionnaire, 2) a techniques for managing stress quality assessment form, and 3) a group discussion recording form. Quantitative data were analyzed by averaging. and standard deviation and qualitative data was analyzed by content analysis. The results found that.
 
 1. Study the stress levels of secondary school students in a disrupted classroom situation. It was found that from a survey of secondary school students in the upper northern region of Thailand, their stress levels were at the highest level. Which consists of 4 aspects of stress, consisting of 1) academic aspect, 2) economic aspect, 3) social aspect, and 4) family aspect. 2. Propose techniques for managing stress according to the process of contemplative science for secondary school students in a disrupted classroom situation found. The researcher studied research and documents related to the concept of contemplative science and synthesized techniques for managing stress according to the process of contemplative science for secondary school students, it is called Techniques for managing stress according to the process of contemplative science, PATAES model, consisting of 1) Perception 2) Assesses 3) Technique 4) Action, 5) Empathy and 6) Support had the highest level of results for evaluating the quality of appropriateness.

시와 명상과학

This study aims to demonstrate how contemplative science and poetic language can be combined to improve learners’ awareness and achieve harmony and balance between their mind and body. A contemplative science that seeks to encompass the wholeness of human beings must incorporate a language that allows learners to raise ontological, epistemological, and semantic questions to develop their awareness of self, others, and the world in which they live and to expand individual experiences into universal values. An innovative education model is proposed in this study, which combines the representative meditation program, MBSR with poetry reading and expressive writing. After explaining why poetry can be the best language for meditation, this essay presents a few selected poetry texts, the following questions for writing exercises, and the analysis of participants’ descriptive responses in their self-checklist.

SCIENCE, RELIGION, AND CULTURE

SCIENCE, RELIGION, AND CULTURE

Transforming adversity into an ally: A qualitative study of “feeding your demons” meditation

Contemplative science has made great strides in the empirical investigation of meditation practices, such as how mindfulness, compassion, and mantra practices impact health and well-being. However, meditation practices from the Vajrayana Buddhist tradition that use mental imagery to transform distressing beliefs and emotions have been little explored. We examined the “Feeding Your Demons” meditation, a secular adaptation of the traditional Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhist meditation practice of Chöd (“Severance”) in a pilot, randomized controlled trial in which 61 community adults from the U.S. with prior meditation experience and moderate levels of depressive and anxiety symptoms (70% female)were randomly assigned to one month (15 meditation sessions) of “Feeding Your Demons” practice or a waitlist control group. Written diary entries were collected immediately after each meditation session. We used an Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis approach to examine qualitative responses to two questions which probed (1) how participants made meaning of each meditation session and (2) how they thought it may impact their future thoughts and intentions for action. Five major themes were identified based on 20 codes developed through an inductive review of written responses across all participants. The themes included an enhanced sense of self-worth and confidence, empathy for the “demon” or rejected parts of oneself, increased self-awareness, an active-oriented “fierce” self-compassion, and an acceptance form of self-compassion. Overall, participants expressed an ability to reframe, or transform, their relationship to distressing thoughts, emotions, and experiences as they gained personal insights, self-compassion, and acceptance through the meditation process which in turn shaped their future intentions for action in the world. This research suggests that a secular form of a Vajrayana Buddhist practice may be beneficial for Western meditation practitioners with no prior training in Vajrayana Buddhism. Future research is warranted to understand its longer-term impacts on health and well-being.

