Zen and the Brain: Toward an Understanding of Meditation and Consciousness PDF
Preview Zen and the Brain: Toward an Understanding of Meditation and Consciousness
Chapters Containing Testable Hypotheses 38 AcetylcholineSystems 164 47 TheBrain’sOwnOpioids 213 51 TheMouseinVictoryandDefeat 230 58 RipplesinLargerSystems:LayingDownandRetrievingMemories 259 71 DesynchronizedSleep 316 80 PainandtheReliefofPain 352 82 BridgingtheTwoHemispheres 358 86 BrightLightsandBlankVision 377 89 TheInsandOutsofImagery 388 98 TheFleeting“Truths”ofNitrousOxide 407 100 HowDoPsychedelicandCertainOtherDrugsAffecttheBrain? 418 104 Near-DeathExperiences;Far-DeathAttitudes 443 105 Triggers 452 113 TheHallucinatedLeaf 482 117 TheSoundofSilence 499 120 MotorandOtherResiduesofInternalAbsorption 508 121 TheWhenandWhereofTime 510 124 DimensionsofMeaning 521 140 PreludeswithPotential:DarkNightsandDepressions 584 142 ReflectionsonKensho,PersonalandNeurological 593 152 EtchingInandOut 653 155 ExpressingZeninAction 668 List of Figures Figure1 Theordinaryself/otherworldoftheI-Me-Mine 46 Figure2 Theleftcerebralhemisphere 150 Figure3 Therightcerebralhemisphere,viewedfromtheinnersurface 151 Figure4 Asimplifieddiagramofaprototypenervecell 153 Figure5 Majoracetylcholinesystems 165 Figure6 Ahippocampalcrossroadandthelimbiccircuitry 183 Figure7 Dopamineandserotoninsystems 198 Figure8 Dopamineandnorepinephrinemetabolism 200 Figure9 Norepinephrinesystems 202 Figure10 GlutamateandGABA 209 Figure11 Thethalamus 264 Figure12 APETscan,duringaperiodofrelaxedawareness (seecolorplate) 283 Figure13 Dailyvariationsinnormalhumanconsciousness 340 Figure14 Sleepcyclesontwosuccessivenights,beforeandafterLSD 422 Figure15 Theordinarymentalfield 476 Figure16 Thementalfieldofinternalabsorptionwithsensateloss (StateVI-B) 477 Figure17 Asequenceofeventsduringoneepisodeofinternalabsorption 507 Figure18 Theflashingreflectionsofkensho 594 Figure19 Thementalfieldofinsight-wisdom(kensho-satori,StateVII) 610 Figure20 Afieldofparadox:contrastingaspectsofZen 678 List of Tables Table1 TheTwoMajorZenSchools 10 Table2 ComparisonsbetweentheMysticalPathandSchizophrenic Reactions 31 Table3 PremiseswiththeI-Me-Mine 44 Table4 OpioidsandTheirReceptors 216 Table5 “First”and“Second”VisualSystems 241 Table6 SubsequentVisualFunctionStreams 245 Table7 DifferingPrefrontalLobeAttributes 254 Table8 ContrastsbetweenPreattentiveandWilledProcessing 278 Table9 OrdinaryandMeditativeStatesofConsciousness 300 Table10 ExtraordinaryAlternateStatesofConsciousness 302 Table11 AdvancedExtraordinaryAlternateStatesofConsciousness 303 Table12 SomeDifferencesbetweenSamadhi-Absorption,Dreams,and CertainOtherRelevantStates 326 Table13 DifferencesbetweenAugmentersandReducers 355 Table14 HallucinationsandDreamImageryduringSleepTransition States 382 Table15 TwoViewsofPsychedelicExperiences:Levels,Sequences, andMixtures 427 Table16 TypesofOrdinaryandExtraordinaryAwarenessofSpace 496 Table17 “Unities” 532 Table18 ContrastingTypesofVisualExperienceRelatedtoSpace 574 Table19 DifferencesbetweenHavingtheEyesOpenandtheEyesClosed 582 Table20 TheFlashingSequencesinKensho 596 Preface ...Idon’tknowwhatyoumeanwhenyousayBigMindandLittleMind.Firstofall thereisthebrain. J.Krishnamurti(1895–1986)1 Duringrare,spontaneousmoments,experiencesofveryspecialqualityandgreat importemergefromthedepthsofthehumanbrain.Toeachperson,theseawak- enings seem awesomely new. What they convey is not. It is the simplest, oldest wisdomintheworld.Themessageisthatultimatemeaningistobefoundinthis presentmoment,infusingoureverydaylives,hereandnow.Butonecan’tpredict such major peaks of enlightenment. Their insight-wisdom is next to impossible todescribe.Evenso,thesefragileeventsinspiredourmajorreligionsinwaysthat stillshapeourculturaldevelopment. Aldous Huxley called mankind’s basic trend toward spiritual growth the “perennial