Zen and the brain : toward an understanding of meditation and consciousness / James H. Austin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Austin, James H., 1925-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Meditation--Zen Buddhism--Physiological aspects.

Meditation.

Meditation--Zen Buddhism--Psychology.

Consciousness--Religious aspects--Zen Buddhism.

Consciousness.

Zen Buddhism.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xxiv, 844 pages) : illustrations (some color)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, c1998.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Annotation Aldous Huxley called humankind's basic trend toward spiritual growth the perennial philosophy. In the view of James Austin, the trend implies a perennial psychophysiology - because awakening, or enlightenment, occurs only when the human brain undergoes substantial changes. What are the peak experiences of enlightenment? How could these states profoundly enhance, and yet simplify, the workings of the brain? Zen and the Brain presents the evidence.

Contents:

Intro

Contents in Brief

Chapters Containing Testable Hypotheses

List of Figures

List of Tables

Preface

Acknowledgments

By Way of Introduction

Is There Any Common Ground between

Zen and the Brain?

A Brief Outline of Zen History

But What Is Zen?

Mysticism, Zen, Religion, and Neuroscience

Western Perspectives on Mystical Experiences

Is Mysticism a Kind of Schizophrenia in Disguise?

The Semantics of Self

Constructing Our Self

Some ABCs of the

The Zen Mirror: Beyond Narcissism

and Depersonalization

Where Does Zen Think It s Coming From?

What Is Meditation?

Ryoko-in, Kyoto, 1974

Zazen at Ryoko-in

Attention

The Attentive Art of Meditation

Restraint and Renunciation

Zen Meditative Techniques and Skills

Physiological Changes during Meditation

Brain Waves and Their Limitations

The EEG in Meditation

Breathing In

Breathing Out

The Effects of Sensorimotor Deprivation

Monks and Clicks: Habituation

The Koan and Sanzen: Kyoto, 1974

A Quest for Non-Answers: Mondo and Koan

The Roshi

The Mindful, Introspective Path toward Insight

Inkblots, Blind Spots, and High Spots

Sesshin and Teisho at Ryoko-in, 1974

Sesshin

The Meditative Approach to the Dissolution of the Self

Brain in Overview: The Large of It

Brain in Overview: The Small of It

Brain in Overview: Coordinated Networks Synthesizing

Higher Functions

The Orienting Reflex and Activation

Arousal Pathways in the Reticular Formation and Beyond

Acetylcholine Systems

The Septum and Pleasure

The Attachments of the Cingulate Gyrus

The Amygdala and Fear

Remembrances and the Hippocampus

Visceral Drives and the Hypothalamus

Biogenic Amines: Three Systems

GABA and Inhibition

Peptides

The Brain s Own Opioids.

Ripples in the Next Cell: Second and Third Messengers

The

Withdraws

Matters of Taste

The Mouse in Victory and Defeat

The Central Gray: Offense, Defense, and Loss of Pain

The Third Route: Stress Responses within the Brain

The Large Visual Brain

Where Is It? The Parietal Lobe Pathway

What Is It? The Temporal Lobe Pathway

What Should I Do About It? The Frontal Lobes

Ripples in Larger Systems: Laying Down and

Retrieving Memories

The Thalamus

The Reticular Nucleus

The Pulvinar

Higher Mechanisms of Attention

Looking, and Seeing Preattentively

Laboratory Correlates of Awareness, Attention, Novelty,

and Surprise

Biological Theories: What Causes Mystical Experiences?

How Does Meditation Act?

Problems with Words: Mind

Ordinary Forms of Conscious Awareness

Variations on the Theme of Consciousness

Alternate States of Consciousness: Avenues of Entry

The Architecture of Sleep

Desynchronized Sleep

Other Perspectives in Dreams

Lucid Dreaming

Conditioning: Learning and Unlearning

Other Ways to Change Behavior

The Awakening from Hibernation

Tidal Rhythms and Biological Clocks

The Roots of Our Emotions

The Spread of Positive Feeling States

Pain and the Relief of Pain

Suffering and the Relief of Suffering

Bridging the Two Hemispheres

The Pregnant Meditative Pause

Side Effects of Meditation:

The Light

Bright Lights and Blank Vision

Faces in the Fire: Illusions and Hallucinations

Stimulating Human Brains

The Ins and Outs of Imagery

The Tachistoscope

The Descent of Charles Darwin: Computer Parallels

Bytes of Memory

Where Is the Phantom Limb?

The Feel of Two Hands

The Attentive Cat

Emotionalized Awareness without Sensate Loss

Seizures, Religious Experience, and Patterns of Behavior.

The Fleeting Truths of Nitrous Oxide

The Roots of Laughter

How Do Psychedelic and Certain Other Drugs Affect

the Brain?

Levels and Sequences of Psychedelic Experience after LSD

The Miracle of Marsh Chapel

How Do Psychedelic Drugs Affect Amine Receptors?

Near-Death Experiences

Far-Death Attitudes

Triggers

The Surge

First Zen-Brain Mondo

Vacuum Plenum: Kyoto, December 1974

The Leaf: Coda

The Semantics of Samadhi

The Vacuum Plenum of Absorption: An Agenda of Events

to Be Explained

The Plunge: Blankness, Then Blackness

The Hallucinated Leaf

Space

The Ascent of Charles Lindbergh: Ambient Vision

The Ambient Vision of Meditative Absorption

The Sound of Silence

The Loss of the Self in Clear, Held Awareness

The Warm Affective Tone

Motor and Other Residues of Internal Absorption

The When and Where of Time

Gateway to Paradox

Second Zen-Brain Mondo

Dimensions of Meaning

Authentic Meanings within Wide-Open Boundaries

Word Problems: Oneness and Unity

How Often Does Enlightenment Occur?

A Taste of Kensho: London, 1982

What Is My Original Face?

Major Characteristics of Insight-Wisdom in Kensho

Prajna: Insight-Wisdom

Suchness

Direct Perception of the Eternally Perfect World

The Construction of Time

The Dissolution of Time

The Death of Fear

Emptiness

Objective Vision: The Lunar View

Are There Levels and Sequences of Nonattainment ?

Preludes with Potential: Dark Nights and Depressions

Operational Differences between Absorption

and Insight-Wisdom

Reflections on Kensho, Personal and Neurological

Selective Mechanisms Underlying Kensho

Third Zen-Brain Mondo

The State of Ultimate Pure Being

The Power of Silence

Beyond Sudden States of Enlightenment

The Exceptional Stage of Ongoing Enlightened Traits.

Simplicity and Stability

An Ethical Base of Zen?

Compassion, the Native Virtue

Etching In and Out

Aging in the Brain

The Celebration of Nature

Expressing Zen in Action

The Other Side of Zen

Still-Evolving Brains in Still-Evolving Societies

Commentary on the Trait Change of

Ongoing Enlightenment

In Closing

Introduction to the

Selections from

Suggested Further Reading

Glossary

References and Notes

Source Notes

Index.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

OCLC-licensed vendor bibliographic record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [712]-[713] and index.

ISBN:

0-585-30203-0

0-262-26746-2

OCLC:

50698402

Publisher Number:

9780262267465