Traditional Chinese Medicine and Promoting our Holistic Health

20 Jul

Traditional Chinese Medicine and Maintaining Homeostasis

The most accepted homeostasis definition is the body’s ability to maintain a stable state of healthy function. Homeostasis is how your body maintains a steady temperature pattern, a stable flow of blood through the body, which provides optimal nourishment and oxygen to the cells while effectively whisking away toxins, and how your body maintains a healthy intake of oxygen and disposal of carbon dioxide. Essentially, homeostasis is the whole of your body’s efforts to maintain optimal health and proper balance.

Recently, I read the book, ‘Healthy Aging’ edited by Ping-Chung Leung. The book is a compilation of studies and articles published in the Annals of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). While this book is dedicated to aging, the approach of health maintenance is for everyone. The translation of the Chinese system of health promotion is offered as ‘Natural Healing’ and another is the maintenance or promotion of Wellness. I offer also ‘Maintaining Homeostasis’ to try to capture the overall spirit of the Traditional Chinese approach which refers to the maintenance of health without specific drug or other means of treatment. Instead, health promotion uses natural means in the physical, physiological and psycho-social aspects of living through careful planning of food intake, life style and exercises. This complete system of self-regulated health maintenance which began in Ancient China is uniquely Chinese.

In this blog I will highlight ideas that I found to be useful in especially differentiating a TCM approach to health promotion vs. the common western approach. I have been doing t’ai chi, qi gong as well as other Chinese internal exercises for many years.

In an ancient classic of Chinese Medicine, Ne-jing, the goal of excellent health and longevity is accomplished by maintaining a perfect state of physical and physiological health and a harmonious state of psycho-social wellbeing. These three components are all interlinked. While the concepts Ying and Yang and Qi are essential in understanding the Traditional Chinese approach, this blog won’t explore their complexities for space reasons. Instead, I want to look at the practice of maintaining homeostasis.

The ‘Natural Healing’ of TCM has a broad approach which covers health maintenance, wellness and prevention of falling ill. To only give a very brief overview here regarding food, western nutritional theory emphasizes the macro- and micro-nutritional contents of foods, such as proteins, fat, sugar, minerals, vitamins and fiber. By contrast TCM food theory is based on a system of ancient medical theories with classification of four natures (cool, cold warm and hot in terms of the response of the body) and five tastes (salty, sweet, sour, bitter, and acrid in terms of flavor when ingested). The food choice depends on a number of considerations i.e., the body constitution, climate, geographical location and health and/or illness circumstances. The very basic principles of balanced nutrition means a regular diet of simple food according to need (never over eat), choice of a balanced diet devoid of rich (fatty) varieties and a smart choice of vegetables and fruits which possess both nutritional as well as health promoting value.

Two common practices of maintaining homoeostasis are T’ai Chi and Qi Gong. To first talk about Qi Gong, it helps to harmonize three important components: Qi, Jing (balanced secretion) and Shen (spiritual esteem). Qi Gong consists of stretching movements and respiratory control using extra-long inspiration and extra-long expiration simultaneous with the stretching movements. Diaphragmatic breathing and other combinations are used while also squeezing the anal sphincter at will.

TCM considers the harmonization of the physical, humoral and mental activities indispensible so meditation is also considered an essential component. The skillful practitioner attains tranquility of the mind while stretching is performed with controlled breathing. These three aspects work together and support one another. This ‘moving meditation’ rests the central nervous system, frees it from motor and sensory inputs (except from the comforting limb movements), relieves it from complex memories, and protects it from emotions and problem solving requirements. The assumption is: with this tranquil mental state, a reorganization of neurological activity can take place that initiates a neurological establishment of harmony and re-organization of the humoral state.

T’ai Chi consists of the same three components (stretching, controlled breathing and meditation) as qi gong but instead of the qi gong individual postures, t’ai chi uses a system of set chained activities. The T’ai Chi symbol shows the Yin-Yang natural law of the universe which possesses perfect harmony and balance. Therefore, practitioners obey the law of balance between light and heavy, slow and fast, weak and strong, (etc), maintain well controlled breathing, avoid jerky motions, over strenuous movements, etc. Every movement is synchronized with respiration. The concerted contractions of the muscle groups requires gentle oxygen intake and then join together and converge into a state of qi establishment.

Both qi gong and t’ai chi practice have been medically evaluated for their health promotion benefits and in this book several studies are cited. Results indicate that both improved musculoskeletal strength, balance, cardiac function, respiratory function, cardiovascular function, type 2 diabetes, hemoglobinA1c mental ability, bone health and density, cardio-pulmonary function, hypertension, immune function, some hormone deficiencies, and mood.

TCM Natural Healing or, as I call it, maintaining homeostasis is different from most western approaches as a promotion of wellness and longevity. TCM health promotion can be achieved by a relatively easy, regular, low cost, and freely modified innovative practice of stretching exercises, controlled breathing and meditation. Wellness is certainly available to almost all.

Aerobic exercise, as well as weight training, is popular in Western countries and engages a comprehensive training of muscle-skeleto-cardio-and pulmonary function, these are all normal day to day physiological functions. Differently, t’ai chi and qi gong produce extra-ordinary neurological stimulations which are very beneficial in a number of ways. Also, strenuous aerobic training has been shown to create joint and cartilage damage while qi gong/t’ai chi doesn’t. In my opinion, another significant difference between a strenuous western workout and the TCM workout is the emphasis on balance and harmony which is so important to Chinese exercise but not in a Western workout. The TCM emphasis creates a very beneficial attitude not only toward one’s body/mind but also one’s interaction with the world/environment.

A Western attitude toward exercise is crude, mainly emphasizing the major muscle groups and pulmonary-circulation system. It is mainly competitive both towards one self and often others. The attitude then is harsh and in a way ascetic, perhaps reflecting a Christian attitude toward the body. For many fitness practitioners, the body is viewed as an instrument to manipulate and govern. No wonder so many exercisers use drug enhancement to exploit the body into unnatural growth. Also, this domination attitude is clear by many Westerns turn to extreme sports to “push the body to its limits” as a personal testimony of ego prowess. However, in the end this attitude and practice is damaging to the body, even fatal.

