Workshop

Meditation, Mindfulness, and Buddhist Inspired Models of the Mind

Organised by Henk Barendregt and Bill Phillips.
Location: Centre for Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience,
Department of Psychology, University of Stirling, Scotland, UK
June 11 & 12, 2004

Buddhism, notably through insight meditation that is focussed on
the development of concentrated and continuous mindfulness, has
inspired several scientists to make models of the mind having
implications for cognitive neuroscience and psychotherapy. These
models, based both on personal experience and on classical Buddhist
theory, have been helpful in formulating research questions and
hypotheses that may shed new light on basic issues in cognitive
neuroscience. The workshop will assess the relevance of these
models for fundamental conceptions of mind, brain and psychotherapy, and
will discuss ways in which they can be studied using the techniques of
modern cognitive neuroscience and psychology.

Inspiration comes from the following aspects of classic Buddhist psychology.

1. Feelings. Classical Buddhist theories summarize human emotional
experiences by focussing on three main categories: greed (grasping),
hatred (avoiding) and ignorance (keeping things out of awareness). Within
cognitive neuroscience a related model of emotional functioning has recently
been proposed, in which two neural systems of approach- and withdraw-related
emotions and behaviours play a major role [2].

2. The three characteristics. In our potential consciousness there is
a "fundamental process" consisting of (i) a fluctuating chaos
(anicca), that is (ii) unbearable (dukkha) and (iii) beyond control
(anatta). These are the three characteristics of the nature of the
mind, that usually are not perceived. These constantly influence human
beings, through an urge to use "symptomatic means" to avoid seeing the
impermanence of "ego" [1]. This is consistent with the description of
the embodied self as emergent from the complex behaviour of neural
networks [5].

3. Mindfulness. The possibility to disidentify from one's own mental
phenomena (sensations, feelings, cognitions and reactions) opens a
radical new perspective to liberate ourselves from our usual
automaticity and conditioning. This is specially important for
sufferers of mental and physical disturbances [3], [4].

Workshop Format
The workshop (by invitation only) will be informal with plenty of time for discussion. We are not seeking external funding, so are free to set our own goals.[At present we plan to organise talks and discussions into four sections: A) Buddist theory
and phenomenology; B) Evidence and theory from cognitive neuroscience; C)
Evidence from therapeutic applications; D) Assessment of the current state
of understanding and discussion of promising paradigms for future
investigations.]

References

[1] H.P. Barendregt
Mysticism and Beyond, Buddhist Phenomenology, Part II.
The Eastern Buddhist, new series, vol. XXIX, 1996, 262-87.

[2] R.J. Davidson and W. Irwing
The functional neuroanatomy of emotion and affective style,
Trends in Cognitive Sciences 3, 1999, 11-21.

[3] J. Kabat-Zinn
Full Catastrophy Living, Delta, New York, 1990.

[4] Z. Segal, J.M. Williams and J. Teasedale
Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression, Gilford Press,
New York, 2002.

[5] F. Varela et al.
The Brainweb: phase synchronisation and large scale integration.
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 2, 2001, 229-239.