The Brain and Enlightenment

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BZ-01150

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BZC Talk #1520

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in numberless ah to taste the to a to target his words morning
am i speaking
that's why hat
a long time
notwithstanding that began his passive okay
in san francisco
and then
you are like way
you
how god
in the month with extended family
leaving the town
manage
nashville
with dan patrick
act and live linda my lap
calm down
never have the name
a project that know i'm
dancer
one
either hand i not effective yeah
he's a member office danger
so i mean at the i'm not do that
lying every other week and the member of the maximum of thirty pm
welcome down
thank you make it
ah
ha
when i received this
rugs you from belgium
he here nice calligraphy her
ah he said that i don't know anything about but he said doug doesn't know anything about buddhism but he's very interested
and i i really took that to heart
a
so today i'm gonna talk about two things that i don't know anything about so i hope your time will be well spent
the first one is the brain really i studied a lot smaller things and the other is enlightenment which we ah we think about sometimes
and when i told sojourners going to talk about enlightenment anyway here's the one above the brig
are you may i'd like to know how many people have heard of this woman it's jill taylor know it's pretty well no and she has a youtube thing in
sought after but that
what set this trail of of interest off
and
so when a doctor surgeon he said well all my lectures or about enlightenment
that this could be a hard act to follow
and i've ever learned something about it so he gave me a book
anda
ah ha i don't usually like to study because i spent my whole career thinking really hard you know
and i'd come home from work and i my son would say daddy daddy played chess with me and or to i can't like brain is tired
but done
but i've been retired for a while now so
i dug into this book so every place this is the markets by ah
some bay park korea and
the iran do the first time and i put stickers or replace that i didn't understand something
hey there replace i thought they were selling important and everything i were every place i went ask sojourn about so ah
i don't know the library i'll take it back with
probably have to clean it up
in the so
i read it twice first time was really hard but i was in the mountains i had a dictionary and i had no interruption so it was it was snapped about of the few days
so this this lady jill taylor ah the song you heard about i'll just give you a of capsule of her she's a she's a neural anatomist she studies the brain she studies what different parts of the brain do
and she her life was going along just fine she was successful or
ah professional person
and one morning she woke up
and she had kind of a headache in and it got worse and then ah
she realized that her brain was going she knew so much about her brain that she could tell what parts of it we're going
and what she was losing was her ability to speak and her ability to think logically and her ability to read numbers and a lot of motor skills
anna
but something very interesting happened to her that's what caught me in so i'm gonna read a quote
ah she said a devoid of language and linear processing i felt disconnected from the life i had lived in in the absence of my cognitive pictures and expansive ideas time escaped me
the memories from my past were no longer available for recollection
leaving me cloaked from the bigger picture of who i was and what i was doing here as a life form
focused completely in the present moment my pulsing brain felt like it was gripped in a vise and here deep within the absence of earthly temporality the boundaries of my earthly body dissolved and i melted into the universe
as the hemorrhaging blood interrupt the normal functioning of my love mine
from its attachment to cat organization and detail as the dominating five years of my left hemisphere shut down they no longer inhibited my right hemisphere
and my perception was free to shift such that my consciousness could embody the tranquillity of my right mind
swear swathed in a enfolding sense of liberation and transformation the essence of my consciousness shifted to a state that felt amazingly similar to my experience in taylorville then a villas heard term for oh when you first wake up and you're not fully
conscious in kind of in a dream state
i'm no authority but i think the buddhists would say i entered the mode of existence they call nirvana
so ah
given that i thought well you know i wonder what i think about that you know
honda
so
so i i read book
and i thought about enlightenment
an app
ah the first thing i read in the book was a quote the parties from bodhidharma who bodhi dharma usually is over there money's not there today
but he's with us
bodhi dharma said i came to china not to make people booed us but to tell them they are already perfect food us
so ah
ah and he's not talking about shakyamuni of course he's talking a one of the other booed as that is shocked or mooney ah
became when he ah understood everything
perhaps the ah
probably not the dharma chi of buddha but the sambo decay and buddha because that's more for human beings more for us
and
suzuki roshi i had a few lectures about an enlightenment
and they're not in there and not always so
he said real enlightenment is always with you so there's no need for you to stick to it or even think about because it has always with you difficulty itself as enlightenment your busy life is enlightened activity that is true enlightenment
so that might be why i didn't study buddhism so much
but
but i didn't have the whole picture but ah but ah
ah and then as i read further in this this fellow parks book you know he says he starts talking about buddha and he says buddha is dependent origination
i didn't know what that meant
and i asked some people in emerging really get a straight answer
and know and it may be of course something that we can't talk about
ah
but ah i i i try to compare with the experience that i hair and the things that i knew about ah studying the world physics and that sort of thing
so ah
ah
if you start down and a particle level know there's all these kinds of particles they all seem to have relationships to each other there's all these things that are
ha
ah tie them together they if they have like the strong force they've got electromagnetism they've got a weak force of gravity they probably has something to do with whatever as is a dark energy
