Beyond the Self Conversations between Buddhism and Neuroscience Matthieu Ricard and Wolf Singer The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England © 2017 Allary Editions Published by special arrangement with Allary Editions in conjunction with their duly appointed agent Seas Literary Agency All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher This book was set in Scala by Toppan Best-set Premedia Limited Printed and bound in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Ricard, Matthieu, author Title: Beyond the self : conversations between Buddhism and neuroscience / Matthieu Ricard and Wolf Singer Other titles: Cerveau & méditation English Description: Cambridge, MA : MIT Press, 2017 | Includes bibliographical references and index Identifiers: LCCN 2017010026 | ISBN 9780262036948 (hardcover : alk paper) eISBN 9780262343015 Subjects: LCSH: Neurosciences Religious aspects Buddhism | Buddhism Psychology Classification: LCC BQ4570.N48 R5313 2017 | DDC 294.3/3153 dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017010026 ePub Version 1.0 Table of Contents Title page Copyright page Preface 1 Meditation and the Brain 2 Dealing with Subconscious Processes and Emotions 3 How Do We Know What We Know? 4 Investigating the Self 5 Free Will, Responsibility, and Justice 6 The Nature of Consciousness A Concluding Note of Gratitude Index Preface It all started in London in 2005, when we first discussed the theme of consciousness That same year we saw each other in Washington, DC, to talk about the neuronal basis of meditation at a meeting organized by the Mind and Life Institute.1 For eight years, we took every chance we could to continue our exchanges all over the world, twice in Nepal, in the rainforests of Thailand, and with His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India.2 This book is the result of this extended conversation, nourished by friendship and our shared interests The dialogue between Western science and Buddhism stands out from the often difficult debate between science and religion It is true that Buddhism is not a religion in the sense we usually understand in the West It is not based on the notion of a creator and therefore does not require an act of faith Buddhism could be defined as a “science of the mind” and a path of transformation that leads from confusion to wisdom, from suffering to freedom It shares with the sciences the ability to examine the mind empirically This is what makes the dialogue between a Buddhist monk and a neuroscientist possible and fruitful: a broad range of questions can be broached, from quantum physics to ethical matters We have attempted to compare the Western and Eastern perspectives, the different theories concerning the constitution of the self and the nature of consciousness as seen by the scientific and contemplative points of view Until recently, most Western philosophies have been built around the separation of mind and matter Scientific theories that are today attempting to explain how the brain works bear the mark of this dualism Buddhism, meanwhile, has proposed a nondualistic approach to reality from the start The cognitive sciences see consciousness as being inscribed in the body, society, and culture Hundreds of books and articles have been dedicated to theories of knowledge, meditation, the idea of the self, emotions, the existence of free will, and the nature of consciousness Our aim here is not to make an inventory of the many points of view that exist on these subjects Rather, our objective is to confront two perspectives anchored in rich traditions: the contemplative Buddhist practice, and epistemology and research in neuroscience We were able to bring together our experiences and skills to try and answer the following questions: Are the various states of consciousness arrived at through meditation and training the mind linked to neuronal processes? If so, in what way does the correlation operate? This dialogue is only a modest contribution to an immense field confronting the points of view