philosophy.” Herein, I take a different perspective. To me, the trend impliesadynamic,intimateperennialpsychophysiology.Itisaseriesofprocesses, slowlyevolving,thatculminateindefiningmomentsofanextraordinarycharac- ter.Whataresuch“peak”experiences?Howcouldtheybothprofoundlyenhance, yetsimplify,theworkingsofthebrain?Thisbooksummarizesthelatestevidence. This is also a story of one neurologist’s personal quest and professional search.Thesetwopathsconvergeinwaysthatleadtoonestraightforwardthesis: awakening,enlightenment,occursonlybecausethehumanbrainundergoessub- stantialchanges.Doespriormeditationhelpthebraintochangeinthisdirection? Ifso,how?Thissubjectisexploredthroughoutthebook. Isittabootodiscussreligioninaneurologicalcontext?Itwasn’ttoWilliam James,almostacenturyago.Weforgetthatbackin1901–02,hehadalreadyjoined these two topics, using the title “Religion and Neurology” for the first of his twenty Edinburgh lectures.2 Since then, knowledge has exploded within the neurosciences. NeuroscientistshavereceivedmostoftheNobelprizesinthefieldsofmedi- cineandphysiologyduringthepastquarter-century.EventheUnitedStatesCon- gress,inaninspiredmoment,votedtocallthelasttenyearsofthiscentury“The DecadeoftheBrain.”3Ihopethereaderfeelsatleastequallyinspired,andready totakeupthechallengeoflearninghowyourownbrainfunctions. I know this will not be easy, and I ask your forbearance. Our educational “system”hasnotyetreallypreparedusforsuchatask.Andtheblizzardofnew researchdata,pilingupeachday,alsomakesitaformidablejobforanywriterto condense the information and to make sense of it. I take on two final sets of responsibilities. The first is to summarize the often-murky topic of Zen in order tomakeclearhowvitalareitsinterrelationshipswiththebrain.Thesecondisto express my personal views as one recent witness to Zen experience, while still preserving all those basic truths long held sacred no less to religion than to sci- ence.Insodoing, itbecameclearthatsomechaptersrequired theformofaper- sonal narrative. Most other chapters could be expressed in the form of essays. Don’t be surprised when you encounter topics, some personal, others scientific, setnexttoeachotherinunconventionalways. Itmayseemsmallcomforttohearthisinadvance,butthechapters’uneven textures also serve an illustrative function. Indeed, it has long been recognized that Zen itself displays a most uneven juxtaposition of forms.4 These jostle our biases, keep us intellectually off balance, and postpone any premature, comfort- ableequipoise.Graduallyourunderstandingripens.Onlyslowlydoourattitudes shift.Meanwhile,ifweeverthinkwehaveZeninourgrasp,wearesurelyinerror. InpartI,weconsiderwhattheelusivesubjectmatterofZenis,andwhatit is not. PartII examines meditation from the standpointof its basic physiological mechanisms, not its epiphenomena. Respiration, yes. But perspiration, blood pressure,andsuperficialbrainwaves,no.Thesearenotwherethisbookiscoming from. The next section, part III, summarizes the latest relevant developments in brainresearch.InpartIV,wemoveontodefineboththeusualstatesofconscious- nessand theiralternative expressions.This groundworkserves asthe preludeto partsVthroughVII.Herewepresentspecificexamplesofseveralalternatestates of consciousness. Moreover, we then break new ground to consider how, where, and when they arise in the depths of the human brain. Finally, part VIII goes beyondtransitory“experiences.”Here,weclarifyboththenatureoftheadvanced stageofongoingenlightenmentanditssocialconsequences.Chaptersthatcontain testablehypothesesarelistedonp.xvi. Allalong,theapproachissecular.Noreaderneedfearbeingbrainwashed. Zen enters not through words but through experience. Nor, I hope, will any ex- pect an easy prescription for instant enlightenment. No pat answers are to be found here, no shortcuts. Shortcuts and one-dimensional approaches