Contemplative Science, page 29
Neoplatonic school of mysticism
Nepsis
Neptune, discovery of
Neural events: behavioral and neural correlates to consciousness; location of mental events; and nervous system; neuronal activity and causality; relation to mental events; shift in nervous system upon attaining śamatha. See also Brain; Mental processes
Newton, Isaac
Nicholas of Cusa; and conative imbalances; and nonduality of relative and absolute dimensions of reality; on the path of seeking God
Nicomachean Ethics (Aristotle)
Nihil
Nirvāṇa
Nocebo effect
Nonreciprocal coupling/interaction, as sign of idolatry
Nyingma order of Tibetan Buddhism
Objectivity: and application of mindfulness; Buddhist ideal of; Buddhist pursuit of; and Cartesian dualism; contrast between scientific and Buddhist approaches; and epistemological flaws in dualist perspective; existence and language; and idolization of Nature; lack of objective evidence for consciousness; and measurement; and mental perception; and nonlucid dreams; objectivism and the cognitive sciences; objects of perception and objective reality; scientific ideal of; and the senses
Observation: contrast between scientific and Buddhist approaches; and epistemological flaws in dualist perspective; and physics
“Observer participation,”
Obsessive-compulsive disorder
“One taste” of all phenomena
Oparin, Aleksandr
Origen
Others: and affective imbalances; and attentional imbalances; and conative imbalances; “I–it” relationship “I–thou” relationship; “I–you” relationship; and lucid dreaming; and reductionism. See also Intersubjectivity
Paccakkhañāṇa
“Pacified attention” stage of śamatha
Padmasambhava; on investigating the nature of the mind; on the nature of primordial consciousness; on sleep
Pāli canon, and death
Paṇḍit
Paranormal phenomena
Particle physics
Perception; bases for perceptual error; and intersubjectivity; objects of perception and objective reality; six modes of perception recognized in Buddhist tradition. See also Mental perception; Paranormal phenomena; Senses
Personal identity. See Self
Physicalism
Physical sciences: and “God’s-eye” perspective; and physicalism; and reductionism
Physics: absolute vacuum; assumptions about external world independent of consciousness; conservation of mass–energy; and idolization of Nature; information vs. matter as fundamental to; and logical inference of hidden objects; measurements and objectivity; and observation; ontological vs. pragmatic natural laws; and physicalism; possibility for nonphysical processes to influence matter; and reductionism; relative vacuum states; uncertainty principle; underdetermination problem. See also Quantum mechanics
Physikê
Pieper, Josef
Pineal gland
Placebo effect
Planck, Max
Pleasure, hedonic. See Hedonic pleasure
Plotinus
Polarization, ideological
Polytheism
Positron
Possession, demonic
Postmodernism
Pragmatic realism
Pragmatism, and evaluation of knowledge
Praktikê
Pratyakṣa
Precognition
Prejudice
Primordial consciousness (jñāna); and dream yoga; facets of (Vajrayāna Buddhism); and genuine happiness; and mental imbalances; nature of; and nonduality of external and internal space; parallels in Mahāyana Buddhism; and paranormal phenomena; and śamatha; unity of absolute space and primordial consciousness
The Principles of Psychology (James)
Protestant Reformation
Psyche: defined/described; origins of. See also Consciousness; Mind; Self; Soul
Psychological flourishing; and affective imbalances; and attentional imbalances; and cognitive imbalances; and conative imbalances; mental imbalances temporarily/ superficially relieved. See also Happiness, genuine
Psychology, Buddhist. See Buddhist psychology
Psychology, Western. See Cognitive science, classical; James, William
Psychosis
“Pulses” of awareness
Putnam, Hilary
Pythagoras
Quantum mechanics: and closure principle; and measurement; observer participation; and physicalism; source of paradoxes
Quiescence. See Śamatha
Rāga
Rational inquiry, and logical inference of hidden objects
Ratnacūḍasūtra
Ratnagotra-vibhāga
Realism
Recollection: and mindfulness; and self-observation
Reductionism; and free will; and the life sciences
Reformation
Reincarnation; and existence of hidden entities; and Gautama Buddha; Stevenson’s research on; and substrate consciousness
Reincarnation: A Contribution to the Etiology of Birthmarks and Birth Defects (Stevenson)
Reiterated empathy
Religion: Buddhism classed as; contrast to science; and ideological polarization of the American public; incompatibility with scientific materialism; and reductionism; religious idolatries; scientific materialism as religious dogma; truth claims based on authority
Remote viewing (clairvoyance)
“Resurgent attention” stage of śamatha
Samādhi
Samantabhadra
Śamatha; attainment of; literal meaning of; and metacognition; mindfulness and introspection; nature and purpose of; nonideation method; and paranormal phenomena; and primordial consciousness; settling the mind in its natural state; stages of development; trait effects of; use of mental image as object
Śāntideva
Sati (mindfulness)
Satipaṭṭhānasutta
Scholarship, and Buddhist tradition
Schrödinger, Erwin
Science, Western; assumptions about external world independent of consciousness; common conception of; contrast to Buddhist inquiry; contrast to religion; dogmatic nature of (see Scientific materialism); and God; “God’s-eye” perspective; hierarchy among branches of; hierarchy of types of theories; idolization of the brain; idolization of Nature; idolization of theories; “illusions of knowledge,”; and intersubjectivity; and lack of growth in human happiness; lack of objective evidence for consciousness; logical inference of hidden objects; and measurement; and observer independence; scientific ideal of objectivity; scientific revolutions; and technology; truth claims based on authority; underdetermination problem; “view from nowhere” perspective. See also Cognitive science, classical; Physics
Scientific materialism; appeals to future authorities; closure principle; and communist countries; defined/ described; as dogma; and education system; and ideological polarization of the American public; impediments to study of consciousness; incompatibility with religion; James’s approach to psychology stifled by; limitations of; objectivism; physicalism; reductionism; rejection of subjective observations; and U.S. education system
Scientific method: defined/described; and objectivism; and reductionism; reliability testing for empirical data; third-person methodology
Scriptural authority
Searle, John; on dualism; on God; on information storage in the brain; on introspection; on lack of scientific knowledge about consciousness
Second-person perspective, and application of mindfulness
Self: and the body; and Great Perfection; idolization of; and idolization of the brain; and intersubjectivity; and lucid dreaming; and Mahāyana Buddhism; relation to others (see Others); self-observation; and Theravāda Buddhism; and Vajrayāna Buddhism
Senses: and cognitive imbalances; and objectivity; objects of perception and objective reality; six modes of perception recognized in Buddhist tradition. See also Desire realm (sensory realm)
Sharf, Robert
Shih-wo
“Single-pointed attention” stage of śamatha
Skinner, B. F.