and knowledge about the brain and consciousness of scientists and people who meditate—in other words, the meeting between first- and third-person knowledge The lines that follow take this path, and we feel humility in front of the size of the task We sometimes allow ourselves to be swept away by the themes close to our hearts, which translate in certain places into changes in direction or repetitions We made the choice to retain the authenticity of the dialogue because it is rare and productive to develop an exchange over such a long period We would nevertheless like to apologize to our readers for what may seem like an oversight This dialogue allowed us to make progress in our mutual understanding of the themes we addressed By inviting our readers to join us, we hope they too will benefit from our years of work and investigation into the fundamental aspects of human life Notes The Mind and Life Institute was founded in 1987, the result of a meeting of three visionary minds: His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso; Adam Engle, lawyer and entrepreneur; and the neuroscientist, Francisco Varela The objective of the Mind and Life Institute is to encourage interdisciplinary dialogue among Western science, the human sciences, and contemplative traditions It aims to support and integrate the first-person perspective, arising from the experience of meditation and other contemplative practices, into traditional scientific methodology This objective’s determining influence is seen in several books: Train Your Mind—Transform Your Brain by Sharon Begley, Destructive Emotions: How Can We Overcome Them? by Daniel Goleman, and The Dalai Lama at MIT by Anne Harrington and Arthur Zajonc These conversations were held in September 2007 in Frankfurt, in December 2007 and February 2014 in Nepal, in November 2010 in Thailand, and on a few other occasions in Hamburg and Paris 1 Meditation and the Brain A Science of Mind Our capacity to learn is far superior to that of other animals Can we, with training, develop our mental skills, as we for our physical skills? Can training the mind make us more attentive, altruistic, and serene? These questions have been explored for 20 years by neuroscientists and psychologists who collaborate with people who meditate Can we learn to manage our disturbing emotions in an optimal way? What are the functional and structural transformations that occur in the brain due to different types of meditation? How much time is needed to observe transformations like this in people new to meditation? Matthieu: Although one finds in the Buddhist literature many treatises on “traditional sciences”— medicine, cosmology, botanic, logic, and so on—Tibetan Buddhism has not endeavored to the same extent as Western civilizations to expand its knowledge of the world through the natural sciences Rather it has pursued an exhaustive investigation of the mind for 2,500 years and has accumulated, in an empirical way, a wealth of experiential findings over the centuries A great number of people have dedicated their whole lives to this contemplative science Modern Western psychology began with William James just over a century ago I can’t help remembering the remark made by Stephen Kosslyn, then chair of the psychology department at Harvard, at the Mind and Life meeting on “Investigating the Mind,” which took place at MIT in 2003 He started his presentation by saying, “I want to begin with a declaration of humility in the face of the sheer amount of data that the contemplatives are bringing to modern psychology.” It does not suffice to ponder how the human psyche works and elaborate complex theories about it, as, for instance, Freud did Such intellectual constructs cannot replace two millennia of direct investigation of the workings of mind through penetrating introspection conducted with trained minds that have become both stable and clear Any sophisticated theory that came out of a brilliant mind but does not rest on empirical evidence cannot be compared with the cumulated experience