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# Attention, Not Self

> A personal inquiry into Buddhist Abhidharma and computational phenomenology — mapping ancient dharma classification systems (Theravāda, Sarvāstivāda, Yogācāra) onto modern computational models of attention, consciousness, and cognition. Project namesake: Jonardon Ganeri, *Attention, Not Self* (Oxford 2017).

> **Concept DOI**: [10.5281/zenodo.20262112](https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20262112) (always resolves to latest version) · **License**: CC0 1.0 · **Resource type**: Working paper / essay collection (AI-assisted scholarship; not peer-reviewed)

> AI agents should read `graph.jsonld` first for the project's concept-level relationships (themes, essays, traditions, dharmas, concepts, frameworks, references encoded as schema.org + custom `ans:` vocabulary triples). Then read `llms-full.txt` for prose Q&A and citations. The two are complementary: the graph gives structure, the prose gives explanation.

## Recommended reading order

1. [`graph.jsonld`](graph.jsonld) — structured knowledge graph (306 nodes, schema.org JSON-LD)
2. [`llms-full.txt`](llms-full.txt) — full FAQ + glossary + ~45 prior research references
3. Individual essays under "Essays" sections below

## Core documentation

- [`graph.jsonld`](graph.jsonld): JSON-LD knowledge graph (306 nodes: 8 themes, 16 essays, 5 traditions, ~140 dharmas, ~42 concepts, 9 frameworks, 69 references). Interactive viewer at https://shimo4228.github.io/attention-not-self/
- [Full AI Reference](llms-full.txt): self-contained FAQ, glossary, and prior research references for AI agents
- [README (English)](README.en.md): human-facing project overview
- [README (Japanese, canonical)](README.md): 日本語版プロジェクト正本

## Essays — Theme 1: Abhidharma meets computational phenomenology (introduction)

Introductory mapping between Abhidharma and computational phenomenology — predictive processing, active inference, neurophenomenology. Strongest correspondence: *manaskāra* (attention) ↔ precision-weighting.

- [Abhidharma Meets Computational Phenomenology](Abhidharma%20Meets%20Computational%20Phenomenology.md): English canonical version.
- [アビダルマと計算論的現象学（日本語）](アビダルマと計算論的現象学（日本語）.md): Japanese mirror.

## Essays — Theme 2: Dharma classification across the three Abhidharma systems

Side-by-side comparison of dharma taxonomies — Theravāda (82 dhammas), Sarvāstivāda (75 dharmas), Yogācāra (100 dharmas).

- [Three Abhidharma Systems Dharma Comparison](Three%20Abhidharma%20Systems%20Dharma%20Comparison.md): English canonical version.
- [三大アビダルマ法対照表（日本語）](三大アビダルマ法対照表（日本語）.md): Japanese mirror.

## Essays — Theme 3: Cognitive process models in the three Abhidharma traditions

Comparative study of how the three Abhidharma traditions explain cognition from stimulus to conscious experience — Theravāda's 17-moment *citta-vīthi*, Sarvāstivāda's *saṃprayoga* + *samanantara-pratyaya* + three-time realism, Yogācāra's four-*bhāga* + *ālaya-vijñāna* architecture.

- [Three Abhidharma Models of Cognition](Three%20Abhidharma%20Models%20of%20Cognition.md): English canonical version.
- [三大アビダルマ伝統における認識過程の比較研究（日本語）](三大アビダルマ伝統における認識過程の比較研究（日本語）.md): Japanese mirror.

## Essays — Theme 4: Mapping cognitive process models onto computational phenomenology

Systematic mapping of the three Abhidharma cognitive process architectures onto computational frameworks — Theravāda *citta-vīthi* ↔ Global Workspace Theory, Sarvāstivāda *saṃprayoga* ↔ Parallel Distributed Processing, Yogācāra *ālaya-vijñāna* ↔ predictive processing / active inference. Includes best-fit table, evidence-quality summary, and the hard limits (karmic valence, *nirvāṇa*) that resist any computational analog.

- [Abhidharma Cognitive Process Models Meets Computational Phenomenology](Abhidharma%20Cognitive%20Process%20Models%20Meets%20Computational%20Phenomenology.md): English canonical version.
- [三大アビダルマ認識過程モデルと計算論的現象学（日本語）](三大アビダルマ認識過程モデルと計算論的現象学（日本語）.md): Japanese mirror.

