Neurotheology

[Ryumon]

Urug,

I have to disagree - I don't think anything is "flawed". That suggests that we have to fix something. My understand of the buddha's teaching is that we have to simply accept what is, and not try to fix things; when we try to fix or change things, that's what makes everything worse.

Kirk

BTW, it looks like my original post got deleted, and Jundo somehow assumed my identity to write about, well, his identity and mine. Intentional? :-)

[Urug]

Re: Neurotheology

If "we realize that mystical experiences originate from the same neurological mechanisms that underlie hallucinations ... I bet dollar to donut that the reality experienced by meditating Buddhists and praying nuns is entirely contained in their mind and is not a glimpse of a 'higher' realm, as tantalizing as that idea may be," he concluded.

It seems to me that all our experiences originate from our neurological mechanisms. Including our "ordinary" perception of reality and everyday consciousness as well as mystical experiences and hallucinations.

For me, part of what I think Buddha is teaching us is that our "normal" experience of consciousness is somehow flawed and that this leads to much of the suffering we experience ourselves and tend to share with each other. By practicing and meditating, I think we are in a way healing our neurological mechanisms, and returning to a more real experience of reality.

I think the mystical experience may be our direct experience of reality here and now without the usual interpretative functions of our central nervous system interfering.

As Socrates said in the movie Peaceful Warrior, "Sometimes you have to go out of your mind to come to your senses".

Love and light to all.

Namaste,

Urug

[Ryumon]

If "we realize that mystical experiences originate from the same neurological mechanisms that underlie hallucinations ... I bet dollar to donut that the reality experienced by meditating Buddhists and praying nuns is entirely contained in their mind and is not a glimpse of a 'higher' realm, as tantalizing as that idea may be," he concluded.

Exactly right, and I tend to discount most mystical experiences as dreamlike fantasy.

Of course, my experience of Kirk's words right now is just a recreation within my neurological circuits, as is the experience of the sweet tea I am drinking (I think I am drinking) right now. Who is to say for sure which sweet taste is real? What is to tell me that there is a 'Kirk' behind those words (no offense, Kirk)?

And we are left with the mystery of just how every twist and turn of physics, chemistry, earth development, biology and evolution twisted and turned just right to allow a brain so wired as to let me savor Kirk's words, plus all the rest that went into evolving a 'me' and a 'Kirk' ...

In other words, it is a 'Koan' because there are mysteries. 'Great Doubt' because we cannot say for sure. All we have are our suspicions, this seeming miracle of being alive in a universe to ponder it all, and this life ... just like this cup of tea ... that seems to sit before us. I think.

Agnostic Gassho, Jundo