On the contrary, TCM encourages a harmonious practice towards the body, the mind, the world and even spirituality. It promotes balance, mind/body unity and a holistic understanding of the complete person which includes the maintenance of harmony with the outside environment and society. Any use of herbs is done only in a holistic understanding that when you introduce a strong substance into the body, one must be aware of the interactional effects on the complete system. TCM is a systems approach to health promotion and maintenance. This reflects major cultural differences between the Western and TCM approaches. TCM is an approach that makes much more sense to me especially in the light of modern discoveries in biology and science that strongly supports system, ecological and holistic thinking. Since health promotion is also illness prevention the need is not to focus only on single pathologies but the focus includes an individual’s genomic make-up, psychological state, personal habits, social behavior and environmental situations that are important for the maintenance of harmony.

As a clinical psychologist I am also familiar with the burgeoning research on the health benefits of meditation. The mind/body approach is being accepted and used much more in psychology as a viable theory for understanding and treating psychological and physical disturbances. The TCM approach is difficult for many westerners to accept because it is culturally very different. However, I believe now that TCM and maintaining homeostasis, in all its complexity that I cannot go into in this short blog, has much to offer everyone – not only in maintaining physical health but spirituality and psychological wellbeing since these are all intertwined. So homeostasis should also be understood as that condition for the body which maintains health through spirituality, physically and psychologically – looking not only at the internal interactions of the body but also holistically and in an ecological and systems perspective.

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What IS Mindfulness? A Perspective as Taught by the Buddha.

