Modeling non-dual awareness via constraint closure: a reinterpretation of groundlessness.
Neuroscience of consciousness January 1, 2026 Kiana Ward 1 citation
Non-dual awareness (NDA) is a shift in consciousness where the subject-object distinction dissolves and experience is no longer structured by conceptual thought or goal-directed control. The article argues that constraint closure, as developed by Nave, extends the enactivist model of autonomy by showing how autonomy is sustained through the continual regeneration of its own relational conditions, preventing process-closure models from being read in substantialist terms. This view parallels Nāgārjuna's Madhyamaka analysis of dependent origination. The author proposes that NDA corresponds to a shift from decoupled to precarious constraints, revealing that cognition and awareness persist through dynamic regeneration of interdependent relations, not intrinsic foundations.