From the Five Aggregates to Phenomenal Consciousness

Developing Attention and Decreasing Affective Bias: Toward a Cross-Cultural Cognitive Science of Mindfulness

“…We cannot enter these debates here (for further discussion, see Davis & Thompson, 2013). It is important to note, however, that whereas some philosophers have argued that phenomenal consciousness cannot be characterized in functional terms (Block, 2007(Block, , 2008Chalmers, 1996), our account of the difference between viñña a and saññ does not depend on this claim.…”

“…Given this viewpoint, we propose that viñña a corresponds more closely to the basal level of consciousness, whereas saññ corresponds more closely to the cognitive awareness of particular phenomenal contents via working memory and selective attention (Davis & Thompson, 2013). This interpretation suggests ways that the two kinds of mental phenomena could be functionally interrelated.…”

“…In our earlier article (Davis & Thompson, 2013), we drew a tentative parallel between this cognitive science distinction between phenomenal consciousness and cognitive access and another distinction found in the Buddhist texts in which mindfulness practice is described. One central model of the mind found in the P li Nik yas distinguishes between viñña a, which is often glossed as "consciousness," and saññ , which is defined as involving identification and reportability of what one has experienced.…”

“…For this reason, careful understanding of the traditional Buddhist textual sources in the context of recent scientific research can benefit both scientific understanding of psychological changes involved in mindfulness practice and the Buddhist project of understanding what these texts can mean for us today. Making this point in an earlier article, we suggested that integrating third-person empirical observation of the brain and behavior with ancient and modern accounts based on first-person meditative exploration may prove mutually beneficial to both the scientific project of understanding the mind and the Buddhist project of transforming it (Davis & Thompson, 2013). In particular, we proposed that building bridges between traditional Buddhist models of the mind and contemporary cognitive science may lead toward a more precise understanding of the respective roles of attention, consciousness, and memory in mindfulness meditation.…”

“…An important step toward a cross-cultural cognitive science of mindfulness is to clarify some of the different senses of the term consciousness in contemporary cognitive science so that they can be related to various Buddhist concepts (for further discussion see Davis & Thompson, 2013;Thompson, 2014). One general or comprehensive way to indicate what is meant by consciousness is to say that consciousness "consists of inner, qualitative, subjective states and processes of sentience and awareness" (Searle, 2000, p. 559).…”