Happy Friday! Like last month, we are excited to offer a discount on an MIT Press title to our blog readers (when purchased through the MIT Press website). Unlike last month, we are doubling the discount to 30% off!
Many of us could use a little more Zen in our lives, so to kick off the New Year, the January discount pick is Meditating Selflessly: Practical Neural Zen, by James H. Austin. Dr. Austin is a clinical neurologist and researcher and has been a Zen practitioner for more than three decades. Follow this link, which will automatically apply the discount, to get your copy of Meditating Seflessly. *In the (unlikely) event that the discount doesn't appear when you click the link, have no fear--simply manually enter the discount code "AUFRI11" in the shopping cart to get the discount.*
As an added bonus, here's a Q&A with Dr. Austin about Meditating Selflessly. Check back on the first Friday of February (2/3) for our next "Thirty Percent-Off Friday" pick.
As both a clinical neurologist and Zen practitioner, do you experience tension between both of these very different worlds?
You might think that such a person would experience tension. In actual fact, I’ve found that these two seemingly different worlds are mutually illuminating and inspiring. Maybe this is because I’m just an inquisitive academic neurologist who happened to grow up as Unitarian. In any event, my curiosity about Zen has stimulated me to study the latest neuroscience research, and vice versa.
How long have you practiced Zen Buddhism, and what first led you to it?
I went to Japan 37 years ago on a sabbatical to do neuropharmacological research at Kyoto University Medical School. I just happened to meet an English-speaking Zen Master --- Kobori-Roshi --- at a Rinzai Zen Monastery. That formative experience started me on this Path.
What is the significance of bowing before meditation?
Bowing expresses respect for one’s surroundings and profound gratitude for the gift of life. When you bow, you’re also lowering the flag of your sovereign egocentric Self.
A piece of advice that you offer in your book is, “Don’t cling to the notion that an episode of blissful absorption means you are enlightened.” You state that you experienced enlightenment many years ago on the platform of a London subway station. What effect did that have on you, and do you consider it a turning point in your studies as a Zen Buddhist?
When some of the earlier, superficial states of absorption become blissful, the person can be misled into believing that they must have become “enlightened”. However, authentic states of enlightenment don’t usually happen until one has engaged in regular meditative practice for seversal years. In Zen, these brief states are called kensho or satori. They are characterized by a dissolution of the psychic sense of Self, a distinctive loss of fear, a dropping out of the sense of time (achronia), and a sense of immanent perfection. I refer to that episode on the London train platform in 1982 as “a taste” of kensho. Its insights entered directly, deeply, wordlessly. They became transformative for a variety of reasons. Among them was the simple fact that they kept nudging this neurologist to come up with some scientific explanations for their mechanisms.
You stress the significance of returning to the natural world. What is your advice for city-dwellers hoping to connect to Nature but unable to hear bird songs over the traffic?
We city dwellers are easily swept up into an artificial life of hassled multitasking and electronic diversions. Unfortunately, this mindless indoors routine culminates in what has recently been called a “Nature-deficit disorder.” A simplified meditative practice reminds us of two things: First, of the need to pause. This enables us to still keep training our attention mindfully indoors: while preparing meals, while eating slowly and actually tasting our food, washing the dishes, etc; and Second: that when we finally do escape into the outdoors, we can still pause long enough to look up to enjoy the cloud formations in the sky, marvel at the flight of pigeons or English sparrows, bask in the warm sunshine, and contemplate our impermanence while gazing at the stars.
How would you explain to someone, in just a few sentences, the changes he or she can make in order to let go of the “Self,” as you define it?
I’ve found that this requires more than a few sentences. So, I’d say, check out some pages of Meditating Selflessly. There, you’ll discover explanations for seventy-seven ways to become less “selfish,” along with reasons for not doing nine things.
What is the significance of gratitude in meditation?
A whole chapter in the book is devoted to this everyday practice of gratitude. The Buddha viewed gratitude as a quality that would arise naturally along one’s Path of meditative training. Recent research confirms that “counting one’s blessings” is a practice associated with positive attitudes of mental health in general.
You make a very interesting connection between selflessness and the subcortical mechanisms of preattention. Could you expound on the deeper origins of selflessness?
Remarkable automatic mechanisms reside deep in our brain. They normally “turn down” the activity of the cortical regions involved in our Self-centeredness at the same time that they “turn up” our attentiveness. This inverse relationship is important. It suggests how the training of our “top-down” and “bottom-up” systems of attention could gradually enable us to let go of our maladaptive Self-centered conditioning, and could simultaneously allow our innate, more selfless, affirmative behaviors to develop.
What are the major differences between concentrative meditation and receptive meditation?
The major difference is that when we begin concentrative mediation we’re choosing --- voluntarily --- to “pay” top-down attention in an ongoing, focused manner. In contrast, receptive meditation is choiceless. It begins when we open up awareness to express involuntary modes of more reflexive, bottom-up global attentiveness. Because these two categories of meditation are complementary, it is an advantage to cultivate them in a flexible, balanced manner.
Can you please summarize for us the fascinating but perplexing koan practice?
The koan is an artificial concentration device. It poses a riddle you cannot solve by using your conventional intellectual powers. A koan tests your patience and tolerance. Its short summary phrase can help remind you, though at a very superficial level, to suspend your “monkey mind-wandering” tendencies and to get back into the present moment. The study of koans can also help you appreciate that many subtle psychological levels are involved in the ancient cultural history of Zen Buddhism. However, only during a state of insight-wisdom will a koan be resolved at deep subconscious levels.
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