La présence autotélique et sans but décrite par le Zen (tathatā) peut-elle être cartographiée neurologiquement comme la cessation temporaire des réseaux de traitement prédictif dans le cerveau humain ?

tathata suchness shikantaza cognitive phenomenology Dogen non-intentional awareness peer reviewed

In Sōtō Zen Buddhism, the realization of ***tathatā*** (Sanskrit: “suchness” or reality unmediated by conceptual reification) is not approached as an abstract metaphysical doctrine, but as an embodied cognitive phenomenology actualized through ***shikantaza*** (“just sitting”). Rather than treating meditation as an instrumental technique to attain a future awakening—a separation rejected under Dōgen’s doctrine of the oneness of practice and realization (***shushō-ittō***)—practice itself is the presencing of reality (***genjōkōan***). This stance generated historical sectarian debate: while Rinzai Zen emphasized dynamic breakthrough via kōan introspection (*kanna Zen*), Sōtō championed the silent illumination (*mozhao*) tradition of Hongzhi Zhengjue and Dōgen, warning that striving for enlightenment introduces a dualistic “gaining mind”. ### Key Figures, Texts, and Concepts In the foundational texts *Fukan Zazengi* (“Universal Guide to the Standard Method of Zazen”) and *Shōbōgenzō* (“Zazenshin”), Eihei Dōgen (1200–1253) analyzes the cognitive topology of meditation through an exchange attributed to master Yaoshan Weiyan: > *“Think of not-thinking. How do you think of not-thinking? Non-thinking [*hishiryo*]. This in itself is the essential art of zazen.”* Philosopher Thomas P. Kasulis and contemporary cognitive phenomenologists analyze this triad: - ***Shiryo*** (thinking): Habitual intentional consciousness directed toward conceptualized mental objects. - ***Fushiryo*** (not-thinking): The deliberate volitional suppression or negation of thoughts, which remains bound to intentionality. - ***Hishiryo*** (non-thinking): A pre-reflective, non-intentional awareness that neither affirms nor suppresses mental events. Awareness ceases to operate as an internal “subject” apprehending an external “object”. As Dōgen famously writes in *Genjōkōan*: > *“To study the Buddha Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things.”* ### Contemporary Cognitive Science & Epistemic Status Philosophers of mind (e.g., Evan Thompson, Sebastjan Vörös) categorize *shikantaza* as an “objectless” meditation cultivating non-representational, non-dual awareness. **Epistemic distinction:** Mainstream cognitive neuroscience robustly demonstrates that open-monitoring and non-dual practices down-regulate the default mode network (DMN) and alter attentional orienting. However, broader claims—such as whether *hishiryo* constitutes a "pure, non-intentional consciousness" or discloses ontological *tathatā*—remain active phenomenological interpretations and philosophical hypotheses rather than settled empirical consensus.

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predictive processing precision weighting default mode network meditation Karl Friston neuroimaging

### Position and Clinical Application Mainstream cognitive neuroscience increasingly models the brain as a hierarchical Bayesian inference engine: rather than passively processing sensory inputs, it continuously generates top-down predictions (“priors”) and updates them against incoming bottom-up sensory “prediction errors”. Spearheaded mathematically by Karl Friston under the Free Energy Principle and active inference framework, this paradigm views attention as **precision weighting**—the brain dynamically adjusting the epistemic “volume knob” or confidence assigned to either top-down expectations or bottom-up sensory data. In clinical psychology and psychiatry, this model explains how psychiatric conditions like major depression and anxiety become entrenched: rigid, high-level negative priors over-determine experience via excessive rumination. Practitioners apply this clinically through mindfulness-based interventions (e.g., MBCT, MBSR). By cultivating present-moment awareness, practitioners systematically retrain attentional precision, interrupting automatic, maladaptive narrative loops. ### Key Concepts and Neuroimaging Evidence * **Default Mode Network (DMN):** Anchored in the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), the DMN instantiates self-referential narrative, mind-wandering, and temporally deep “counterfactual cognition” (remembering the past or projecting the future). * **Precision Modulation in Meditation:** In their unifying computational model, Laukkonen and Slagter (2021) propose that meditation operates along a continuum of predictive deconstruction. In focused attention (FA), an individual increases the precision weighting of a single sensory channel (e.g., breath sensations), which automatically *“reduces the frequency of abstract thought and the narrative self”* by down-weighting high-level predictive models. In open monitoring (OM) and non-dual awareness, precision on conceptual priors is withheld entirely, allowing raw sensory prediction errors to resolve without generating narrative elaboration. ### Landmark Literature * **Brewer et al. (2011, *PNAS*):** Demonstrated via fMRI that experienced meditators show marked deactivation of main DMN hubs (mPFC, PCC) across multiple meditation styles, coupled with stronger functional connectivity between the DMN and cognitive control networks (dorsolateral PFC, dorsal anterior cingulate). * **Laukkonen & Slagter (2021):** Synthesized contemplative phenomenology with predictive processing, proposing meditation systematically dismantles high-level generative models of the self. ### Epistemic Status Neuroimaging confirmation of DMN suppression during meditation and its role in self-referential thought represents a robust scientific consensus. Likewise, the clinical utility of mindfulness in preventing depressive relapse is well-established. However, mapping contemplative states directly onto Fristonian predictive processing equations and precise neurotransmitter-mediated precision weighting remains an active, theoretically compelling research program rather than settled empirical fact.