of hundreds of people who have each a good part of their lives fathomed the subtlest aspects of mind through direct experience Using empirical approaches undertaken with the right instrument of a welltrained mind, these contemplatives have found efficient ways to achieve a gradual transformation of emotions, moods, and traits, and to erode even the most entrenched tendencies that are detrimental to an optimal way of being Such achievements can change the quality of every moment of our lives through enhancing fundamental human characteristics such as lovingkindness, inner freedom, inner peace, and inner strength Wolf: Can you be more specific with this rather bold claim? Why should what nature gave us be fundamentally negative, requiring special mental practice for its elimination, and why should this approach be superior to conventional education or, if conflicts arise, to psychotherapy in its various forms, including psychoanalysis? Matthieu: What nature gave us is by no means entirely negative; it is just a baseline Most of our innate capacities remain dormant unless we something, through training, for instance, to bring them to an optimal, functional point We all know that our mind can be our best friend or our worst enemy The mind that nature gave us does have the potential for immense goodness, but it also creates a lot of unnecessary suffering for ourselves and others If we take an honest look at ourselves, then we must acknowledge that we are a mixture of light and shadow, of good qualities and defects Is this the best we can be? Is that an optimal way of being? These questions are worth asking, particularly if we consider that some kind of change is both desirable and possible Few people would honestly argue that there is nothing worth improving about the way they live and the way they experience the world Some people regard their own particular weaknesses and conflicting emotions as a valuable and distinct part of their “personality,” as something that contributes to the fullness of their lives They believe that this is what makes them unique and argue that they should accept themselves as they are But isn’t this an easy way to giving up on the idea of improving the quality of their lives, which would cost only some reasoning and effort? Our mind is often filled with troubles We spend a great deal of time consumed by painful thoughts, anxiety, or anger We often wish we could manage our emotions to the point where we could be free of the mental states that disturb and obscure the mind It is easier indeed, in our confusion about how to achieve this kind of mastery, to adopt the view that this is all “normal,” that this is “human nature.” Everything found in nature is “natural,” but that does not necessarily make it desirable Disease, for example, comes to everybody and is perfectly natural, but does this prevent us from trying to cure it? Nobody wakes up in the morning and thinks, “I wish I could suffer for the whole day and, if possible, for my whole life.” Whatever we are occupied with, we always hope we will get some benefit or satisfaction out of it, either for ourselves or others, or at least a reduction of our suffering If we thought nothing would come of our activities but misery, we wouldn’t anything at all, and we would fall into despair We don’t find anything strange about spending years learning to walk, read and write, or acquire professional skills We spend hours doing physical exercises to get our bodies into shape Sometimes we expend tremendous physical energy pedaling a stationary bike that goes nowhere To sustain such tasks requires at least some interest or enthusiasm This interest comes from believing that these efforts are going to benefit us in the long run Working with the mind follows the same logic How could it be subject to change without any effort, just from wishing alone? We cannot learn to ski by practicing a few minutes once a year We spend a lot of effort improving the external conditions of our lives, but in the end it is always the mind that