Meditation and Affect

Regular meditation practice reforms old patterns by cultivating awareness of individual moments wherein voluntary acts affect involuntary actions, eventually leading to continual intentional acts. This thesis argues that those practicing meditation seek to obtain mastery of awareness and control of both perception and action, engendering an understanding of selfhood in a combination of witnessing, knowing, and acting. Meditation cultivates the human capacity for self-transformation through repetitive action. The discipline of deciding how to react to impulses is developed through understanding where the impulses come from and knowing how to control them.