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predictive coding teleosemantics intentionality phenomenology pure conscious experience naturalism

### Position & Key Tensions Within contemporary analytic philosophy and philosophical naturalism, the mind, intentionality (the “aboutness” of mental states), and phenomenal experience are treated as fully continuous with the physical and biological world. Practitioners aim to naturalize the mind by explaining mental phenomena through evolutionary biology, information theory, and computational neuroscience. A central tension exists between **strong representationalism**—the claim that phenomenal character is exhaustively determined by intentional content—and candidate edge cases such as **“pure conscious experience” (PCE)**, where contemplative practitioners report conscious awareness devoid of intentional objects or sensory content. If consciousness can exist without representational content, standard naturalistic semantic models face a serious explanatory challenge. ### Key Frameworks and Figures 1. **Teleosemantics**: Developed by Ruth Garrett Millikan (*Language, Thought, and Other Biological Categories*, 1984) and Fred Dretske (*Explaining Behavior*, 1988), teleosemantics grounds intentionality in evolutionary history. A mental state represents an external state of affairs because tracking that condition is its biological **“proper function”**—the selected effect that enabled ancestors to survive. As Millikan emphasizes: > *“‘[R]epresentation’ is a function term. Things are called ‘representations’ if they have a certain kind of function or telos and perform it in a certain kind of way”*. 2. **Predictive Processing (PP)**: Formulated by neuroscientists and philosophers such as Karl Friston, Andy Clark (*Surfing Uncertainty*, 2016), and Jakob Hohwy (*The Predictive Mind*, 2013), this architecture models the brain as a hierarchical Bayesian machine. Rather than passively receiving sensory data, the nervous system continuously generates top-down hypotheses to suppress **prediction error** (the discrepancy between predicted and actual inputs). Perceptual experience is the brain's optimal internal model of the causes of its sensory signals. 3. **Minimal Phenomenal Experience (MPE)**: Addressing the challenge of PCE, Thomas Metzinger (*The Elephant and the Blind*, 2024) integrates PP to naturalize pure awareness. Metzinger argues that MPE is not a non-physical essence, but an idealized state where predictive modeling collapses inward: it is a predictive model of **tonic alertness**—the brain’s tracking of its own ascending reticular activating system (ARAS) or an abstract state of *“epistemic openness”* without ordinary intentional objects. ### Epistemic Status Philosophical naturalism and computational approaches to perception reflect a dominant paradigm in analytic philosophy and cognitive science, but specific integrative models—such as mapping PCE to predictive error dynamics or ARAS arousal—remain **speculative, empirical-philosophical hypotheses**. They are not settled scientific facts, and competitive accounts (ranging from illusionism to non-reductive qualia realism) remain unresolved in the literature.

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hesychasm apophatic contemplation unmediated presence cognitive neuroscience prayer Christian mysticism