19 Jul

Rodger R Ricketts

There is a discrepancy between the teachings of the Buddha on Mindfulness and the definition of Mindfulness as stated in much of the current psychology articles as well as a continuing confusion among psychologists regarding the original intent of the use of Mindfulness and the modern popular one. Several examples of well-known phrases define mindfulness as: paying attention in a particular way; on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgementally; involves a kind of non-elaborative, non-judgemental, present-centered awareness in which each thought, feeling, or sensation that arises in the attentional field is acknowledged and accepted as it is; and finally, the practice of meditation and mindfulness will clear away the dullness of being on autopilot and free you to live more fully than you ever have before. This blog is an exploration of what the Buddha really intended in the practice of Sati (the Pali word for mindfulness), as different from the previous definitions.
The Buddha was the originator of the practice of Sati and it is clear that he meant meditation as the “Royal Road” for all people to potentially attain a transpersonal psychological experience named enlightenment, or awakening. In Buddhism, meditation is more often referred to as bhavana or mental culture, which emphasizes the holistic nature of mental cultivation associated with the Buddha’s Eightfold Path. Mindfulness is one of the eight factors of the Eightfold Path. For a fuller explanation of the Buddha’s teachings from a cognitive science perspective, I recommend my book, The Buddha’s Teachings: Seeing without Illusion (revised edition, 2013).
The Eightfold Path is the Buddha’s goal-oriented program with specific systematic procedures or instructions for psychological transformation. Like any learning program, there is advancement from basic to more refined concepts and practices. The beginning of the Eightfold Path is Right View, or perspective, and it is an orientation to the values and ideas of the program as presented in the Four Noble Truths. This is crucial, as the conceptual Right View gives the basic foundation and principles of the Buddha’s teachings. It is the correct framework of the problem and how to solve it; therefore, the Right View gives direction and coherence to the program rationale.
The next factor of the Eightfold Path is Right Effort. The Buddha taught from his enlightenment to his passing away to “strive with earnestness”. So fundamental was this teaching, that these are reported to be his last words. He also said, “All wholesome things are founded on earnestness, converge on earnestness, and so earnestness is to be considered as the most important of all. Clearly to reach any goal, whether psychological, academic, commercial, etc., and to earnestly practice any program, requires energy, and in the case of the Eightfold Path, Right Effort concerns making conscious practices to positively shape cognitions and thoughts and, therefore, the mental world.” Right Effort in Buddhism is commonly ranked in an ascending order from: (1) Prevent unwholesome mental states. (2) Abandon unwholesome mental states. (3) Arouse wholesome mental states. (4) Maintain and perfect wholesome mental states.
Mind training through these four interventions takes time and effort. Right Effort is also considered “right endeavouring” and it is the Buddhist practitioner’s continuous effort to keep his or her mind free of thoughts that might impair or be a hindrance to their ability to put into practice the other elements of the Eightfold Path which can eventually lead to enlightenment. Right Effort includes the skilful, appropriate, and balanced exertion of energy and intensity that is needed for different skill applications as they arise.
Now that one has the right schema and intentions as well as a willingness to skilfully exert a balanced effort, the next three path factors of Sila, or moral discipline, become the focus; these are: Right Speech, Right Action, and Right Living. These factors of Sila interact and support each other, and while outwardly are actions of kindness and benefit to others, are in fact, by controlling one’s behaviour, also modulating one’s thinking and training one’s cognitions. For it is impossible for unwholesome actions to originate from wholesome thoughts and vice versa. We have seen that in Right Effort, the four rankings of cultivation of wholesomeness and their application to Right Sila is obvious. To practice Right Speech in a wholesome and kind manner, we must, for example, prevent and eliminate speaking with the unwholesomeness of anger, slander, and deceit.
At this point along our journey on the Path, we are following the program of the Buddha to begin to purify our minds with wholesomeness and to use skilful actions through the practice of Sila. We have more trust and confidence in the program because we see the beneficial results of our becoming happier, having a better relationship with the world, and experiencing uplifting and positive thinking. Therefore, we continue to exert a balanced effort into the application of wholesome “right” skills to achieve further positive results.
So now we are ready to move into another phase of the path, and that is Right Concentration, or meditation, which in Pali is known as Samma Samadhi. Right Concentration is intensified concentration that results from a deliberate intention and mental effort to raise the mind to a more purified level of awareness. The main function of Samadhi, as wholesome concentration, is to collect the ordinary scattered stream of mental states to create a unified mental state. The mind trained in concentration can remain absorbed on one point without distraction and this induces the more serene mind to better insight. Traditionally in Buddhist meditation, one passes through the eight “Divine Jhanas” which are fully immersed meditative states of profound stillness, and which in the end one experiences the height of mental concentration. However, this experience still lacks the wisdom of insight and is not sufficient for gaining enlightenment.
Next (while not in a strictly linear sense but for ease of discussion) we need to adopt the skill of Right Mindfulness. In our present, hypothetical scenario, we would now be working the Buddha’s program well. We have a “right” perspective, desire, effort, energy, and intention to skilfully maintain wholesome thoughts and behaviors; we can now collect our ordinarily scattered stream of mental states and create a unified mental state. This induces an open and serene mind more available to insight as we strive to be honest and objective with ourselves about our intentions. However, to not only gain and practice new skill applications but also generalize and maintain any previous “right” skills acquisition, one needs also to be able to become heedful, maintain a balanced, watchful mind, and be aware of oneself in an objective, non-attached mindful manner; to do this is a vital factor in the Buddha’s program of mental purification.
We can now see that the function of Right Mindfulness is not only observation and attentiveness, but also the skill of discrimination, refinement, and maintenance between having wholesome vs. unwholesome and skilful vs. unskilful thoughts, feelings, and behaviour, and the integration of all skill acquisition with the other right factors of the Eightfold Path. An example of this is shown by the explanation of the Buddha:
“One is mindful to abandon wrong view & to enter & remain in right view. This is one’s right mindfulness…
One is mindful to abandon wrong resolve & to enter & remain in right resolve: This is one’s right mindfulness…
One is mindful to abandon wrong speech & to enter & remain in right speech: This is one’s right mindfulness…
One is mindful to abandon wrong action & to enter & remain in right action: This is one’s right mindfulness…
One is mindful to abandon wrong livelihood & to enter & remain in right livelihood: This is one’s right mindfulness…” — MN 117
The commentary of a verse in the Dhammapada further explains:
“The wise person is always mindful. Through this alertness he discards the ways of the slothful. The monk, as the seeker after the truth, is frightened of mindlessness because he knows that if one is unmindful, one is caught up in the unending suffering of samsara. Therefore, he forges ahead diligently and mindfully burning away those bonds that fetter people to worldliness.”
We see clearly that Right Mindfulness has the function of not only present moment awareness, but more importantly, self-regulation. In fact, often in the Dhammapada the word “heedfulness” or “heedful” – which means having or showing a close attentiveness to avoid danger or trouble – is substituted for “mindfulness”.
Throughout the suttas or Buddhist texts, it is clear that Buddha taught a skills acquisition, goal oriented, introspective bhavana or mental cultivation program. We can say it is an introspective program, because its primary orientation is the observation and examination of any number of one’s own mental states, including sensory, bodily, cognitive, emotional, and so forth. Regarding mental cultivation, the Buddha said, “The training of the mind is good, a mind so tamed brings happiness”, “The tame mind brings bliss”, “All that we are is the result of what we have thought; it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts”, and finally, “We will develop mindfulness immersed in the body. We will pursue it, hand it the reins and take it as a basis, give it grounding, steady it, consolidate it, and undertake it well. That is how you should train yourselves.” Here the taming of the mind that the Buddha is talking about is actualized through mindfulness, which has a function similar to that of the trainer who tames an unruly animal.
Therefore, what is being discussed in the early Buddhist description of mindfulness is not a passive, sense-based, non-judgemental skill, but more accurately involves metacognition. Metacognition engages in self-reflection and refers to a regulation of cognition or a level of thinking that involves active control over the processes of thinking that are especially used in learning, and it enhances problem solving ability. Metacognitive regulation refers to processes that coordinate cognition. These include both bottom-up processes called cognitive monitoring (e.g., error detection, source monitoring in memory retrieval) and top-down processes called cognitive control (e.g., conflict resolution, error correction, inhibitory control, planning, resource allocation) (Nelson & Narens, 1990; Reder & Schunn, 1996). Metacognition is closely related to executive function, which involves the ability to monitor and control the information processing necessary to produce voluntary action. Metacognition refers to any knowledge or cognitive process that monitors or controls cognition.
