Strange Bedfellows: Meditations on the Indispensable Virtues of Confusion, Mindfulness and Humor in the Neuroscientific and Cognitive Study of Esoteric and Contemplative Traditions1

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.

Conserving the ‘Container’ of Tantric Secrecy: A Discussion with Western Śākta Practitioners

“…As McDaniel (2018) has argued, the issue with such a focus is that [s]cholars who value the study of power and conflict in religion often suppress other methods of inquiry, and with this suppression, the field can descend into yellow journalism, studying the sleazy underbelly of religion rather than its values and ideals. (p. 9) Rather than viewing my participants' claims about power and secrecy with suspicion or dismissing them as being naïve or idealistic, I agree with Ruff (2016) that "[. .…”

“…In the end, when dealing with the issue of ineffability, I believe that as Ruff (2016) has suggested, "[. .…”

“…In order to enter this rapidly evolving field, we must be willing to re-assess the suitability of our usual lens of analysis and approaches, and to actively involve participants in the process of establishing this new terrain. As Ruff (2016) has argued:…”

Unbalanced Flows in the Subtle Body: Tibetan Understandings of Psychiatric Illness and How to Deal With It

“…Specifically, this training, through the outward and inward meditative gazes of his article’s title, involves a balancing of sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, in order to ‘harness the potential,’ in Lidke’s words, ‘that comes from a simultaneous activation of these deeply integrated neurological systems’ (Lidke 2016 : 5). Lidke’s Śaiva-based argument can readily be extended to Vajrayāna (Buddhist Tantric) meditation, and specifically to the so-called subtle body practices that I have discussed in earlier sections of this paper (Ruff 2016 ). The equivalent in Vajrayāna Buddhism of the inward and outward gazes of Abhinavagupta’s Śaiva tantra practice can be found both in the structured and symmetrical imagery of Tantric deities and Tantric maṇḍalas found in the generation stage of Anuttarayoga Tantric practice, and especially in the so-called completion stage processes, which involve the balancing of the two outer channels that wind around the central channel of the subtle body, and the gradual bringing of subtle fluid into the central channel.…”

“…Maria Kozhevnikov’s work, particularly her systematic comparison between two forms of Theravadin meditation and two forms of Tibetan meditation reported on in the 2014 and 2015 articles, demonstrated experimentally that much meditation clearly did involve states of arousal involving activation of the sympathetic nervous system (Amihai and Kozhevnikov 2014 , 2015 ). It seems likely that Tantric meditation practice, both Buddhist and Hindu, can best be understood as providing access to states of high awareness and high functioning that differ from either ergotropic or trophotropic arousal in their basic forms (Kozhevnikov, this issue; see also Lidke 2016 ; Ruff 2016 ).…”