concept
active
concept:tanhaTanha
Buddhist concept of instinctive grasping for pleasant sensations and pushing away unpleasant ones; central to the paper's unification thesis.
Neighborhood — ranked by edge-count
Thinkers (6)
thinker
- Michael Edward JohnsonstudiesAuthor of the vasocomputation paper; researcher at Symmetry Institute (QRI) studying consciousness, active inference, and Buddhist phenomenology.
- Nick CammaratastudiesContributed phenomenological description of tanha as 'fast grabby thing' occurring within ~100ms of sensation entering awareness.
- Daniel IngramstudiesBuddhist scholar cited for observation that tanha-like grabbing can occur as quickly as 25-50ms after sensation.
- M.E. JohnsonstudiesAuthor of Principles of Vasocomputation; tanha-as-active-inference framework used to interpret contemplative prompt mechanism
- Romeo StevensstudiesContributed phenomenological analysis of tanha as 'fused to,' 'grasping,' 'clenching' — mind trying to stabilize sensations.
- Shinzen YoungstudiesMeditation teacher who describes tanha as 'fixation'; cited for phenomenological understanding of grasping.
Frameworks (1)
framework
- Principles of VasocomputationimplementsMike Johnson's 2023 framework unifying Buddhist phenomenology, Active Inference, and physical reflex; introduces tanha as mental motion.
Concepts (6)
concept
- Upādānaassociated_withBuddhist concept distinct from tanha; April 2025 update clarifies that upādāna (impulsive physical clenching) is the VSMC manifestation of tanha bias.
- Vasomotion reflexassociated_withThe rhythmic contraction and relaxation of vascular smooth muscle; proposed to function as a compression sweep on neural resonances.
- 337-Character Contemplative System Promptassociated_withA 337-character system prompt that lifts all 28 models by a mean of +2.62 points on a 10-point scale
- Dependent originationassociated_withBuddhist doctrine of conditionality; its careful attention makes tanha-like building blocks likely to have simple neural implementations.
- mental latchassociated_withA tension held to keep items in short-term memory; part of the stack machine model of tanha.
- Active SOHM managementassociated_withThe effortful process of grabbing pleasant resonances and deadening unpleasant ones, proportional in difficulty to number and duration.
Hypotheses (2)
hypothesis
- Core hypothesis linking tanha to active inference failures.
- Vasomotion reflex functions as compression sweep collapsing neural ambivalence into definite states; vasomotion motifs are reflexive reactions to uncertainty.
Related by similarity (8)
cosine ≥ 0.65 · no typed edgeEntities in the same semantic neighborhood but without a typed relation to this one — candidates for new edges or unrecognized duplicates.
- Cube Flipper's model that tanha functions as a mental stack of latches, with tasks pushed/popped and tension released.
- Equation of tanha with maladaptive uncertainty processing.
- Interpretive summary of TUAI hypothesis.
- Reframing tanha as a side effect of the drive to compress complexity.
- Sanskrit term for stress/dissatisfaction; delta between current state and optimal state; driver of homeostatic loops
- Author's assertion that tanha has a single, elegant neural substrate rather than many diffuse causes.
- A conscious creature capable of intellectual and moral goals but incapable of affective states, used by Chalmers to test moral standing.