Subjective Experiences of Committed Meditators Across Practices Aiming for Contentless States
Mindfulness June 1, 2023 Toby J. Woods, Jennifer Windt, Lydia Brown et al. 15 citations
People who practice Shamatha, Thai Forest, or Stillness Meditation typically report a highly positive experience of stillness or silence with little awareness of thoughts and perceptions, but with a high degree of abstract content such as calm and mental relaxation. Across the three traditions, robust differences emerged in reports of bliss/joy, wakefulness, absorptiveness, and depth. The experiences are contentless only in the sense of lacking obvious mental content like thoughts, not in being devoid of all content, challenging the classical view that such states are identical across traditions.