Sleep. See also Dreams
Socrates
Soul: beliefs about demonic possession of; Christian view of; fate after death; hypotheses about origins of; and substrate consciousness; and Theravāda Buddhism. See also Consciousness; Reincarnation; Self
Space: absolute space of phenomena; external vs. internal space; nonduality of; and śamatha
Spiritual awakening: and contrast between scientific and Buddhist approaches; and Gautama Buddha; and intersubjectivity; and objective knowledge
Śrīmāla-devī Simhanāda Sūtra
Stability, attentional; and stages of śamatha
Stages of Meditation
Stevenson, Ian
Stress reduction programs
Subjectivity: rejected in scientific materialist viewpoint; and self-observation; subjective awareness distinct from mental phenomena of which it is aware; subjective component of scientific theories. See also Introspection
Substrate (ālaya); and birth in the formless realm; defined/described; distinguished from substrate consciousness
Substrate consciousness (ālayavijñāna); and birth in the form realm; characteristics of; distinguished from substrate; investigation of disappearance of mental events; and lucid dreaming; parallels to Theravāda ground state of consciousness; and preceding lives; and śamatha; and soul concept; and temporary suppression of mental afflictions
Suffering: Buddhist view of; and cognitive imbalances; and compassion; and realization of substrate consciousness vs. primordial consciousness; relief through pharmaceutical manipulation of the brain; Western religious view of. See also Unhappiness
Sukha
Svabhāva
“Tamed attention” stage of śamatha
Targ, Russell
Tathāgatagarbha
Technological instruments as observation tools
Theoria
Theories: hierarchy of types; idolization of; subjective component of
Theravāda Buddhism: four applications of mindfulness; ground state of consciousness; quasi-atheist status of
Tibetan Buddhism: “giving and taking” practice (tonglen). See also Great Perfection (Dzogchen) school of Tibetan Buddhism; Śamatha
Time: composition of continuum of awareness as “pulses,”“fourth time,”See also Causality
Tonglen
Truth: and genuine happiness; and Middle Way; top-down vs. bottom-up search
Tsongkhapa; on complacency during śamatha training; on conventional valid cognition; on nonideation as the object in śamatha practice
Twain, Mark
Tyron, Edward
Uddaka Rāmaputta
Uncertainty principle
Underdetermination problem
Unhappiness: Augustine on causes of; and Buddhist view of attachment; and Buddhist view of grief; Western view of. See also Suffering
United States: core values of; education system; ideological and emotional polarization; public beliefs in supernatural phenomena; and scientific materialism
Vacuum states; absolute vacuum states of consciousness and space; relative vacuum states of consciousness and space
Vajirañāṇa, Paravahera
Vajradhara
The Vajra Essence (Düdjom Lingpa)
Vajrayāna Buddhism: and Christian traditions of monotheism; cosmogony of; facets of primordial consciousness; monotheistic status of
Validity of cognitions
Van Fraassen, Bas
Vastubalapravṛttānumāna
Vasubandhu
Vedānta tradition
“View from nowhere” in the physical sciences
Vimalaprabhā
Violence
Vipaśyanā
Virtue
Vividness, attentional; and ascertaining vs. nonascertaining cognition; and stages of śamatha
Warfare
Watson, John B.
Wegner, Daniel M.
Weinberg, Steven
Well-being, mental. See Eudaimonic well-being; Psychological flourishing
Wheeler, John Archibald
Where Reincarnation and Biology Intersect (Stevenson)
Will: cultivation of; Descartes on. See also Free will
Williams, Paul
Wilson, Edward O.; on colors; on free will; on future of science vs. religion; and introspection; and objectivism; and scientific materialism
Wisdom; and Christian theology; and compassion
Witchcraft, fear of
Yogapratyakṣa
Yogin
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wallace, B. Alan.
Contemplative science : where Buddhism and neuroscience converge / B. Alan Wallace
p. cm.—(The Columbia series in science and religion)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
eISBN : 978-0-231-51095-0
1. Neurosciences—Religious aspects—Buddhism. 2. Buddhism—Psychology. I. Title. III. Series.
[DNLM: 1. Consciousness—physiology. 2. Neurosciences. 3. Buddhism. 4. Religion and Medicine. WL 341 W187c 2007]
BQ4570.N48W35 2007
294.3’365—dc22
2006011012
Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid-free paper.
This book was printed on paper with recycled content.
B. Alan Wallace, Contemplative Science
