If everything is projection of mind then perceiving the mind deception is awareness.In that constant state of vigil human motivations,behavioural pattern, response system ,action and reaction emerge out crystal clear.What emerges is formation of individual entity creeping in stealthily like a thief and sets out to steer the life course .Can this thief (ego self) be caught as it emerges?Is it an inevitable formation? Can it be stopped,erased or obliterated and how? Is constant awareness an energy sapping vigil or energy releasing mechanism? Such questions donot render to easy answers .
How best to deploy human energy is a constant challenge.Deploying in a broader sense of relating to life itself in a manner such that life is on auto pilot.Where there is no doubt,no compulsion,no fear,no anxiety no hesitation.state In such a state of total clarity doing things one knows the best and likes the best becomes a way of life.Doing itself is an act of certainty.Doing itself is an end.Perhaps there is no need to be deeply philosophical about it then just accepting reality as it is and conducting oneself in that reality drama simply as a natural flow.Its essential to ensure that avowed vocation is of natural fit and choice.Obstruction/distraction to natural flow would be encountered and courage has to be summoned to crossover such a hump.Courage is needed to redefine success on your terms and not societal terms and once thats anchored rest is easy.For then the stealthy thief is always at bay and not at the dictates of perceived societal approval.Then there is everything to achieve and nobody to achieve.Living itself has no tomorrow.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Monday, December 29, 2008
Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain :NeuroplasicityAnd Buddhism
Net Review of Train your Mind and Change your Brain by Sharon Begley
Is it really possible to change the structure and function of the brain, and in so doing alter how we think and feel?
The answer is a resounding yes.
In late 2004, leading Western scientists joined the
Dalai Lama at his home in Dharamsala, India, to address this very question — and in the process brought about a revolution in our understanding of the human mind. In this fascinating and far-reaching book, Wall Street Journal science writer Sharon Begley reports on how cutting-edge science and the ancient wisdom of Buddhism have come together to show how we all have the power to literally change our brains by changing our minds. These findings hold exciting implications for personal transformation.
For decades, the conventional wisdom of neuroscience held that the hardware of the brain is fixed and immutable — that we are stuck with what we were born with. As Begley shows, however, recent pioneering experiments in neuroplasticity, a new science that investigates whether and how the brain can undergo wholesale change, reveal that the brain is capable not only of altering its structure but also of generating new neurons, even into old age. The brain can adapt, heal, renew itself after trauma, and compensate for disability.
Begley documents how this fundamental paradigm shift is transforming both our understanding of the human mind and our approach to deep-seated emotional, cognitive, and behavioral problems. These breakthroughs show that it is possible to reset our happiness meter, regain the use of limbs disabled by stroke, train the mind to break cycles of depression and OCD, and reverse age-related changes in the brain. They also suggest that it is possible to teach and learn compassion, a key step in the Dalai Lama's quest for a more peaceful world. But as we learn from studies performed on Buddhist monks, an important component in changing the brain is to tap the power of mind and, if particular, focused attention. This is the classic Buddhist practice of mindfulness, a technique that has become popular in the West and that is immediately available to everyone.
With her extraordinary gift for making science accessible, meaningful, and compelling, Sharon Begley illuminates a profound shift in our understanding of how the brain and the mind interact. This tremendously hopeful book takes us to the leading edge of a revolution in what it means to be human.
Bloggers Comment
The keypoint of J.Krishnamurti`s teaching is to look inwards to a point that observer is observed.Then your action springs out of insights.Then you awaken to the possibility of alteration/regeneration of brain cells .He did so by substantial dialogues with scientist of nobel prize genre to establish the scientific veracity of his claim.All the queries re God, karma, reincarnation etc then get answered without posing the question or without believing because vedanta said so or buddha said so or mahavir said so..Love , compassion belong to that field which is outside the realm of thought.He called it living with attention,awareness and insights
Is it really possible to change the structure and function of the brain, and in so doing alter how we think and feel?
