In a recent article for Psyche, science journalist Shayla Love shares a fascinating preliminary exploration of a particular type of meditative experience — or lack thereof — in Theravada Buddhism called nirodha-sam??patti, from a neuroscientific and psychological perspective. Nirodha-sam??patti, a meditative experience in which a person is believed to cease all mental function and sensation, is a highly advanced state described in Theravada Buddhism, with interesting parallels in other Buddhist lineages. According to Love, Ruben Laukkonen and other researchers from Australia’s Southern Cross University, and the meditation teacher Delson Armstrong (the test subject of Laukkonen et al.’s neuroimaging study), nirodha-sam??patti functions as a type of personal reset for a meditator. While one may not be conscious in this state, when they return from it, they find themselves freed of a preexisting entrapment of some kind.
Getting Up Close and Personal With a Non-gentle Giant
I look up into the mouth of jagged teeth and try to imagine seeing a living T. rex towering over me. It’s a terrifying…