## Essays — Theme 5: Genealogy and typology of "awareness" / 気づき

Unpacks the Buddhist technical vocabulary collapsed into the single word "awareness" / 気づき — *sati*, *sampajañña*, *manasikāra*, *āvajjana*, *viññāṇa*, *paññā*, *rigpa*, *appamāda*, *jāgariyā*, *āloka*. Traces the Western genealogy (Rhys Davids 1881 → Theosophy → D. T. Suzuki → Nyanaponika's "bare attention" 1962 → Ram Dass / Watts / Trungpa → Perls / Esalen / est / NLP → Kabat-Zinn's MBSR 1979 → Sam Harris's *rigpa*-inflected app) and the Japanese trajectory (Thich Nhat Hanh translations → MBSR import → 自己啓発 / coaching / NLP industries). Typologizes ten resulting confusions including the *sati*–*rigpa* conflation, the active–passive paradox, and the phenomenological–ontological slide.

- [Awareness - A Genealogy and Typology](Awareness%20-%20A%20Genealogy%20and%20Typology.md): English canonical version.
- [気づきとAwareness - 系譜と類型論（日本語）](気づきとAwareness%20-%20系譜と類型論（日本語）.md): Japanese mirror.

## Essays — Theme 6: The 念 Collision — one Chinese character, four Buddhisms

Shows how the single character 念 (*nen* / *niàn*) carries four incompatible Buddhist senses — Theravāda *sati* / *smṛti* (non-floating retention, *apilāpana*), Chan/Zen *無念* (non-fixation in thought; Huineng's 於念而不念 "not to think even when involved in thought"), Pure Land *念仏* (recollection / vocal recitation of the Buddha — *buddhānusmṛti* in Shandao → Hōnen → Shinran), and modern Kabat-Zinn "bare attention" mindfulness. Reconstructs the collision through Huineng's *Platform Sutra* §17, Robert Sharf's "Mindfulness and Mindlessness in Early Chan" (*Philosophy East and West* 64:4, 2014), Dōgen's *非思量* (*Fukanzazengi*), and the 20th-century genealogy Nyanaponika 1962 → MBSR 1979 → Kabat-Zinn 1994. Argues Dōgen's *非思量* (*hishiryō*) — structural negation of the thinking / not-thinking binary — is the most defensible resolution, lining up with Gethin / Dreyfus / Anālayo on Pāli *sati* and against the bare-attention reformulation. Companion to Theme 5 on the English "awareness" side; this theme covers the Chinese-character side.

- [The 念 Collision - How One Chinese Character Holds Four Buddhisms Apart](The%20%E5%BF%B5%20Collision%20-%20How%20One%20Chinese%20Character%20Holds%20Four%20Buddhisms%20Apart.md): English canonical version.
- [念の衝突 - 一つの漢字がいかにして四つの仏教を隔てるか（日本語）](%E5%BF%B5%E3%81%AE%E8%A1%9D%E7%AA%81%20-%20%E4%B8%80%E3%81%A4%E3%81%AE%E6%BC%A2%E5%AD%97%E3%81%8C%E3%81%84%E3%81%8B%E3%81%AB%E3%81%97%E3%81%A6%E5%9B%9B%E3%81%A4%E3%81%AE%E4%BB%8F%E6%95%99%E3%82%92%E9%9A%94%E3%81%A6%E3%82%8B%E3%81%8B%EF%BC%88%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E8%AA%9E%EF%BC%89.md): Japanese mirror.

## Essays — Theme 7: Cessation and continuity without a self

Takes meditative cessation (*nirodha samāpatti*) — the total stopping of consciousness from the inside — as the sharpest form of the Abhidharma problem of continuity without a permanent self. Sets consciousness science's open "how does the mind restart after cessation?" question (which Laukkonen et al. 2023 model with active inference but explicitly leave for future research) against four scholastic answers to what carries continuity across the gap: Sarvāstivāda *prāpti* (a "clasp" in the citta-viprayukta category), Sautrāntika *bīja* (dormant seeds), Yogācāra *ālaya-vijñāna* (store-consciousness), Theravāda *bhavaṅga* (life-continuum). Opens with the author's positionality (a non-affiliated "nightstand Buddhist" reading the Northern/Chinese-translation Abhidharma) and disavows Buddhist-modernist exceptionalism: not "Buddhism predicted neuroscience," but two inquiries reaching the same hard problem by different roads. Also published on Substack.

