CONSCIOUSNESS REDUX: THE BRAIN OF BUDDHA

“An encounter with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the scientific study of meditation”

By: Christof Koch

Published: Scientific American Mind, July – August 2013; http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=neuroscientists-dalai-lama-swap-insights-meditation

Alternatively, copy paste the following to access a free copy:
http://www.nature.com/scientificamericanmind/journal/v24/n3/full/scientificamericanmind0713-28.html
Level of Difficulty:****

BEFORE YOU READ

·         Have you ever meditated or thought about meditating?

·         What are the advantages of meditating?

·         Do you believe that meditation has long term effects? Can it be used for treatment purposes?

QUESTIONS

1.       Read the first two paragraphs of the text. The major difference between the eastern and the western mode of thinking is that the former does not involve ……………………………………………..

2.       The ultimate aim of the eastern mode of thinking is to attain …………………………………………

3.       What is the ultimate aim of those practicing meditation?

4.       What does “such techniques” in the phrase “to familiarize our future doctors, soldiers, engineers, scientists, accountants and politicians with such techniques” refer to?

5.       Our addiction to external stimuli is fueled by our inherent characteristics; in other words ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

6.       External stimuli have the advantage of eliminating the need to ……………………………………….

7.       What amazing discovery did the writer make concerning the monks: they appeared to have achieved everything we’ve always desired despite …………………………………………………………..

8.       Read the story of the Buddhist monk Quang Duc to the end. What conclusion can we draw from this example?

·         Complete mind control is possible

·         Mind control enables calm deliberate heroic acts

·         Sitting in the meditative lotus position enables mind control

·         All of the above

·         None of the above

·         Other: please specify

9.       Read the experiment conducted by Fadel Zeidan, Robert C. Coghill and their colleagues to the end. What amazing effect did shamatha have on the subjects?

10.   How exactly did shamatha reduce pain for the subjects?

11.   Brain activity in specific parts of the brain proved that two important aspects of pain, …………………….. and ………………………. were reduced as a result of meditation.

12.   What does “their” refer to in the phrase “their footprints in the brain”?

13.   The purpose of Richard J. Davidson’s study was to try and see if …………………………….

14.   Could the instruments of science pick up signs of the activities that steer the mind or not? How do you know?

15.   What long term effect does a habit of meditation have on the brain?

16.   Read the conclusion to the text and think back to the quotation at the beginning. Who has the knowledge and the wisdom?

WRITING TASK

Do some more research, make notes and write an essay discussing the advantages of meditation.

THE BRAIN OF BUDDHA KEY AND TEACHER’S NOTES

This is another brilliant text with a definite wow factor out of Scientific American Mind; a magazine I can’t or want to get away from for advanced level reading material. Discussing the content of the text should be interesting considering the new generation is so firmly hooked on external stimuli.

1.       A third person

2.       Enlightenment

3.       Achieve control over the mind

4.       To enable the developing or (this is a typo in the actual text; it should be of)the mature mind to become quiet and to focus its considerable powers on a single object, event or train of thought; OR Daily contemplative exercises

5.       The mental clutter, the chatter that makes up our daily lives

6.       Think

7.       Their life of poverty and being deprived of most of the things we believe are necessary to live fully realized life

8.       The first

9.       It reduced the unpleasantness of the pain by a whopping 57% and its intensity by 40%

10.   By promoting a sense of detachment and reducing the subjectively experienced saliency of the heated metal plate.

11.   The intensity, the unpleasantness

12.   These skills to steer the mind

13.   Our instruments are always sufficiently sensitive to pick up the footprints of the skills that steer the mind

14.   Yes; there was an increase in high frequency EEG electrical activity in the so called gamma band.

15.   It changed the exterior aspect of the mind.

16.   The scientists and the monks both have different aspects of the knowledge but only the monks have the wisdom.