Neuroscience and Psychology of Meditation in Everyday Life

by Dusana Dorjee

  As the stability of our attention and metacognitive skills improve further through continuous practice of Shamatha, we are able to apply insight-specific techniques to investigate the ordinary mind in more depth. We might be able to notice our habitual patterns in more detail and also notice more subtle tendencies of the ordinary mind. This can be further enabled by enhanced non-reactivity in our meditation – if reactions of anger, unhealthy attachment, jealousy and ego-centred pride arise in our mind easily, they may distract us from recognizing the typical patterns of reacting. In other words, a non-reactive attitude may allow us to let go of unhealthy defence mechanisms, which are strategies protecting our conditioned sense of who we are and why we value ourselves. In this way, we might be able to notice, perhaps for the first time, patterns in our thinking, reacting and functioning which were outside of our awareness previously. Practices of compassion, loving kindness, rejoicing and equanimity can be particularly helpful in loosening up the reactive tendencies of afflictions and developing a more balanced non-reactive perspective that may enable further insights into the patterns of our ordinary mind.

  In the Buddhist context, such investigation is grounded in the contemplations on the impermanence of human existence and all phenomena together with contemplations on the nature of suffering etc. These contemplations prompt the practitioner to explore the impermanence and changeability of the processes and contents of our mind as well as their role in our experience of suffering. Similarly, meditations developing loving kindness, compassion and other qualities support the practitioner in cultivating initial insights into the role of afflictive mental states in our suffering and the beneficial effects of experiencing wholesome mental states. This further supports the insight into the impermanent and malleable nature of our thoughts, sensations, memories and affect.

  Grounded in these initial insights, specific practices aiming to develop insight can then help the practitioner to investigate further the nature of the patterns arising in the ordinary mind. The meditator can, for example, engage in analytical meditations that aim to pinpoint the sources of the different emotions, thoughts, sensations etc. However, the analytical approach will provide only limited experiential understanding of the ways ordinary mind works. Some Buddhist schools, such as the Tibetan Buddhist tradition of Dzogchen, particularly emphasize the importance of experiential realization rather than analytical intellectual understanding. While the intellectual understanding is based on sound arguments, hence reliant on thinking, experiential understanding goes beyond ordinary ways of thinking and aims to access more holistic (non-propositional) modes of knowledge. These are typically associated with felt shifts in a sense of clarity, deep tranquillity and also associated with emotional qualities of contentment, compassion and sometimes bliss. The state of decentring which arises at the ordinary mind level can be considered one of the initial states of experiential insight characterized by a sense of healthy distancing from mental contents and processes, a sense of grounding and contentment.

  As the practitioner progresses further in the training of Shamatha, the threshold for meta-awareness of mental contents and processes can slowly start shifting towards the next layer of consciousness. This layer is sometimes referred to as substrate consciousness (Sanskrit: ālayavijñāna; Tibetan: kun gzhi nams shes; Wallace, 2006; Ricard, 2003) and is typically not in the field of awareness if we are immersed in the ordinary mind most of the time and easily distracted. This is because the processes and contents of the ordinary mind automatically and robustly attract our attention unless we settle this layer of consciousness and develop advanced levels of non-reactive meta-awareness. The substrate consciousness stores more subtle patterns of tendencies and memories and could be described as an undercurrent of our behaviour and temperament. In the Tibetan Buddhist beliefs of reincarnation, the substrate consciousness stores memories and imprints of thoughts and actions across lifetimes.

  When the practitioner starts working with this layer of consciousness in her practice, new patterns of emotions and thoughts can start emerging in the awareness after the ordinary mind had been well stabilized. This experience can come as a surprise to the practitioner because she may by now mostly abide in the tranquil states of Shamatha, so these new afflictive patterns might be initially perceived as a digression in the practice. This is why guidance of an experienced teacher is instrumental at this stage. The guidance is also essential after the practitioner stabilizes the appearances at the substrate consciousness level and starts accessing the ground of experience from which the ordinary mind arises. This can be associated with experiences of non-conceptuality, bliss and clarity that the practitioner did not experience before and therefore these experiences can be mistaken for abiding in the pristine awareness which is the deepest layer of consciousness.

