Scientific papers & book recommendations

Gregor, modified 3 Years ago at 5/16/20 5:20 AM
Created 3 Years ago at 5/16/20 5:20 AM

Scientific papers & book recommendations

Posts: 75 Join Date: 1/12/20 Recent Posts
Hey dear friends, 

I'm currently looking for science on Non-Self, I'd appreciate if anyone could provide some valid and scientific papers on this topic. I am also curios if there are any manuals on the 8 fold path, besides the descriptions of Wikipedia or Dharma websites. 
Since I am not able to sit for long my practice is mainly off cushion and consist of practicing non-attachment, I currently have way too much time and I found it rough, unfortunately my mind isn't yet on the level of just staring randomly at a wall and be happy about it (from time to time it happens tho). 
This is a bit off topic but has anyone experience with the Mahamudra instructions of Regginald Ray? I recently spoke to Antero and he recommended me the pointing out instructions of Regginald Ray but I'm a bit hesitant to pay 200$ for audio files.


Thanks guy's! 
Brian, modified 3 Years ago at 5/16/20 6:23 AM
Created 3 Years ago at 5/16/20 6:23 AM

RE: Scientific papers & book recommendations

Posts: 110 Join Date: 1/21/19 Recent Posts
This place might be helpful. https://nondualityinstitute.org/
Gregor, modified 3 Years ago at 5/16/20 6:32 AM
Created 3 Years ago at 5/16/20 6:32 AM

RE: Scientific papers & book recommendations

Posts: 75 Join Date: 1/12/20 Recent Posts
Brian:
This place might be helpful. https://nondualityinstitute.org/


Wow, that is great, thanks for sharing! 
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Jim Smith, modified 3 Years ago at 5/16/20 8:42 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 5/16/20 8:41 PM

RE: Scientific papers & book recommendations

Posts: 1639 Join Date: 1/17/15 Recent Posts
This is a student paper but has references
https://web.archive.org/web/20150426202226/https://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro01/web3/Farrenkopf.html
The "peak" of meditation is clearly a subjective state, with each individual attaining it in different manners and having different time requirements. However, the sensation and meaning behind this moment is consistent among all who reach it. At the peak, the subjects indicate that they lose their sense of individual existence and feel inextricably bound with the universe. "There no discrete objects or beings, no sense of space or the passage of time, no line between the self and the rest of the universe" (Newberg 119).
...
The subjects then meditated. When they reached the peak, they pulled on a string attached at one end to their finger and at the other to Dr. Newberg.2 This was the cue for Newberg to inject the radioactive tracer into the IV connected to the subject. Because the tracer almost instantly "locks" onto parts of the brain to indicate their activity levels, the SPECT gives a picture of the brain essentially at that peak moment (Newberg 3). The results revealed a marked decrease in the activity of the posterior, superior parietal lobe and a marked increase in the activity of the prefrontal cortex, predominantly on the right side of the brain (Newberg 6). Such changes in activity levels demonstrated that something was going on in the brain in terms of spiritual experience. The next step was to look at what these particular parts of the brain do. Studies of damage suffered to a region of the brain have enabled us to draw conclusions about its role by observing loss of function.

It has been concluded that the posterior, superior parietal lobe is involved in both the creation of a three-dimensional sense of self and an individual's ability to navigate through physical space (Journal 216). The region of the lobe in the left hemisphere of the brain allows for a person to conceive of the physical boundaries of his body (Newberg 28). It responds to proprioceptive stimuli, most importantly the movement of limbs. The region of the lobe in the right hemisphere creates the perception of the matrix through which we move.
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Jim Smith, modified 3 Years ago at 5/16/20 9:36 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 5/16/20 9:21 PM

RE: Scientific papers & book recommendations

Posts: 1639 Join Date: 1/17/15 Recent Posts
There are several different types of not-self / non-self / no-self / nondual experiences and I think each would have a different physiological correlate. I think that it is useful to recognize this if you are going to research the scientific studies on the subject.

One type of experience is when the distinction between observer and the observed disappears. When this happened to me I lost awareness of body after many hours of meditation and it seemed like all that existed was what I was looking at. Since I existed I must be the thing I was looking at. I think this is what the article I linked to in my previous reply was about.
https://sites.google.com/site/chs4o8pt/mystical_experiences#mystical_kensho

Another kind of experience happens after a meditation session when my mind is very quiet from meditating, the absence of mental chatter creates a feeling that something is missing, I feel a kind of emptiness, a hollowness where the "person" is missing. I call it "feeling like a doughnut". I am aware of my body but I don't feel like there is anyone in there.  It doesn't sound logical. I am not trying to be logical - I am trying to describe a feeling. Feelings are not necessarily logical.
https://ncu9nc.blogspot.com/2019/06/no-one-to-be-offended.html