The answer is a resounding yes.
In late 2004, leading Western scientists joined the
Dalai Lama at his home in Dharamsala, India, to address this very question — and in the process brought about a revolution in our understanding of the human mind. In this fascinating and far-reaching book, Wall Street Journal science writer Sharon Begley reports on how cutting-edge science and the ancient wisdom of Buddhism have come together to show how we all have the power to literally change our brains by changing our minds. These findings hold exciting implications for personal transformation.
For decades, the conventional wisdom of neuroscience held that the hardware of the brain is fixed and immutable — that we are stuck with what we were born with. As Begley shows, however, recent pioneering experiments in neuroplasticity, a new science that investigates whether and how the brain can undergo wholesale change, reveal that the brain is capable not only of altering its structure but also of generating new neurons, even into old age. The brain can adapt, heal, renew itself after trauma, and compensate for disability.
Begley documents how this fundamental paradigm shift is transforming both our understanding of the human mind and our approach to deep-seated emotional, cognitive, and behavioral problems. These breakthroughs show that it is possible to reset our happiness meter, regain the use of limbs disabled by stroke, train the mind to break cycles of depression and OCD, and reverse age-related changes in the brain. They also suggest that it is possible to teach and learn compassion, a key step in the Dalai Lama's quest for a more peaceful world. But as we learn from studies performed on Buddhist monks, an important component in changing the brain is to tap the power of mind and, if particular, focused attention. This is the classic Buddhist practice of mindfulness, a technique that has become popular in the West and that is immediately available to everyone.
With her extraordinary gift for making science accessible, meaningful, and compelling, Sharon Begley illuminates a profound shift in our understanding of how the brain and the mind interact. This tremendously hopeful book takes us to the leading edge of a revolution in what it means to be human.
Bloggers Comment
The keypoint of J.Krishnamurti`s teaching is to look inwards to a point that observer is observed.Then your action springs out of insights.Then you awaken to the possibility of alteration/regeneration of brain cells .He did so by substantial dialogues with scientist of nobel prize genre to establish the scientific veracity of his claim.All the queries re God, karma, reincarnation etc then get answered without posing the question or without believing because vedanta said so or buddha said so or mahavir said so..Love , compassion belong to that field which is outside the realm of thought.He called it living with attention,awareness and insights
Sunday, November 9, 2008
choiceless awareness
Choiceless awareness cannot be practsed.That very act negates choicelessnesss.It happens spontaneously when the so called self or being is not in the state of becoming.In the state of becoming there is need for acievement.It falls in the Maslows pattern of need heirarchy, viz. a rising pyramid of needs starting from basic to highest form of self esteem or recognition..In ancient times astavakra said "Burn the forest of ignorance with fire of certitude that I am non dual and pure consciousness.abandoning sorrow and bliss.All which have form is false.The formless is changeless.Knowing this truth there is cessation of birth.
Emancipated minds neither desires nor grieves.neither accepts nor rejects.It is independent of cravings and aversions.Thats liberation
Choiceless awareness is a state where there is no striving.Efforts mean existence of self and is paradoxical to choiceless.
According to Sri Raman Maharshi" There is no necessity to see the self with another self.Observer is observed,indeed.
The challenge is not in understanding it but imbibing it as day to day activities lay a trap of pushing oneself into the state of becoming and thereby denying the bliss of (stressfree) joyful living.Joyful living is perhaps not an objective or a desire but a natural state for in that state living precedes desire.
Does one stop becoming by denying and living a life of ascetic or one lives life to its potential and yet manages to escape the trap of becoming.And more importantly not forsaking ambition because it is unachievable (sour grapes) but because one realises that it is an addictive trap strengthening pseudo self till it becomes a rock solid entity.Sucn an entity would always be in a state of wanting.In a state of discontent.In a state of proving .In a state very susceptible to insult.In a state of living upto an image .In living a second hand life as Ayn Rand would put it to describe the charecter of Peter Keating against the protaganist Howard Roark.If on the contrary one is in a state of denying it again is not a choiceless existence as denying involves attempt.Moreover denying can lead to supression which is counterproductive and worse than ambition.Denying and becoming are two sides of the same coin.Pendulum swings between denying and becoming till the clock stops and it rests in the middle.Living and resting in middle ,a contradiction or an art?