What Stands in the Way Becomes the Way: Dual and Non-Dual Approaches to Meditation Hindrances in Buddhist Traditions and Contemplative Science

Meditation research tends to be focused on positive effects. Recent studies, however, have uncovered a range of potential negative effects, which may be more prevalent than one would expect. Several different conceptions of “negative effects” exist, and such effects are variously termed “challenging”, “unpleasant”, “adverse”, and “harmful”. Before work on a unifying conception of negative effects can begin, the notion of “meditation hindrances” needs to be clarified. Research on meditation hindrances is very scarce. Traditional Buddhist texts and more recent meditation manuals treat different kinds of meditation hindrances, defining them as reactions that impair or halt spiritual progress generally and access to absorption states specifically. Different strategies have been devised as means to renounce or counteract hindrances. However, one influential idea consists of taking a hindrance as the way to liberation, which either makes the distinction between positive and negative ambiguous or collapses it. This makes it questionable whether a unified conception of “negative effect” can be maintained at all. This article gives an overview of the concept of meditation hindrances and discusses both the problems and the potential benefits inherent in the idea of relativizing the distinction between negative and positive effects. Such an idea may be either harmful to practitioners or their greatest asset.

Extending the Transformative Potential of Mindfulness Through Team Mindfulness Training, Integrating Individual With Collective Mindfulness, in a High-Stress Military Setting.

Mindfulness has come to be considered an important approach to help individuals cultivate transformative capacity to free themselves from stress and suffering. However, the transformative potential of mindfulness extends beyond individual stress management. This study contributes to a broadening of the scope of contemplative science by integrating the prominent, individually focused mindfulness meditation literature with collective mindfulness scholarship. In so doing, it aims to illuminate an important context in which mindfulness interventions are increasingly prevalent: workplaces. Typically, the intended effect of workplace mindfulness training is to help workers manage stress better. Since mindfulness in organizations impacts individual and collective processes, the study blends the above literatures to create a cross-level “next-generation” Team Mindfulness Training (TMT) pilot. Its potential in helping individuals and teams to manage work stress better is investigated via a two-phase mixed-methods research study in high-stress military work populations, and compared to a conventional (“first-generation”) 8-week mindfulness meditation program based on mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR). Results suggest that compared to the “first-generation” mindfulness program, TMT seems no less effective in raising individual stress management skills, and may hold more promise in generating collective capacity to manage stress and unexpected difficulty, linked to an apparent interdependence between collective and individual mindfulness capacity development. Based on these empirical results, the study contributes to theory in three important ways: first, it outlines how individual and collective mindfulness in workplaces may be interdependent. Second, it explains why “next-generation” workplace training interventions should apply a cross-level approach. And third, it illustrates how its transformative potential for people at work, individually as well as collectively, can be extended by moving beyond an inward-looking meditation focus in mindfulness training. The study contributes to practice by providing a detailed outline of the pilot TMT program, and offers a series of follow-up research opportunities to inspire further scientific innovation in workplace mindfulness training, especially for high-stress work populations. The study’s ultimate aim is to prompt a shift away from adapting clinically oriented, self-focused “first-generation” mindfulness training protocols, and towards mindfulness as team sport: a more prosocially oriented mindfulness science intent on generating wisdom and compassion, for one and all.

Knowing the Knowing. Non-dual Meditative Practice From an Enactive Perspective.

Within a variety of contemplative traditions, non-dual-oriented practices were developed to evoke an experiential shift into a mode of experiencing in which the cognitive structures of self-other and subject–object subside. These practices serve to de-reify the enactment of an observing witness which is usually experienced as separate from the objects of awareness. While several contemplative traditions, such as Zen, Mahāmudrā, Dzogchen, and Advaita Vedanta emphasize the importance of such a non-dual insight for the cultivation of genuine wellbeing, only very few attempts in contemplative science have turned toward the study of non-dual-oriented practices. This article starts from a recently developed theoretical cognitive science framework that models the requirements of a temporary experiential shift into a mode of experiencing free from cognitive subject–object structure. This model inspired by the enactive approach contributes theoretically grounded hypotheses for the much-needed rigorous study of non-dual practices and non-dual experiences. To do so, three steps are taken: first, common elements of non-dual-oriented practices are outlined. Second, the main ideas of enactive cognitive science are presented including a principled theoretical model of what is required for a shift to a pure non-dual experience, that is, an experiential mode that is unbound by subject–object duality. Third, this synthesized theoretical model of the requirements for the recognition of the non-dual is then compared with a specific non-dual style of meditation practice, namely, Mahāmudrā practice from Tibetan Buddhism. This third step represents a heuristic for evaluating the external coherence of the presented model. With this, the aim is to point toward a principled enactive view of non-dual meditative practice. In drawing the implications of the presented model, this article ends with an outlook toward next steps for further developing a research agenda that may fully address the concrete elements of non-dual practices.

