Buddhist Meditations; Psychology; Mindfulness (Psychology); Attention; Metacognition
摘要
This paper interprets Buddhist meditation from perspectives of Western psychology and explores the common grounds shared by the two disciplines. Cognitive operations in Buddhist meditation are mainly characterized by mindfulness and concentration in relation to attention. Mindfulness in particular plays a pivotal role in regulating attention. My study based on Buddhist literature corroborates significant correspondence between mindfulness and metacognition as propounded by some psychologists. In vipassanā meditation, mindfulness regulates attention in such a way that attention is directed to monitor the ever-changing experiences from moment to moment so that the practitioner attains the ‘metacognitive insight’ into the nature of things. In samatha meditation, mindfulness picks an object as the focus of ‘selective attention' and monitors whether attention is concentrated on the chosen object so as to attain the state of ‘concentration’. Nimitta that appears in a deep state of concentration resembles ‘imagery’ in psychology. Mindfulness consists in the wholesome functioning of saññā. A finding by psychologists supports my view that saññā can act as perception on the one hand and, on the other hand, it can produce nimitta ‘imagery’ in deep meditation where perception is suspended.
目次
1. Introduction 35 2. Samatha meditation and vipassana meditation 36 3. Mindfulness 38 3.1. Sanna and cognition 38 3.2. Mindfulness and metacognition 39 3.3. Mindfulness in Buddhism and psychology: a comparison 40 3.4. Mindfulness and attention 43 4. Cognitive processes and attention 44 4.1. Cognitive processes 44 4.2. Attention and manasikara 46 5. Concentration 47 5.1. Selective attention and concentration 47 5.2. Breathing as the focus of selective attention 47 5.3. Nimitta and imagery in relation to sanna 49 6. Mindfulness and concentration in light of nimitta 52 6.2. Mindfulness as cause of concentration 53 7. Conclusion 54 Acknowledgements 55 Notes 55 Abbreviations 56 References 57 Appendix 60