Metacognitive skills have been identified as: Planning the appropriate selection of learned strategies; the correct allocation of psychic resources that affect learning; self-monitoring of understanding and task performance; and finally, evaluating or appraising the final results of a task and the efficiency at which the task was performed. Other metacognitive skills or executive functions are maintaining motivation and effort to see a task to completion, and the ability to become aware and skilfully intervene when both distracting internal and external stimuli occur. Engaging in self-reflection or introspection enhances metacognition through monitoring lapses in knowledge and addressing them, or through judging knowledge availability and feelings of accuracy. Right Mindfulness, understood as Metacognition, plays a critical role in successful “right” skills acquisition, “right” skills consolidation and application training, and the generalization and maintenance of the right factors of the Eightfold Path.
So to summarize, mindfulness as metacognition involves both executive management and strategic knowledge. Executive management processes involve planning, monitoring, evaluating, and revising one’s own thinking processes and products, while strategic knowledge involves knowing what (factual or declarative knowledge), knowing when and why (conditional or contextual knowledge), and knowing how (procedural or methodological knowledge). “Both executive management and strategic knowledge metacognition are needed to self-regulate one’s own thinking and learning” (Dunlosky, J. & Bjork, R. A. Eds). H. J. Hartman (2001) has written about other benefits of mindfulness, such as, “promoting executive-level functioning in detecting when the mind has wandered (meta awareness) further reduces lapses in attention. Mindfulness practice promotes a form of meta-cognitive insight of learning to emotionally disengage from distracters (frustration; anxiety). This form of top-down cognitive control leads the Mindfulness practitioner to more readily focus on the present task leading to better performance.”
Now that we have explored briefly the idea that mindfulness is really describing metacognition and executive function which includes the abilities that help us learn new information, remember and retrieve information we’ve learned in the past, and use this information to solve problems of life, let’s see more examples of this idea in Buddhist writings. The early Buddhist definition of Sati as memory is indicated by such terms as: calling to mind; remembrance; bearing in mind; and recollection. In the Dhammapada, mindfulness is compared to the treasurer of a king who reminds the king of the royal possessions in detail, daily, at night and in the morning. Also, the mindfulness of the aspirant to enlightenment reminds them of Virtue, Concentration, and Wisdom, which constitute the three pillars of the teachings of the Buddha. The value of the recollected activity of mindfulness is seen in the increasing awareness of the essentials of “right” living in the aspirant’s mind, and the growing strength of purpose for realizing these within him or herself.
Thānissaro Bhikkhu also emphasizes the memory aspect in this comment: “As he [the Buddha] defined the term, right mindfulness is not bare attention. Instead, it’s a faculty of active memory, adept at calling to mind and keeping in mind instructions and intentions that will be useful on the path. Its role is to draw on right view and to work proactively in supervising the other factors of the path to give rise to right concentration, and in using right concentration as a basis for total release.” So, mindfulness is the bringing or keeping of something in (to) awareness, but it is not solely awareness. Mindfulness can be used to bring any mental quality to mind.
Bhikkhu Bodhi offers us another perspective of mindfulness and its function as executive function: “There are certainly occasions when the cultivation of mindfulness requires the practitioner to suspend discrimination, evaluation, and judgment, and to adopt instead a stance of simple observation. However, to fulfill its role as an integral member of the eightfold path, mindfulness has to work in unison with right view and right effort. This means that the practitioner of mindfulness must at times evaluate mental qualities and intended deeds, make judgments about them, and engage in purposeful action.”
In Satipatthana, The Direct Path to Realization, Venerable Analayo wrote that we need to distinguish clearly between a first stage of observation and a second stage of taking action. Calmly assessing a situation without immediately reacting enables us to undertake the appropriate action. Thus, Sati provides the information for the then wise use of Right Effort, and it will oversee the countermeasures by noting if these are right and balanced, not too much or too little.
Soma Thera, in his short book, The Way of Mindfulness, The Satipatthana Sutta and Its Commentary (1998), it is also quite clear that mindfulness involves what we are now referring to as metacognition and executive functions. To quote at length: “Mindfulness is the activity that takes care of the mind and protects it. It is compared to a wagon driver who ties the oxen to the wagon’s yoke, greases the axle, and drives the wagon, making the oxen go gently. In this activity mindfulness looks to the smooth working and movement of the mind and takes notice of the processes both skilful and not, taking place in the consciousness. In the more complex forms it is the selective and integrative action of the mind. The selective activity has been compared to the work of the Chief Adviser of a King. As the Adviser is instrumental in distinguishing the good from the bad, and in getting the good and avoiding the bad, so mindfulness distinguishes the worthy from unworthy things, avoids the unworthy and obtains the worthy.
The integrative character of mindfulness is like the Minister-of-all-work of a King. He is wanted in putting through every project of the King. He is commissioned to organise and combine the workers and execute the tasks. Mindfulness is also like that Minister. It is the organizing activity of the mind necessary for the development of wholesome states of consciousness. It combines the various other qualities which compose those states, puts them to their appropriate tasks and keeps them in proper working order. By the strength of integrating mindfulness a conscious state of skill functions harmoniously and becomes a well-knit unity. This activity of mindfulness makes the work of the aspirant complete at every stage of his progress. Integrating mindfulness sees all lacks and deficiencies, brings in the needed qualities and suitably applies them. It is called the highest wisdom of mindfulness [parama satinepakka], and constitutes the core of the Mindfulness that is included in the Real Way [Ariya Magga Pariyapanna Sati], of the Way Factor of Mindfulness [Sati Magganga] and of the Enlightenment Factor of Mindfulness [Sati Sambojjhanga]. It is Right Mindfulness [Sammasati] in the full sense of the term.”
Other, shorter quotes from Soma Thera’s book that indicate the executive function of mindfulness include:
“That it is mindfulness that holds things together in the mental flux, brings them up, and prevents them from floating away, getting submerged, forgotten and lost. Without mindfulness there will be no reconstitution of already acquired knowledge and consciousness itself would break in pieces, become fragmentary, and be unable to do properly the work of cognition.”
“Strong mindfulness ignores the unnecessary, by adhering to the center of the business in hand, and extends its view to important peripheral conditions, with a wide spreading watchfulness resembling that of the sentinel on a tower scanning the horizon “for the glint of armour. By such a balance between width and depth mindfulness steers clear of the extremes of lopsided vision and practice.”
“In the sense of overcoming mental conflict, and in the sense of getting rid of all unclarity, all incapacity to judge aright and indefiniteness due to mental unquiet, mindfulness is a controlling faculty [indriya]. The controlling faculty of mindfulness makes for the absence of confusion [asamussanata] and produces lucidity of thought, sound judgment, and definiteness of outlook. Mindfulness accompanied by keen understanding appears as the controlling faculty of mindfulness.”
“Mindfulness accompanied by sustained energy is mindfulness considered as a spiritual power [bala] and is the quality of earnestness [appamada] which destroys the wavering of negligence [pamada]. Negligence is the wandering of the mind in objects of fivefold sense-pleasure, repeatedly: it is the absence of thoroughness, of perseverance, and of steadfastness in doing good; the behavior that is stuck in the mire of worldliness; the casting aside of the desire to do what is right; the casting aside of the duties which belong to one; the absence of practice, development, and increase of wholesome qualities; the lack of right resolve, and the want of application. Earnestness is the opposite of all that negligence connotes. According to meaning, earnestness is the non-neglect of mindfulness [atthato hi so satiya avippavaso]. Indeed, earnestness is the name for mindfulness that is always active, constantly at work.”
To conclude our discussion, we have seen that contrary to the simplistic, popular definitions of mindfulness, Sati is really considering the executive functions and metacognition of the learning program called the Eightfold Path. In other words, the early Buddhist definition of mindfulness as memory, which is an executive function, is indicated by such definitions as: calling to mind; remembrance; bearing in mind; and recollection. We have seen that to proceed on the Eightfold Path, practitioners need to assess whether or not retrieved information is relevant to the life experience they are trying to skilfully master. “Successful differentiation of relevant from irrelevant memories is key to problem solving, planning, and other complex tasks. Planning requires reflecting on which course of action is necessary to achieve a goal, and as such planning is part of metacognition” (Brown, Bransford, Ferrara, & Campione, 1983). Action planning requires establishing both a main goal (enlightenment) and a hierarchy of sub-goals that must be satisfied for the main goal to be obtained (ethical behaviour, concentration, learning the Four Noble Truths, etc.). The main goal usually guides the sub-goals, which is considered Right View. So we can adopt a definition of mindfulness as a method by which we skilfully and intentionally focus our attention on our behaviors, perceptions, feelings, thoughts, and mental phenomena in the present moment, with the right intention of purifying the mind as prescribed in the Eightfold Path.