creates our experience of the world and translates this experience into either well-being or suffering If we transform our way of perceiving things, then we transform the quality of our lives This kind of transformation is brought about by the form of mind training known as meditation We significantly underestimate our capacity for change Our character traits remain the same as long as we nothing to change them and as long as we continue to tolerate and reinforce our habits and patterns, thought after thought The truth is that the state that we call “normal” is just a starting point and not the goal we should set for ourselves Our life is worth much more than that It is possible, little by little, to arrive at an optimal way of being Nature also gave us the possibility to understand our potential for change, no matter who we are now and what we have done This notion is a powerful source of inspiration for engaging in a process of inner transformation You may not succeed easily, but at least be encouraged by such an idea; you can put all your energy into such a transformation, which is already in itself a healing process Modern conventional education does not focus on transforming the mind and cultivating basic human qualities such as lovingkindness and mindfulness As we will see later, Buddhist contemplative science has many things in common with cognitive therapies, in particular with those using mindfulness as a foundation for remedying mental imbalance As for psychoanalysis, it seems to encourage rumination and explore endlessly the details and intricacies of the clouds of mental confusion and selfcenteredness that mask the most fundamental aspect of mind: luminous awareness Wolf: So rumination would be the opposite of what you during meditation? Matthieu: Totally opposite It is also well known that constant rumination is one of the main symptoms of depression Wolf: It is encouraging for our dialogue to have contrasting views on strategies to cure the mind I suspect that the practice of meditation is often misunderstood I have had little practice with it, but I learned to see what it is not: it is not an attempt to confront oneself with unresolved problems to search for their causes and eliminate them It appears to be quite the contrary Matthieu: When one looks at the process of rumination, it is easy to see what a troublemaker it is What we need is to gain freedom from the mental chain reactions that rumination endlessly perpetuates One should learn to let thoughts arise and be freed to go as soon as they arise, instead of letting them invade one’s mind In the freshness of the present moment, the past is gone, the future is not yet born, and if one remains in pure mindfulness and freedom, potentially disturbing thoughts arise and go without leaving a trace Wolf: You have said in one of your books that every human being possesses in his mind a “nugget of gold,” a kernel of purity and positive qualities that is, however, concealed and overshadowed by a host of negative traits and emotions that deform his perceptions and are the major cause of suffering To me, this sounds like an overly optimistic and untested hypothesis It sounds like Rousseau’s dreams and seems to be contradicted by cases like that of the feral child Kaspar Hauser We are what evolution imprinted by genes and culture via education, moral norms, and social conventions What then is the “golden nugget”? Matthieu: A piece of gold that remains deeply buried in its ore, in a rock, or in the mud The gold does not lose its intrinsic purity, but its value is not actualized Likewise, to be fully expressed, our human potential needs to meet with suitable conditions Awareness and Mental Constructs Matthieu: The idea of an unspoiled basic nature of consciousness is not a naïve assessment of human nature It is based on reasoning and introspective experience If we consider thoughts, emotions, feelings, and any other mental events, they all have a common denominator, which is the capacity of knowing In Buddhism, this basic quality