Kenneth Folk's Book

Kenneth Folk's book, Contemplative Fitness, is now available online as a work-in-progress.

It makes for a good addition to the Pragmatic Dharma ground covered by Daniel Ingram in Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha.

Alpha Waves screw up Visual Processing

In the article "Controlling brain waves to stay visually aware"

"researchers at Beckman Institute have used a novel technique to determine how the brain processes external stimuli that reach (or don’t reach) our awareness."

We found that the same brain regions known to control our attention are involved in suppressing the alpha waves and improving our ability to detect hard-to-see targets,” said Diane Beck, a member of the Beckman’s Cognitive Neuroscience Group, and one of the study’s authors.

Meditation Sucks

Researcher Willoughby Britton, in the article Meditation Nation, points out that one of the recent large meta-studies shows meditation isn’t any better than any other kind of therapy.

My comment about the lack of the earth-shattering results would be to not expect much out of 8 week studies on mindfulness.   If you could follow some people until they got a few paths under their belt, maybe that would be a bit more interesting.

She also goes into a lot of good stuff about experimental design and biases, finishing with a need to be open about the downsides of meditation (de-repression of traumatic memories and the dukkha nanas) and a need to get to the bottom of what techniques do what.

PTSD, Mindfulness and Psilocybin

From the article Psilocybin and meditation have same effect on posterior cingulate cortex (that effect being a massive decrease in activity in the PCC):

•  decreased coupling between the PCC and mPFC with psilocybin corresponds with the subjective experience of a less egoic state, or less “self.” 

In a patient whose PCC was resected,

The surgeons reported "the patient reported experiencing no rumination for almost a month after the surgery and to be in a contemplative state with a subjective feeling of absolute happiness and timelessness."

Dharma Talk 007: A couple of talks about NonDuality

Ananta Kranti spent a long time at the Osho commune in India, and apparently awakened to her true nature while in a Japanese prison for a drug charge.  She does satsang in Thailand.  Here is a really nice bit of guided meditation - open awareness - direct pointing called Resting at the Source.

Fred Davis is a nondual teacher with a southern drawl and his distinctive down-to-earth wisdom.  Standing as Nondual Awareness is one of his better youtube talks.

Sam Harris on Meditation

Unbeknownst to most, famed atheist neuroscientist Sam Harris had a few experiences with psychedelics early on and ended up spending a couple of years in India on some long vipassana retreats.

He has a couple of guided meditations that are quite good.

In the article Taming the Mind, he has a conversation with Dan Harris (no relation?), anchorman and author of the new book 10% Happier.

"you can have great friends and live pretty high on the socioeconomic ladder—your life can be a long string of pleasurable meals, vacations, and encounters with books and interesting people—and, yes, you can still have what Eckhart Tolle describes as a background static of perpetual discontent."

"this is why training the mind through meditation makes sense—because it’s the most direct way to influence the mechanics of your own experience."

this is why training the mind through meditation makes sense—because it’s the most direct way to influence the mechanics of your own experience. - See more at: http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/taming-the-mind#sthash.HYYVxupY.dpuf

Enlightenment and stuff

A series of vaguely related links I stumbled thru while doing my normal searches:

Dark Night and What Enlightenment is Like
A pragmatic dharma practitioner lists a few characteristics of enlightenment.  A little bit idealized here and there, but a good general list.

How Understanding the Process of Enlightenment Could Change Science
Jeff Warren with some interesting stuff about people having cessations/fruitions in the fMRI machine.

On Enlightenment: An Interview with Shinzen Young
With his student Har-Prakash Khalsa.
 
Benefits of Long-Term Meditation with Shinzen Young
More enlightenment talk from Shinzen, a transcript from the Thinking Allowed television series.

Levels of Organization in General Intelligence
This is a long treatise on artificial intellignece.  I didn't bother to read the thing, but I noticed the abstract simplified intelligence down to the following organization: code > sensory modalities > concepts > thoughts > deliberation.  It's kind of like dependent origination.