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Quotes about the “mystical” experience and no-self.

19 Jul

“The goal of Heidegger’s thinking and teaching was to reawaken in human beings the awareness of the mystery of Being which is Nothing because it is No-thing. It is an ultimate, ungraspable, impersonal reality that reveals itself to human beings who are receptive to this revelation… By devoting himself to Being Heidegger hoped to overcome the emptiness and meaninglessness, the homelessness and anxiety of modernity.” M. D. Henry

Rather than merely view acts of cognition in classical terms as representations or images of independently existing facts, the empirical foundation for these acts in the physical substrate of the human brain must now be viewed as intimately connected with the whole. The dynamic neuronal patterns generated by the brain which are the basis for our “representations” of reality infold within themselves the previous stages of the life of the cosmos, and are seemlessly interconnected with all other activities in the cosmos. In the grand interplay of quanta and field in whatever stage of complexity, including the very activities of our brain, there is literally “no thing” that can be presumed isolated or discrete. In these terms we can “infer” that human consciousness “partakes” or “participates in” the conscious universe, and that the construct of the alienated mind, no matter how real feelings of alienation might be in psychological terms, is not in accord with the scientific facts. M. Kafatos, R. Nadeau

“Evaporate away the fixed identity of self and discover the light(ness) and openness of Being.” Rodger

“The solution for the sense of nihilistic alienation in our culture is not to find a new ground; it is to find a disciplined and genuine means to pursue groundlessness, to go further into groundlessness….The mindfulness/awareness tradition points the way to a radically different resolution….when groundless is embraced and followed through to its ultimate conclusions, the outcome is an unconditional sense of intrinsic goodness that manifests itself in the world as spontaneous compassion.” F.j.Varela /E. Thompson

Maybe mind is another’side’ of that same thing- that which we call energy on one side is mind on the other side. That is, energy is pervaded with a kind of intelligence, out of which insight comes, or deeper perceptions of truth. Then what about ourselves? We say our ground is in all that. But we have all sorts of representations of ourselves which are really rather superficial. And we try to identify with them. But then once we do that, we have this quality of thought which infuses it into perception. We apparently perceive the thing we are representing – it seems to be there. It’s like the rainbow; we see a rainbow, but what we have is drops of rain and light – a process. Similarily, what we ‘see’ is a self; but what we actually have is a whole lot of thoughts going on in consciousness. Against the backdrop of consciousness we are projecting a self, rather than a rainbow….if you try to touch the self, it will be the same difficulty as trying to touch the rainbow. We have a representation of the self, which is really arising in a process. We don’t know the process very well; but the attempt to treat the self as an object is just not going to mean anything. So instead, suppose we say that the self is unknown. Its origin, its ground is unknown. And it is constantly revealing itself, through each person or through nature or through various other ways. D. Bohm

“Hell-hades cannot be thought of as eternal, rather only as an infinite endless time. Hell-hades is the impossibility of an emergence from this time.”N.A. Berdyaev

“The Augenblick-moment is not situated within the order of mathematical time, but rather in an emergence from it. Herein is attained the fullness and joy of the eternal present… Therein is the meaning and value of the experienced moment situated within it itself. With this is connected the Sacred within time, which is situated within the moment external to the temporal order.” N.A. Berdyaev

There must exist, beyond mere appearances … a ‘veiled reality’ that science does not describe but only glimpses uncertainly. In turn, contrary to those who claim that matter is the only reality, the possibility that other means, including spirituality, may also provide a window on ultimate reality cannot be ruled out, even by cogent scientific arguments,” B. d’Espagnat

Man matures and completes himself only by becoming conscious of those great laws which, at the level of unconscious Nature, are simply lived. But this is a special form of becoming conscious. This special consciousness is blocked when he first begins to work because man always fixes objectively everything that he perceives from the standpoint of the I, including himself, as soon as he observes himself carefully. As the Zen masters expressed it, he turns the ‘inside’ into an ‘outside’. And thereby he alters beyond recognition what he orginally wanted to perceive. ‘Becoming conscious’ therefore means something completely different. It is … becoming aware of breathing as a living movement in which oneself is also included, without fixing it or standing apart. To become aware means to regain the oneness with the orginal reality which of itself could transform him. Letting-go of the I is unthinkable without also letting-go one’s old built in patterns of thought and consciousness. Only the dissolution of the I and its patterns will allow the coming into force and the potential fruitfulness of that consciousness-pattern which accords with the Great life. This is the immanent inner consciouness. By becoming aware of the Source – not just ‘knowing about’ it- man becomes effectively aware of the estrangement into which his outer consciousness has led him, and only then will he be ready to approach and draw again from the well-springs of life. Karlfried Durckheim

Some other faculty than the intellect is necessary for the apprehension of reality. Bergson

This state (state of freedom) is said to be without thought, not because all consciousness is gone, but because there is no thinking in terms of substantail entities. Hence there is nothing to grasp on to as a real object. It is supramundane knowledge, not because it constitutes a transcendent intuition, but because the dispositional tendencies, the character of the fundamental consciousness is transformed. Instead of consciousness looking for an ultimate real subject or an absolutely real object, a person deals with the world of experience as it has come to be. Such knowledge reveals things as they have come to be. Unperturbed by any mystery, not looking for the hidden something, a sage leads a life free from influxes. It is unthinkable, not because such a state is beyond conceptual thinking, but because it cannot be appreciated by those who are constantly thinking of something mysterious. It is a state of happiness not punctuated by suffering. Hence it is stable. It is the highest state of release enjoyed by the enlightened ones. The doctrine of the Great Sage pertains to this state of freedom and happiness. D. J. Kalupahana

There is a trend … to describe nibbana as a metaphysical substance, transcending space, time, and causality, a supramundane reality, with independent existence. … (Instead it is ) the personal plane with which discussions of nibbana are usual concerned. … (Certain translations) need not be taken as referring to a supramundane reality but to experiences in the vinnana of the arahant; experiences of something timeless, unchangable, inexpressible, in which distinctions and opposites do not exist. There would arise a tendency to project experiences of this type outside consciousness and interpret them as perceptions of something external and not only as subjective ideations. Rune Johansson

He who wants to follow the Path of the Buddha must give up all thoughts of ‘I’ and ‘mine’. But this giving up does not make us poorer; it actually makes us richer, because what we renounce and destroy are the walls that keep us imprisoned; and what we gain is that supreme freedom, which is not to be understood simply as a merging into the whole or a feeling of identity with others, but as the experience of an infinite relationship, according to which every individual is essentially connected with all that exists, thus embracing all living beings in his own mind, taking part in their deepest experience, and sharing their sorrow and joy. Lama Anagarika Govinda

