More Ramachandran

For Mona, and Identity

MindHacks post: Is this the end of the mystery of self-awareness?: pointing to an essay by V.S. Ramachandran on consciousness and self:  SELF AWARENESS: THE LAST FRONTIER.

He was previously mentioned here in a post with a link to a TED talk:
A journey to the center of your mind.

His arguments use cases of various anomalies in the brain to point to how ’self’ and ‘consciousness’ is constructed. For him (and this is me oversimplifying) it seems to come down to mirror neurons

I also suggest that although these [mirror] neurons initially emerged in our ancestors to adopt another’s allocentric visual point of view, they evolved further in humans to enable the adoption of another’s metaphorical point of view. (“I see it from his point of view” etc.) …

There are also: “touch mirror neurons” that fire not only when your skin is touched but when you watch someone else touched. This raises an interesting question; how does the neuron know what the stimulus is? Why doesn’t the activity of these neurons lead you to literally experience the touch delivered to another person? … It is a sobering thought that the only barrier between you and others is your skin receptors!

… despite all the pride that your self takes in its individuality and privacy, the only thing that separates you from me is a small subset of neural circuits in your frontal lobes interacting with mirror neurons. Damage these and you “lose your identity”—your sensory system starts blending with those of others…

… there may be dysfunctional interaction between the mirror neurons and frontal inhibitory structures leading to a dissolution of the sense of self as being distinct from others (or indeed from the world ). Lose the world and lose yourself—and it’s as close to death as you can get.

… these same circuits [might] become hyperactive … The result would be an intense heightening of the patient’s sensory appreciation of the world and intense empathy for all beings to the extent of seeing no barriers between himself and the cosmos—the basis of religious and mystical experiences.

See: Brain and Self and Brain and the link to Jill Bolte Taylor’s TED talk My stroke of insight.

The skandas are empty. Form, feeling, perception, mental formations, consciousness are not self, are not identity. Body is just a filter for sensation. We are only our relationship with the world, not fixed, always changing, only this moment.

Update Wednesday, December 31, 2008: 

Video Lectures on Neurotheology

by Todd Murphy, associate member of Laurentian University Behavioral Neurosciences program, under the direction of Dr. M.A. Persinger

 

God and the Brain. 

Enlightenment, The Self, and the Brain, 

Absentreeism

London’s tree cover has dropped to 10%, well behind other municipalities and below the recommended level of 30%. Suspected statistical anomolies put London’s civic workers absenteeism rate at 19 days, above the average of 8.

More Spam for the Blue Box

At Once Delivered, rphilli posts a series of comparative essays contrasting Christianity against various other religions and systems. In response to Comparing Christianity and Buddhism I commented:

No Responses to “Comparing Christianity and Buddhism” dougrogers Says:
December 19, 2007 at 8:54 am              

 
“Mahayana Buddhism worships the Buddha as a god, along with other gods.”


Nope. Wrong.


“Other forms of Buddhism add shamanism and elements of the occult.”


Such as?


“What Buddhism says about salvation: The goal of life is to achieve nirvana to eliminate all desire, particularly by following the Eight-fold Path.”


This isn’t really a very clear statement. Salvation isn’t necessary because there is nothing to save, nor some state where salvation – whatever that is – is outside of or not a part of what we already are. 
To “eliminate all desire” is wrong. The desire to save all beings is a Bodhistava vow. This is not Nihilism. The Eightfold Path isn’t a choice amongst or against other paths to choose.


“What Buddhism says about man: Man is worthless, having only temporary existence.”


Uhm, no. I don’t know where you get this from unless you are mistaking Buddhism for some kind of Nihilism. That is a fundamental error.


“What Buddhism says about sin: There is no such thing as sin against a supreme being. The human condition is suffering,”


Gee. looking up Dukkha on Wikipedia [or Google] seems a difficult task for those whose mind is made up. Sin is a discriminatory judgment applied to actions. Look up the 5 Precepts that Buddhist Laypersons keep.


“There is no reincarnation, in which the eternal soul after death inhabits a new body. ”


Correct, there is no self or personality which reincarnates. There is no soul in Buddhism, so as you cast this statement in a Christian perspective, it really is a bit skewed against understanding what does incarnate.

and in response to Buddhism: An Overview I commented:

No Responses to “Buddhism: An Overview” dougrogers Says:
December 19, 2007 at 9:04 am              


“Buddhism is an impersonal religion of self-perfection, the end of which is death (extinction) – not life.”


This is truly laughable.


“After Gautama’s death, Buddhism eventually died out in India”


This seems to imply that Buddhism died out when Buddha died – actually wrong, if this is what this sentence means to imply.