and oh
there's also all the quantum mechanical things if that don't seem to really be effective my space and time like the poly principal and quantum entanglement which which is a relationship that that doesn't seem to care where things are they
our one
ah
so oh
i've always felt that those sorts of thoughts ah
made me feel the the large picture of how everything is connected
and you could look at this is that like ah the the buddhist conception of the net of indra
it's it's everything is connected everything affects everything else
but there's another interesting thing and and so and what we don't really stressing physics is that all of these things are connected they all have nature's but
whether or not there's an external reality in other words is it all emptiness or is or an external reality to this or this net
and
i thought about it it all we know is that if we do things if we do you do an experiment or i do an experiment or somewhere in china doesn't experiment
we didn't seem enter
that's very strange
it might indicate that there's an external reality but still we're just taking these things that appear in our head and comparing our notes so there's something for sure similar about us
so
and these things come together in some strange way
ah like presence we can't really predict what all the particles are and it's a work in progress but but they seem to have all kind of conspire and work together to give a complete set of particles we can they kind of emerge out of this
nest of interactions and if you go one step up the next thing as a molecules
and now i know there's a nuclear physicist here
well let me just say that we can't really predict
elements of go to the elements elements we can't really predict with great certainly all of the elements it should be around but but they don't worry about it you know they're there
and
so so they kind of emerge from this set of relationships to they just come up
he go another step you go to molecules molecules ah the very complicated you've only got all these particles go around evening
and up and even depend a lot on what a what their geometry as the same molecule have several different geometries
and we're just beginning to calculate this sort of thing in it in takes whole lot of
computing power
so molecules just come out of this net too so it's like this big net of starting down at the bottom with particles and then it kind of close together and you get elements and it clumps together and you get molecules
and then a
ah somehow we get selves that reproduce you know that's really strange made out of molecules
so everything is dependent upon everything else it's it seems to be like this could be dependent origination
and then and then you get the mine and you get hurricanes and you get all these things they just come up
so when these guys say that the ah
enlightenment as always with you and you are buddhas
ah i interpreted as were all
pieces of this were all like little lumps and this net you know that come and go and disappear and people die and then pumped goes away and another boat comes and oh
ah
it's not personal
so
way i see that sort of thing and i was ah i was reading
the than ah the magazine of the american physical society
and they're starting this push to get the government to fund a new area research
and one of those areas of research is ah time to understand emergence emergent phenomena which are all these things that i just talked about
and so here comes the government into buddhism
how they get a do the research
lena sit zazen will save
what they say they say the human brain is what are the most stunning examples of emergent properties it contains a hundred billion neurons that transmit and receive electrochemical signals each neuron exists as an individual rather simple cell
but from millions of them acting collectively there emerges the human mind
so are they want to get into this area
so that's probably as much as i can say are want to say about oh
my feeling about buddha
ha
but you know it's an it's an easy way out
to just say well we're all buddha so why sweater
let's just take it easy
in buddhism and i read a reading now from own
from worth the chioma roshi analysis from this is he's discussing duggan's gondola and this is from the whole hearted way then he says in buddhism the dichotomy of delusion and enlightenment is transcendent from the very beginning
we have to practice and actualized right now
right here the buddha dharma or the reality of life that transcends both delusion and enlightenment this is great enlightenment therefore from the first we are neither diluted nor enlightened
reality itself exists before we divide the name delusion and enlightenment we are practicing this reality right here right now
this is called attaining or actualizing enlightenment we practice with enlightenment as our base practice and enlightenment or simply one
so that's why we're here
practice or light liver simply one
it's it's a while it will they say actualizing i think of bringing it to your consciousness
vienna
ah
and when you read park there's there's a whole discussion of harvests how this initiate itself in in the and what he's saying is the initial stages his faith
no faces and difficult word you if you look it up it's it's sad it's something that i'd
you have to sort of takers a given
mattel
ah
it's something that gives you the confidence to act and to practice
now in my particular case ah
ah heist i've mentioned this last week that the the
ah what happened to me as i was i was studying for my ph d and i was raising two children with another on the way and i was
really busy
and on
some friends of mine had or why don't you come to this of zen place in san francisco in and see what it's like
so ah so i went over instead would never went early in the morning
and ah when i walked in this room
dark room with the men on one side and women on the other
ah i just ah
i didn't consciously or feel anything so comfort
and
peace
and i sat down and i didn't have any instruction about doing sauce in but there was so much of it around me that are just so in and it must have heard its effect because ah
in spite of my busy life and all the things i had to do in effect i wasn't really searching for anything
ha i went back every day all the way to san francisco
so that space
it made me do something
i didn't even know i had faith no completely unconscious
but when i look back at it i'm but know that was faith