However recently many so-called Buddhist teachers insist the importance of ‘mindfulness.’ But such a kind of attitudes might be insistence that Buddhism might be a kind of idealistic philosophy. Therefore actually speaking I am much afraid that Buddhism is misunderstood as if it was a kind of idealistic philosophy. However we should never forget that Buddhism is not an idealistic philosophy, and so if someone in Buddhism reveres mindfulness, we should clearly recognize that he or she can never be a Buddhist at all.Gudo Wafu Nishijima

For (William) James, therefore, the phenomenal world is both ontologically and epistemologically prior to the objective world and the subjective world. James’s analysis led him to a primordial level of unified experience that arises prior to the subject-object distinction, and provided the ground for an ontology that harbors no aperture for any brand of metaphysical dualism. In doing so, he furthermore safeguards the irreducible primacy of our nonconceptual phenomenal experience, which emerges from the sensory modalities of an agent immersed and acting within a living world.Joel W. Krueger

“Stace’s investigation of the experience of pure consciousness/awareness lead him to conclude that thousands of mystics throughout the world unanimously assert that they attained a complete vacuum of particlar mental content and what emerges is a state of pure consciousness – ‘pure’ in the sense that it … has no content except itself.” Robert Brainbridge

All theory, dear friend, is gray, but the golden tree of life springs ever green. Goethe

“As the Christian mystics state,’God is no-thing’, He is utterly other;He is VOID.’Eckhart proclaims,’Thou shalt love God as He is, a Non-Spirit, a Non-Person, a Non-Form.’ Tauler describes God as ‘The divine darkness, the nameless, formless nothing.’ In the Jewish mysticism there are frequent references of God as No-thing. It is when these mystics make affirmative statements about the nature of God that misevaluation occurs. God cannot exist in the sense that we normally mean existence. As with things, whatever we say God is, he is not.”Weinberg

He who thinks that God is not comprehended, by him God is
comprehended; but he who thinks that God is comprehended knows him not. god is unknown to those who know him, and is known to those who do not know him at all. Upanishads

Bare attention yields no experiencer seperable from experience, and the Buddha’s teaching about the self becomes more than a theory. The absence of a permanent, seperable self erupts as a realty that changes the face of life. J. Macy

“Mystical experiences… involve the apprehension of an ultimate nonsensuous unity in all things, a oneness or a One to which neither senses nor reason can penetrate. In other words, it entirely transcends our sensory-intellectual consciousness. Only fully developed experiences are necessarily apprehensive of the One.” W.T.Stace

Those who know do not speak; those who speak do not know. Lao tzu
And while I stood there I saw more than I can tell, and I understood more than I saw; for I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of things in the spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one being. Black Elk, Black Elk Speaks

In pure experience there is “not the slightest interval between the intention and the act.” Every action is a unity indivisible into temporal stages. Nishida

“By religious feeling, what I mean-altogether independently of any dogma, credo, organization of the Church, Holy Scripture, hope of personal salvation, etc.- the simple and direct fact of a feeling of the ‘eternal’. This feeling is in truth subjective in nature. It is a contact.”R.Rolland

The nun Wu Jincang asked the Sixth Patriach Huineng,“I have studied the Mahaparinirvana sutra for many years, yet there are many areas i do not quite understand. Please enlighten me.” The patriach responded, “I am illiterate. Please read out the characters to me and perhaps I will be able to explain the meaning.” Said the nun, “You cannot even recognize the characters. How are you able then to understand the meaning?” “Truth has nothing to do with words. Truth can be likened to the bright moon in the sky. Words, in this case, can be likened to a finger. The finger can point to the moon’s location. However, the finger is not the moon. To look at the moon, it is necessary to gaze beyond the finger, right?”

The Apostle tells us that in the beginning was the Word. He gives us no assurance as to the end. It is appropriate that he should have used the Greek language to express the Hellenistic conception of the LOGOS, for it is to the fact of its Graeco-Judiac inheritance that Western civilisation owes its essentially verbal nature. We take this character for granted…. but we should not assume that a verbal matrix is the only one in which the articulations and conduct of the mind are conceivable. In certain Oriental metaphysics, in Buddhism and Taoism,… the highest, purest reach of the contemplative act is that which has learned to leave language behind it. The ineffable lies beyond the frontiers of the word. It is only by breaking through the walls of language that visionary observance can enter the world of total and immediate understanding. Where such understanding is attained, the truth need no longer suffer the impurities and fragmentation that speech necessarity entails. G. Steiner

In pure experience there is no prior or posterior, no inner or outer; no experiencer precedes or generates experience. Nishida
We experience timelessness in the unfrettered Now. Rodger

Were a man to say: I shall show the coming, the going, the passing away, the arising, the growth, the increase or development of consciousness apart from the body, sensation, perception and volitional formulations, he would be speaking about something which does not exist. Buddha

Descartes’ notion of the soul was given some degree of respectability when the technical term of ‘mind’ was introduced to replace the religious concept of “soul”. But careful analysis shows that to somehow seperate the physical(body) from the non-physical(mind) is nonsense. P. Treffner

“Nishitani thinks that the self is at play after it becomes detached to itself, the world,actions and time. As time loses its sequential nature, it and the self are simply united. Time presents itself as world-time or as a whole in the present, opening up a field of transcendence which Nishitani thinks that each moment opens itself to etenity anf the self opens itself to the fullness of time or eternity. The self is engaged in complete spontaneity and play. The self is unattached and yet active and completely real. Once an individual overcomes the false notion of “self”, their conduct and actions become effortless and he/she is able to recapture their spontaneity and creativity.”C.Olson

“Sunyata is neither subject or object, but merely is. When a person discovers that their mind does not really exist(as seperate) then mind and ego pass away, leaving only Mind.” A. Gullette

“Selflessness is not a case of something that existed in the past becoming non-existent;rather,this sort of ‘self’ is something that never existed. What is needed is to identify as non-existent something that was always non-existent.”Gyatso”
The experience of ‘self’ as non-existent is experienced as relief…”M.Epstien

“The meaning of the word ‘Being’ is the emptiest and thus embraces everything.” Heidegger

