Data_Sheet_10_Silence in Shamatha, Transcendental, and Stillness Meditation: An Evidence Synthesis Based on Expert Texts.pdf

Shamatha, Transcendental, and Stillness Meditation are said to aim for “contentless” experiences, where mental content such as thoughts, perceptions, and mental images is absent. Silence is understood to be a central feature of those experiences. The main source of information about the experiences is texts by experts from within the three traditions. Previous research has tended not to use an explicit scientific method for selecting and reviewing expert texts on meditation. We have identified evidence synthesis as a robust and transparent method that is suitable for this purpose. In this paper we use evidence synthesis based on expert texts to examine silence/quietness as a feature of the contentless experiences in the three practices. Objective criteria were used to select a sample of 135 expert texts. A database containing the expert descriptions of the meditation techniques and experiences was produced by extracting the relevant material from the publications and coding that material to differentiate individual features. The database, which forms part of the Supplementary Material for this paper, identifies each feature of the contentless experiences referred to in the expert texts, including silence/quietness. Our key finding is that the experts indicate silence/quietness has a particular connection with stillness, and the absence of concepts, mental activity/noise, thoughts, and disturbance. Further analysis leads to the following insights. The silence/quietness reflects the absence of thoughts and sounds, and this fits neatly with a conception of silence/quietness as the absence of internal and external noise. In some cases the terms silence and quietness may also reflect the absence of other disturbances such as non-auditory perceptions, mental images, and negative feelings. That would fit with a conception of silence/quietness as complete calm or absence of disturbance. It is not clear from the expert texts how silence/quietness is distinct from other features such as stillness that also reflect the absence of disturbances. As a separate matter, silence/quietness has connections with all the other features of the contentless experiences, but the closeness of the connections varies. Our work uncovers fine distinctions and ambiguities which lead to new research questions that can be explored in future studies.

奢摩他（Shamatha）、超觉静坐（Transcendental Meditation）与宁静冥想（Stillness Meditation）据称均以达成“无内容”体验为目标，此类体验中不存在思维、知觉与心理意象等心理内容。寂静被视为此类体验的核心特征。此类体验的核心信息来源为三大传统内部专家的文本著述。既往相关研究往往未采用明确的科学方法来遴选与评析冥想领域的专家文本。本研究将证据合成（evidence synthesis）认定为适用于该场景的稳健且透明的研究方法。本文基于专家文本开展证据合成研究，旨在探讨寂静/静谧作为三大冥想实践中无内容体验的一项特征。本研究通过客观标准遴选得到135篇专家文本作为研究样本。研究人员从已发表文献中提取相关素材，并通过编码区分各独立特征，由此构建了包含冥想技术与体验专家描述的数据库。本数据库作为本文补充材料的组成部分，梳理了专家文本中提及的无内容体验的各项特征，其中即包括寂静/静谧。本研究的核心发现为：专家们指出，寂静/静谧与宁静状态以及概念、心理活动/杂音、思维与扰动的缺失存在特定关联。进一步分析得到如下结论：寂静/静谧体现为思维与声响的缺失，这与“寂静/静谧即内外杂音的缺失”这一概念高度契合。在部分场景中，“寂静”与“静谧”二词也可指代其他扰动的缺失，比如非听觉知觉、心理意象与负面情绪的缺失。这与“寂静/静谧即全然平静或全无扰动”的概念相符。但从专家文本中无法明确，寂静/静谧与同样体现扰动缺失的其他特征（如宁静状态）之间存在何种区别。此外，寂静/静谧与无内容体验的所有其他特征均存在关联，但关联紧密程度各有不同。本研究揭示了诸多细微差异与模糊之处，由此衍生出可供后续研究探索的全新科研问题。