There are three main purposes of this research; (1) to investigate the teaching of Paticcasamuppāda (PS) as found in Theravada Buddhism, (2) to understand the principle of gestalt perception, and (3) to see how they can be integrated in a useful way.

The Theravada tradition consolidates PS into a couple of key models covering different time spans, usually consisting of 12 links. Emphasis here will be given here to the definitions of links and concepts individually, as found in the suttas. On the basis of this the meanings of each term of PS will be mapped out as they occur in general suttas, and tabulate the various full length models. Then we will review the mechanics of early Gestalt perception. Finally we will map each of the PS interpretations with the Gestalt perception process, and see where they correlate.

The Gestalt psychologists showed that objects of perception are presented to consciousness complete in discreet composite wholes. This occurs as a foreground 'figure' is separated from the background  'ground'. Consciousness is then observed to 'snap' from one concrete perceptual form to another.

This relates to the technical Buddhist understanding of consciousness, where the mind is observed to jump between objects of attention; how the eye meets a form (and so on for other senses), together with consciousness, to produce object awareness. But Buddhism goes further than Gestalt - outlining a whole chain of emotional reaction and attachment, in a habitual process that propels beings into rebirth, and the relentless voyaging through samsāra, and ending finally in nibbāna, where the whole chain reaction of ‘becoming’ is brought to a complete halt.

By comparing these two models of the process of consciousness, we will look at what the Buddhist model has to offer the modern field of research into attention and cognition. We also hope that by considering the insights of the Gestalt psychologists we will gain a sharper understanding of Buddhism, and how the Buddhist model of perception actually functions.

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