Author: David M. Perlman, Ph.D.

Rajesh is talking about implications of embodied cognition for pramana theorists: not fixed, but probabilistic. So as long as it is improving.

Consc vs. ‘mind and mental factors’ in Buddhism: nonmaterial luminous and knowing in nature. Discontinuous stream, succession of individual states. Every event at a given time is composed of a ‘mind’ and ‘mental factors’. Consc events can be either sensory or mental. (debate about that with the scientists) All sensory consc are cognitive in nature, not emotional… Whoah too much stuff on this slide and my battery is about to die. “subtlest mind appears only in tantra”.

HHDL said that (summarizing) in thukdam the mind that remains is very subtle mind which has no connection with the body and cannot be measured. So we can check that question off our list. Arthur discusses, so some phenomena are limited to the first-person domain, so how do we develop a methodology for first person valid investigation? Good question.

Geshe Dorje Dadul slide: karma binds mind and body together. While together remain mutually dependent. Support each other as cooperating condition for each other. Substantial continuum (gyu): matter for matter, consciousness for consciousness. Matter affects mental consciousness through sensory consciousness. … Mention of brain as mind-essence among eight bodily essences. That is, a medical text lists the eight bodily essences, and says that the brain is the essence of the mind. I’d like to get a copy of that text. I should ask our friends at Mentseekhang.

Matthieu: We can’t go out of consciousness to study consciousness; it is a very primary phenomenon. Judeo-Christian tradition started with the idea that first God created matter, then beings after, but Buddhism starts with interdependence or dependent arising. So matter and consciousness were never separate.

Matthieu presenting the Buddhist view on consciousness and the primacy of luminous awareness, in reply to Christof: I did not even know I had a brain until I went to Richie’s lab and saw the scan; I can’t feel it myself! Journalists asked me what I learned from the lab and I told them I learned I have a brain.

Richie asks HHDL, why do you think science couldn’t measure the subtle body (or mind)? HHDL: eventually science might be able to say more about these things. Second: through training, subtle mind more active, gross mind less. So subtle mind can control grosser level of feeling. Then mind can depart from physical body and spy on what the scientists are doing. (laughter).

Earlier during Tania’s talk they discussed a lot about the difference between empathy and compassion (as they were defining the terms) and how empathy can be emotionally exhausting, while compassion brings “joy tinged with sadness” because of the commitment to relieve suffering. This was supported by research where novice subjects viewing sad pictures had much less negative and more positive reaction after compassion meditation training. My experience suggests that this ties in with the importance of view in the Buddhist tradition: view, meditation, and action. In this case my experience is that someone who is rigidly attached to a materialist or physicalist view, is somewhat obstructed from receiving this benefit of compassion practice because the mind that is solidifying the belief in separate minds existing in separate brains will tend to maintain a hopelessness that the compassion could benefit the infinite ocean of suffering beings. That is why I think that in some cases it is worth making that argument. On the other hand, often the argument itself causes more suffering than benefit.

Now Richie is talking about stickiness and showing a lot of Brianna Schuyler’s slides. Including the one where the regression of the recovery shows the meditators started out worse. He’s saying it’s our “dirty laundry” which I think is pretty funny and accurate. He’s spinning my self-selection story, which makes me feel vindicated. 🙂 HHDL says yes in the 60s a lot of people had disturbed minds and were looking for meditation and gurus to help them! I guess it’s official now. — with David Bachhuber and Joe Wielgosz at Drepung Lachi.

Richie: studies on neglected orphans adopted into American middle-class families show reduced prefrontal cortex size. HHDL: you say middle class families, what about millionaires? Don’t they adopt? Richie: middle class families have responded to our recruitment ads, but we would take all comers. HHDL (laughing): I’m just teasing you that maybe the scientists are showing more deference to the millionaires! — at Drepung Lachi.