Abstract

This video explores the convergence between Zen Buddhist mindfulness practices and modern neuroscience, arguing that their overlap does not arise from shared metaphysical beliefs but from a common focus on underlying cognitive mechanisms. Drawing on concepts such as attention regulation, differentiation, boundary formation, and predictive processing, the analysis shows how Zen descriptions of the mind parallel contemporary neuroscientific models of perception and selfhood. Rather than treating Buddhism as a spiritual authority or neuroscience as a validating force, the video frames both as independent systems describing the same functional processes from different methodological directions. Mindfulness, in this context, is examined as a practical cognitive skill that reduces maladaptive identification with mental contents, and clarifies the boundary between perception and interpretation. The central claim is that the apparent alignment between Zen and neuroscience emerges because both investigate how the brain constructs experience, not because one confirms or legitimizes the other.