The Practical Neuroscience of Buddhism

http://www.zacharyburt.com/2010/05/the-neuroscience-of-buddhism-practical-tips-via-insightful-framework/

by zackattack • 16 years ago

45 14 16 years ago

klochner• 16 years ago

   > By the way, I know that “parar” means “to stop” in 
   > Spanish, which is how I distinguish between the 
   > parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems.

It's a nice mnemonic, but the medical "para" comes from Greek, meaning beside or near.

zackattack4• 16 years ago

Oh word. Like paramedic.

all_elements3• 16 years ago

I've been searching for a physical/scientific basis of mindfulness. This sounds like a great read. Thanks for sharing.

telewriting• 16 years ago

You might look at the work of Philosopher Humberto Maturana and Biologist/Philosopher Francisco Varela. In particular, Varela's work The Embodied Mind may be of interest. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_Varela

zackattack4• 16 years ago

Mind/body connection is something I am also interested in exploring. For example, I can often tell when I am going to miss a basketball shot by feeling a creak in my kness. Sounds crazy but I'm sure there's a reason for it. This is a different phenomenon from people anticipating when it's going to rain by feeling pressure.. I think it's something like my predictive intuition has been working in the background outside of conscious awareness, and only becomes conscious through tells that I've learned.

all_elements3• 16 years ago

That took me on a discovery path of the philosophical approach to mindfulness. There seems to be a whole body of literature analyzing this from various angles. In particular, Varela seems to very influential. He is also cited in Daniel Siegel's book called "The Mindful Brain" (I was just referred to this book by a student of Psychology). Good stuff.

I wish mindfulness was based on some simple guiding principles/laws like with classical mechanics. But as with a lot of Biological processes, it seems to be a large complex system. Varela's "Theoretical Biology" book sounds interesting but I suspect it is a complex model of the body+mind rather than a simple one.

maxwin• 16 years ago

Thanks for the article. It's a very good read. Definitely going to check out the book. I meditate once in a while and when I do, I find out that I can concentrate better. It's great for those who have or suspect they have ADD.

stretchwithme• 16 years ago

If you're into meditation, I would also definitely check out Eckhart Tolle's book, The Power of Now, mentioned in this article. Besides a lot of religious elements, Tolle has some real insights into how the brain really works that you may find very useful.

alan-crowe• 16 years ago

The two dart system, mentioned at the end of the blog post, comes from early Buddhism: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn36/sn36.006.nyp...

The Practical Neuroscience of Buddhism

Related Stories