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Book: Nikāya Buddhism and Early Chan

Chapter: The World of Experience and its Meditative Deconstruction

DOI: 10.1558/equinox.44352

Blurb:

The point of departure of chapter three is the presence of apophatic accounts of meditative states in the texts of both traditions in which the most basic characteristics and elements of reality as experienced by us are said to cease. The chapter discusses the philosophical ideas concerning the nature of reality, cognition and language implied by these accounts. It offers hypotheses regarding the mechanism of meditative cessation, its content and linguistic expressibility. It argues that cessation need not be seen as insentience, but as meditative deconstruction of the conceptual factors which mediate and shape our experience.

Chapter Contributors

  • Grzegorz Polak (grzegorz.m.polak@gmail.com - gpolak) 'Maria Curie Skłodowska University '