Strange Bedfellows: Meditations on the Indispensable Virtues of Confusion, Mindfulness and Humor in the Neuroscientific and Cognitive Study of Esoteric and Contemplative Traditions1
Religions September 6, 2016 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.3390/rel7090113 via DOAJ
Summary
The paper addresses the need for a new vocabulary in the interdisciplinary study of contemplative and esoteric traditions, particularly in relation to Hindu Tantra. It synthesizes insights from various fields such as cognitive sciences and anthropology, while reflecting on concepts like confusion, mindfulness, humor, and dispassionate vulnerability. The aim is to clarify the direction of future research and understanding within these practices.
Study at a glance
| Key finding | The paper emphasizes the necessity of developing a new vocabulary for studying contemplative and esoteric traditions. |
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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.