Delusion or Compassion?World-Making in

Buddhist Philosophy, Practice & Art

John DunneEmory University, Department of Religion

Emory Collaborative for Contemplative StudiesCenter for Mind, Brain and Culture

Mind and Life Institute (Amherst, MA)Center for Investigating Healthy Minds (UW-

Madison)

Model of Consciousness

Consciousness flows through time as discrete moments…

Each moment causally produces the next moment…

Model of Consciousness

Since each moment produces the next, it conditions it as well…

Conditioning can come in the form of karmic intentions, beliefs, emotions, expectations and so on….

Conditioning Conditioning Conditioning Conditioning Conditioning ConditioningConditioning

IGNORANCE is the conditioning that distorts experience…

Distorted perception arises,

And that distorted intention creates a distorted world…

IGNORANCE IGNORANCE IGNORANCE IGNORANCE IGNORANCEIGNORANCEIGNORANCE

Perception

followed by distorted interpretation….

Interpretation Intention

“Karma”

སྣང་བ་སེ� མསེ་སུ་ང ་འཕྲོ ད་