  There are three main differences between the substrate of consciousness and the pristine awareness. The first one relates to the non-dual aspect of insight which is a hallmark of pristine awareness, but is not present in the substrate consciousness. The difference, however, is quite subtle with the substrate consciousness still encompassing a residual sense of an individual separate self. In contrast, the distinction between the observer and the observed, between the subject and object of cognizing, dissolves at the level of pristine awareness. The second difference relates to how qualities of the substrate ground and pristine awareness manifest. It is important to emphasize here that both the ground of experience and the pristine awareness as experiential states are not associated with intellectual reasoning and analysis. So any conceptual descriptions of these states and their differences are inherently limited. Bearing this in mind, both the substrate ground and pristine awareness can be described in terms of their main features – of non-conceptuality, clarity, bliss and tranquillity. However, these qualities are separable in the state of substrate consciousness but are integral as part of a whole experience in the state of pristine awareness. In addition, the qualities of unconditional non-conceptual compassion and non-conceptual knowing are inherent in the state of pristine awareness, whereas they can appear separable and expressed to a limited degree in the substrate ground. Finally, the key hallmark of pristine awareness is that the practitioner ‘recognizes’ the nature of her mind, which means that there is no doubt in her mind about achieving the state. So there is an experiential certainty which does not need further questioning when one recognizes the nature of mind, even though moments of questioning the experience may arise when the practitioner does not abide in the state of pristine awareness anymore. The same quality of certainty does not arise in the substrate ground.

  Insight at each of the three layers of consciousness is transient and needs to be stabilized. It is a common misconception that once a certain level of insight has been achieved, the practitioner can only progress further towards more advanced insights in the exploration of the layers of consciousness. This is often not the case; a beginner can sometime experience glimpses of the ground of substrate consciousness, but these experiences are only fleeting. Similarly, an advanced practitioner can fluctuate between experiencing ordinary mind and the substrate ground. In addition, at any level of long-term practice the meditator can develop unhealthy attachment to experiences of deeper layers of consciousness, particularly if these are associated with bliss, which can then hamper their further progress in the practice. This is where regular long-term practices and a broad perspective on the role of different meditation techniques is of the essence. For example, in a traditional Tibetan Buddhist training trajectory, the practitioner would progress onto targeted insight practices only after she has gained solid foundations in the motivational/intentional aspects of the practice, contemplations on impermanence etc., stabilized her mind well through practices of Shamatha and developed an established practice of the four immeasurables. Of course, such foundations would already lead to initial glimpses of insight resulting from intellectual insight, stabilization of attention, development of meta-awareness and cultivation of
compassion and other qualities together with equanimity. However, these glimpses do not challenge the ordinary perceptions, thoughts, emotion patterns and notions of self to the extent targeted practices such as deity meditations and the insight-specific practices applying self-inquiry and questioning the nature of reality do.

  For those who have not sufficiently stabilized their mind before progressing onto these more advanced practices of insight such meditations may either not produce the effects they are intended for or can result in experiences the practitioner is not ready to work with. In the first instance, for example, the practitioner may engage in more advanced meditations but because of insufficient attentional stability and refinement of meta-awareness she will not be able to notice distinctive features of the different layers of consciousness. There are also further distinctions in gradients of experiential insight within each consciousness layer and all these nuanced aspects of insight may not be accessible if the ordinary level of the mind has not been settled sufficiently. As a result, the practitioner may conclude that these techniques do not work, or mistake mediocre experiences for advanced states of insight. The second consequence of starting to work with advanced insight techniques without sufficient stability can be further destabilization of the mind which can enhance pre-existing neurotic, anxious or anger tendencies. These can be managed through a guidance of an experienced teacher by going back to practices that stabilize the mind, but without proper guidance, such experience may result in mental health problems which need professional healthcare help.

  This raises the questions whether secular meditation-based approaches are equipped for dealing with consequences of practitioners accessing deeper layers of consciousness and having more advanced experiences of insight. Within the typical training of the eight-week courses these experiences are likely to arise only rarely, but with long-term secular meditation practice their incidence may be more frequent. Indeed, possible adverse effects associated with going deeper into insight experience may occur more frequently with long-term secular meditation, similarly to long-term practice in at least some types of Buddhist meditation (Shapiro, 1992). In their current form, the secular meditation-based programmes do not have the motivational/intentional anchoring of meditation training in the traditional Buddhist context. They also do not have teacher training models which would take the whole meditation path into account and outline ways of working with the advanced aspects of insight. However, many of the secular meditation teachers at the same time receive support for development of their own meditation practice within their particular, often Buddhist, spiritual tradition. Given the increasing numbers of secular long-term practitioners and the popularity of these methods, it seems very timely for the field of secular meditation approaches to start addressing questions relevant to the development and managing of more advanced stages of insight in the secular context.

