This past August, more than 50 people gathered in the Circle of the Way temple at Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico, to explore the connection between neuroscience and meditation. This is the fourth year we have done so.
Why? This is a Zen center that is inspired by the example set by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who nearly 30 years ago began a dialogue with Dr. Francisco Varela and myself that was to eventually become embodied in the Mind & Life Institute, an organization that supports and sustains dialogue and rigorous scientific inquiry into meditative states.
Over the years His Holiness has enjoyed relationships with many scientists, including Varela, Sir Karl Popper, and David Bohm. His Holiness said:
With the ever growing impact of science on our lives, religion and spirituality have a greater role to play reminding us of our humanity. There is no contradiction between the two. Each gives us valuable insights into the other. Both science and the teachings of the Buddha tell us of the fundamental unity of all things.
Upaya Zen Center continues this deep inquiry into science and Buddhism through the vehicle of the Zen Brain retreats, as well as other programs. Those who are enrolled in Upaya's Contemplative End-of-Life Care training (for medical professionals) and the Buddhist Chaplaincy Program develop a thorough grounding in the latest findings on neuroscience and meditation as they go about their work in the world.
In the Zen Brain retreats, prominent scientists and Zen practitioners explore Buddhist, neuro-scientific and clinical science perspectives on topics like altruism, compassion and consciousness. Lectures and discussions with participants are embedded within zazen (meditation) practice throughout each day.
The most recent Zen Brain program this August explored trauma, stress, loss and the human potential for resilience and happiness. The faculty, drawn from the most accomplished clinicians and researchers studying this topic, featured Al Kaszniak, Ph.D., George Chrousos, M.D., George A. Bonanno, Ph.D. and Philippe Goldin, Ph.D. I also had the privilege of participating with these scientists as a contemplative and someone who has worked in this field for many years.
The main coordinator of this unusual program at Upaya is Dr. Kaszniak, the director of the Neuropsychology, Emotion and Memory Lab at the University of Arizona, where he studies Alzheimer's disease and other age-related neurological disorders, as well as emotion response and regulation in long-term Zen and mindfulness meditators. His most recent publication is a chapter on the use of meditation to reduce stress and improve well-being among caregivers of persons with dementia to be included in the book Enhancing Cognitive Fitness in Adults: A Guide to the Use and Development of Community-Based Programs (P.E. Hartman-Stein and A. LaRue, eds.).
Dr. Chrousos is renowned as one of the world's pre-eminent pediatric physicians and endocrinologists. He also serves as the UNESCO chair in adolescent care. His expertise in stress in large part can be linked to his work in endocrinology. Dr. Chrousos' presentation during Zen Brain on "Stress: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" explored the effects of stress on the individual.
Dr. Bonanno, professor of clinical psychology at Columbia University, has been hailed as a pioneering researcher in bereavement and trauma. In work funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, Dr. Bonanno has examined how adults and children respond to and cope with extremely aversive events, such as the death of a loved one, war, sexual abuse, and terrorist attack. More recently, he has focused on defining psychological resilience in adults exposed to extreme adversity and on the factors that might inform resilient outcomes.
Dr. Goldin is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Psychology at Stanford University. His clinical research focuses on the effect of mindfulness meditation and cognitive behavioral therapy on neural substrates of emotional reactivity, emotion regulation, and attention regulation. He also explores the effect of child-parent mindfulness meditation training on anxiety, compassion, and quality of family interactions.
Buddhism is a path to liberation from suffering, and among the most pervasive universal triggers of suffering are trauma, stress and loss, including bereavement. Fundamental to Buddhist teaching is the recognition that freedom from suffering can be found through realizing that the fundamental nature of our mental experience is ever-changing, interdependent and without any fixed, unchanging self at its core.
In these unusual programs, participants explore constructs like "affective stickiness," a phrase coined by Dr. Richard Davidson, Research Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. This is the phenomenon by which we interpret an experience as negative and then become so strongly identified with it that it becomes a fixed part of "us." The particular kind of misinterpreation of self-identification can prevent us from accessing our full range of consciousness and often limits our capacity to make choices regarding a situation.
