Nikāya Buddhism and Early Chan - A Different Meditative Paradigm - Grzegorz Polak
Calm and Insight, Concentration and Wisdom
Nikāya Buddhism and Early Chan - A Different Meditative Paradigm - Grzegorz Polak
Grzegorz Polak [+]
Maria Curie Skłodowska University
Grzegorz Polak is an associate professor in the Institute of Philosophy at the Maria Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin. His research interests include philosophical and meditative ideas of Nikaya Buddhism, early Chan, and comparative study of Buddhism and Western philosophy. He is the author of Reexamining Jhana: Towards a Critical Reconstruction of Early Buddhist Soteriology and several articles.
Description
Chapter 2 focuses on the early Chan and Nikāya passages which suggest that insight or wisdom may occur naturally in the meditative state of concentration or unification characterized by mental calm and the absence of thoughts. The chapter attempts to reconstruct the concept of mind implied by these accounts and discusses the issue of psychological plausibility of the notion of insight described in the texts of both traditions. The final part of the chapter reconsiders various Nikāya formulas of insight.