“Human Spirit” — Visionary Project: Breakthrough for Psychoanalysis — Preservation for Buddhism: A Global Promise for Psychoanalytic Contribution for Weakened Populations

ABSTRACT Within the vibrant web of general Israeli psychoanalysis, the Israeli community of self psychology, grounded within Kohutian foundations, has developed an ethical-theoretical shift that can be termed selfobject psychology, a sort of bold proposal to spiritual psychoanalysis. This development enhances the Kohutian revolution of transforming psychoanalysis from the empirical sphere of the positivistic sciences onto an experiential realm of contemplative science. We believe that merging Buddhist philosophy and methodologies within a unique program of psychoanalytic training will impel an evolutionary process that will transform the whole domain of psychoanalysis – philosophically, paradigmatically, and clinically. ‘Human Spirit’ Psychoanalytic-Buddhist Training Program is a framework for psychoanalysts who are immersed in nurturing and refining the spiritual dimension of the mind. The program strives to cultivate a compassionate, transformed and unified psychoanalytic presence, oscillating freely between the personal, the interpersonal, and the transpersonal dimensions of the psychoanalytic space.

Inner Experience - Direct Access to Reality: A Complementarist Ontology and Dual Aspect Monism Support a Broader Epistemology.

Ontology, the ideas we have about the nature of reality, and epistemology, our concepts about how to gain knowledge about the world, are interdependent. Currently, the dominant ontology in science is a materialist model, and associated with it an empiricist epistemology. Historically speaking, there was a more comprehensive notion at the cradle of modern science in the middle ages. Then “experience” meant both inner, or first person, and outer, or third person, experience. With the historical development, experience has come to mean only sense experience of outer reality. This has become associated with the ontology that matter is the most important substance in the universe, everything else—consciousness, mind, values, etc., —being derived thereof or reducible to it. This ontology is insufficient to explain the phenomena we are living with—consciousness, as a precondition of this idea, or anomalous cognitions. These have a robust empirical grounding, although we do not understand them sufficiently. The phenomenology, though, demands some sort of non-local model of the world and one in which consciousness is not derivative of, but coprimary with matter. I propose such a complementarist dual aspect model of consciousness and brain, or mind and matter. This then also entails a different epistemology. For if consciousness is coprimary with matter, then we can also use a deeper exploration of consciousness as happens in contemplative practice to reach an understanding of the deep structure of the world, for instance in mathematical or theoretical intuition, and perhaps also in other areas such as in ethics. This would entail a kind of contemplative science that would also complement our current experiential mode that is exclusively directed to the outside aspect of our world. Such an epistemology might help us with various issues, such as good theoretical and other intuitions.

Towards better science and modesty in the Cognitive Science of Religion and Contemplative Science?

Article Towards better science and modesty in the Cognitive Science of Religion and Contemplative Science? was published on September 1, 2019 in the journal Verkündigung und Forschung (volume 64, issue 2).

Tibetan Buddhist monastic debate: Psychological and neuroscientific analysis of a reasoning-based analytical meditation practice.

