The Pali Canon as Protopsychology: Systematic Comparison of Buddhist Practice and Modern Psychological Evidence

Abstract

The paper is Article 1 of the Pali-Psycho series. It focuses on the empirical and clinical comparison axis: mindfulness, breath meditation, compassion cultivation, absorption states, affect labeling, default-mode-network findings, and selected positive-psychology parallels are treated as modern comparison points for Pali-canonical practice architectures. The central result is deliberately qualified. The paper finds partial empirical support for methods derived from or inspired by Buddhist practice, stronger structural parallels for some attentional and affect-regulation mechanisms, and more tentative conceptual analogies for broader philosophical claims. It does not claim that modern mindfulness trials validate the full Pali Canon, that Buddhist soteriology is reducible to clinical psychology, or that single-case jhana evidence establishes a general neuroscientific model. (i) External preprint inputs: The article builds on Pali-canonical sources, Buddhist psychology scholarship, mindfulness and compassion meta-analyses, clinical intervention literature, and selected neuroscience studies. (ii) Structural component: The paper introduces a convergence-type differentiation that separates empirical, structural, and conceptual parallels. (iii) Diagnostic / comparative evidence: Modern evidence is treated as evidence for specific operationalized constructs and interventions, not as wholesale validation of the Pali framework. (iv) Open bridge: The journal-stage update should integrate the current safety, no-self/DPDR, advanced-meditation, and construct-validity literature more fully. This is an advanced draft preprint. It has undergone internal review, source and citation checks, English style calibration, bilingual build checks, PDF preflight, and policy checks, but it has not undergone formal journal peer review. Major revisions are possible before journal submission. Abstract (English) The Pali Canon contains elements of an empirically investigable protopsychology whose core methods -- mindfulness, breath meditation, compassion cultivation, and absorption states -- demonstrate moderate effect sizes across meta-analyses collectively encompassing hundreds of randomized controlled trials for depression, anxiety, and stress. Between Buddhist concepts and modern psychology, there exist parallels supported in part empirically, in part structurally, and in part conceptually: affect labeling exhibits limited functional similarities with vedananupassana, default-mode-network deactivation has been interpreted as consistent with the anatta concept, and jhana states show measurable neural signatures in single-case studies. At the same time, clinical mindfulness extracts individual techniques from a soteriological whole system and critical replication evidence limits overstrong neuroplasticity claims. The review proposes a structured differentiation of convergence types between ancient practices and modern findings. Zusammenfassung (Deutsch) Der Pali-Kanon enthält Elemente einer empirisch untersuchbaren Protopsychologie, deren Kernmethoden -- Achtsamkeit, Atemmeditation, Mitgefühlskultivierung und Absorptionszustände -- in modernen klinischen und neurowissenschaftlichen Kontexten teilweise anschlussfähig sind. Der Artikel unterscheidet empirisch gestützte, strukturelle und konzeptuelle Parallelen und hält zugleich die Grenzen klinischer Achtsamkeitsprogramme gegenüber dem soteriologischen Gesamtsystem des Pali-Kanons fest. Changes in Version 1.2 (July 2026) Maintenance release after the July 2026 source, safety, style, and meta-evidence refresh. The paper's claim level remains unchanged; the update clarifies evidence boundaries and improves bibliographic precision. Safety and source precision: The no-self/DPDR and adverse-effects guardrails were sharpened in both language versions. The adverse-effects section now reports the pooled prevalence and study-design spread from Farias et al. (2020), corrects the Lindahl et al. (2017) participant count to 60, and treats qualitative influence factors as research targets rather than established moderators. Primary-source and claim hygiene: Statements based on Matko and Van Dam (2026), Pons et al. (2026), and Aizik-Reebs et al. (2021) were calibrated to their source scope. The update improves source attribution without raising the empirical or clinical claim ceiling. Buddhist-context evidence: Uthayaratana et al. (2026), a meta-analysis of 138 Buddhist-framed intervention studies, was added with differentiated overall, duration, intervention-type, self-compassion, and insight-component effect estimates. These findings are not presented as validation of the Pali Canon as a whole. Claim calibration: The English abstract, introduction, frontier discussion, and conclusion received a source-sensitive style pass that reduces anticipatory and overgeneralized formulations without raising the paper's claim level. DE/EN and release metadata: English and German texts were rebuilt from the July 2026 source-checked revision, and the German PDF metadata now uses native umlauts. The combined PDF was regenerated and verified locally; under the current bilingual publication policy, Zenodo receives the separate EN and DE files only. Changes in Version 1.1 (June 2026) Bibliographic hygiene: The Article 1 reference list was rebuilt after removing an internal verification note from the Lele (2020) blog-post entry. The source remains explicitly marked as a blog/cross-post rather than a peer-reviewed article. Source check: Active Article 1 citations were rechecked against Crossref, PubMed/NCBI, the relevant web primary pages, and the live Zenodo v1.0 record. No substantive DOI, title, or year corrections were required. Files: English, German, and combined PDFs were rebuilt as the v8 local file set. Changes in Version 1.0 (June 2026) Initial Zenodo release of Article 1 in the Pali-Psycho series. Initial release: English, German, and combined PDFs are published synchronously. Review status: 7-phase review completed and P0/P1 fixes applied before publication. Source and citation checks: EN/GER citation sets were synchronized and DOI-bearing sources checked in May 2026. Style and claim guardrails: The 2026-05-28 English style pass calibrated overstrong claims about clinical evidence, DMN/anatta, jhana neuroimaging, and compassion training. DE/EN: English and German PDFs published synchronously; combined PDF generated from EN plus DE.