Brief Notes on Current Research
Much of my ongoing research currently focuses on various conceptions of "Mindfulness" and related themes. With the philosopher Evan Thompson and the cognitive scientist Jonathan Schooler, I have been working on a project that examines the notion of meta-awareness, a topic that first caught my attention in the context of mindfulness. On my interpretation, meta-awareness is closely connected to Buddhist notions of reflexivity, a topic on which I recently published in relation to notions of distributed, cooperative cognition in humans (another issue of considerable interest for me). More broadly, my work on mindfulness has also led me to publish a recent paper with Melissa Rosenkranz (UW-Madison) as the lead author, and another one on mindfulness in psychopathology with Joe Wielgosz (Stanford/VA) as the lead.
One of my concerns is the importance of appreciating the great diversity in approaches to mindfulness within Buddhism, and to that end, my 2015 paper examines different styles of Mindfulness as articulated in Buddhist sources. Drawing a heuristic distinction between "Nondual" and "Classical" styles, I examine especially the way that these approaches differ in their attitude toward ethics, discursive judgment, and memory.
Also in 2015, Antoine Lutz (INSERM, Lyon), Amishi Jha (University of Miami), Cliff Saron (UC-Davis), and I have recently published a paper that develops a phenomenological model for the analysis of different styles of mindfulness practice. Drawing on the methods of neurophenomenology, this paper aligns phenomenological features along seven dimensions with neuroscientific accounts of three major functional networks.
In a third 2015 publication, Anne Harrington (Harvard University) and I discuss the recent cultural history of mindfulness and the way that it emerges from various cultural and institutional developments within therapeutic contexts. We argue that recent critiques of mindfulness could be both tempered and improved by appreciating more fully the role that cultural assumptions and historical forces play in the appropriation of Mindfulness.
Lately, I have also become interested in issues around moral psychology and flourishing, largely due to my work with Paul Condon and Christy Mendenhal-Wilson at Lisa Barrett's Interdisciplinary Affective Science Laboratory of Northeastern University. With Paul and Christy, I have become involved in the Self, Motivation and Virtue Project, an impressive undertaking sponsored by the John Templeton Foundation.
Finally, my current book project is tentatively titled, Buddhist Philosophy: A Contemplative Approach. This exploration of Buddhist philosophy presents a narrative arc of Buddhist thought and practice from the earliest period up to the emergence in the 10th century of the nondual style that comes to be known as Mahāmudrā, the “Great Seal.” Drawing on insights from contemplative science, this study focuses on the way that Buddhist metaphysics, epistemology and psychology relate to Buddhist practices that are meant to transform and shape individuals along the Buddhist path.
One of my concerns is the importance of appreciating the great diversity in approaches to mindfulness within Buddhism, and to that end, my 2015 paper examines different styles of Mindfulness as articulated in Buddhist sources. Drawing a heuristic distinction between "Nondual" and "Classical" styles, I examine especially the way that these approaches differ in their attitude toward ethics, discursive judgment, and memory.
Also in 2015, Antoine Lutz (INSERM, Lyon), Amishi Jha (University of Miami), Cliff Saron (UC-Davis), and I have recently published a paper that develops a phenomenological model for the analysis of different styles of mindfulness practice. Drawing on the methods of neurophenomenology, this paper aligns phenomenological features along seven dimensions with neuroscientific accounts of three major functional networks.
In a third 2015 publication, Anne Harrington (Harvard University) and I discuss the recent cultural history of mindfulness and the way that it emerges from various cultural and institutional developments within therapeutic contexts. We argue that recent critiques of mindfulness could be both tempered and improved by appreciating more fully the role that cultural assumptions and historical forces play in the appropriation of Mindfulness.
Lately, I have also become interested in issues around moral psychology and flourishing, largely due to my work with Paul Condon and Christy Mendenhal-Wilson at Lisa Barrett's Interdisciplinary Affective Science Laboratory of Northeastern University. With Paul and Christy, I have become involved in the Self, Motivation and Virtue Project, an impressive undertaking sponsored by the John Templeton Foundation.
Finally, my current book project is tentatively titled, Buddhist Philosophy: A Contemplative Approach. This exploration of Buddhist philosophy presents a narrative arc of Buddhist thought and practice from the earliest period up to the emergence in the 10th century of the nondual style that comes to be known as Mahāmudrā, the “Great Seal.” Drawing on insights from contemplative science, this study focuses on the way that Buddhist metaphysics, epistemology and psychology relate to Buddhist practices that are meant to transform and shape individuals along the Buddhist path.