The Knower and the Known: Lamrim as Developmental Epistemology and the Its Role in Contemplative Studies

A fundamental epistemological asymmetry shapes contemplative studies: Western academic frameworks treat the practitioner’s interior development as methodologically irrelevant, while Buddhist traditions treat it as the precondition of valid knowledge. This paper takes that asymmetry seriously as an invitation rather than a problem. Drawing on the Uttaratantra’s distinction between naturally abiding and transforming buddha nature, and on the lamrim tradition of Atiśa and Tsongkhapa, it argues that the lamrim functions as a rigorous developmental epistemology — one that shares structural features with Western developmental frameworks (Piaget, Erikson, Fowler) while asking a fundamentally different question: not how humans develop, but toward what highest possibility. The paper invites contemplative studies to engage this framework as a genuine epistemological resource, and suggests that doing so is essential if the field is to maintain its depth in a cultural moment that risks reducing contemplative practice to wellness commodity.