Cover-up

As I look through blogs and bookmarks, I have come across different models that explain meditation's effect on the mind. Some are a little ridiculous, but I have found some that I actually think are pretty intriguing and that I would like to do further research on. One in particular is Henk Barendregt's Cover-Up Model, which I found in the blog Spirituality, Science and Technology. Barendregt's notoriety comes from his work on Type Theory and Lambda Calculus, not so much in the same field as meditation. This is what drew me to his model. What does this math and computer science whiz have to say about meditation?

Here's the Cover Up Model in a nutshell:

The Mind has three important characteristics, which Buddhism says are the three characteristics of all things:

1. it is constantly fluctuating
2. it is unbearable
3. it is not under our control

Barendregt likens #2 to nausea. He says that we try to cover it up by distracting ourselves, thinking positively, seeking pleasure, and so on. Cover-up is an indirect and temporary way to cope with nausea. Whenever it starts to creep up, you have to find another way to distract yourself. To deal with nausea directly, you must take the path of purification through mindfulness, whose efficacy can be explained by yet another model - the Abhidhamma model of ancient Buddhism. The blog post doesn't say much about this model, just that

the stream of consciousness is discrete, basically serial but with parallel sub-branches.

I'll look into this model in more detail as part of my research... and hopefully I will actually be able to make sense of it. But it's definitely an important model for my research since Barendregt mentions it when explaining Cover-up.

My research may include different models on the Mind. My goal is to relate them to meditation of course, but also to the body. Maybe they will provide insight into why meditation causes physical and psychological benefits.

Stay tuned for more information on this and other models!