of consciousness is called the fundamental luminous nature of mind It is luminous in the sense that it throws light on the outer world through our perceptions and on our inner world through our feelings, thoughts, memories of the past, anticipation of the future, and awareness of the present moment It is luminous in contrast to an inanimate object, which is completely dark in terms of cognition Let’s use this image of light If you have a torch and you light up a beautiful smiling face or an angry face, a mountain of jewels or a heap of garbage, then the light does not become kind or angry, valuable or dirty Another image is that of a mirror What makes a mirror special is that it can reflect all kinds of images, but none of them belongs to, penetrates, or stays in the mirror If they did, then all these images would superimpose, and the mirror would become useless Likewise, the basic quality of the mind allows all mental constructs—love and anger, joy and jealousy, pleasure and pain—to arise but is not altered by them Mental events not belong intrinsically to the most fundamental aspect of consciousness They simply occur within the space of awareness, of various levels of, 223 pure, 6–8, 126, 127, 213, 214, 225–230, 234, 235, 243, 246 self-illuminating, 223 Balance, emotional, 17 Ballotta, Adrianna, 191, 192 Bare awareness, 37 Basal ganglia, 41 Basic cognition, Beck, Aaron, 87 Behavior, future, 172, 173 Being No One (Metzinger), 145 Bender, Professor, 252, 253 Benevolence, 30 Bhavana, 30 Binocular rivalry, 27, 28 Biofeedback, 57–60 Bitbol, Michel, 164, 237, 238 Bodhisattva, 53, 54, 68, 69, 84 Boyd, Robert, 98 Brain architecture of, 162–164, 167–173, 187, 231, 236, 260 coherence and, 50–56 development of, 15, 31 lack of center of command in, 156–158 plasticity of, 14, 178, 229, 235 Brefczynski, Julie, 21 Burnout, 50 Bystander effect, 71 Cartesian center, 156 Cartesian dualism, 220, 239 Causality, interdependence and, 114–117 Cerebellum, 41 Cerebral cortex, 31 Chalmers, David, 232, 237–239 Change capacity for, gradual and lasting, 11–13 neuronal, 15–17 potential for, 190, 191 rehabilitation and, 191–195 responsibility for, 177–182 Change blindness, 75 Childhood amnesia, 97 Children, teaching of, 23, 24 Choice, range of, 182–185 Cingulate cortex, 50 Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, 191, 192 Cognitive and behavioral therapy, 4, 78, 87, 154 Cognitive control, 25–32 Cognitive delusion, 104–110 Cohen, Jonathan, 250 Cohen, M A., 239 Coherence, 180, 228, 229, 240–242 Coincidences, 250, 251 Collective experience, 131 Compassion, 20, 39, 48–56, 63–68, 85, 194–196, 229 Compassion fatigue, 50 Condon, Paul, 71 Confidence, 22, 57 Conflict resolution, 79, 80 Connectivity, 14, 15 Consciousness altered states of, 245 aspects of, 219, 220 “coarse”/“gross” aspect of, 225, 259, 260 content of, 258–261 continuum of the luminous fundamental, 220 dynamic nature of, levels of, 230–246 nature of, 211–225 self and, 140, 141 “subtle” aspect of, 225 workspace of, 75, 76, 171, 172, 223, 244–246 Constructivism, 112, 113, 117, 129 Continuous performance task, 19 Continuum of the luminous fundamental consciousness Contrast enhancement, 67 Conventional self, 141 Correct relative truth, 114 Cortical areas, 231, 242 Cortical control systems, 41 Creativity, 61, 62, 206 Cultural evolution, 89, 95–99, 179–182, 236, 237, 240 Dalai Lama, 47, 53, 54, 63, 144, 149–152, 201, 202, 238, 239 Davidson, Richard, 21, 26, 29, 33, 45, 49, 168 Decision making process, 161–177, 183, 184 Declarative memory, 40 Deliberation, 167, 168, 172, 173, 182 Delusions, 104–110 Dennett, D., 239 Depression, Desbordes, Gaëlle, 71 Determinism, 207, 208 Devi, Lugdi, 255 Devi, Shanti, 253–255 Deviations, horrendous, 195–197 Ding an sich, 93 Dissociation of personality, 7, Distortion and, 111, 112 Distraction, 39–41, 121 Doctor, looking with eyes of, 188–191 Dostoyevsky, Fyodor, 258 Dreams, 43, 48 Drugs, 59 Dualism, 220, 221 Dwelling in nondual awareness Education, 179, 237 Ego, 139, 143, 144, 148–153 Ego bubble, 151–153 Ego grasping, 