This phenomenon recalls the astute observation that Albert Einstein made in 1950:
A human being is a part of a whole, called by us 'universe,' a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
What would it mean for us to truly understand that this thing we call "self" is a fiction, not only from a philosophical perspective but from a scientific one? What kind of impact could that realization have on the way we structure our economy, our health care system, our government, and even our relationships with each other, with those "different" from us, and with the Earth?
What a marvelous possibility for us to explore at this time in our planet's history.
If you'd like to join us in this exploration, the next Zen Brain program is January 12-15, 2012. More information is available on the Upaya website, www.upaya.org.
Follow Roshi Joan Halifax on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@jhalifax
f&f
If the "self" is a fiction, how could "we" do anything?
The implication is that "enlightenment" is a very practical condition.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1600-0838.2009.01007.x/full
Higher psycho-physiological refinement in world-class Norwegian athletes: brain measures of performance capacity
It seems to be a regular behavior of yours to misrepresent scientific studies. You've done it at least twice now in the discussion of this article. Why?
BTW, the Buddha said the Dharma should be free. Why does TM charge big bucks to hear their aviary version of it?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4sS3tHvQRQ
Albert Einstein quotes (German born American Physicist who developed the special and general theories of relativity. Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921. 1879-1955)
Many people express surprise that the Jewish tradition contains a formal meditative system., that at least in its outward manifestations, does resemble some of the Eastern systems. The fact that the different systems resemble each other is only a reflection on the veracity of the technique, which is primarily one of spiritual liberation. It is basically a technique for releasing oneself from the bonds of one’s physical nature. Where one goes from there depends very much on the system used. (Condensed from Meditation and Kabbalah, Aryeh Kaplan).
There is also a commonality between Freud and Jewish Mysticism as well as Jung and the Kabbalah. There was probably an historical connection between Kaballah and modern psychiatry but putting that aside it is reflection on the veracity of the concepts of human personality. (see Kabbalistic Metaphors by Sanford L. Drob).
One finds strong parallels between Jewish Mysticism and the Philosophies of India. Buddha is of India. (see Drob above)
Also, the Buddha was from what is now Nepal, not India.
And then I read the Tao Te Ching. That made sense.
And then I stood in a field, and listened to the wind blowing through the trees. And I didn't need to read the books again.
I don't know who your editor is, but come on people, give your brains a chance.
I can't imagine they would allow the same mistake to happen involving two western religions.
"They all look alike to me," right HP?
When I look at most major efforts to write down a living guide - from Aristotle to Confucius, from the Upanishads to the Torah, from the Koran to the KJV Bible, and even from the Boy Scout Handbook - I find similarities in what they value; common to all cultures and eras. The list includes some we think of as traditional noble traits, like bravery, citizenship, fairness, wisdom and integrity; others are in the emotional realm, like love, humor, zest and appreciation of beauty; and still others are more concerned with day-to-day human interactions: social intelligence (the ability to recognize interpersonal dynamics and adapt quickly to different social situations), kindness, self-regulation, gratitude.
In my thinking, most societies goals have a moral valence, and in many cases they overlapped with religious laws and strictures.
But their true importance did not come from their relationship to any system of ethics or moral laws but from their practical benefit: cultivating these goals represented a reliable path to “the good life,” a life that was not just happy but also meaningful and fulfilling.
The goal is a healthier self, family, community. How you get there is dependent on time, place, and environment. And changes dynamically. In order to have Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, you have to live in a healthy environment.
When we learn to see ourselves without illusion, the ego that we thought was our true self is destroyed and we are reborn into reality. Then we stop trying to control those things that can't be controlled. We compete only for the fun of it. We realize that true power lies in serving others. Only then can we begin to be part of the greater whole and, by example, bring peace.
Morals, laws, ethics, are band-aids, placeholders, temporary means of ordering society until individuals learn to order themselves. A person at peace with himself has no need of them.
But I am not sure I agree about your focus on peace. Ying and Yang. Yes we need peace, but we need competition too. We need struggles. Just as a weightlifter cannot get stronger without stressing his muscles, a community cannot stay healthy without healthy competition.
Think of it this way, we need to find our limits. That means we need to test ourselves. Those tests may cause conflicts. Peace at any cost is not healthy.
We need a balance. Now I might say I want 80% or 90% peace and 10% or 20% competition. Not the other way around. But we need both.