“The Buddha taught that there are five ways people attach themselves to the world and to self:”


Error in conception here. People do not attach themselves to the 5 Skandhas. The 5 Skandhas are in fact what makes us believe we are people separate from the Skandhas.


“The Buddha taught that the sum of these five parts does not make up a greater whole called the Self.”


This is more correct, but does not address that what we as persons are depends also on the vast and subtle interactions between each of us as individuals and the Universe itself.

Now rphilli also says:

Our purpose in this study is not to condemn anyone or to assume God’s role as sovereign judge of the universe; rather, it is to compare the teachings of some of the world’s major religions and cults with biblical, historical Christianity so that we might be more effective in praying for and witnessing to the lost, and wiser in our ability to discern false doctrines. Every person, regardless of his or her religious beliefs, is precious in the eyes of God and is someone for whom Christ died. Our attitude as we study these false religious systems should be one of humility, love, and grace.     

My bolding. At least rphilli admits bias going into this, but you cannot fairly compare and contrast when you admit to beginning the exercise with a closed mind, and you post errors in understanding as facts to be disputed.

Second; blogs are about conversation. Comments on that site are moderated, and my comments on the posts have not been put up after a day.

 The thing is, I don’t ask to see these things in my Tag Surfer. If you are going to come and knock on my door and tell me things that are wrong or misunderstood, I’m going to close the door in your face and discount all of the rest of the – likely more reasonable – people of your persuasion as kooks too. Junk mail doesn’t even get into my house. I keep the blue box on the porch.

Hey, you kids, get The Christ outta’ my holiday

Yeah, yeah, it’s from FARK, but; While most Christians embrace Christmas, a few recall a more complex history presents a richer story.

Pastor John Foster [is] one of very few American Christians who follow what used to be the norm in many Protestant denominations-rejecting the celebration of Christmas on religious grounds.” People don’t think of it this way, but it’s really a secular holiday,” said Foster, a Princeton-based pastor in the United Church of God.               

Good on ya! A fundamentalist who rejects Christmas.

Here is the book;  Christmas: A Candid History at Amazon. 

It’s funny though, as the comments after the story waggle between rational and ranty. Guess who the Ranters are.

We note that Bodhi Day, marking the day of Buddha’s enlightenment is said to fall on December 8th—the Lunar calendar puts that at the full moon occurring on December 26th this year. 

Yoga ≠ Buddhism

At To Live Is Christ, Angela commits some of the most outrageous fuzzy-headed illiterate thinking I can imagine. It’s people like this who make me aghast at some of the thinking that passes for comparative religion, least of all from evangelical hard-core Christians. A single post like this is enough, in my mind to warrant removal of her Thinking Blogger Award.

 

Is Yoga A Harmless Exercise?

 

You really understand very little. You cannot attribute Vedic sources, Hindu sources, to Buddhism. Hinduism and Buddhism are not the same thing.

Yoga began in the ancient civilization of India where Buddhism is ardently practiced. To understand yoga, one must understand a bit of Buddhism and its history.    

This is simply wrong. Yoga predates Buddhism as a practice. You can study Yoga very deeply and need never touch any Buddhism. There are no Yogis, or Brahman, or God in Buddhism. Brahman is a Hindu concept. The Buddha repudiated Brahman and Atman.

The central theme of Buddhism is the mantra “Atman is Brahman”      

Politely, this is bullshit. This has nothing to do with Buddhism. There is no Atman, there is no Brahman. And as to the site you recommend, I really don’t think you can read. The very first line of text on the page says, “One of the key concepts of Hinduism is the belief in an ultimate reality called Brahman which is the source of all living things in this universe.”

Considering Yoga’s inseparable tie with Buddhism, it is unwise for Christians to practice yoga.       

Buddhism has no “inseparable tie” with Yoga. None. Nada, zip, zilch zero. Siddhartha Gautama studied many esoteric spiritual paths. Yes, Yoga was one of them, one of the many he abandoned before realizing the Middle Path which lead to his enlightenment.

I am asserting that it is impossible to separate yoga from Buddhism and it’s pantheistic beliefs.        

Buddhism holds no panthiestic beliefs. Your argument is not with Buddhism. Yes, there are realms of Gods in the Buddhist cosmology, but they are irrelevant and distractions to Liberation.

Yoga is basically a tool that is used by Buddhist to unite with the Universal Soul (Bramhan).        

Buddhists do not use Yoga as a tool to unite with anything. There is no Universal Soul, there is no Brahman, there is no individual soul – Anatman – there is nothing to unite with. You already are part of it, just get out of the way.

Make some proper arguments.