Selfless Insight: Zen and the Meditative Transformations of Consciousness - Hardcover

Inhaltsangabe

When neurology researcher James Austin began Zen training, he found that his medicaleducation was inadequate. During the past three decades, he has been at the cutting edge of both Zenand neuroscience, constantly discovering new examples of how these two large fields each illuminatethe other. Now, in Selfless Insight, Austin arrives at a fresh synthesis, one that invokes thelatest brain research to explain the basis for meditative states and clarifies what Zen awakeningimplies for our understanding of consciousness. Austin, author of the widely read Zen and the Brain,reminds us why Zen meditation is not only mindfully attentive but evolves to become increasinglyselfless and intuitive. Meditators are gradually learning how to replace over-emotionality withcalm, clear objective comprehension. In this new book, Austin discusses how meditation trains ourattention, reprogramming it toward subtle forms of awareness that are more openly mindful. Heexplains how our maladaptive notions of self are rooted in interactive brain functions. And hedescribes how, after the extraordinary, deep states of kensho-satori strike off the roots of theself, a flash of transforming insight-wisdom leads toward ways of living more harmoniously andselflessly. Selfless Insight is the capstone to Austin's journey both as a creative neuroscientistand as a Zen practitioner. His quest has spanned an era of unprecedented progress in brain researchand has helped define the exciting new field of contemplative neuroscience.

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