have al- ready given us too many wishful, incoherent pictures of meditation, conscious- ness, and of enlightened states. But this situation has not relieved me from the responsibility of oversimplifying the subject. To this end, you are invited to use theglossary,figures,andtables,plusthreequestion-and-answersummaries.Still, Iinvitethereader’scaution:nothingaboutthebrain,orZen,iseverassimpleas thisbookmightsuggest.Whatseemsplausibletodaymaybeincorrectforreasons otherthanmyerrorsofcommission,omission,andinterpretation.Importantfacts aren’tyetknown. xx Preface Acknowledgments Much of this book evolved over three separate sabbatical years. Thanks to the arrangements most kindly made by Professor Shuji Takaori, I was fortunate to spend eight months of the first formative period, 1974–75, in the Department of PharmacologyatKyotoUniversitySchoolofMedicine.InKyoto,mycrucialcon- tactswith NanreiKobori-roshiatRyoko-in stimulatedmuchofthe formandthe contentofthisbook.TheotherhalfofthissabbaticalwasspentintheDepartment of Histology at the Karolinska Institutein Stockholm, again thanks to the efforts ofProfessorKjellFuxe. The second sabbatical period, 1981–82, was spent at the National Hospital, QueenSquare,London,andwaskindlyarrangedbyProfessorRogerGilliatt.My frequent contacts with Myokyo-ni (Irmgard Schloegl) at the Zen Center in Lon- don,boththenandsubsequently,provedinvaluable. Thethirdyear,1988–89,wasalsodivided.Thefirstportionwasspentatthe ResearchInstituteforBrainandBloodVesselsinAkita,Japan.Here,thefacilities were kindly placed at my disposal by Dr. Ken Nagata and Dean Takeshi Kutsu- zawa.ThesecondhalfwasspentattheNationalInstituteofNeurologyandPsy- chiatry in Kodaira, Japan, thanks to the kind efforts of Dr. Eijiro Satoyoshi. My participation in several of Joshu Sasaki-roshi’s long retreats at Bodhi Mandala in Jemez Springs, New Mexico, were most helpful, both before and after this year inJapan. Manyothershelpedbringthisbookintobeing.IamgratefulbothtoJudith Austin for her support and helpful editorial comments on the manuscript, and toFrankUrbanowskiforhisvisionofacompletedbook.Dr.KionobuKatouand Mrs. Ikuyo Suzuki graciously offered to help with the translation of Kobori- roshi’scalligraphy. Special thanks also go to those secretaries who both deciphered and typed the manuscript through its several draft forms. Most of all to Marcia Conner, whose heroic efforts were invaluable. Also to Jeannine Coppage, Bella Dwyer, MaryHalliwell,VelmaParker,FranRandolph,KimSmith,andMelindaWasham. The simplified illustrations reflect the skill of Sara Gustafson. I am indebted to my teacher, Terayama Katsujo, for his gift of Zen-inspired brushwork: the ideo- gramforemptiness(mu),andtheensoevokingthemoonofenlightenment. I should also like to express my appreciation in general to all those who organizedtheannualWinterConferenceon BrainResearch.Theyenabledmeto learnaboutthebraininauniquemultidisciplinaryway. By Way of Introduction IshouldnottalksomuchaboutmyselfiftherewereanybodyelsewhomIknewso well. HenryThoreau(1817–62)1 This book began as a personal quest for information. I had come on sabbatical leavetoKyoto,Japan.AssoonasIengagedinZenmeditation,Ibecamepuzzled. Nothing in my previous medical or other training had prepared me for this en- counter.Myignorancewasabysmalinthreemajorareas:(1)Zen—Whatisit?(2) Thehumanbrain—Howdoesitactuallyfunction?