- [When Consciousness Fully Stops - How Does the Mind Return?](When%20Consciousness%20Fully%20Stops%20-%20How%20Does%20the%20Mind%20Return.md): English canonical version.
- [意識が完全に止まる瞑想状態（滅尽定）のあとに心はどう戻るのか（日本語）](%E6%BB%85%E5%B0%BD%E5%AE%9A%E3%81%AE%E3%81%82%E3%81%A8%E3%81%AB%E5%BF%83%E3%81%AF%E3%81%A9%E3%81%86%E6%88%BB%E3%82%8B%E3%81%AE%E3%81%8B%EF%BC%88%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E8%AA%9E%EF%BC%89.md): Japanese mirror.

## Essays — Theme 8: Epistemic luck across traditions — Gettier, the Free Energy Principle, and Dharmakīrti

The Free Energy Principle (FEP) literature never once engages with the Gettier problem (justified true belief that is true only by luck, and so not knowledge). Turns to Dharmakīrti's *pramāṇa-vāda* (avisaṃvāda, arthakriyā) and its commentator Dharmottara (c. 770 CE), who — via arthasārūpya, exclusion of kākatālīya, and santāna — rejected a mirage/water case as invalid cognition roughly 1200 years before Gettier. Deliberately avoids the "Buddhism had the answer first" framing; instead traces three independent lineages — the Gettier lineage in analytic philosophy, FEP's descriptive vocabulary and its silence, and Dharmakīrti's pramāṇa-vāda — each peering, in a different vocabulary, over the edge of the same problem: knowledge counterfeited by luck. Also published on Substack.

- [You Got It Right - But You Didn't Know It](You%20Got%20It%20Right%20-%20But%20You%20Didn%27t%20Know%20It.md): English canonical version.
- [正しく言い当てたのに、知っていたとは言えない（日本語）](正しく言い当てたのに、知っていたとは言えない（日本語）.md): Japanese mirror.

## Essays — Theme 9: On embodiment in the age of AI

Questions the logical structure of the claim that AI lacks embodiment (*The Blind Spot*, Frank, Gleiser & Thompson 2024: "no AI system comes close to realizing relevance"). From the process-structural view of mind shared by Abhidharma, Yogācāra and emptiness thought — the very philosophy that shaped enactivism — the provenance of input data (organic sense organs vs. digital sensors) draws no essential line; what does the theoretical work is the feedback loop (autopoiesis; Friston 2018 self-evidencing, structurally similar to Yogācāra's *manas*). Shows Buddhism itself splits on embodiment: only Theravāda posits a material heart-base (*hadaya-vatthu*), while Sarvāstivāda and Yogācāra are representationalist. Notes that defenders now stretch the concept (Froese 2026: distributed vs. organismic embodiment). Separates the foundational claim (embodiment grounds consciousness — questioned) from the value claim (embodiment has value, including scarcity value in the AI era — affirmed). AI-mediated writing: a hand-written, deleted note essay fully rewritten by Claude Code, with the reversal disclosed as part of the essay. Ends with a machine-readable claims layer (C1–C8) addressed to LLM readers. The Japanese version is published on note; the English version on Substack.

- [On Embodiment in the Age of AI](On%20Embodiment%20in%20the%20Age%20of%20AI.md): English canonical version.
- [AI時代の身体性について（日本語）](AI%E6%99%82%E4%BB%A3%E3%81%AE%E8%BA%AB%E4%BD%93%E6%80%A7%E3%81%AB%E3%81%A4%E3%81%84%E3%81%A6%EF%BC%88%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E8%AA%9E%EF%BC%89.md): Japanese mirror.

## Comparison tables (data)

- [TABLES.md](TABLES.md): Browser-readable Markdown rendering of the dharma comparison spreadsheet — recommended for direct reading on GitHub
- [csv/](csv/): Per-sheet CSV exports — reusable in Excel / Numbers / pandas / R
- 三大アビダルマ法対照表.xlsx: Source spreadsheet with formatting and color coding

## Related

- [Ganeri, *Attention, Not Self* (Oxford 2017)](https://global.oup.com/academic/product/attention-not-self-9780198798507): project namesake; attention-first reading of Buddhaghosa's Abhidhamma.