Another kind of experience I've had comes when I observe the activity of the mind and see that thoughts, emotions, and impulses arise from the unconscious unasked for and uninvited. Everytime you are trying to keep the mind focused in meditation and you become distracted by an interrupting though, it is a reminder that you don't control your mind. It may see like the self is only pure awareness observing thoughts emotions and impulses. But then if you consider that the feeling of being an observer is just like any other thought, emotion, or impulse - you are left with nothing. Buddha said conciousness is like a magician's trick. I think this is what he was talking about. You can get a feeling of intentionally using your mind when you are trying to solve a problem, but where did the intention to solve the problem, to use your mind, come from? 
http://ncu9nc.blogspot.com/2019/09/coming-and-going.html

Here are a couple of other types:
http://ncu9nc.blogspot.com/2015/02/joy-during-meditation.html
"It also creates a kind of synesthesia where everything I see and hear I also feel in my body as if they are part of me. There is an effect like the brain is a virtual reality machine and what I see is really a movie inside my head projected on the unchanging screen of pure awareness, like my mind contains the whole universe including me walking around inside it. Other times I feel like my self and its boundaries are dissolving and I am expanding to merge into infinite space
...
You can learn to be so relaxed that you don't feel defensive. You don't feel the need to defend your boundaries. You feel like an interconnected part of everything and everyone. Like each part, including yourself, is (joint owner of?) the whole. This state is resistant to unpleasant emotions because it affects your feeling of identity. It changes your opinion of what is "me" and "mine". If you are everything, you are not any particular thing. There aren't things outside you that affect you. There just is what is. It feels like unconditional good will and compassion and the absence of self-importance."
Gregor, modified 3 Years ago at 5/17/20 1:52 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 5/17/20 1:52 PM

RE: Scientific papers & book recommendations

Posts: 75 Join Date: 1/12/20 Recent Posts
Jim Smith:
There are several different types of not-self / non-self / no-self / nondual experiences and I think each would have a different physiological correlate. I think that it is useful to recognize this if you are going to research the scientific studies on the subject.

One type of experience is when the distinction between observer and the observed disappears. When this happened to me I lost awareness of body after many hours of meditation and it seemed like all that existed was what I was looking at. Since I existed I must be the thing I was looking at. I think this is what the article I linked to in my previous reply was about.
https://sites.google.com/site/chs4o8pt/mystical_experiences#mystical_kensho

Another kind of experience happens after a meditation session when my mind is very quiet from meditating, the absence of mental chatter creates a feeling that something is missing, I feel a kind of emptiness, a hollowness where the "person" is missing. I call it "feeling like a doughnut". I am aware of my body but I don't feel like there is anyone in there.  It doesn't sound logical. I am not trying to be logical - I am trying to describe a feeling. Feelings are not necessarily logical.
https://ncu9nc.blogspot.com/2019/06/no-one-to-be-offended.html

Another kind of experience I've had comes when I observe the activity of the mind and see that thoughts, emotions, and impulses arise from the unconscious unasked for and uninvited. Everytime you are trying to keep the mind focused in meditation and you become distracted by an interrupting though, it is a reminder that you don't control your mind. It may see like the self is only pure awareness observing thoughts emotions and impulses. But then if you consider that the feeling of being an observer is just like any other thought, emotion, or impulse - you are left with nothing. Buddha said conciousness is like a magician's trick. I think this is what he was talking about. You can get a feeling of intentionally using your mind when you are trying to solve a problem, but where did the intention to solve the problem, to use your mind, come from? 
http://ncu9nc.blogspot.com/2019/09/coming-and-going.html

Here are a couple of other types:
http://ncu9nc.blogspot.com/2015/02/joy-during-meditation.html
"It also creates a kind of synesthesia where everything I see and hear I also feel in my body as if they are part of me. There is an effect like the brain is a virtual reality machine and what I see is really a movie inside my head projected on the unchanging screen of pure awareness, like my mind contains the whole universe including me walking around inside it. Other times I feel like my self and its boundaries are dissolving and I am expanding to merge into infinite space
...
You can learn to be so relaxed that you don't feel defensive. You don't feel the need to defend your boundaries. You feel like an interconnected part of everything and everyone. Like each part, including yourself, is (joint owner of?) the whole. This state is resistant to unpleasant emotions because it affects your feeling of identity. It changes your opinion of what is "me" and "mine". If you are everything, you are not any particular thing. There aren't things outside you that affect you. There just is what is. It feels like unconditional good will and compassion and the absence of self-importance."


Thank you so much for sharing, I apprecite it! I hadn't got time to look into it yet but I am sure it'll be useful! 
A Dietrich Ringle, modified 3 Years ago at 5/17/20 7:20 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 5/17/20 7:20 PM

RE: Scientific papers & book recommendations

Posts: 881 Join Date: 12/4/11 Recent Posts
I have been reading a book by D.T. Suzuki that is really deep analysis of Meister Eckhart's teaching on knowing God and how it correlates with the Zen teaching of Anata . It is called Mysticism: Christian and Buddhist.
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Jim Smith, modified 3 Years ago at 5/18/20 3:29 AM
Created 3 Years ago at 5/18/20 3:23 AM

RE: Scientific papers & book recommendations

Posts: 1639 Join Date: 1/17/15 Recent Posts
Gregor:


Thank you so much for sharing, I apprecite it! I hadn't got time to look into it yet but I am sure it'll be useful! 