“The Middle Way is neither emptiness nor existence.”Hua

The knower participates in her knowledge. And to the extent that she participates with maximum sensitivity to all being, she participates in the cosmic being and purpose, which is life to the fullest extent and intensity, i.e., the sublime. When coherence is established between the knowing self and all that can be known, the self partakes of no-space-no-time and all-space-all-time. This sublime aesthetic experience is therefore also the highest form of knowledge. Mae-Wan Ho

“At the Still Point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless, neither from nor towards; at the Still Point, there the dance is, but neither arrest nor movement, and do not call it fixity, where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards, neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the Still Point, there would be no dance, and there is only dance.” Eliot

“All our relative knowledge is concerned with dualities(complementaries) but emptiness(sunyata) is on the other side of being and non-being.”Suzuki

Nishitani’s interpretation of Nishida’s view of experience, from which the following amplifications of the latter’s philosophy of the self is taken: To speak of a mind that sees things, a self within that views what is on the outside, does not refer to experience in its pure form but only in a later explanation of experience. In direct experience there is no self, no- thing, nothing separate or individual at all. There is only a bond of many things into a single living whole. This is the way it is with what we call the universe or the world. In reality no separate individual things exist on their own. Nor is there any separate, individual self. The only such self is the one we have thought up; nothing in reality is so patterned. What exists in reality is at one with the Life of the universe. This view may seem to leave us out of the picture altogether, but it only means that in our looking and listening the activities of looking and listening have emerged somewhere from the depths of the universe, Our looking and listening and all other things we do issue from a point where all things form a single living bond. This is why these activities are united with all sorts of other things and why we cannot think in terms of things existing on the outside and a mind existing on the inside. This is a later standpoint; the prior standpoint is that of pure experience where subject and object are one and undifferentiated. Harold H. Oliver

“Nishitani refers to self-awareness as not-knowing, or knowing of nonknowing, which represents the self as an absolutely non-objective selfness that is only possible on the field of empitiness. After breaking through the field of consciousness and discovering oneself within the field of empitiness, one realizes the ‘in itself’, which is neither a substance nor a subject. This realization of the self-idenity of things indicates directly the thing itself in its original mode of being. From within emptiness, one can grasp a thing in its original mode of being, which is neither a subjective nor substantial mode of grasping. The realization of the ‘in itself'(jitai) is a nonobjective process that is entirely devoid of representation of any kind.” C.Olson

Cognition and experience do not appear to have a truly existing self but also that the habitual belief in such an ego-self, the continual grasping to such a self, is the basis of the origin and continuation of human suffering and habitual patterns. f.j.varela e. Thompson
Might one not say: the concept that the self-as-an-entity-distinct-from-other-entities is illusory is probably itself a false concept, for it assumes that the self has spatial characteristics. Wei Wu Wei The illusory character of the self, so much insisted upon, may well be an error due to a misplacement of the illusory element, which really belongs not to the self but to a non-existent spatial character gratuitously attributed to it. Wei Wu Wei

“… all those who apprehend the single significant whole, or experience cosmic religious feeling, with or without the awareness of the existence of the principle of cosmic order, are engaged in similar acts of communion with the Whole. Yet any translation into conscious content of that experience , in scientific or religious thought, invokes reductionism where it cannot be applied. …all knowledge in the conscious content is a differentiated system that cannot by definition articulate the universal principle of order. Just as there can be no one-to-one correspondence between physical theory and physical reality, there can be no such correspondence between religious descriptions of beings and Being itself.” M. Kafatos, R. Nadeau

If Space and Time are themselves illusory – as the same metaphysical approach insists – why should the self be given a spatial attribute. What is there in our consciousness of self to justify a spatial limitation. Wei Wu Wei

” The central problem… has been trying to “prove” the existence of Being when it can never be proven because of its inherent undivided wholeness. Being neither requires or permits “proof”. It merely is, and accepting this abundantly obvious fact can provide a “foundation”, as Einstein put it, ‘for our inner security.’ …the description of the parts cannot disclose the existence or nature of the Whole. Yet one cannot, of course, merely reason or argue oneself into an acceptance of this proposition. One must have the capacity for what Einstein termed ‘cosmic religious feeling.’ Hopefully many of those who have the capacity will also communicate their awareness to others in metaphoric representations in ordinary language with enormous emotional appeal. …As described by Jonas Salk: ‘…By using the processes of Nature as metaphor, to describe the forces of the Cosmos by which it operates upon and within Man, we come as close to describing ‘reality’ as we can within the limits of our comprehension. Men will be very uneven in their capacity for such understanding, which, naturally, differs for different ages and cultures, and develops and changes over the course of time. For these reasons it will always be necessary to use metaphor and myth to provide ‘comprehensible’ guides to living. In this way, Man’s imagination and intellect play vital roles in his survival and evolution’. The Conscious Universe

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The Language of Democracy

9 Jul

This is a short blog on communication skills. Previously I had written a blog on how compromise is fundamental to the workings of a democracy and that blog was ‘inspired’ by a discussion I had with some Italians who were students in my English lesson. Recently, I had another discussion with students which prompted my writing this blog.

To explain: in my teaching English as a Second Language I make the point that to have good communication skills one must know not only correct grammar, vocabulary, intonation, pronunciation, etc., but also know how a culture uses the language. In short, what is seen by a specific culture as good communication skills? Now, this is a very interesting topic in itself (I taught a university course on ‘Cross-Cultural Communication’) but in my less intensive ESL classes, I bring to students an awareness of the model of assertive communication. While I clearly understand that assertiveness is not a model that all cultures have adhered to (e.g., Asian and Native American) in English speaking countries, esp. the business world (many of my students are learning English for business purposes) – but not only – assertiveness is seen and taught as a viable method of fostering clear communication, improving problem-solving and goal achievement, and reducing conflict between co-workers. Also, as a clinical psychologist, who did a lot of couples/marital therapy, I also used the assertiveness model to foster clearer and less problematic communication skills between my clients.

So, in one ESL lesson, we were talking about some basic principles of the assertiveness model:  Assertive communication is effective communication. It’s how to deal confidently and successfully with the people around you. Assertive people feel in control, they achieve win-win outcomes in any interpersonal transaction. They make their point persuasively whilst supporting the opinion of others. They build co-operation within a team and between teams. Assertive people communicate self-respect AND respect for others. When we are assertive we communicate what we want or prefer. We state our preference clearly and confidently without making ourselves or others look small, without being threatening or putting others down. This results in open, more genuine relationships. The four types of communication are aggressive, passive, passive-aggressive and assertive.

