The Self in Meditation: The Art of Self-Transformation

The Oxford Handbook of Meditation ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198808640.013.21 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Jessica Frazier

Keyword(s):

Selective Attention ◽

Cognitive Processing ◽

Raw Materials ◽

The Self ◽

Individual Autonomy ◽

Weather System ◽

Inner World ◽

Narrative Forms ◽

The Mind

This chapter outlines a theory of meditation as an art of self-shaping, by emphasizing meditation’s efficacy as a tool for sculpting the “plastic” structures of the mind. First, it considers modern views of meditation as a form of healing that brings the mind “back” to its natural functioning. This stands in contrast with most traditional views of meditation as a way to change the self in permanent—and sometimes radical—ways. Second, it sketches a model of the mind’s “architecture of attention”—exploring the role of selective attention in cognitive processing and the cumulative structures of the self. Third, given this model of the mind, it considers some examples of how absorptive, deconstructive, and narrative forms of meditation shape the inner world of the practitioner. From this examination of meditative functions, there emerges an ontology of the self that recognizes its self-creative malleability. Less an atomic individual or an outward-shining power of perception, the self appears as a kind of dynamic weather system that is constantly transformed as it takes up the raw materials of sensory stimulus. On this model, meditation functions as the selective factor that allows different elements of that system to predominate and thereby shape the others. Finally, the chapter reminds that, far from the modern world’s concern with individual autonomy, classical meditation’s subtle artistry aimed to bring the self into alignment with broader realities.

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Cartesian Fingerprints in Beckett's Imagination Dead Imagine

Journal of Beckett Studies ◽

10.3366/jobs.2012.0047 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 21 (2) ◽

pp. 223-243

Author(s):

Irit Degani-Raz

Keyword(s):

The Self ◽

Levels Of Abstraction ◽

The Media ◽

The Mind ◽

Limiting Case

The idea that Beckett investigates in his works the limits of the media he uses has been widely discussed. In this article I examine the fiction Imagination Dead Imagine as a limiting case in Beckett's exploration of limits at large and the limits of the media he uses in particular. Imagination Dead Imagine is shown to be the self-reflexive act of an artist who imaginatively explores the limits of that ultimate medium – the artist's imagination itself. My central aim is to show that various types of structural homologies (at several levels of abstraction) can be discerned between this poetic exploration of the limits of imagination and Cartesian thought. The homologies indicated here transcend what might be termed as ‘Cartesian typical topics’ (such as the mind-body dualism, the cogito, rationalism versus empiricism, etc.). The most important homologies that are indicated here are those existing between the role of imagination in Descartes' thought - an issue that until only a few decades ago was quite neglected, even by Cartesian scholars - and Beckett's perception of imagination. I suggest the use of these homologies as a tool for tracing possible sources of inspiration for Beckett's Imagination Dead Imagine.

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Consciousness and Lesser States: the evolutionary foothills of the mind

Philosophy ◽

10.1017/s0031819199000443 ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 74 (3) ◽

pp. 331-360 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Grant Gillett

Keyword(s):

Cultural Context ◽

Biological Science ◽

The Self ◽

The Unconscious ◽

Brain Circuits ◽

Mental Acts ◽

The Mind ◽

Self Production ◽

Unconscious Mind

Consciousness and its relation to the unconscious mind have long been debated in philosophy. I develop the thesis that consciousness and its contents reflect the highest elaboration of a set of abilities to respond to the environment realized in more primitive organisms and brain circuits. The contents of the states lesser than consciousness are, however, intrinsically dubious and indeterminate as it is the role of the discursive skills we use to construct conscious contents that lends articulation and clarity to the mental acts which cumulatively make up our mental lives. I lay out a tripartite structure for the formation of mind in which the ongoing interaction between brain and world, the formative effect of socio-cultural context and the self production of a relatively coherent narrative all play an important part in making a mind. The latter two influences clearly transcend biological science and suggest that human minds have features which broadly align with certain Freudian insights but do not support the reification of the causally structured unconscious that Freud envisaged.

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4. Autobiography and psychoanalysis

10.1093/actrade/9780199669240.003.0005 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Laura Marcus

Keyword(s):

Sigmund Freud ◽

Life Writing ◽

Carl Jung ◽

The Self ◽

Inner World ◽

Psychoanalytic Thought ◽

The Mind ◽

Psychoanalytic Theories ◽

Inside Out

Life-writing has been central to psychoanalysis, which created its own form of biographical narrative. The psychoanalytic case study draws upon the dreams and reminiscences of patients to reconstruct their stories. Psychoanalysis has also profoundly shaped autobiographical consciousness. While psychoanalytic theories and therapies have led to new ways of thinking and writing about the self, psychoanalytic thought also takes up much earlier models of the mind and identity. Through the works of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, among others, ‘Autobiography and psychoanalysis’ explains how psychoanalysis has been a shaping force on 20th-century autobiography. The model of the ‘inside out’ suggests an exploration of the autobiographer’s inner world, which is then turned outwards, through writing and towards a readership.

