Zen and the Brain
sova
delocalized fractyllic harmonizing Veteran
There is a book, Zen and the Brain, by James H. Austin (1998)
The video above is a talk given to Google people by him.
I was looking at various links on Erowid and came across TASTE or "The Archive of Scientists Transcendental Experiences"
http://www.issc-taste.org/arc/dbo.cgi?set=expom&id=00023&ss=1
Just a short excerpt from his writing about that particular experience
Perhaps as a result, at this final sitting, both the position of my legs and the rest of the zazen posture now become natural, balanced, comfortable. I am not sleepy. I feel mentally calm and physically stable. I register these feelings and the next one, but they are my last conscious sensate thoughts for a long interval of time...
Noting that this new zendo has more electric light illumination than does our regular zendo, I lower my eyelids slightly, half-closing them to reduce the brightness.
What follows is an abrupt, complete blank. It lasts an indeterminate period of time. Nothing intervenes-no feeling sleepy, no head nodding, no quick trunk movements to catch myself from dropping off. However long this blank period lasts, it does not change my tone or posture. Consciousness drops out. Unknown to me, my body remains erect.
A seamless interval runs between this phase of absolute mental blankness and the next phase. Hyperawareness then turns itself on immediately but smoothly, as with a rheostat. The transition period contains no sense of physical, mental, or emotional startle. Instantly I am extra-wide-awake, more totally awake than ever before in my life.
A gray indistinct mist engages the top half of seeing, perhaps because my lids are half-open. It blends with a soft, pink color in the bottom half. Neither occasions any surprise, nor does the image which now presents itself to total awareness.
A small red maple leaf is THERE. It has made no entrance, it is simply there. It hangs far up in the top left corner of what is now a black field of vision. Every-thing stops. The leaf, too, stays motionless, stem pointing down to the left, tip directed diagonally up to the right. Along its edges and veins, sharp contrasts and surface markings are intensified in exquisite fine-grained detail. Its vivid colors glow. They are a stained glass window transilluminated from behind. It all seems right, a complete answer satisfying some unasked question.
And the leaf hangs there as a simple bare, detached fact, in an utterly still black void.
It is the sole inhabitant. It and awareness anonymous. For no personal self is in this scene, or observing it. No head, body, arms, legs-no one is in the center. Extraordinarily clear perception is going on by itself, spontaneously, automatically.
The TASTE vault is really cool, so check it out.
Comments
Traditional psychology goes back a long way ...
http://www.ishk.net/human_legacy.html
The current arrogance of very partial western psychology are now much more open to a long, wide and comprehensive heritage ...
V interesting. As I have just started out in my own understanding of Zen, and i know alot about my brain due to various disorders.
To simply BE without needing to comment, or think about, or understand what's happening as something profound sounds so simple, yet our minds resist.
"Zen is your everyday mind, nothing special."
"But, what does that MEAN?"
When sitting, just sit. When walking, just walk. There is nothing else to learn."
"But, what does that MEAN?"
Sit down, deep breath, quiet mind. Hush. Hear that? It's the beating of your own heart. There is no greater truth than that.
Three pounds, flax.