Where Buddhism Meets Neuroscience

Author: The Dalai Lama
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
ISBN: 1559394781
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 217

Book Description
Designed as a conversation between the Dalai Lama and Western neuroscientists, this book takes readers on a journey through opposing fields of thought—showing that they may not be so opposing after all Is the mind an ephemeral side effect of the brain’s physical processes? Are there forms of consciousness so subtle that science has not yet identified them? How does consciousness happen? Organized by the Mind and Life Institute, this discussion addresses some of the most troublesome questions that have driven a wedge between Western science and religion. Edited by Zara Houshmand, Robert B. Livingston, and B. Alan Wallace, Where Buddhism Meets Neuroscience is the culmination of meetings between the Dalai Lama and a group of eminent neuroscientists and psychiatrists. The Dalai Lama’s incisive, open-minded approach both challenges and offers inspiration to Western scientists. This book was previously published under the title Consciousness at the Crossroads.

Where Buddhism Meets Neuroscience

Author: The Dalai Lama
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
ISBN: 0834841932
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 217

Buddha's Brain

Author: Rick Hanson
Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com
ISBN: 1459624157
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 350

Book Description
Jesus, Moses, Mohammed, Gandhi, and the Buddha all had brains built essentially like anyone else's, yet they were able to harness their thoughts and shape their patterns of thinking in ways that changed history. With new breakthroughs in modern neuroscience and the wisdom of thousands of years of contemplative practice, it is possible for us to shape our own thoughts in a similar way for greater happiness, love, compassion, and wisdom. Buddha's Brain joins the forces of modern neuroscience with ancient contemplative teachings to show readers how they can work toward greater emotional well-being, healthier relationships, more effective actions, and deepened religious and spiritual understanding. This book will explain how the core elements of both psychological well-being and religious or spiritual life-virtue, mindfulness, and wisdom--are based in the core functions of the brain: regulating, learning, and valuing. Readers will also learn practical ways to apply this information, as the book offers many exercises they can do to tap the unused potential of the brain and rewire it over time for greater peace and well-being.

Contemplative Science

Author: B. Alan Wallace
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 9780231138352
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 228

Book Description
Science has long treated religion as a set of personal beliefs that have little to do with a rational understanding of the mind and the universe. This work attempts to bridge this gap by launching an unbiased investigation into the history and practices of science and Buddhist contemplative disciplines.

Beyond the Self

Author: Matthieu Ricard
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262536145
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 294

Book Description
A Buddhist monk and esteemed neuroscientist discuss their converging—and diverging—views on the mind and self, consciousness and the unconscious, free will and perception, and more. Buddhism shares with science the task of examining the mind empirically; it has pursued, for two millennia, direct investigation of the mind through penetrating introspection. Neuroscience, on the other hand, relies on third-person knowledge in the form of scientific observation. In this book, Matthieu Ricard, a Buddhist monk trained as a molecular biologist, and Wolf Singer, a distinguished neuroscientist—close friends, continuing an ongoing dialogue—offer their perspectives on the mind, the self, consciousness, the unconscious, free will, epistemology, meditation, and neuroplasticity. Ricard and Singer’s wide-ranging conversation stages an enlightening and engaging encounter between Buddhism’s wealth of experiential findings and neuroscience’s abundance of experimental results. They discuss, among many other things, the difference between rumination and meditation (rumination is the scourge of meditation, but psychotherapy depends on it); the distinction between pure awareness and its contents; the Buddhist idea (or lack of one) of the unconscious and neuroscience’s precise criteria for conscious and unconscious processes; and the commonalities between cognitive behavioral therapy and meditation. Their views diverge (Ricard asserts that the third-person approach will never encounter consciousness as a primary experience) and converge (Singer points out that the neuroscientific understanding of perception as reconstruction is very like the Buddhist all-discriminating wisdom) but both keep their vision trained on understanding fundamental aspects of human life.

Summary of Dalai Lama's Where Buddhism Meets Neuroscience

Author: Everest Media
Publisher: Everest Media LLC
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 34

Book Description
Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 The brain is also dynamic in a personal, subjective, interactive sense. When you gaze at a waterfall, for example, something amazing happens perceptually. The perceptual apparatus has adapted itself so as to slow down the motion of the falling water, which allows it to be more precisely observed. #2 The brain’s potentialities are so large that we must be in awe of them. We must understand, however, that there are many things we don’t yet know about the brain and the mind, and that we are unsure about many things.

Buddhist Biology

Author: David P. Barash
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199985561
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 217

Book Description
Compares teachings of Buddhism with principles of modern biology, revealing many significant points of compatibility.

Healing Emotions

Author: Daniel Goleman
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
ISBN: 1590300106
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 289

Book Description
Can the mind heal the body? The Buddhist tradition says yes - and now that many Western scientists are beginning to agree, these discussions between His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama and a group of prominent physicians, psychologists, and meditation teachers could not be more timely. This book is a record of the Mind and Life Conference III, a meeting that gathered together a unique assortment of Buddhist teachers and Western scholars in an attempt to shed new light on the body-mind connection.

An Introduction to Buddhism

Author: The Dalai Lama
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
ISBN: 0834841568
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 137

Book Description
His Holiness the Dalai Lama presents the perfect introduction to traditional Tibetan Buddhist thought and practice, covering the Four Noble Truths and two essential texts. There is no one more suited to introduce beginners—and remind seasoned practitioners—of the fundamentals of Tibetan Buddhism than His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Speaking to an audience of Western students, the Dalai Lama shows us how to apply basic Buddhist principles to our day-to-day lives. Starting with the very foundation of Buddhism, the Four Noble Truths, he provides the framework for understanding the Buddha’s first teachings on suffering, happiness, and peace. He follows with commentary on two of Buddhism’s most profound texts: The Eight Verses on Training the Mind and Atisha’s Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment, often referring to the former as one of his main sources of inspiration for the practice of compassion. With clear, accessible language and the familiar sense of humor that infuses nearly all of his work, the Dalai Lama invites us all to develop innermost awareness, a proper understanding of the nature of reality, and heartfelt compassion for all beings. This book was previously published under the title Lighting the Way.

No Self, No Problem

Author: Chris Niebauer
Publisher: Hierophant Publishing
ISBN: 1938289986
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 193

Book Description
While in grad school in the early 1990s, Chris Niebauer began to notice striking parallels between the latest discoveries in psychology, neuroscience, and the teachings of Buddhism, Taoism, and other schools of Eastern thought. When he presented his findings to a professor, his ideas were quickly dismissed as “pure coincidence, nothing more.” Fast-forward 20 years later and Niebauer is a PhD and a tenured professor, and the Buddhist-neuroscience connection he found as a student is practically its own genre in the bookstore. But according to Niebauer, we are just beginning to understand the link between Eastern philosophy and the latest findings in psychology and neuroscience and what these assimilated ideas mean for the human experience. In this groundbreaking book, Niebauer writes that the latest research in neuropsychology is now confirming a fundamental tenet of Buddhism, what is called Anatta, or the doctrine of “no self.” Niebauer writes that our sense of self, or what we commonly refer to as the ego, is an illusion created entirely by the left side of the brain. Niebauer is quick to point out that this doesn't mean that the self doesn't exist but rather that it does so in the same way that a mirage in the middle of the desert exists, as a thought rather than a thing. His conclusions have significant ramifications for much of modern psychological modalities, which he says are spending much of their time trying to fix something that isn’t there. What makes this book unique is that Niebauer offers a series of exercises to allow the reader to experience this truth for him- or herself, as well as additional tools and practices to use after reading the book, all of which are designed to change the way we experience the world—a way that is based on being rather than thinking.