The Zennist

The greatest war of all ages: the brain war

There is certainly a split between materialism and idealism or between Judaism's two covenants, one legal (laws and commandments) the other spiritual, written on the hearts of the people, emphasizing internal transformation.

 

Looking at Buddhism's own divide, the split seems to be between Non-self and Self, between the empirical (direct sense experience) and the transcendent truth (paramārthasatya).

 

The history of division in philosophy and religion (dharma) seems to emerge from a profound and asymmetrical difference between the left hemisphere of the brain and the right hemisphere, a subject explored in great depth by the psychiatrist Ian McGilchrist. Where our attention is placed either to the left or the right hemisphere determines our fate.

 

By over focusing on the left hemisphere of the brain we eventually could face annihilation. This antagonism can only be resolved by redirecting the attention to the right hemisphere which is crucial for guiding the left hemisphere. It provides the broader context within which the left hemisphere's detailed analysis makes sense. Incidentally, lacking initial awakening (kenshō) is like proceeding in Buddhism without any context. Initial awakening is extremely important. To be successful in Buddhism we must adapt to the broader context.

 

 

 

At the intersection of Buddhism and science

Without Tesla's discovery that electrical signals can be transmitted without wires to a receiving antenna and the signal amplified, an adequate metaphor might still be lacking in Buddhism to explain transmigration.  In Buddhism, transmigration refers to the cycle of rebirth and the continuation of consciousness from one life to another. Vijñāna, or consciousness, plays a crucial role in this process since it survives the death of the carnal body. Vijñāna can be described as the "knowing" that divides (vi) experience (jñāna) into subject and object, contributing to a false sense of self.

The body however is a transceiver and the DNA strands are an antenna that can both send and receive. The transmigrant signal is vijñāna that represents a wave-like function: a disturbance or difference in the original one (a pure waveless medium, i.e., pure Mind).

The wave with its oscillations, represents the discriminative consciousness (vijñāna) with subject-object duality. Through an intuitively grounded meditation when the wave function reaches a stable non-waving state (samādhi) this is the cessation of dualistic discrimination and nirvana attainment.

But this is only the beginning of the real path, the path of a Bodhisattva. When a sufficient amount of samādhis are accomplished this leads to the light of Mahayana/mahāyana-prabhāsa, a powerful kind of shakti/शक्ति or baptism by pure Mind after which the adept sees the world as it really is for a short period of time until the old habits or vāsanā eventually return.

Modern day vestibule thinking

If we were to place the present human condition somewhere in Dante's Divine Comedy it would have to be on the vestibule (the ante-inferno). Yet, the huge majority of mankind has always been here including even those who lead the present generation to their doom.

Despite advancements in civilization, there are also enduring aspects of human nature that keep us tethered to certain negative patterns of behavior, often to our detriment. While religion offers us some relief it doesn't go far enough because it is mixed with secular values.

Put another way, we are trying to find a solution that is religious as well as secular but we're not succeeding. Buddhism offers us quite a different perspective. We have to look at our human condition through the eyes of supreme enlightenment. We cannot look at it standing on secular ground with secular eyes expecting to observe the transcendent.