As we talked, one of my students said, “This is the language of Democracy.” Surprised by this spontaneous comment, I paused and with quick reflection, I said, “Yes, you are right” but we didn’t have time to take the comment up for a discussion. The next day, upon reflecting on this comment, I had to agree again with it. As I wrote in another blog, ‘What Are the Necessary Conditions of Democracy’, democracy requires ‘a political culture of negotiation, compromise, accommodation, and a willingness to lose. It is widely recognized as essential to democratic stability. Especially important here is the argument that democracy institutionalizes a means of nonviolent conflict resolution- – -the willingness to negotiate, compromise, and debate, rather than fight.’ R.J.Rummel

So, it is evident that effective and clear communication is also a necessary condition for a well-functioning Democracy. So my student was correct, the description of assertive communication above certainly fits the bill. Often political discussions in Italy, as well as other democratic countries, can degenerate into name-calling with no reasonable debate on the issues. When they do, the discussions no longer follow the guidelines of assertive communication; both, in the intent or desire for a political culture of negotiation, compromise, accommodation, a willingness to lose and also, the use or knowledge of the specific assertive communication skills. The desire and knowledge of good communication go together for successful communication necessary for a democracy. Without the desire for a ‘win-win’ situation as well as a functional knowledge of good communication skills, the functioning of dialogue about concerns, negotiation, and debates will rapidly break down into poor communication and confusion and deadlock. Therefore, I suggest a public interest group, in all democratic countries, form to do a continuing evaluation of how well politicians communicate in an effective assertive manner.

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The Veil of Unknowing: The Inscrutability of Existence

9 Jul

 

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom the emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand wrapped in awe, is as good as dead —his eyes are closed. The insight into the mystery of life, coupled though it be with fear, has also given rise to religion. To know what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms—this knowledge, this feeling is at the center of true religiousness.” Albert Einstein

This short essay takes serious the advice of Albert Einstein and will satisfactorily clarify the title in a couple of paragraphs. One of the topics that I discussed in my books, The Teachings of the Buddha: Seeing Without Illusion and The Buddha’s Radical Psychology: An Exploration is that we and all living beings are confronted with the fact that because of our evolutionary biological constitution we are like the men of the well-known ‘Blind Men and Elephant’ parable. The story goes that a long time ago a raja gather together all the men of a town who were congenitally blind. He presented to each man different parts of the elephant: to one the head of the elephant, to another its ears, to another a tusk, to another the trunk, the foot, back, tail, and tuft of the tail, saying to each one that that was the elephant. Then he asked each to describe the elephant. The men who were presented with the head answered, ‘Sire, an elephant is like a pot.’ And the men who had inspected the ear replied, ‘An elephant is like a winnowing basket.’ Those who had been presented with a tusk said it was a plowshare. Those who knew only the trunk said it was a plough; others said the body was a granary; the foot, a pillar; the back, a mortar; the tail, a pestle, etc. Then they began to quarrel, shouting, ‘Yes it is!’ ‘No, it is not!’ ‘An elephant is not that!’ ‘Yes, it’s like that!’ and so on, till they came to blows over the matter.

Now this parable has two lessons: one is that of the nature of dogmatic points of view and more for this essay the nature of knowledge. For if the elephant represents existence in the sense of the external environment, human beings are like the blind men of the story when it comes to comprehending the nature of existence. We can’t understand yet we keep thinking we can. Also for some this has the consequence of dogmatic thinking.

The reason we can’t know the veiled nature of existence is really quite obvious and depends on only two factors. The first and primary factor is that we are physical beings and as physical beings, we interact and input the sense data from the external environment through a highly selective physical apparatus – our body. We, and by the nature of it, all physical beings, have by necessity certain senses which have adapted over our evolutionary history to be sensitive to only a very restricted range of available sense data. It is through this highly limited input of the overall possible data that we then construct with our cognitive apparatus our ‘world’ or our personal idiosyncratic significance and meaning of the external world. In fact, this construction is an illusion of the veiled reality of existence and is dependent on our particular species nervous system and brain structure.

Therefore, we see that existence which is our ‘grounding’ is inscrutable and unknowable. Just to give a few examples of our very limited range of the known frequencies in the universe – we might not be aware of many other existent manifestations – what we call visible light is just one ten-billionth of the electromagnetic radiation spectrum. So, we’re only seeing a very tiny sliver of that, because we have biological receptors that are tuned into that little part of the spectrum. Radio signals, mobile phone signals, television signals, and many other signals are going right through our body without our awareness because we do not have biological receptors for that part of the spectrum. Also, while the human ear is capable of hearing many sounds produced in nature, certainly not all. The normal range of hearing for a healthy young person is 20 to 20,000 Hz so a heartbeat of 1 or 2 Hz cannot be heard and neither can we detect frequencies as high as 100,000 Hz as most bats can.

Then after receiving the various available sense inputs, our brain processes these inputs and then constructs an interpretation of that information so we can make sense out of the raw data we receive. This construction becomes our ‘world’ or our sphere or scene of our inner life. While in an evolutionary way this process has been successful to allow survival and adaption; in the larger sense living creatures are embedded and encapsulated in their own worlds unable to fully comprehend the larger universe because it is impossible to input all that information and then create a model about it. In fact, even the type or form of thoughts we can think are constrained by our biology and even more surprising Space and Time is also manufactured by our brain. So we live in a veiled universe and us mere mortals will never totally be able to see beyond the veil.

Familiarity with nature never breeds contempt. The more one learns, the more one expects surprises, and the more one becomes aware of the inscrutable. Archibald Rutledge

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My new book The Buddha’s Teachings: Seeing without Illusion A contemporary Cognitive Science Approach

9 Apr

Building on the author’s own study and experiences in Buddhist meditation, this book incorporates the writings of contemporary Buddhist scholars, cognitive scientists and physicists to provide a fascinating and authoritative framework for the interpretation of the Buddha’s teachings. Not only are the Four Noble Truths, Eightfold Path, Karma, Anatta, and Dependent Origination interpreted in an explanatory manner but also the Buddha’s experience of Enlightenment, compassion, knowledge and living is explored. Based on the author’s own spiritual quest, this book of interest to those who want a modern, coherent and insightful approach to understand the fundamentals of the Buddha’s teachings. The book is on Amazon.com

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