  Developing existential insight in daytime and in dream yoga practice

  There is a range of practices which are applied across contemplative traditions in order to cultivate insight. Some of these practices involve observing whatever thoughts, emotions, sensations, perceptions and memories spontaneously arise in the mind and inquiring about the process of arising and dissolving of mental phenomena back to the mind. The practitioner can also examine her own tendencies to stay with some of the mental contents and to let quickly go of others, basically explore the patterns of reactivity to whatever arises in our mind. Other inquiry practice may involve closer focus on particular sensations, perceptions, thoughts and affect, investigating them in detail such as examining where they come from, what they consist of and what their parts or aspects consist of etc. The process can continue further and further until the answers to the initial questions arise in the practitioner’s mind as a sudden shift in understanding – as an insight.

  Other practices turn the inquiry more directly onto the self and examine what the self consists of, what parts it may have and where it is. The practitioner may also invite specific thoughts about herself and examine how she reacts. She can, for example, think of praise and observe how her mind and body respond to this. Then she can bring to her mind thoughts of shame and disapproval, and watch how the mind reacts to that. Building on these practices she then turns to the notion of self and investigates what in the concept of self was causing the hurt or the ego-centred pride.

  Another group of contemplative practices focuses more closely on the non-conceptual gaps between the thoughts, emotions, sensations and perceptions, rather than the contents themselves. The practitioner may try to sustain focus on the non-conceptual space and inquire about the nature of this space. This would be done by questions alternating with longer periods of staying with the non-conceptual space while monitoring for laxity or distraction. At the most advanced stages in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition of Dzogchen the practitioner can from this non-conceptual space turn the attention to the observer observing the non-conceptual space, and make the observer as such focus of the non-conceptual inquiry.

  In Tibetan Buddhism, there is also a group of practices which aim to challenge the conventional grasping on our perceptions of reality. These practices examine the illusory nature of what we believe to be the reality outside of our mind. Dream yoga is one of the practices applied in this context and particularly focuses on examining the similarities and differences between the dream state and what we would consider the reality. As for any of the inquiry practices, the main pre-requisite for dream yoga is sufficient stability of attention and refined meta-awareness skills cultivated through Shamatha meditation. Without these skills the practitioner’s mind might be too distracted and not malleable enough to allow for the development of lucid dreaming and then specific practices in the state of lucid dreaming.

  Lucid dreaming is a state in which, while dreaming, we become aware that we are dreaming. In order to increase our chances of becoming lucid in a dream, it is recommended that throughout the day we develop the wish to become lucid during a dream state at night (Gyaltrul and Wallace, 1998). We would also reaffirm the wish before we go to sleep and a Buddhist practitioner would often also recite a particular mantra which can support the practitioner in becoming lucid during dreaming. In the Tibetan Buddhist context, the practitioner would also typically lie down in a certain body posture and create a visualization which aims to support the dream yoga practice.

  Then during sleep, the practitioner can gradually develop the ability to become lucid in the dream. This is only a first step in the dream yoga practice. The next step involves manipulating the dream reality, for example, by trying to increase or decrease the size of appearances in the dream or change their colour. In the following steps, the practitioner can try to test the reality of their dream bodies etc. The meditator can also use the dream to practice deity visualization and connect with devotional practices. The investigations of the nature of self and reality would continue further during the awake state to compare the differences between the dream reality and the reality in a non-sleep state. Some of the difficulties that a practitioner may experience when attempting to develop lucid dreaming include waking up soon after they become lucid in a dream or not being able to recall dreams in the morning. The traditional Buddhist writings provide guidance on how to deal with such challenges, mostly through visualizations (Gyaltrul and Wallace, 1998).

  As outlined in this section, there is a great variety of practices which can cultivate contemplative insight in the Buddhist context. Importantly, none of these techniques would be practiced in isolation – they would be embedded in a system of contemplative training and typically trained only after the practitioner has gained sufficient understanding of the motivational/intentional basis for meditation practice, stability of attention, improved meta-awareness and emotional balance. Each meditation session would also begin with connecting with the lineage of practitioners who achieved advanced levels of existential well-being and developing motivation/intention for engaging in the insight practice. This is of
ten followed by other practices such as development of emotional qualities of loving kindness and compassion before progressing onto the actual practice of insight. At the end of the session the practitioner would dedicate the merit with the wish for their own progress in the practice towards existential balance and for other beings to achieve the same state.

  Neuroscience of existential insight and dream yoga practices

  Neuroscience investigations of insight practices seem to centre around three main types of effects. The first type comprises research on the effects of insight practices on attention and metacognitive monitoring skills. The second type focuses on the impact of insight practices on the default mode of brain function which describes random off-task brain activity. Finally, the third type, currently represented by very few studies, aims to investigate the associations between actual changes in awareness with insight practice and their brain correlates. We will now examine each of these three groups of studies in detail and at the end of this section also discuss physiological effects associated with dream yoga practice.