Subjective Experiences of Committed Meditators Across Practices Aiming for Contentless States

Abstract Objectives Contentless experience involves an absence of mental content such as thoughts and perceptions. It is often described pure consciousness or complete stillness/silence, a goal in Shamatha, Thai Forest, Stillness Meditation. This study examined the subjective character deepest stillness/silence typically reported each practice, whether there are differences reports across traditions. Method Eighty-four 80 88 Meditation participants ( M lifetime hours practice = 2305; median 671; range 5–34,021) provided usable responses to online questionnaire. Participants were presented with 48 types absent present traditional texts, including well-recognized forms perceptions, less obvious forms—referred this paper abstract content—such wakefulness, naturalness, calm, bliss/joy, freedom. indicated extent which type was part their during specific retreat class home practice. Results In tradition, highly positive involving low awareness high degree calm relaxation. Across practices, robust respect absorptiveness, depth. Conclusions The experiences contentless sense that little However, not states devoid all (and therefore identical one another) have been classically referred academic literature. These findings demonstrate importance examining fine-grained manner takes into account assesses well similarities.