757. Ruben Laukkonen

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Cessation, Nirodha, and the Neuroscience of Awakening

Summary: This conversation explores cessation, pure awareness, and how meditation may transform consciousness from the inside out. It also looks at human flourishing, the relationship between Buddhist and Advaitic insight, and whether contemplative wisdom can help shape safer AI.

Questions This Interview Explores

What is cessation, and how does it differ from awakening or lasting freedom?
How can meditation change the brain and deconstruct our model of reality?
Do Buddhist and Advaitic teachings point to the same underlying truth?
Can contemplative insight lead to genuine healing, creativity, and human flourishing?
How might wisdom traditions inform the design and alignment of artificial intelligence?

Ruben is the director of the Flourishing Intelligence Program (FLIP) at Linacre College, University of Oxford. Ruben is also co-director of the Centre for Eudaimonia and Human Flourishing, a Senior Researcher within Oxford’s Department of Psychiatry, and fellow at Linacre College. Ruben has made significant theoretical and empirical contributions to the cognitive neuroscience of consciousness, meditation, and insight. His work also reveals a pathway towards better and safer artificial intelligence based on the science of consciousness and contemplative wisdom. Ruben has an eclectic contemplative background, including Zen, Advaita, and Theravada, and his first-person inquiry into the nature of reality continues to deeply inform his scientific research, and vice versa.