WOW. This was not easy reading in the beginning (because I'm not a Scientist), but after Chapter 3 I really became engaged. It's a short book (209 pages), but is packed full with insights and thought-provoking concepts.
I'm going to share some direct excerpts of what HIS HOLINESS THE DALAI LAMA wrote, in the hopes that you might be inspired to read this book, or at the very least, will be challenged to take some time after reading each excerpt below, to "ponder"........ reading each one slowly and deliberately, ok? Read these excerpts only when you are not rushed, because they might "make your head hurt" if you don't. Concentration is necessary. As a result, what he says may resonate nicely with you, as it did with me.
Pg. 4
"..... it is clear that human beings continue to experience suffering, especially at the emotional and psychological level. The great benefit of science is that it can contribute tremendously to the alleviation of suffering at the physical level, but it is only through the cultivation of the qualities of the human heart and the transformation of our attitudes that we can begin to address and overcome our mental suffering."
Pg. 36
"..... the fact that science has not proven the existence of God does not mean that God does not exist for those who practice in a theistic tradition. Likewise, just because science has not proven beyond the shadow of a doubt that beings take rebirth doesn't mean reincarnation ins't possible. In science, the fact that we have not so far found life on any planet but our own does not prove that life does not exist elsewhere."
Pg. 115
"Regardless of how persuasive the Darwinian account of the origins of life may be, as a Buddhist, I find it leaves one crucial area unexamined. This is the origin of sentience - the evolution of conscious beings who have the capacity to experience pain and pleasure. After all, from the Buddhist perspective, the human quest for knowledge and understanding of one's existence stems from a profound aspiration to seek happiness and overcome suffering. Until there is a credible understanding of the nature and origin of consciousness, the scientific story of the origins of life and the cosmos will not be complete."
Pg. 120
"Is consciousness a matter of degree? Does consciousness always need an object - something to be conscious of? What is its relation to the unconscious - not only the unconscious electrochemical events of the brain that are correlated with mental processes but also more complex and perhaps problematic unconscious desires, memories and expectations? Given the highly subjective nature of our experience of consciousness, is a scientific understanding - in the sense of an objective, third-person account - ever possible?"
Pg. 145
"At the Mind and Life conference in Dharamsala in 2004, I learned of the growing subdiscipline of neuroscience dealing with this question, called "brain plasticity". This phenomenon suggests to me that traits that were assumed to fixed - such as personality, disposition, even moods - are not permanent, and that mental exercises or changes in the environment can affect these traits. Already experiments have shown that experienced meditators have more activity in the left frontal lobe, the part of the brain associated with positive emotions such as happiness, joy and contentment. These findings imply that happiness is something we can cultivate deliberately through mental training that affects the brain."
Pg. 156
"It is important to stress here that, like the training of a physicist, the acquisition of mental skills is a matter of volition and focused effort: it is not a special mystical gift given to the few."
Pg. 167
"I spent a great deal of time studying the distinctions between sensory experience and mental experience. A defining mark of sensory experience is its contingent upon a specific sense organ - the eye, the ear, and so forth. There is a clear recognition that each sense perception is distinct from the others and has an exclusive domain, so that the eye cannot access sound or the ear taste and so on. ......Visual perception of an object can take place from a great distance, hearing a sound from a lesser distance, while the experience of a particular smell occurs within a still shorter range. In contrast, the remaining two senses - giving rise to gustatory and tactile experience - need direct contact between the senses and their respective objects. ......The defining characteristic of mental experience is the lack of a physical sense organ."
Pg. 181
".....the distinction between emotions on the one hand and moods and traits on the other. Emotions are seen as instantaneous, whereas moods may last longer - even for a whole day - and traits are longer lasting still, sometimes carried for a lifetime. Joy and sadness, for example would be emotions which often arise out of a particular stimulus; while happiness and unhappiness would be moods, whose direct causes might not be so easy to identify. Similarly, fear is an emotion, but anxiety is its corresponding mood....."
Pg. 195
"For me, one of the most striking and heartening effects of our knowledge of the genome is the astounding truth that the differences in the genomes of the different ethnic groups around the world are so negligible as to be insignificant. .....It has also helped reinforce my sense of our basic kinship with animals, who share a very large percentages of our genome."
JOAN
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