Zen and the Brain: Toward an Understanding of Meditation and Consciousness

Take a trip through the topography of the brain, and you're likely to get lost somewhere around the medulla oblongata. Zen can lose you before you've even pretzeled your legs into the lotus position. But a unique neurologist-Zen Buddhist has written a tome that is a map to all the mysteries of meditation and mind. Take breathing out, for example. We spend just over half of our breathing time exhaling. For meditating monks, it's a full three-quarters. EEGs show us that the act of exhaling helps physically quiet the brain. Many other causal connections can be found between Zen practices and the physiology of the brain, and James H. Austin lays them out one by one, drawing from his own Zen experiences and the latest in neurological research. So if you've ever wondered what the corpus callosum has to do with consciousness or how the limbic system contributes to enlightenment, Austin will get your brain racing and put your mind at ease. --Brian Bruya

uuid: E8D236A3-B6FD-40DD-B4FB-47EDA41336FE
upc: 9780262511094
title: Zen and the Brain: Toward an Understanding of Meditation and Consciousness
purchase date: 16-07-2006
publisher: The MIT Press
published: 02-07-1999
price: $35.00
pages: 872
net Rating: 4.5
last lookup time: 174719488
genre: Meditation Neuropsychology Zen Zen Philosophy New Age Neuroscience Cognitive Consciousness
fullTitle: Zen and the Brain: Toward an Understanding of Meditation and Consciousness
currentValue: $17.49
created: 174719488
country: us
author: James H. Austin
aspect: Paperback
asin: 0262511096