(3)Meditationandenlightened states—What really goes on during these? Stimulated by these questions, I have gone on to try to answer some of them in this book, to make the conceptual frameworkalittleeasierforthenextpersononthepath. Weexpectscientiststobeimpersonalabouttheirdata.Butsupposewewish tomovetowardthatscientificgoalwhichWilliamJameshadpredicted.Toreach a“criticalscienceofreligions,”hesaid,thebasicmaterialmustcomefrom“facts ofpersonalexperience.”2Inmycasethiscouldonlymeanextractingentriesmade in my journal. You will be reading material that describes an unusual interior worldfromtheinside. Neuroscientistsinauniversitysetting,myselfincluded,tendtofeeluncom- fortableifinvitedtodisclosetheirownvarietiesofreligiousexperiences.Publicly toacknowledgethatonefollowsanEasternmysticaltraditionisawkwardatbest. Itisviewedas“toofarout,”afrankabandonmentofone’scriticalacademicfacul- ties.Isthistrue?Itisnolongerformealonetosay. Weexpectseriousscientistsrigorouslytochallengetheirbiasesandtoreject any belief system that does not fit their data. In fact, Zen students face a not dissimilar task. They, too, must be keen enough to diagnose, and strong enough to pull out by the roots, the dysfunctional aspects of their own egocentric self. Moreover, at the same time, Zen encourages them to keep their critical distance and to challenge whichever of its aspects do not fit. If, in the process, students happen to introduce some of their own observer biases, this is not a problem uniquetothestudyof“altered”states.3Eventhesubatomicphysicistintroduces uncertaintyintoeachprocessofobservation. No neurologist overtaken by a major alternate state of consciousness is a “nerve doctor” at that very instant. No self-referent ego is there. No special dis- crimination scans the moment, biased by its years of training. Analysis isn’t stunned. It simply isn’tthere for several seconds. Later, when the episode is over, a few persons might be able to drop such an experience. But what of others like myself,longimmersedintheneurosciences,whosecommitmenttoZenisnotso totalasthatofamonk?Asthereadermayhaveguessedbynow,someofusmight trytopuzzleoutsuchexperiences.Indeed,oneofmyteachersrecommendedthat I probe these intriguing experiences, using them as the focus for deeper ques- tioning.WhywasIsurprisedtohearthis?Afterall,manyZenstudentsincubate that other kind of riddle called a koan, and enter into a similar long-drawn-out processofconcentratedinquiry. So,inthisbook,thesubject—neurologist—andinvestigatorareoneandthe sameperson.Itisraretodaytofindthiskindofaclinicalautobiography.Ideally, inthefuture,whoeverwritessuchabookshouldbeafullyenlightenedJapanese master,fluentinEnglish;apersonwhohasbothadoctoratedegreeinneurophys- iology, hands-on experience in psychophysiological research, years of intercul- turalteachingexperience;andalsoaphysicianwhosetraininginbothneurology andpsychiatryhasbeendoublycertified. Herein,onestudentoftheWaybeginsthedauntingtaskofcoordinatingthe facts in these same fields, bringing to the task his background in neuroscience researchandapersistentcuriosity.Tofleshoutthepersonalnarrative,Iaddonly thosefewautobiographicaldetailsthatseemrelevant.4 IoweboththestimulusforthisworkandmuchofmyinspirationtoNanrei Kobori. Kobori-roshi was as open and as interested in learning about the brain as I was in trying to understand Zen. He afforded me a unique opportunity: to study Zen, in Kyoto, with an English-speaking Japanese master of exceptionally broad cultural interests. Unfortunately, such a special opportunity is now no longer readily available at most Zen temples in Japan. It is with his express per- mission that the substance of our Zen discussions is now open to a wider audi- ence.Thedialoguechapters,then,servetopreservesomethingoftheflavorofan authentic Japanese Rinzai Zen master. He was the product of a swiftly van- ishingpast. Suchfullyopendialogueisatrendofourtime.Itwasnotthestyleofprevi- ous generations. If the issue lingers of the proprieties of someone going public withprivateexperience,thenit,too,wasalreadyaddressedinthelastcenturyby thatpioneerAmericanpragmatist,CharlesPeirce,whenhesaid:“Whatisutility, ifitisconfinedtoasingleaccidentalperson?Truthispublic.”5 xxiv ByWayofIntroduction
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