Post by Admin on Feb 24, 2017 20:08:04 GMT -5
Interesting blog post by a professor of neuroscience who is also a long-time meditator and teacher. Suggest you read the whole thing
as it's not too long and rather concisely addresses the issues of technology, science and their interface with contemplative traditions. Since he is scientist AND a meditation teacher, I found his take on this topic fresh and to the point as well. Putting the opening paragraphs below to whet your appetite:
as it's not too long and rather concisely addresses the issues of technology, science and their interface with contemplative traditions. Since he is scientist AND a meditation teacher, I found his take on this topic fresh and to the point as well. Putting the opening paragraphs below to whet your appetite:
Your Brain as Laboratory: The Science of Meditation
The idea that meditation is actually a form of research is gaining respect
by, John Yates, PhD, (a.k.a. Culadasa)*
Meditation has surged in popularity in recent years, from a fringe interest to a mainstream trend championed by therapists, scientists, and celebrities. As part of this shift, misconceptions and dismissals have given way to the emerging recognition of meditation as a science. There are, however, those who would challenge this view. As both a scientist and a meditator, I feel a duty to respond.
In doing so, I must first acknowledge the huge number of activities commonly referred to as meditation. Many of those activities are not in any sense scientific. However, I will argue that some meditation practices, including the method I describe in The Mind Illuminated and other practices within the Buddhist tradition, do qualify as science. I will confine my discussion to those practices.
We can define science as the systematic study of the natural world through observation and experiment, yielding an organized body of knowledge on a particular subject. The human mind is undeniably a suitable subject for scientific study, and one purpose of meditation is careful observation of one’s own mind. This observation reveals consistent patterns that meditators share with one another and with teachers who direct their practice. Master meditators weigh these observations against their own experience and knowledge passed down from previous generations of meditation masters, thereby generating models of the mind. Over thousands of years, meditators have tested, refined, and reworked their models of the mind based on new insights as later generations developed new meditative techniques. Thus, over time, an organized body of knowledge has accumulated describing the nature and behavior of the mind at a very fine level of resolution. This is one sense in which certain forms of meditation qualify as science....
Scientific American Blog, February 24, 2017
To read the whole blog on scientificamerican.com...go HERE.
*About John Yates:
John Yates, Ph.D (a.k.a. Culadasa) is a meditation master and teacher with over forty years of experience in the Tibetan and Theravadin Buddhist traditions. A former professor, he taught physiology and neuroscience for many years, and later worked in the field of complementary medicine. His book, The Mind Illuminated (Touchstone), is the first comprehensive how-to meditation guide from a neuroscientist who is also a meditation master.
The idea that meditation is actually a form of research is gaining respect
by, John Yates, PhD, (a.k.a. Culadasa)*
Meditation has surged in popularity in recent years, from a fringe interest to a mainstream trend championed by therapists, scientists, and celebrities. As part of this shift, misconceptions and dismissals have given way to the emerging recognition of meditation as a science. There are, however, those who would challenge this view. As both a scientist and a meditator, I feel a duty to respond.
In doing so, I must first acknowledge the huge number of activities commonly referred to as meditation. Many of those activities are not in any sense scientific. However, I will argue that some meditation practices, including the method I describe in The Mind Illuminated and other practices within the Buddhist tradition, do qualify as science. I will confine my discussion to those practices.
We can define science as the systematic study of the natural world through observation and experiment, yielding an organized body of knowledge on a particular subject. The human mind is undeniably a suitable subject for scientific study, and one purpose of meditation is careful observation of one’s own mind. This observation reveals consistent patterns that meditators share with one another and with teachers who direct their practice. Master meditators weigh these observations against their own experience and knowledge passed down from previous generations of meditation masters, thereby generating models of the mind. Over thousands of years, meditators have tested, refined, and reworked their models of the mind based on new insights as later generations developed new meditative techniques. Thus, over time, an organized body of knowledge has accumulated describing the nature and behavior of the mind at a very fine level of resolution. This is one sense in which certain forms of meditation qualify as science....
Scientific American Blog, February 24, 2017
To read the whole blog on scientificamerican.com...go HERE.
*About John Yates:
John Yates, Ph.D (a.k.a. Culadasa) is a meditation master and teacher with over forty years of experience in the Tibetan and Theravadin Buddhist traditions. A former professor, he taught physiology and neuroscience for many years, and later worked in the field of complementary medicine. His book, The Mind Illuminated (Touchstone), is the first comprehensive how-to meditation guide from a neuroscientist who is also a meditation master.