You might also find this interesting, it describes nondual experiences/beliefs in many different cultures: Christian, Sufi, Native American, Jewish, Spiritualist, an atheist, etc.

http://ncu9nc.blogspot.com/2015/03/realizing-ultimate.html

Some people might point out that nonduality is not the same as no-self, since nonduality can recognize unity as a self. Another way of looking at it is that if you experience unity then your ordinary self is not the correct understanding of self. If your interest in non-self is because you are interested in understanding how the ordinary mundane self might not be the only way of experiencing reality, then nonduality may also be of interest. If you are interested in the scientific analysis of non-self, then I am guessing that is the situation.
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Jim Smith, modified 3 Years ago at 5/24/20 8:05 AM
Created 3 Years ago at 5/24/20 12:49 AM

RE: Scientific papers & book recommendations

Posts: 1639 Join Date: 1/17/15 Recent Posts
Jim Smith:
There are several different types of not-self / non-self / no-self / nondual experiences and I think each would have a different physiological correlate. I think that it is useful to recognize this if you are going to research the scientific studies on the subject.

One type of experience is when the distinction between observer and the observed disappears. When this happened to me I lost awareness of body after many hours of meditation and it seemed like all that existed was what I was looking at. Since I existed I must be the thing I was looking at. I think this is what the article I linked to in my previous reply was about.
https://sites.google.com/site/chs4o8pt/mystical_experiences#mystical_kensho

Another kind of experience happens after a meditation session when my mind is very quiet from meditating, the absence of mental chatter creates a feeling that something is missing, I feel a kind of emptiness, a hollowness where the "person" is missing. I call it "feeling like a doughnut". I am aware of my body but I don't feel like there is anyone in there.  It doesn't sound logical. I am not trying to be logical - I am trying to describe a feeling. Feelings are not necessarily logical.
https://ncu9nc.blogspot.com/2019/06/no-one-to-be-offended.html

Another kind of experience I've had comes when I observe the activity of the mind and see that thoughts, emotions, and impulses arise from the unconscious unasked for and uninvited. Everytime you are trying to keep the mind focused in meditation and you become distracted by an interrupting though, it is a reminder that you don't control your mind. It may see like the self is only pure awareness observing thoughts emotions and impulses. But then if you consider that the feeling of being an observer is just like any other thought, emotion, or impulse - you are left with nothing. Buddha said conciousness is like a magician's trick. I think this is what he was talking about. You can get a feeling of intentionally using your mind when you are trying to solve a problem, but where did the intention to solve the problem, to use your mind, come from? 
http://ncu9nc.blogspot.com/2019/09/coming-and-going.html

Here are a couple of other types:
http://ncu9nc.blogspot.com/2015/02/joy-during-meditation.html
"It also creates a kind of synesthesia where everything I see and hear I also feel in my body as if they are part of me. There is an effect like the brain is a virtual reality machine and what I see is really a movie inside my head projected on the unchanging screen of pure awareness, like my mind contains the whole universe including me walking around inside it. Other times I feel like my self and its boundaries are dissolving and I am expanding to merge into infinite space
...
You can learn to be so relaxed that you don't feel defensive. You don't feel the need to defend your boundaries. You feel like an interconnected part of everything and everyone. Like each part, including yourself, is (joint owner of?) the whole. This state is resistant to unpleasant emotions because it affects your feeling of identity. It changes your opinion of what is "me" and "mine". If you are everything, you are not any particular thing. There aren't things outside you that affect you. There just is what is. It feels like unconditional good will and compassion and the absence of self-importance."

Here's another:


If you just sit and notice your perceptions, what you see, hear, smell around you, what you feel inside your body, the activity of your mind - thoughts, emotions and impulses, you might be puzzled about what exactly you should pay attention to. Should you check type of perception in order? Should you just sit and watch your mind and see what happens? If you just watch, who is it that is deciding what you notice? This puzzle is significant because it shows that despite popular belief, there is not an obvious continuous stream of consciousness or a controlling consciousness. Whatever you do, you will notice that consciousness is really just a series of distinct moments of awareness. There is nothing that is continuous from perception to perception. There is no continuous self in it. There is awareness of this perception, then that perception, then another perception etc. There isn't a self in it.  Again this isn't meant to be a logical explanation that  might be true or false - it is a description of a feeling that some people have. It is not meant to help you understand or believe something, it is meant to help you feel something or recognize what you might feel.

Observing experience in this way can help diminish suffering because if you are experiencing something unpleasant, by spreading your awareness around different external and internal sensations and mental activity you spend only a small fraction of the time aware of the unpleasantness.

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