Seeking the Neural Correlates of Awakening

The project of finding neural correlates for Buddhist awakening faces serious definitional, operational, and methodological obstacles. Awakening is highly contested within and across Buddhist traditions, its meaning context- and concept-dependent, and possibly non-conceptual and ineffable. Secular operationalized definitions divorced from soteriological and cultural factors bear little relation to traditional Buddhist constructs. Introspective and neuroimaging issues further complicate secular approaches, though recent advances in empirical first-person phenomenology may help reduce introspective bias. Overall, decontextualizing awakening and placing it within a scientific naturalistic framework creates significant problems that require careful attention to these obstacles.

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Abstract

Contemplative scholarship has recently reoriented attention towards the neuroscientific study of the soteriological ambition of Buddhist practice, 'awakening'. This article evaluates the project of seeking neural correlates for awakening. Key definitional and operational issues are identified demonstrating that: the nature of awakening is highly contested both within and across Buddhist traditions; the meaning of awakening is both context- and concept-dependent; and awakening may be non-conceptual and ineffable. It is demonstrated that operationalized secular conceptions of awakening, divorced from soteriological and cultural factors, have little relationship to traditional Buddhist construct(s) of awakening. This article identifies methodological issues for secular conceptions of awakening concerning introspection and neuroimaging yet demonstrates also the value of recent advancements in empirical first-person phenomenology for attenuating introspective bias. Overall, it is contended that significant problems arise when decontextualizing awakening and placing it within a scientific naturalistic framework. Careful attention to the definitional, operational, and methodological neuroscientific obstacles identified herein is required in the responsible approach to the investigation of awakening states.