### Hesychasm, Apophatic Prayer, and Cognitive Science In Eastern Christian contemplation, **Hesychasm** (from *hēsychia*, “inner stillness”) represents an apophatic (*via negativa*) path toward an unmediated encounter with God. Unlike cataphatic prayer, which engages concepts and discursive images, Hesychasm quiets the rational intellect (*dianoia*) to descend into the *nous*—the intuitive “eye of the heart”. Practitioners cultivate continuous attention (*nēpsis* or “watchfulness”) through the rhythmic recitation of the Jesus Prayer (*“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me”*), frequently coordinated with breathing to anchor awareness in the physical heart. A pivotal internal tension erupted during the 14th-century Hesychast Controversy between Barlaam of Calabria, who argued that God is accessible only through mediate revelation and rational deduction, and **Gregory Palamas**. In *The Triads* (specifically *In Defense of the Holy Hesychasts*, 1.3), Palamas defended bodily prayer and articulated the dogma of **theosis** (deification): while God’s transcendent essence (*ousia*) remains entirely unknowable, humans directly participate in God's unmediated, uncreated energies (*energeia*). As Palamas affirmed, this uncreated light *“shines even now in the hearts of the faithful and perfect”*. #### Cognitive Neuroscience and Empirical Evidence Neuroscientific investigations into Christian contemplative states have documented measurable neural and autonomic signatures: * **Attentional and Default Mode Networks:** Neuroimaging of contemplative Christian states demonstrates targeted down-regulation of the Default Mode Network (DMN)—linked to the narrative, self-referential ego—and concurrent activation of frontoparietal attention networks and the anterior cingulate cortex, reflecting sustained attentional vigilance. * **Relational/Social Cognition:** Systematic reviews of Christian prayer (e.g., Schjoedt et al.; Husain et al.) show that Christian contemplative and petitionary prayer uniquely recruits Theory of Mind and attachment modules (medial prefrontal cortex, temporoparietal junction), corroborating its lived experience as a direct relational bond rather than abstract spatial meditation. * **Autonomic Regulation:** Repetitive, paced prayer induces parasympathetic dominance, slowing respiration and dampening amygdalar reactivity. **Epistemic Distinction:** Mainstream cognitive neuroscience treats these neuroimaging findings strictly as functional neural *correlates* of attention, affective regulation, and social cognition. Neurotheological claims suggesting these circuits serve as a biological "receiver" for divine presence remain theological interpretations, not established scientific consensus.

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wu wei action non-intentionality spontaneous awareness predictive brain embodied cognition

### East Asian Traditions and Cognitive Science on *Wu Wei* In classical Chinese thought—predominantly Daoism (*Laozi*, *Zhuangzi*) and early Confucianism—virtuous action culminates in ***wu wei*** (often translated as “effortless action,” “non-doing,” or non-intentionality) and ***ziran*** (“self-so-ness” or natural spontaneity). Rather than passive inertia, *wu wei* designates a state of effortless, unselfconscious efficacy where an agent acts in unforced harmony with the natural patterns of the world (*Dao*). A central tension in the tradition is what sinologist Edward Slingerland identifies as the **“paradox of *wu wei*”**: how can one intentionally cultivate spontaneity without that very effort defeating itself? - **Confucians** resolved this through external cultivation: rigorous, lifelong training in ritual (*li*) until spontaneous moral responsiveness becomes automatic (*Analects* 2.4). - **Daoists** countered that rigid socialization degrades innate naturalness, instead prescribing radical unlearning, stillness, and *xinzhai* (“fasting of the heart-mind”). The locus classicus of *wu wei* in practice appears in the *Zhuangzi* (ch. 3) in the parable of Cook Ding butchering an ox: > *“My senses and conscious awareness have shut down and my spiritual desires take me away. I follow the Heavenly pattern of the ox... guided by the spaces between the joints.”* Similarly, the *Daodejing* (ch. 37) notes: *“The Way does nothing, and yet nothing remains unaccomplished”* (*wuwei er wu buwei*). ### Cognitive Bridges and Epistemic Distinctions Modern cognitive science explores *wu wei* through embodied cognition and predictive brain architectures: - **Empirically Established Mechanisms (Consensus):** Cognitive neuroscience and dual-process psychology explain *wu wei* as the downregulation of explicit, conscious cognitive control (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) accompanied by the seamless execution of highly learned implicit motor representations and direct affordance perception (akin to “flow” or expert automaticity). Controlled effort yields to automated sensorimotor coupling. - **Predictive Processing and Enactivism (Theoretical / Emerging Frameworks):** Scholars in embodied predictive processing propose that *wu wei* represents an optimized cognitive regime where top-down prior expectations align so tightly with incoming sensory streams that prediction error is minimized effortlessly, eliminating internal friction. However, while the predictive brain framework is widely studied, directly mapping Daoist metaphysical claims or meditative non-intentionality onto the Free Energy Principle or active inference remains a promising theoretical hypothesis rather than settled neuroscientific consensus.

