Zen-brain horizons : toward a living zen

301 Pages·2014·1.62 MB·English

by  Austin

Zen-Brain Horizons
The MIT Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
Zen-Brain Horizons
Toward a Living Zen
James H. Austin, M.D.
Also by James H. Austin
Meditating Selfl essly (2011)
Selfl ess Insight (2009)
Zen-Brain Refl ections (2006)
Chase, Chance, and Creativity (2003)
Zen and the Brain (1998)
© 2014 Massachusett s Institute of Technology
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Austin, James H., 1925 author.
Zen-brain horizons : toward a living zen / James H. Austin, M.D.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-262-02756-4 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Zen Buddhism. 2.
Brain — Religious aspects. 3. Cognitive neuroscience. I. Title.
BQ9288.A966 2014
294.3'927019 — dc23
2013046636

10   9   8   7   6   5   4   3   2   1

To my early teachers Nanrei Kobori-Roshi, Myokyo-ni,
and Robert Aitken-Roshi for their inspiration; and to all
those whose countless contributions to Zen, to Buddhism,
and to the brain sciences are reviewed in these pages.
Where the brain is abnormally moist, of necessity it moves.
And when it moves neither sight nor hearing are still. Instead,
fi rst we hear one thing and now another, and the tongue
speaks incessantly in accord with the things seen and heard.
But when the brain is still, one can think properly.
Hippocrates (ca. 460 – 377 B.C.E.)
Contents
List of Illustrations xi
Preface xiii
Acknowledgments xvii
By Way of a Personal Introduction xix
Part I Looking Far Back into the Distant Past
1   Two Old Men Consult the Buddha 3
2   Neuropsychological Aspects of the
Attentive Self 12
3   Neural Correlations of Meditating
Selflessly 22
4   Buddhist Botany 101 33
Part II Looking Back into Earlier Centuries of the
Common Era
5   A Glimpse of “ Just This ” in Tang
Dynasty China (618 – 907) 51
6   Avian Zen 52
7   Homage to William James 65
Part III Sampling Recent Reports
8   Recent Clinical Information 73
9   Mindfulness Starts as Present-Moment
Awareness 75