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Senses of Sense

NTT Journal for Theology and the Study of Religion ◽

10.5117/ntt2019.3.002.pick ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 73 (3) ◽

pp. 141-167

Author(s):

Catherine Pickstock

Keyword(s):

The Body ◽

Theological Reflection ◽

The Self ◽

Theological Understanding ◽

The Mind ◽

The Church

Abstract Recent years’ emphasis on contemplation, prayer and ritual has raised new questions about the ‘site’ of theological reflection: is an inhabited theology newly disclosive? What are the implications of such an appreciation of the role of the body ‐ of language, gesture, posture, sound, variations of light and space, the passage of time ‐ for theological understanding? The space of the liturgy, the edifice of the Church or the performed space of enactment becomes a dramatization and exteriorisation of the mind, of unfallen reason which remembers that it is created and is now at one with the diversity of creation and with God, where knowing and unknowing coincide in illumination and the forgetting of the self.

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Communicative Identity in the Eighteenth Century; Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim's Epistolary Network and the Cult of Friendship

European Journal of Life Writing ◽

10.5463/ejlw.3.140 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 3 ◽

pp. VC100-VC122

Author(s):

Tobias Heinrich

Keyword(s):

Eighteenth Century ◽

Visual Image ◽

The Self ◽

Modern Concept ◽

Individual Autonomy ◽

Critical Approaches ◽

The Subject ◽

Historically Situated ◽

The Relationship

In recent years the field of ‘life writing’ has been shaped by critical approaches that have abandoned traditional notions of the singular, self-governing individual in favor of a multiple and processual concept of the subject which understands the self as socially determined. A key role is played by an engagement with the technological and medial requirements – the material basis – of the subject’s construction. In contributing to this debate, this article looks at a configuration that, while it has numerous structural analogies to the present, is historically situated in the eighteenth century. Using the example of the epistolary network around the German Enlightenment figure Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim (1719–1803), I will argue that at one of the decisive turning points in the formation of the modern concept of the subject there was a form of medial communication which stood at odds to the idea of a unified and autonomous self. Through the relationship created between author and addressee, the letter constructed changing versions of the self that made the success of communication dependent on the play between textual ambiguities and the imagination. At the same time the article examines the role of the visual image as a substitute for the other in epistolary communication. Under the guiding concept of ‘friendship’ a network of text and identity production occurring in parallel is formed. Such a network is not solely based on the principle of individual autonomy but also on collective recognition. This article was submitted on July 1st 2014 and published on December 5th 2014.

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A Theory of War and Violence

10.31235/osf.io/eu7ha ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

thomas Scheff

Keyword(s):

Feedback Loops ◽

The Self ◽

Emotional Experiences ◽

Social Emotional ◽

Social And Emotional ◽

The Social ◽

Theory Of War ◽

The Mind ◽

Looking Glass

It is possible that war in modern societies is largely driven by emotions, but in a way that is almost completely hidden. Modernity individualizes the self and tends to ignore emotions. As a result, conflict can be caused by sequences in which the total hiding of humiliation leads to vengeance. This essay outlines a theory of the social-emotional world implied in the work of C. H. Cooley and others. Cooley’s concept of the “looking-glass self” can be used as antidote to the assumptions of modernity: the basic self is social and emotional: selves are based on “living in the mind” of others, with a result of feeling either pride of shame. Cooley discusses shame at some length, unlike most approaches, which tend to hide it. This essay proposes that the complete hiding of shame can lead to feedback loops (spirals) with no natural limit: shame about shame and anger is only the first step. Emotion backlogs can feed back when emotional experiences are completely hidden: avoiding all pain can lead to limitless spirals. These ideas may help explain the role of France in causing WWI, and Hitler’s rise to power in Germany. To the extent that these propositions are true, the part played by emotions and especially shame in causing wars need to be further studied.

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Pleasure plays the music: visual attention and expertise

10.31234/osf.io/me3c7 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Gioele Gavazzi ◽

Tessa Marzi ◽

Fiorenza Giganti ◽

Jacopo Lorini ◽

Alessandra Daphne Fisher ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Processing ◽

Cognitive Processes ◽

Positive Emotions ◽

Visual Presentation ◽

The Self ◽

Mozart Effect ◽

Musical Piece ◽

Attentional Blink Effect ◽

Open Question

Listening to music has powerful effects on boost emotional and cognitive processes. It is still an open question whether cognitive improvements might depend on specific musical piece features (Mozart effect) or on the pleasure that we feel while listening. The general aim was to evaluate the attentional blink effect in music experts and non-experts (Musicians and Non-Musicians). The Mozart Sonata K448 was compared to highly pleasant musical pieces, self-selected by the participants. While listening to music, a rapid serial visual presentation task (RSVP) was used to tap into temporal attentional mechanisms. The results showed (at lag 240ms) a better performance during both the Sonata K448 and the self-selected pieces. Furthermore, the effect of pleasure varied with musical expertise. The higher the perceived pleasantness was for Musicians the higher the performance was accurate. These findings highlight the role of musical pleasure on cognitive processing. Our results emphasize the pleasure feelings evoked by music, even in experts, in affecting attention by boosting positive emotions and reward.

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