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prosoche present moment attention Stoic mindfulness teleology perceptual judgment

In classical Stoicism—particularly developed in the Imperial Roman period by Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius—***prosochē*** (continuous spiritual vigilance or watchful attention) constitutes the bedrock of philosophical life. Rather than an occasional meditation, *prosochē* is continuous self-awareness aimed at guarding the *hēgemonikon* (the soul’s ruling center or governing faculty) against corrupt judgments. Stoic cognitive theory holds that external stimuli generate immediate representations or impressions (*phantasiai*). The practitioner’s task is to intercept these impressions before granting assent (*synkatathesis*), ensuring that subjective evaluations (labeling indifferent externals as inherently "good" or "evil") do not contaminate perception. As Epictetus instructs in *Discourses* (3.12.16), one must challenge each impression like a night watchman: *“Wait, let me see what you are and whence you come; show me your pass”*. In *Discourses* (4.12.1), devoted entirely to attention (*Peri prosochēs*), he warns: *“When you relax your attention for a little while, do not imagine that whenever you choose you will recover it... a habit of not paying attention is developed”*. Marcus Aurelius operationalizes this through what philosopher Pierre Hadot terms “circumscribing the present” (*Meditations* 7.54, 12.3). Attention is strictly confined to the immediate moment: > *“Everywhere and all the time it depends on you... piously to rejoice in the present conjunction of events; to conduct yourself with justice toward whatever people are present; to apply the rules of discernment to your present representation, so that nothing nonobjective may infiltrate its way in”* (*Meditations* 7.54). **Teleology and Cosmology:** Stoic attention is not metaphysically neutral; it is grounded in Stoic physics and teleology. The cosmos is understood as an organic, providentially ordered whole directed by rational principle (*logos*). Attention to the present reconciles the individual will (*prohairesis*) with cosmic destiny (fate): by fully occupying the present, one accepts the unfolding cosmos while exercising flawless ethical agency in the only domain within human control. **Scholarly Distinctions:** In contemporary scholarship (e.g., Pierre Hadot, A. A. Long, Massimo Pigliucci), historians emphasize that Stoic *prosochē* differs fundamentally from modern popular adaptations of “mindfulness” (such as Jon Kabat-Zinn’s MBSR). While modern secular mindfulness is typically defined as *non-judgmental* awareness, *prosochē* is intrinsically *evaluative* and normative: its sole purpose is to actively judge and align inner discourse with reason and Stoic dogma.

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REBUS model predictive processing hierarchical priors cessation minimal phenomenological experience Carhart-Harris

### Theoretical Position and Framework Within computational cognitive neuroscience and the Free Energy Principle, the predictive processing (PP) framework treats consciousness as an internally generated, hierarchical simulation. Rather than passively receiving sensory data, the brain continuously deploys top-down predictions ("priors") to suppress and interpret bottom-up prediction errors. Emerging speculative models apply this framework to radical shifts in consciousness—including psychedelic mystical states and advanced contemplative absorptions. These models view ego dissolution, "pure awareness," and complete conscious cessation as progressive attenuations of the brain’s hierarchical inferential architecture. ### Key Figures, Texts, and Distinctive Concepts * **The REBUS Model (Relaxed Beliefs Under Psychedelics):** Formulated by Robin Carhart-Harris and Karl Friston in *Pharmacological Reviews* (2019), REBUS integrates predictive coding with the entropic brain hypothesis. They argue that 5-HT2A receptor agonism acts to *"relax the precision of high-level priors or beliefs, thereby liberating bottom-up information flow"*. In experiential terms, the high-level models structuring the narrative "self" and rigid cognitive categories lose confidence (precision weighting), yielding fluid, unconstrained experience. * **Meditative Deconstruction:** Ruben Laukkonen and Heleen Slagter extend this architecture to contemplative practices in *"From many to (n)one: Meditation and the plasticity of the predictive mind"* (2021). They propose that meditation systematically reduces the "temporal depth" of generative models—quieting counterfactual projections about the past and future. * **Minimal Phenomenal Experience (MPE):** Defined by philosopher Thomas Metzinger (2020), MPE represents a state of "pure consciousness" or tonic wakefulness stripped of spatiotemporal self-location, agency, and intentional objects. Under PP, MPE represents the flattening of nearly all content-specific priors while the baseline capacity for awareness persists. * **Cessation (*Nirodha Samāpatti*):** Investigated by Laukkonen et al. (2023), cessation refers to deep meditative episodes where mental processing halts entirely. Laukkonen and colleagues hypothesize that cessation occurs due to the *"gradual deconstruction of hierarchical predictive processing as meditation deepens, ultimately resulting in the absence of consciousness"*. ### Internal Tensions and Epistemic Status These formulations represent **speculative theoretical models**, not empirical consensus neuroscience. While predictive processing is a widely researched computational paradigm, applying it to cessation and MPE relies on significant theoretical extrapolation. Empirical validation remains preliminary, leaning heavily on intensively sampled single-case or small-cohort EEG studies of adept meditators. A central theoretical debate divides proponents over whether the absolute endpoint of meditative absorption is phenomenological: does it culminate in an ultra-minimal, non-egoic "pure awareness" (Metzinger's MPE), or in a total, discrete breakdown of subjective experience (*nirodha*) characterized by zero phenomenology?

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