Connecting Mindfulness Practice to Generative Semiotic Activity—Self-Other Referent in Umwelt and Semiosphere

Abstract

Abstract In this comment paper on von Fircks (2023a), I would like to focus on four issues and offer some reflections on them: first, what is happening in the process of a new I arising through mindfulness meditation practice? I would like to supplement the dialogue between Buber and Rogers in 1957 on the dynamism of I and Me, which is the basis of Mead's theory of self formation, in which I and Me separate, discover and meet a new self. The second, is that meditation, which at first glance appears to be an internal meditation practice and a personal activity, leads to a semiotic mediated social process. The Tao and early Buddhist ideas that form the background to the experiential process of mindfulness meditation will be reviewed, and the significance of people experiencing the interdependence of non-human nature and the environment through the practice will be discussed. Third, connecting this to the idea of Umwelt (Uexküll) and the semiosphere (Lotman), an attempt is made to extend the otherness as a collating body of self formation to Umwelt. Fourth, mindfulness meditation focuses attention on the breath. In relation to Mead's focus on the environment under the skin, i.e. corporeality, I will supplement the psychological meaning of cultivating the body's sense of interoception through the sensing of repetitive movements of tension and relaxation. Through the above, what kind of semiotic mediating function does mindfulness meditation have in relation to the construction of the new I, and how does it lead to the creation of social meaning? We would like to discuss these points. Clinical Trial Registration The article does not contain any studies with clinical trial. This, clinical Trial registration is not applicable.