Analytical meditation and monastic debate are contemplative practices engaged in by Tibetan Buddhist monastics that have up to now been largely unexplored in Western contemplative science. The highly physical form of contemplative debating plays an important role in the monastic curriculum. Based on discussions and recorded interviews Tibetan monastic teachers and senior students at Sera Jey Monastic University and preliminary experiments, we outline an initial theory that elucidates the psychological mechanisms underlying this practice. We then make predictions about the potential effects of this form of debating on cognition and emotion. On the basis of initial observations, we propose that successful debating requires skills that include reasoning and critical thinking, attentional focus, working memory, emotion regulation, confidence in your own reasoning skills, and social connectedness. It is therefore likely that the many cumulative hours of debate practice over 20+ years of monastic training helps to cultivate these very skills. Scientific research is needed to examine these hypotheses and determine the role that monastic debate may play in terms of both psychological wellbeing and educational achievement.

Future directions in meditation research: Recommendations for expanding the field of contemplative science.

The science of meditation has grown tremendously in the last two decades. Most studies have focused on evaluating the clinical effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions, neural and other physiological correlates of meditation, and individual cognitive and emotional aspects of meditation. Far less research has been conducted on more challenging domains to measure, such as group and relational, transpersonal and mystical, and difficult aspects of meditation; anomalous or extraordinary phenomena related to meditation; and post-conventional stages of development associated with meditation. However, these components of meditation may be crucial to people’s psychological and spiritual development, could represent important mediators and/or mechanisms by which meditation confers benefits, and could themselves be important outcomes of meditation practices. In addition, since large numbers of novices are being introduced to meditation, it is helpful to investigate experiences they may encounter that are not well understood. Over the last four years, a task force of meditation researchers and teachers met regularly to develop recommendations for expanding the current meditation research field to include these important yet often neglected topics. These meetings led to a cross-sectional online survey to investigate the prevalence of a wide range of experiences in 1120 meditators. Results show that the majority of respondents report having had many of these anomalous and extraordinary experiences. While some of the topics are potentially controversial, they can be subjected to rigorous scientific investigation. These arenas represent largely uncharted scientific terrain and provide excellent opportunities for both new and experienced researchers. We provide suggestions for future directions, with accompanying online materials to encourage such research.

Platonic Mysticism: Contemplative Science, Philosophy, Literature, and Art, written by Arthur Versluis

Platonic Mysticism: Contemplative Science, Philosophy, Literature, and Art, written by Arthur Versluis

Mapping Mindfulness-based Performance

In this paper, I report on the University of Huddersfield's Mindfulness and Performance Project (MAP)2, outlining the field of practice that the project was designed to profile, and exploring some of the implications of what we might call 'mindfulness-based performance'. Framing this work within the context of the growing literature on clinical and therapeutic 'mindfulness-based interventions' I explore definitions of mindfulness, and consider how contemplative science might influence and guide emergent work in the theatre. Noting the emergence of a new discipline of Contemplative Studies, I also suggest that mindfulness-based performance has a significant role to play in current research and practice regarding mindfulness applications in the broader culture.

Mind the Hype: A Critical Evaluation and Prescriptive Agenda for Research on Mindfulness and Meditation

During the past two decades, mindfulness meditation has gone from being a fringe topic of scientific investigation to being an occasional replacement for psychotherapy, tool of corporate well-being, widely implemented educational practice, and “key to building more resilient soldiers.” Yet the mindfulness movement and empirical evidence supporting it have not gone without criticism. Misinformation and poor methodology associated with past studies of mindfulness may lead public consumers to be harmed, misled, and disappointed. Addressing such concerns, the present article discusses the difficulties of defining mindfulness, delineates the proper scope of research into mindfulness practices, and explicates crucial methodological issues for interpreting results from investigations of mindfulness. For doing so, the authors draw on their diverse areas of expertise to review the present state of mindfulness research, comprehensively summarizing what we do and do not know, while providing a prescriptive agenda for contemplative science, with a particular focus on assessment, mindfulness training, possible adverse effects, and intersection with brain imaging. Our goals are to inform interested scientists, the news media, and the public, to minimize harm, curb poor research practices, and staunch the flow of misinformation about the benefits, costs, and future prospects of mindfulness meditation.