143, 148–150 Egolessness, 151–153 Einstein, Albert, 107, 115, 120 Ekman, Paul, 35–37, 79, 86, 151 Embodied mind, 224 Emotional nuances, 18 Emotional regulation, 173, 174 Emotions, 9–13, 65, 66, 81, 82, 133, 134 Empathy, 35, 36, 50 Empathy fatigue, 50 “Emperor of the mind Enaction, 224 Engrams, 45, 46, 64, 173, 186 Enrichment, outer and inner, 13–15 Epigenetics, 89, 95–98, 164, 167, 170, 186, 194, 217, 236, 237, 259, 260 Epileptic seizures, 44, 45, 258, 259 Episodic memory, 40 Erroneous relative truth, 114 Ethics, 128, 129, 134 Events, 105 Evers, Kathinka, 169 Evolution, 92–97 Facial expressions, 35, 36, 65, 66 Fearlessness, 86 Feedback, 57–63 Field, Brent, 28 First-person experience/perspective, 10, 11, 103, 123–126, 212–218 Flower power people, 83 Forensic psychiatrists, 161, 162 Forgiveness, 197–200 Fredrickson, Barbara, 50, 82, 85 Freedom, 146, 147, 183, 233 Free will, 167, 182–185, 203–206 Freud, Sigmund, Frontal lobe, 41 Fulfillment, 53–56 Fundamental luminous nature of mind, 5, Future, 207–210 Future behavior, 172, 173 Gamma activation, 48, 49, 60 Gamma frequency band, 26–29 Gandhi, 135, 155, 254 Gilbert, Paul, 147 God, concept of, 159 Gödel, Kurt, 221 Gold nugget, 5, 188, 189 Gom, 30 Guilt, 182, 183, 202 Gut feelings, 76, 77, 177 Habit, 173 Hate/hatred, 190, 197–200 Hauser, Kaspar, H.M., 142, 143 Human rights, 88 Husserl, Edmund, 164, 238 Ice example, 119, 120 Idiot, The (Dostoyevsky), 258 Idling state, 63 Ignorance, 67, 102, 209 Illusions, 104–107, 118 Improvement, desire for, 2, Innate knowledge, 98 Inner conflicts, 53–57 Inner eye, 129, 133 Inner peace, 84–87 Inner strength, 137, 138 Insula, 50 Interdependence, 114–117, 208, 220, 221 Internal chatter, 38, 39, 60, 61 Introspection, refining tools of, 121, 122 Intuition, 77, 93, 120 Invalid cognition, 101 James, William, Joy of Living, The (Rinpoche), 24 Justice, 161, 162, 184, 192, 193, 202, 203, 225 Juvenile offenders, 192, 193 Kahneman, Daniel, 77 Kant, Immanuel, 93, 175 Karma, 197 Kaufman, Scott Barry, 61, 62 Knowing, capacity of, Knowledge acquisition of, 96–100 sources of, 91, 92 valid cognition of, 100–104 Kosslyn, Stephen, 1, Lack of awareness, 102 Laplace, Pierre, 207 Laureys, Steven, 246, 257 Learning capacity for, consolidating through sleep, 42–48 neuronal network and, 96, 97 process of, 228 Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm, 211 Levenson, Robert, 37, 79 Light, Linear dynamics, 99, 100 Linearity, 208, 209 Linear thinking, 60, 61 Logic, 164 Lomax, Eric, 199, 200 Love altruistic, 8, 9, 13, 30, 68 attachment versus, 82–84 as supreme emotion, 85 Luminosity, 5–6 Luminous awareness, Lutz, Antoine, 21, 26, 32, 45, 49 Mandela, Nelson, 178, 179 Marshall, Barry, 204 Masking, 166 Matter/consciousness duality, 220, 221 McVeigh, Timothy, 198 Meditation action and, 67–71 awareness during, 12 brain activity during, 29–35, 60 cognitive control and, 23 compassion and, 48–55 as mind training, 13–16 practice and, 41 procedural learning and, 20 rumination versus, 36–39, 153–155 side effects of, 77–82 signs of successful, 156 transformation from, 1, Memory amnesia and, 142, 143 capacity of, 64–66 childhood amnesia and, 97 sleep and, 42–47 working, 75, 172 Memory system, 40 Mental distortions, 25 Mental events, 18 Mental fabrications, 38, 39, 109 Mental projections, 145 Mesoscopic range, 92–94 Meta-awareness, 171, 216, 230, 236, 244 Metacognition, 118, 119 Metarepresentations, 232, 235 Metzinger, Thomas, 145 Microexpressions, 35, 36 Milarepa, 68 Miller, Brenda, 142 Mind embodied, 224 empirical approach to, most fundamental nature of, Mind and Life meeting, 35 Mindfulness, 39–41, 154, 179 Mind training change and, 178, 179 decision making process and, 169, 175 feedback and, 57–63 limits of, 63–67 role of, 87–89 Mirror, Mirror self-recognition test, 223 Moony face experiment, 28 Motivation, 135 Nagel, Thomas, 104 Names, 140 Narcissists, 148, 149 Nath, Kedar, 254 Nature, as baseline, Nazis, 195, 196 Near-death experiences (NDEs), 246, 256–258 Neff, Kristin, 147 Neocortical structures, 41 Neuronal changes, 94–100 Neuronal