The Correlates Light Up

My meditation teacher for the last decade, Daniel P. Brown, recently published a study about mapping complex mind states using electroencephalography (EEG). There are many of these meditation studies in recent years. What makes this one different? For one, it is designed in the context of a particular Indo-Tibetan path for awakening. The concept of awakening is not something easily understood by researchers who are not practitioners, and even by many mind-full practitioners who are limited by their path. So, 

Within this framework, ‘ultimate reality’ is essentially characterized by the constructs of ‘emptiness’, ‘non-duality’, ‘spaciousness’, and ‘vividness’; such that the intrinsic insubstantiality (emptiness) of all (internal and external) phenomena is part of a unified (non-dual), vast (spacious) field that  constitutes a brilliantly vibrant dynamically ever-changing (vivid) objective reality. Importantly, non-duality refers to the absence of separation between oneself and the rest of one’s world or subjective reality, and awakening refers to the absence of localization of individual consciousness so as to operate from an experiential mode of “being” the unbounded wholeness (of objective reality). Ergo, to practice essence meditation (Mahamudra and/or rDzogs-Chen) is to refine the mental capacities to their full clarity vis-à-vis emptiness, non-duality, spaciousness, and vividness, not in a uni-leveled intellectual sense, but from a direct experiential awareness that is completely free of ‘conditioned’ mechanisms and responses of self and other.

The breakdown of Essence-of-Mind states for this path and the study include:

1. State 1: timelessness (ocean & waves/freedom from conceptual elaboration). First, the practitioner refines one’s awareness so as to operate from a perspective of awareness beyond time and spatialization wherein phenomena of consciousness are experienced as an undulating timeless, ocean-like awareness within which events come and go like waves arising and passing in an ocean. Events are thus viewed from the vantage point of a changeless, vast awareness. Awareness of the field ‘opens up’. Once this high resolution perception is stable the practitioner recalibrates once again to coarse grain perception.
2. State 2: non-preference, non-duality, non-conceptualization (automatic emptiness to natural state/one taste). Second, the practitioner refines one’s relationship to the emptiness of all phenomena, wherein experience of the constructs of nondoing and non-conceptualization remain the central quality of the meditation. Any residual tendencies to “do” anything or to conceptualize about state or outcome are immediately expressed as ‘empty’ in such a way that neither doing anything nor conceptualizing can obscure the direct manifestation of awakened awareness. At this point, subject/object duality also disappears, and the realization of emptiness is spontaneous and automatic.
3. State 3: the view of luminosity and limitlessness (Lion's Gaze/non-meditation). Third, the aim is now to set up the optimal ‘view’ (termed Lion’s Gaze; or like a child viewing a temple taking in everything all at once and nothing in particular) for stabilized awakened awareness. In this state utilization of the entire, limitless visual field ensues so to envelop and transmute one’s awareness into the totality of the global field. This may be recognized via two pathways; (a) via focusing on the non-localization of the limitless infinity of the field, and (b) via identifying the lucidity or brightness of the field of awareness. Both pathways culminate in an appreciation of the ultimate luminosity and limitlessness of experience.
4. State 4: unified compassionate experience of oneness (stable awakened-awareness). At the stage of stabilized awakening, any residue of self-reference and localization dissipates, wherein the self-referential and localization of individual consciousness fully shifts to the limitlessness of lucid awakened awareness. This is considered a shift from ‘ordinary mind’ to ‘awakened mind’, within which this unbounded wholeness, unification, interconnection, and its expression as compassion pervades consciousness. The focus of the field spans out, from focusing primarily upon the visual field, towards all possible streams of perception, wherein phenomena are lively, vibrant, and indeterminate. Here, the practitioner works to stabilize the clarity (awakened) of awareness, to experience the shift from ordinary to awakened mind more frequently, for longer duration, and more immediately.

The findings are summarized as follows:

Within this shifted tonic brain meditative state (State 1 onwards), collectively, enhanced ACC [Anterior Cingulate Cortex] and parietal cortex current density vector magnitudes in concert with increased activation within the insula, suggest the onset of executive brain networks involved in saliency, conflict monitoring, emotion control and shifts in perspective-taking. We may infer that such neural activity contributed to the cultivation and sustainment of intricate internal states encompassing experiences of non-duality, and having no reference point (thus non-preference). Furthermore, decreases in cortical networks involved with self-referential processing, such as the PCC [Posterior Cingulate Cortex], support the down-regulation of self-orientation, while the continued attenuation of these regions with a simultaneous increase in executive network activity between meditative states provides initial evidence of a dissociability of these networks within an active, ongoing movement towards non-dual states. Such complex functioning is consistent with selfless (and thus effortless), yet active meditation in line with the construct of non-localized awakened awareness and its expression as “unified compassion”.

I find such work mildly compelling and appreciate the deep refinement of the practice, but it's not my main interest. I am more drawn to causation than correlation. Sure, it makes sense that the brain would be a conduit to spiritual practice and experience; however, Dr. Brown and his students do not believe the brain is the cause. And to me, that's where the fun comes in anyways. Yes, there is the direct experience! But then there is also the playground of intuition and intellection. What can we say about it, metaphysically, relationally, poetically and so forth? And most importantly, what virtues do we cultivate? How do we change and live from our Realizations? 

The de-mystifying of mystical experience through scientific endeavor is not the allure in my inquiry. I want the unified mystery to ensue so I can continue to not-know and discover beyond. And yet, it has its place for those that require such a doorway.