# Modeling non-dual awareness via constraint closure: a reinterpretation of groundlessness

## TL;DR

This paper explores non-dual awareness through the lens of constraint closure, arguing that cognition and awareness arise from dynamic, interdependent relations rather than fixed structures.

## Contribution

The paper introduces constraint closure as a refinement to process closure for modeling non-dual awareness and groundlessness.

## Key findings

- Constraint closure explains autonomy through the regeneration of relational conditions.
- Non-dual awareness arises from a shift to precarious constraints rather than intrinsic foundations.
- The model aligns with Nāgārjuna’s Madhyamaka philosophy on dependent origination.

## Abstract

Non-dual awareness (NDA) refers to a shift in consciousness in which the usual distinction between subject and object dissolves, and experience is no longer structured by conceptual mediation or goal-directed regulation. Meling enactivist model describes NDA as a meditative disclosure of groundlessness—the recognition of emptiness (śūnyatā), that all phenomena lack intrinsic nature. While enactivism explains autonomy through process closure, this article argues that constraint closure, as developed by Nave, extends that framework by making explicit how autonomy is sustained through the continual regeneration of its own relational conditions. This refinement prevents process-closure models from being read in substantialist terms when applied to complex cognitive systems, where stability arises through ongoing transformation rather than fixed organization. Nave’s account builds on Juarrero theory of constraint causality, which replaces intrinsic forces with relational conditions—a view that parallels Nāgārjuna’s Madhyamaka analysis of dependent origination. Integrating these perspectives, I propose that NDA corresponds to a shift from decoupled to precarious constraints, revealing that cognition and awareness persist not through intrinsic foundations but through the dynamic regeneration of interdependent relations.