And I agree honesty and transparency are critical for growth. We need to understand that ego can blind us to the pitfalls in life.
To understand about the neuroscience of the brain and how it effects the mind, really has nothing to do with a persons endeavor to liberate themselves from ignorance. Just another thing to distract from actual practice.
Awakening to the original no-self has nothing to do with understand anything except the, “Knowing”, that is already inherent in all humans. Not only humans but the trees, stones, mountains, rivers and the whole wide earth, as Dogen said.
Reason and logic are no help whatsoever in this endeavor.
All Buddhist practitioners learn everything has Buddha nature - a new born baby - or a frog! But realizing ones Buddha nature waking up happens like a flower that opens / like sleep at night (you can't make it happen it just happens)
Thanks for trying to define zen but zen is just zen if anything it is about 'nothing' about ' radiant emptiness' - you are still caught in your mind sunnylo1
& how can you say what anyone is talking about! Debs mother wrote the book ZEN DIRECT POINTING TO REALITY - Alan Watts was her mums friend - she grew up with Alan & other Zen Masters in her house as a young girl in London.
It is wrong for you to say: "Your saints are fine but they haven't realized what it is that Buddha was talking about." Not a conscious statement!
You again misunderstand the point when you say: "It's an interesting point that folks into "spiritual" pursuits seem to devalue intellect, as a matter of course."sunnylo1- Intellect is great but 'unenlightened or ego driven intellect." isn't!
showing their true colors. "The greatest test of courage on the earth is to bear defeat without losing heart." Gee I wonder who wrote that??
Logic & reason doesn't mean you have to know / understand about neuroscience of the brain and how it effects the mind,
Although it is brilliant & has it's merits it is not a prerequisite / to being a Buddha -
Buddha nature is in everything - not everyone needs to know more -
as the greatest wisdom is knowing Radiant Emptiness!
Right thinking refers more to not creating suffering - living with wisdom & compassion - being spontaneous - knowing skillful means - what to do when -
than an intellectual concept of "Right Thinking!"
In the dharma,
Jygpo (Ed)
Not too long ago one of the Buddhist monks up by where I'm working turned me on to something by Suzuki Shosan, (1579-1655), on karma yoga. A direct quote, "People without reason don't understand the source of misery and happiness; people without a sense of duty cannot break the bonds of life and death."
We are honored that Roshi Joan is a contributor in our book:
BE THE CHANGE
Thank you Joan,
Much metta,
Ed
We already know a lot about meditation and neuroplasticity, but I do not think that 'science' in this case has provided many insights.
It can be argued that Buddhism is a religion even though unlike other religions it has no gods and no priests, but it can also be argued that Buddhism is science. In fact Buddhist thought is a growth area in Western psychology, and the whole thrust of Buddhist meditation is to achieve insight, which is also the purpose of science. They are both ways of knowing and they are by no means mutually exclusive like, for instance, Christianity or Islam and science.
Buddhism isn't science. Buddhists love to tout the Buddha's admonition to test everything, to accept nothing merely because a teacher, even himself, has said it - until you get to the teachings on karma and rebirth, which comprise the core of the Buddhist metaphysical system. Then, all of a sudden, you have to accept them on faith.
As for Christianity and Islam being antithetical to science - it depends upon where and when. You've bought into the triumphalism purveyed by many Buddhist teachers, particularly the Tibetans.
http://seanrobsville.blogspot.com/2009/11/collective-karma.html
The Buddha refused to pronounce on rebirth. That is not really a central tenet of Buddhism.
I also think that quote by Einstein is my favorite quote of all time.
It will be fascinating to read about the findings from this research.
Spiritual and Material Values
"Every experience has its level of physiology, and so unbounded awareness has its own level of physiology which can be measured. Every aspect of life is integrated and connected with every other phase. When we talk of scientific measurements, it does not take away from the spiritual experience. We are not responsible for those times when spiritual experience was thought of as metaphysical. Everything is physical. Consciousness is the product of the functioning of the brain. Talking of scientific measurements is no damage to that wholeness of life which is present everywhere and which begins to be lived when the physiology is taking on a particular form. This is our understanding about spirituality: it is not on the level of faith --it is on the level of blood and bone and flesh and activity. It is measurable."
-Maharishi Mahesh Yogi