so you have faith that of if you do this practice you ah
is that that you'll get anything but
you have faith in you do the practice and your knighton
and it's very similar to a real i realized that it's very similar to the faith and physicists have
you know physicists devote their lives to to to this quest for knowledge
and they think that if they can ah
do experiments and figure out these things that they'll actually learned something
for some reason what reason is that why does mathematics work who is just the world's a very interesting place
and know
so ah
so i come back to this lady
ah she's she's had this terrible thing happened to her and she's slowly putting your life back together and
she ah
she
decides that you can keep these feelings of of oneness and expansiveness in peace and joy ah i decided to keep them
and she has a lot of cheap describes a lot of things that she does with basically what what her experience did for me was the to give me faith
he gave me a real solid are feeling that something was there and it was in all of us and
my practice ah you get
in communication with it you actualized your enlightenment
so on
that's how i feel about her and when she came when she started coming back and in in reconstructing her left brain as she did that she was able to ah
ah reject character traits that she had that she didn't want to have
kiss her right ring with like more in control and could tear things down so it's very interesting and and the dish that the question is is she a single case well there's been a lot of research both before and since and in the right brain is really a a differ
hunt creature the nerve cells are much longer they cover more area
and
so i was thinking about this er en
ah
are going to the live i wanna say that she she actually of did what i would call a a a stroke of insight
a bodhisattva vow she says my stroke of insight would be peace is only a thought away at all we have to do to access it is silence the voice of are dominating left mind
that's the monkey mind i guess
ah
we try to make peace with it and i think it oh our practice makes a quieter it's a combination of posture and breathing to go to go to the work for what we are
so like ablow kitchen bar was practicing we say this every day in the heart sutra
ah
was to them
ah pressure for a meta
he realized that all scanned and swear empty
anna
it's that kind of realization that is usually called enlightenment
and so i would say this lady had that type of experience
so as i
as i was working on this are we ok and time
okay get a done that an hours worth it
the
so i will i want to take a break from this i was really studying or really was studying hard
hello
and
sighs i sit down to read the new yorker van have you know
and so low and behold in the latest new yorker june twenty eighth july twenty eighth there's an article called the eureka her how many have read that wow yeah this is a sophisticated garage
so
they're looking at insight
and it's they're interviewing guys interviewing these different scientists
and they talk about
some cases of inside one is where there was a some smoke jumpers were in a in a valley and the wind changed home and they tried to run to the top of the valley so that the fire wouldn't catch him because if come over to their side of the valley and this one
one guy kept looking back and realize i couldn't make it
till the top and they were gonna get roasted and all the sonny realized what he should do is light a fire and let the fire open up some areas because they're going up grassy slope so
and any got in the middle and area and put his his reflective shield over him and put his face down by the brown and he lived
and only one other man of those fifteen lived so they are they are caught that to get people started to read it
the it you would you will know how do you have insights like them but the interesting thing is ah
these guys didn't developed an experiment that required some of the properties of insight
what they did is they are
they would give you three words and here's an example pine crab and sauce what word can be combined with all of those and the word is apple
what they found is it ah that doesn't happen in the left brain and a won't happen if the person is trying really hard
ah in people had gotten they had sort of of
ha alpha wave formations which signifies relaxation
so ah
you have to have a soft mind like since of the ratios and have a soft mine to solve these sort of inside problems which are probably similar to a
a
enlightenment
the sudden sudden enlightenment
so ah they were they were they also found that when when this would happen when this lightman would come there be a big burst of electoral activity of the right brain and they associate those bursts with forming new path
as so the light what comes
the new pants are formed it's permanent and and as very similar to what park says about ah practice it says if if you practice and and if it's if you're practicing of based on this sort of
strange faith i you don't stop you just keep practicing whole life as practice
so ah
this
this these things go into you remain these pairs
so they tested as in guy
he tested as in a meditative could be someone we know
and a adversity and do very well you know he was really turning or already knew very well and then he started getting oliver and he
he did the best test they've ever seen
when they say about him as they was to talk to lori says that dramatic improvement of the xin meditator came from his paradoxical ability to focus on not being focused
he could pay attention to those remote associations in the right hemisphere
he had the cognitive control to let go he became an insight machine
hi
so
when it is us in that's what you're doing man could be anyway
ah our practice spans a whole lot of different forms but zazen is very important part of our practice and i think this is evidence that we are actually in my wife used to say to me i'd say i'm doing zazen i'm saving all sentient beings and she says
as you can save all sentient beings unless you do something
well we're doing something
we're making this large net have a piece that is more
a settled you know it's kind of like adjusting the drapery you know we're doing says him
and that's a good thing so
ah i'll conclude with a have faith after all you are buddha
doesn't his practice do it balance your brain
relax your mind and be happy don't worry
some another five minutes are perfect yeah let's have some questions yes when but