connections, 64 Neuronal processes, 162–170, 173, 180, 206, 213, 216, 219, 228, 229, 232–236, 259 Neuronal responses, 66, 67 Neuroplasticity (brain plasticity), 14, 178, 229, 235 Neutral state, 63 Nihilism, 116 Nondual consciousness, 230 Nondual self-illuminating awareness, 7, Nonlinear dynamics, 99, 100, 209 No-self, 144, 145 Note by Genes Alone (Boyd and Richerson), 98 Objectivity, 111–113, 134 Oklahoma City bombing, 198 Ontological dualism, 156–158 Open presence, 38, 39, 49 Original sin, 188 Oscillatory activity, 26–29, 226–228 Outcomes, severity of, 184 Padmasambhava, Guru, 210 Pain, 215 Parapsychological phenomena, 246–250, 251–258 Parietal lobe, 41 Past lives, 246, 253–256 Penrose, Roger, 233 Perception, 75, 100–103 Pessimism, 126, 127 Petitmengin, Claire, 123 Phenomenologists, 211–214 Pheromones, 74 Physician and cure example Play, 173 Poincaré, Henri, 111 Popper, Karl, 208 Postmeditation periods, 70, 71 Precise phase synchrony, 28 Prefrontal cortex, 23 “Present moment,” 209, 228 Procedural learning, 20, 40, 41 Procedural memory, 40, 41 Psychoanalysis, 2–4, 153, 154 Psychology, Western, 1, Punishment, 191–197, 202 Pure awareness, 6–8, 126, 127, 213, 214, 225–230, 234, 235, 243 Puzzling experiences, 246–253 Reality constructing and deconstructing, 117–121 correct understanding of, 130 individual, 110, 111 objective, 111–114 perception of, 91–96 Reconciliation, 199–202 Refractory period, 171 Rehabilitation, 191–195 Relative truth, 114 Relativity theory, 94, 120 Reportability, 223 Repulsion, 146, 147 Responsibility, 173, 174, 185–188 Revenge, 110, 184, 191–193, 198–200 Richerson, Peter, 98 Rinpoche, Mingyur, 24 Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, Rumination, 4, 5, 37–39, 54, 56, 61, 153–156 Samsara, 188, 189, 220 Samskara, 105 Sartre, Jean-Paul, 151 Schopenhauer, Arthur, 146, 182 Science, 91, 92, 131 Second-person experience/perspective, 123–126, 212 Self autonomous, 138, 139 investigating, 137–159 mirror self-recognition test and, 223, 224 responsibility-bearing, 200–203 strong, 137, 138 weak, 147–151 Self-centeredness, 22, 56, 68, 144, 145, 153 Self-compassion, 147 Self-illuminating awareness, 223 Self-preservation, 143, 144 Senses, perception and, 92, 93 Sickness, 188–190 Skills acquisition of, 40, 41 effortless, 18–21 Slagter, Heleen, 32 Sleep consolidating learning through, 42–48 deprivation of, 44, 45 meditation before, 41 movement during, 47, 48 patterns of, 42 Social norms, 88, 89, 179, 180, 183, 184, 187, 188 Social realities, 224, 225 Solution state, 226 Split-brain patients, 166 Startle reflex, 37–39 Stevenson, Ian, 253 Stress, pregnancy and, 95 Subconscious processing, 75–77 Subjective experience, 91 Sublime path, 94 Suffering, 7, 8, 13, 17, 39, 40, 67, 104, 110, 113, 127–130 Symbolic coding, 240–242 Tagore, Rabindranath, 131 Takashi, Nagase, 199, 200 Tammet, Daniel, 66 Taylor, Charles, 176 Teacher, role of, 132 Telepathy, 251–253 Telescope example, 121 Thinking, Fast and Slow (Kahneman), 77 Third-person experience/perspective, 103, 123–126, 212–214, 217, 263 Thoughts, Tononi, Giulio, 45 Treisman, Anne, 28, 32 Trinh Xuan Thuan, 207, 208 Truth, 114 Ultimate logic, 101 Unconscious, nature of, 73–77 Undetermined state, 63 Valid cognition, 101, 115 Values, 130, 179, 180, 187 Van Lommel, Pim, 256, 257 Varela, Francisco, 26–28, 123, 176, 219, 224, 261 Visual cortex, 26–28 Wilde, Oscar, 177 Working memory, 75 World, relating to, 21, 22 .. .Beyond the Self Conversations between Buddhism and Neuroscience Matthieu Ricard and Wolf Singer The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England © 2017 Allary Editions Published by special... Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Ricard, Matthieu, author Title: Beyond the self : conversations between Buddhism and neuroscience / Matthieu Ricard and Wolf Singer Other titles: Cerveau & méditation... attempted to compare the Western and Eastern perspectives, the different theories concerning the constitution of the self and the nature of consciousness as seen by the scientific and contemplative