Contemplative Science

In a truly inspirational video (although I’m not a fan of overly flowery language) neuroanatomist Jill Taylor describes an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened — as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding — she studied and remembered every moment. This is a powerful story about how our brains define us and connect us to the world and to one another.

Clearly there are meditators who can identify with the experiences she describes. Either way I have confidence that scientists will over time expand on the current theories of consciousness espoused by people like Dan Dennet to one that is closer a line to Buddhist theory of consciousness. I also think that we as Buddhists need to be open minded about the theory of consciousness.
Simply dismissing the western science view outright is not useful for the individual or Buddhism. We can learn from each other. There is no doubt that the brain plays some role in how we experience the world. I believe this video shows this. I also think it shows that subtle consciousness is not reliant on the brain.
Regardless it is a good watch!

Yesterday I read with interest, Daniel Goleman’s blog post on the unexplained gamma increases in highly trained Tibetan Lamas. This morning I had an idea that might shed some insight into the reason why some meditators, with roughly the same amount of training as others, can have massively different gamma readings.

The idea is based on how these monks engage their object of meditation. Daniel did state that all the participants were meditating on compassion, however his findings assumes that all participants engaged in this meditation on compassion are of the same type of compassion. According to Mahayana Buddhism there is more than one type of compassion.

Candrakirti a 7th CE Buddhist scholar-yogi, abbot of the famous Nalanda monastic university, and author of many famous Buddhist treatises enumerates in his treatise of Madhyamaka philosophy entitled Engaging in the Middle Way (Madhyamakavatara) three types of compassion.

Three Types of Compassion

1. Compassion observing mere sentient beings.
2. Compassion observing impermanent sentient beings.
3. Compassion observing dependently-related sentient beings.

This theory says that all three compassions have as their observed object sentient beings, with a subjective aspect of wishing them to be free from suffering and wanting to protect them from suffering but, their engaged object or conceived object are (1) real sentient beings, in the sense of being substantially existent; (2) Impermanent sentient beings and; (3) Sentient beings that do not inherently exist. Candrakirti states that the three compassions increase in depth, scope and power from the first through to the third. I would add, a meditator who possesses this third type of compassion has fewer dysfunctional states of mind compared with one who only has the first or second type. This perhaps is a way of explaining the different degrees of gamma in the participants. Although a person with the 3rd type of compassion may look simpler in appearance to another monk or Lama, their mind would be far from simpler.

I believe that in order to get to the bottom of this conundrum, scientists need to starting asking questions of meditators. Get them to describe their meditational objects, rather than assume they are all meditating on the same objects. Currently scientists are reluctant to do this or at least reluctant to speak about it in public. Yet, this is the area that will show in my opinion how dualistic thought processes are the root cause of suffering. I believe science can play a role in this endeavor but, only after they get over their fixation with the materialistic notion of consciousness. 

Awareness and Knowledge an Introduction

Buddhism asserts the mind is not merely a function of the brain nor is it an emergent property of physical processes. Buddhist epistemology - a branch of philosophy that investigates the origin, nature, methods, and limits of knowledge - defines consciousness as: that which is clear and knowing. Consciousness, knower and awareness are synonymous. Awareness is ‘clear’ as in it is not obstructed by physical phenomena. It is the luminous aspect of mind and the knowing is the minds capacity to know or cognize phenomena - both internal and external phenomena. Therefore it is that which is clear and knowing.

Regardless of your inclination toward either the current Western notion of the nature of consciousness or the Buddhist definition. The project of developing a ‘good life’ or to use Buddhist terminology ‘practicing Dharma’ or ‘the path to Enlightenment’ is contingent upon understanding your own mind. Given that consciousness in the Buddhist tradition has been the primary object of investigation for more than 2500 years, it makes sense to at least understand what Buddhist literature has to say about the subject regardless of whether you are Buddhist or not.

The Buddhist approach to epistemology and psychology is one of enumerating the basic functions of the mind, as opposed to understanding it through brain processes or behavioral manifestations. By understanding how perception, conception and various mental factors such as the mental factor of feeling - one of the Five Omnipresent mental factors - operate and how the mental factor of feeling plays a crucial role in determining how we relate and react to most of life’s events, one can develop a greater understanding of our dependent nature. We, that is, you and I are after all dependent on various factors other than ourselves. My mind is not me, although it is a part of what makes up me. So by developing a deeper understanding of this very fact, we can better understand who we are, and how we exist. To a greater of lesser extent, it is this process that Buddhists are undertaking.

The lineage of Buddhist epistemology comes from two Indian scholars Dignaga 5th CE and Dharmakirti 7th CE. Dignaga wrote a treatise on what constitutes valid cognition, valid ways of knowing, called Compendium of Valid Cognition. While Dharmakirti wrote Seven Treatises on Valid Cognition his treatise called Commentary on (Dignaga’s) Compendium of Valid Cognition is the foundational text for much of Tibetan monastic education of Buddhist logic and epistemology . The study of mental factors or psychology comes from Compendium of Knowledge written by Asanga 3rd CE.

In the Tibetan monastic education system, the study of epistemology and psychology are studied under the topic of Awareness and Knowledge (blo-rig) pronounced Lo-rik. Lo-rik is the study of consciousness, of mind and the understanding of mind is seen as essential in both it’s practical and theoretical aspects, as the process of the enlightenment project is one of replacing dysfunctional mind with functional ones. Therefore the clear identification of dysfunctional states of mind and the recognition of why they are dysfunctional is of vital importance in the progression from an unenlightened experience to an enlightened one. Meditation which is seen as an indispensable tool in a spiritual aspirant life, is used as both a diagnostic and therapeutic tool in this process. The culmination of this process is a state of mind, an experience that is free from all dysfunctional states. According to Buddhism, such a mind has the capacity to know all objects of knowledge without error. Buddhists merely label this experience Enlightenment. Perhaps this is what can explain gamma levels leapt’s of 700 to 800 percent

In Lo-rik, consciousness is studied by dividing it into types and sub-types from several different point of view, such as the seven-fold division of:

1. Direct Perceivers
2. Inferential cognizers
3. Subsequent cognizers
4. Correctly assuming consciousness
5. Inattentive awareness
6. Doubting consciousness
7. Wrong consciousness

The Three-fold division:

1. Conceptual consciousnesses that take a meaning generality as their apprehended object.
2. Non-conceptual non-mistaken consciousnesses that take a specifically characterized phenomenon as their apprehended object.
3. Non-conceptual mistaken consciousnesses that take a clear appearance of a nonexistent as their apprehended object.

The Two-fold division:

1. Self-knowers
2. Other-knowers

Another Two-fold division of:

1. Minds
2. Mental factors

This enables a student to develop a sense of how consciousness exists and manifests, by understanding the various types, their functions and how they interrelate. The study of Lo-rik also plays the role in formulating foundational concepts that a student will use in their future studies of Madhyamaka, as well as the Grounds and Paths found in texts like Maitreya’s Ornament for Clear Realizations.

Awareness and Knowledge - Table of Contents

Just picked up the mail and new the Alan Wallace book Hidden Dimensions: The unification of physics and consciousness arrived from Amazom.com

I’m very much looking forward to reading this, although it’s about third in line!

Amazon.com link below