Choiceless awarenesss is living and living with a flow.There is a direction and yet there is no compulsion.There is a destination and yet there is no fixed end by itself.It happens, so be it.It doesnot happen, so be it.Discontent doesnot have a room in such a state as whilst flowing there is no rigidity.There are no fixed milestones to achieve yet different goal post do pass by.
Somewhere there is a failure to understand that human mind is habit forming and addictive.Maybe thats how physiology works because mind needs brain as executer and maybe brain is subject to physical law of neurotransmitters.Maybe neuroscience can explain but a layman is not suppose to undestand it but maybe he has an opportunity to intutively realise it if he is attentive.Thus there is a constant possibility of falling in the trap of becoming or rather it is self feeding loop . Maybe thats why J.krishnamurti says that there is no gradual process.It is immediate because process involves time and is subject to self feedinf loop of achieveing and only way out is quantum leap out if the orbit.Now or never.
MIND
Neither Co-operate with it.
Nor confront against it
Observe mind
Watch it by being simply aware
Slowly it is subjugated
Lead your life thru unmotivated energy i.e. Action
Emancipated minds neither desires nor grieves.neither accepts nor rejects.It is independent of cravings and aversions.Thats liberation
Choiceless awareness is a state where there is no striving.Efforts mean existence of self and is paradoxical to choiceless.
According to Sri Raman Maharshi" There is no necessity to see the self with another self.Observer is observed,indeed.
The challenge is not in understanding it but imbibing it as day to day activities lay a trap of pushing oneself into the state of becoming and thereby denying the bliss of (stressfree) joyful living.Joyful living is perhaps not an objective or a desire but a natural state for in that state living precedes desire.
Does one stop becoming by denying and living a life of ascetic or one lives life to its potential and yet manages to escape the trap of becoming.And more importantly not forsaking ambition because it is unachievable (sour grapes) but because one realises that it is an addictive trap strengthening pseudo self till it becomes a rock solid entity.Sucn an entity would always be in a state of wanting.In a state of discontent.In a state of proving .In a state very susceptible to insult.In a state of living upto an image .In living a second hand life as Ayn Rand would put it to describe the charecter of Peter Keating against the protaganist Howard Roark.If on the contrary one is in a state of denying it again is not a choiceless existence as denying involves attempt.Moreover denying can lead to supression which is counterproductive and worse than ambition.Denying and becoming are two sides of the same coin.Pendulum swings between denying and becoming till the clock stops and it rests in the middle.Living and resting in middle ,a contradiction or an art?
Choiceless awarenesss is living and living with a flow.There is a direction and yet there is no compulsion.There is a destination and yet there is no fixed end by itself.It happens, so be it.It doesnot happen, so be it.Discontent doesnot have a room in such a state as whilst flowing there is no rigidity.There are no fixed milestones to achieve yet different goal post do pass by.
Somewhere there is a failure to understand that human mind is habit forming and addictive.Maybe thats how physiology works because mind needs brain as executer and maybe brain is subject to physical law of neurotransmitters.Maybe neuroscience can explain but a layman is not suppose to undestand it but maybe he has an opportunity to intutively realise it if he is attentive.Thus there is a constant possibility of falling in the trap of becoming or rather it is self feeding loop . Maybe thats why J.krishnamurti says that there is no gradual process.It is immediate because process involves time and is subject to self feedinf loop of achieveing and only way out is quantum leap out if the orbit.Now or never.
MIND
Neither Co-operate with it.
Nor confront against it
Observe mind
Watch it by being simply aware
Slowly it is subjugated
Lead your life thru unmotivated energy i.e. Action
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