Meling Daniel
Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Medical Center - University of Freiburg, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany.
Front Psychol. 2022 Apr 18;13:778817. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.778817. eCollection 2022.
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, 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.
在各种冥想传统中，人们发展出了以非二元为导向的修行方法，以引发一种体验上的转变，进入一种自我与他者、主体与客体的认知结构消退的体验模式。这些修行方法有助于消除通常被体验为与意识对象相分离的观察见证者的实体化。虽然一些冥想传统，如禅宗、大手印、大圆满和不二吠檀多，强调这种非二元洞察对于培养真正幸福的重要性，但在冥想科学中，只有极少数尝试转向对以非二元为导向的修行方法的研究。本文从最近发展的理论认知科学框架出发，该框架对暂时体验转变为无认知主体-客体结构的体验模式的要求进行了建模。这种受生成方法启发的模型为对非二元修行和非二元体验进行急需的严谨研究提供了理论基础的假设。为此，采取了三个步骤：首先，概述以非二元为导向的修行方法的共同要素。其次，介绍生成认知科学的主要思想，包括向纯粹非二元体验转变所需条件的有原则的理论模型，即一种不受主体-客体二元性束缚的体验模式。第三，将这种综合的非二元识别要求理论模型与一种特定的非二元冥想修行方式，即藏传佛教的修行方式进行比较。第三步代表了一种评估所提出模型外部连贯性的启发式方法。以此为目的，旨在指向一种有原则的非二元冥想修行的生成观点。在阐述所提出模型的含义时，本文最后展望了进一步制定研究议程的下一步方向，该议程可能全面解决非二元修行的具体要素。