that

yeah

how much the only thing i have a feeling for is that
wherever it came from it's never gonna go away
it'll get diffuse very diffuse
but ah
we don't know where it came from as far as physics goes
there's those ideas knocked down here
deanna article and known as article nicholas
more than one place a particle more
and fine
the future past and and all these scientific insight on that front of them and i'm sure next several thousand a year
the anymore
my push us
ah without being irreverent yeah i asked him so what
and i also ask you
matter how find you go in the science
how are you talking about ever finding what he would call the nature of major
i agree with so what
ha ha
ah
i don't think where
i don't think i don't think that's a question that's up for grabs
i mean i think we can go ah
close to it in a bunch of different ways
ah but ah you know we're just days you know where does this pile of mush
same back for the inside of it and we get these ideas
ah
and that's all we know so
no it would be nice to know ultimate reality but ah i don't
they don't have a lot of hope i think we have to live with with just what comes to us
yeah
there are enough
corollary that
then
while one way as
fine that

ah
i think that there are a lot of
actually there's a lot of people that have made that claim
and the way we sort through planes and physics
is too
do experiments
so that's the type of noise via face you
so if somebody comes up with something that tells me i can measure and give myself more confidence that they're really as ultimate reality than than would
i would dare
be willing to do the experiment
yes that you offer
a rare occasion i stopped i prophecy i we're going to be words said separate inclusion of where such as having documentary everything do some sort of experiments pruitt and all of the handle
started with the buddha and have experience of number
they worth it
ah
mother for i can talk that i can answer that call me personally
ah
for me ah
it's not if i can figure it out or if i can do an experiment actually for me it's just
what comes from my practice
and if it feels consistent with my practice and in comfortable and ah
then then ah
for the time being since everything changes it's okay
that's and and and that's a dangerous thing too because i mean george bush feels that way in
yeah way back you
thank you i heard on check ralph young area that may i heard a woman or growth
yeah
yeah yeah i know but yeah yeah she sees a good speaker for you
of my wife
yeah actually with a new schedule we do have more time so market is only eleven or five
great who can ellen
well i'm go back to something that you said sort of unresponsive my project i think that anyone right you have to do something
yeah i and the only way so a your physical your visit in order to verify something you have to do some right right you have to make an equally yeah the nature of reality that job that reflecting on articles that can exist
in where in one place where did one time at once to is not alone and i understand but ah where you have a reality that can be down
what we are
united insight create machines but where machines of effort
and that the reality that we manifest his by constantly asked the how
and we have a i think if that question in also in that activity whether it's over or all the into the process of doesn't it's this is the mind of the reality is the find of inquiry itself
and of course you can never
grass you can never quite be the question you're grasping the question itself
ah so we have to go on faith and allow this activity to unfold that it's it's miraculous activity gifts
i think that that time we see ah and every time you feel like you realize oh this is the ultimate reality you can pretty much hair each guy la jolla cause you're locking down
rather than inquiry would equal yeah
i go with you
an end
ah
we do the best we can yeah
oh what a peer worker he said
club is collider going to verify the video the
yeah qualified but that
i know as much about that as i do the ultimate reality happen
that your first year
i'm responding to the
she
i thought on that one
what what would you say about a machine
yesterday and constantly inside machine
this kind of
you know that here
biologists and yeah
sitting with the idea that
a short life
here this year as ensuring that neck
no net will have an urgent on
on like i o what a wonderful thing is that
the magic me
yeah i i
be very careful
paradigm
going along the idea
and
brain is like
like option
our century with on elbow
gives me a display

i think that it shuts down

no comment
ah
yes i i tried
hum jazz
the
he's more with his a ah
ha
with this concept of
have no external reality
ah subject and object
sounds like separate existences the essence and function cells
he didn't do a lot of things with words that i i didn't quite
ah
a group of
but i think in the hole
when things in there

i don't know if this is a translation not
no all know this guy it's see robin english
the
yeah yeah yeah exactly yeah
herod i you
by now
he used his expression
of that and
the process was my maid
no it's it's it's a various spooky eyes
spooky spooky action at a distance
what it is as you can put on to particles in such a state
but they're the same thing and then you can move on the part
so they have actually put things in this entangled state and moved them apart several metres and and they change one and the other one
changes at the same time
there's no communication between them it's spooky
santa hat
man

the question
top
damn

and that's that's exactly
oh what the net that exactly one that's exactly my point is
basically there's not banksters processes
and that's as my understand that's that's dependent origination
this is the process
and process of everything else

the