I have been doing a lot of reading lately on the topic of how emotions affect the chemistry of the human brain, and, also, how meditation affects the chemistry of the human brain.
Last week, I picked up a copy of "My Stroke of Insight", a book by neurobiologist Jill Bolte Taylor:
Dr. Taylor has also been extremely popular on YouTube, lecturing on her experience as a stroke survivor, and the personal insights she gained into how her own brain functions (this clip is about 20 minute long, but it's worth the time):
It turns out that what we have been calling "enlightenment' actually can be physically located in the human brain - it's in the right hemisphere. Just make a turn at the medulla oblongata,, and voila! There you are!
As a Nichiren Buddhist, I have come to accept, as an article of faith, that Buddhahood (or enlightenment) is inherent in my life. We have that in common with most schools of Mahayana Buddhism. But I always thought of it as something sort of "smooshy", like an amorphous, glowing cloud of goodness -an unidentifiable creamy center which I could only access with a Nichiren Buddhist practice. It's the brightm shining, jewel in my life that I wash and polish every day.
Now, I am starting to think of enlightenment less as a metaphor, and more as a scientifically measurable, physical phenomenon. Here's another book on the topic which I have found interesting (me and my books!):
I have known for years that certain sorts of emotional states (anger, anxiety, etc.) were physically harmful. I had to learn that the heard way, with the help of my blood pressure. The good news, of course, is that we can actively cultivate the opposite states of mind, as well. And that's what, at some level, we're all trying to do.
I'd be interested to know about what states of mind you, dear readers, are consciously creating. How do you see these states of mind affecting your health? That's it for now, have a nice day, everyone.
Byrd in LA
Posted by wahzoh at June 24, 2008 08:43 AMHi Byrd,
I also watched the youtube video by Dr. Taylor where she recounts her stroke experience. I have a very hard time with assocating her experience with "nirvana" or "buddhahood."
The blissful state that she experienced was not a very functional one. In fact, it almost killed her - because she was not able to access the brain capabilities she needed to get help. Fortunately, as she said, she was able to get it together enough to get help in time.
Blissful states of love and unity are already accounted for in Buddhist Abhidharma as part of the dhyanas - the states of concentration that can be reached by cultivating boundless loving-kindness (metta bhavana). These states of boundless loving-kindness and unity with the divine (Brahma) are associated with the heavens of the realm of form - in other words they are merely part of the six worlds of rebirth. Even more sublime states of formlessness and equanimity are still just part of the heavenly realm.
The four higher worlds transcend all this because they do not depend upon a brain that is malfunctioning or part of the brain (whether left or right) dropping offline. Rather they are about integrated functional states of clear insight and freedom. They are able to fully access feelings of bliss and unity but are also able to function in a practical and analytical way no matter what the circumstances.
Also, Dr. Taylor was rather oversimplifying in the video clip about the right and left brain. The right brain is also the source of moodiness and glumness. It isn't all just high emotions apparently. It's been awhile since I've read the books I have on this subject, but I do remember things being more nuanced than just Spock on one side and the Greateful Dead on the other. I would particularly recommend the book "Zen and the Brain" which in particular looks at in-depth clinical studies of meditators and how meditation effects the brain and how this may also be impacted by the process of maturity over time and the integration of spiritual peaks and insights into daily life (as opposed to brief experiences of bliss either due to drugs, peak experiences, or brain malfunctioning).
Sorry to be such a wet blanket.
Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei
Hi, Michael - no, you're not a wet blanket at all! I'm glad (as always) that you're here to participate in the conversation. I did provide a link to that book ("Zen and the Brain"), which I also enjoyed very much.
What I liked about that book ("Zen and the Brain") is that it sort of built a bridge for me between the "gradual enlightenment" and "sudden enlightenment" approach. Maybe the answer to that question is that enlightenment happens suddenly after having been built up to gradually over a period of time.
I like understanding that the process can be physically tracked, though - it makes the whole thing less vague for me, somehow. And I also found Dr. Taylor's experience strangely encouraging. Thanks so much for writing in,
Wahzoh
My eyes were opened to another way of looking at things when I flat lined in an ambulance. The concept of brain as a reducing valve suddenly made sense. I shall have to look at the video.
r
Posted by: robin at June 25, 2008 06:43 AMOne thing on what Ryuei wrote, learning about the form realm meditations, the Dhyanas / Jhanas, was very useful for me in sorting out my experience. I likely would have thought I had experienced some incredible other worldly spiritual visitation; or else thought I was insane. I think a lot of people feel threatened by authentic spiritual experiences.
Posted by: robin at June 25, 2008 08:12 AM
Enlightenment and Death Experience are subjects not to be taken lightly. I am not sure what Enlightenment is, but I have died and it is my firm belief that what people experience and report, based on my experience, what I have witnessed, is the pre-death route, the mind is still sending pictures and sound, but when you hit death, you cease the human connection.
I was holding my mother, she was pronounced dead, and came back to life, said some things, and then passed away. My bet is that she never really was all the way gone. There are many cases, when coffins are dug up and they find scratches, the person was not gone. When we practice a religion, there is a heart felt desire to live the life of a sage of god or Buddha or Bodhisattva, and have a religious experience.
When I left NSA, one of my members requested I take a spiritual class, and it involved visualization. People who were Jews visualized Moses, Catholics saw Jesus, and Buddhists you guessed it saw Buddha, and those NSA people there saw Nichiren. It was pretty obvious, our mind was making the entity,and so I think when people are having these death experiences, and want a religious experience, their mind is releasing to them what they want.
I have a sleep problem, I do not sleep more than 2-3 hours at a time. Recently they tried to give me some medication to have to sleep longer, didn't work, but man, the dreams were directed by Steven Spielberg!
I was in a car accident 1978, I was hit on the golden state freeway by fourteen cars, I was the first person they used the jaws of life on. I was actually dead for five minutes. When I woke, a nurse yelled, "He's alive!" and a response was "No Way". I have never told anyone what I experienced.
I was most angry because I thought I would have my life flash before my eyes, or some weird stuff, but nothing happened at all. Just before I passed out, I heard or felt a voice "this is serious, I could die".
As a human, we think as a human, but when we are in a deceased mode, we don't think as a human, that makes sense to me. If I am wrong you could be hypnotized before death, and continue to communicate after you pass away.
You can agree or disagree, my jury is still out on my own thinking, and I have only written my readers digest version here.
Bruce
Here is one of many odd things I experienced in a few minutes, which is already odd. I saw some beings that made me think of the 7 dwarves, except snow white was one of them. Than, one day, I came across Zuiun's carving of the Shichifukujin, and almost fell out of my wheel chair. I saw and did other things outside of my prior experience that I have since seen depicted or explained.
I have no explanations of those events, do not think it makes me special, and do not intend to come across as playing "top that." It is what happened, and in many ways, I would have preferred it did not happen.
The good part of it was the sensation of an
incredible authentic warm radiant healing bliss going home sensation that has stayed with me to an extant until today. For months afterward, when people looked in my eyes, they would get the same sensation.
That is what I mean. A catholic would have seen Jesus and small lambs or something. Jews, Moses and burning bushes. Everyone sees things related to their beliefs. I am not discounting your experience, I am not saying you didn't see something, but what you saw took on a form of something you recognized in your mind, you saw it with your mind. You did not see it with your eyes. There was no light, no air, no wind, no smells, it was your mind.
Bruce
Posted by: Bruce Maltz at June 25, 2008 09:39 PM