Acceptance lowers stress reactivity: Dismantling mindfulness training in a randomized controlled trial

ObjectiveMindfulness interventions, which train practitioners to monitor their present-moment experience with a lens of acceptance, are known to buffer stress reactivity. Little is known about the active mechanisms driving these effects. We theorize that acceptance is a critical emotion regulation mechanism underlying mindfulness stress reduction effects. MethodIn this three-arm parallel trial, mindfulness components were dismantled into three structurally equivalent 15-lesson smartphone-based interventions: (1) training in both monitoring and acceptance (Monitor+Accept), (2) training in monitoring only (Monitor Only), or (3) active control training (Coping control). 153 stressed adults (mean age=32years; 67% female; 53% white, 21.5% black, 21.5% Asian, 4% other race) were randomly assigned to complete one of three interventions. After the intervention, cortisol, blood pressure, and subjective stress reactivity were assessed using a modified Trier Social Stress Test. ResultsAs predicted, Monitor+Accept training reduced cortisol and systolic blood pressure reactivity compared to Monitor Only and control trainings. Participants in all three conditions reported moderate levels of subjective stress. ConclusionsThis study provides the first experimental evidence that brief smartphone mindfulness training can impact stress biology, and that acceptance training drives these effects. We discuss implications for basic and applied research in contemplative science, emotion regulation, stress and coping, health, and clinical interventions.

379TF Understanding Emotions: Combating Burnout With Empathy During Emergency Medicine Residency

In 2014, Bodenheimer and Sinsky expanded on the Triple Aim’s three pillars1 of (1) quality, (2) patient satisfaction and (3) costs by incorporating (4) provider burnout in their Quadruple Aim, explaining that burnout among front-line workers threatens the goals of the Triple Aim. Medical trainees develop high rates of burnout during medical school that peaks during residency, and continues to outpace their peers throughout their early career. Emergency physicians consistently report the highest levels of burnout compared to other specialties. While residents are trained to develop growing skills in quality and process improvement, patient safety, informatics, etc, to improve delivery systems, there is very little training to identify and mitigate burnout. High rates of provider burnout, depression and suicidal ideation have encouraged residency programs to support resident “wellness.” However, the responsibility is often placed on residents to improve their own well-being by finding extra time for activities such as exercising, meditating, sleeping or socializing. Burnout includes emotional exhaustion, decreased feelings of purpose, and cynicism, and is associated with strained interpersonal relationships and a decline in empathy. Studies have shown that providers demonstrating greater empathy have higher satisfaction and that patients’ perception of their provider’s empathy even predicts outcomes. Thus, there is growing interest in empathy training for health professionals. Contemporary contemplative science, an interdisciplinary approach based on Eastern contemplative philosophy and practices, seeks to improve wellness through various applications of meditative practice. In this module, educators seek to cultivate empathy among emergency medicine residents through contemplative training of emotional awareness, attention, and emotional resilience. Upon completion of this course, learners will be able to: (1) Describe the characteristics of emotions, (2) state the definition and benefits of attention, (3) identify the three levels of burnout, (4) reflect on intention, (5) Define compassion, empathy and practice compassion for self and others, (6) discuss the core emotions groups of anger, sadness, fear, enjoyment, disgust, contempt and surprise. This course is designed for first-year and second-year emergency medicine residents as a 6-session small-group seminar during regularly scheduled didactic time. UCSF clinical psychology faculty with formal training in contemplative science guide groups of learners through sessions that incorporate didactics, group discussion, personal reflection and meditation. Between monthly sessions, residents are encouraged to practice the self-reflection, attention and meditation practice they have learned during their clinical and nonclinical experience as well as participate in online modules designed to reinforce discussion topics. There is no formal evaluation of learners during this seminar, and course feedback is solicited periodically through surveys and in-person debriefing. After completion of this curriculum, residents will have a framework for identifying and discussing personal burnout, empathy and core emotions, and practice techniques to mitigate burnout in their careers.