Zen and the brain : toward an understanding of meditation and consciousness /

Any attempt to correlate Zen practice with neural activity faces two considerable difficulties: one side of the equation requires an objective phenomenological characterization of the sort of Zen experiences traditionally described only in mystical, irrational terms; the other requires a detailed account of those brain processes related to correspondingly subtle aspects of consciousness and cognition. Even though detailed, neuron-level accounts of cognition and memory certainly remain unavailable, the literature already says much that relates brain function with emotions. Zen, in one important aspect, provides a means to transform its practitioner's emotional patterns; this aspect of Zen naturally comes to form the core focus of the present study. Austin provides both a detailed description of Zen practice and a detailed summary of relevant results from experimental neuroscience. From there he draws connections between the two, but without an empirical basis consisting of neurological research with Zen practitioners, these can only count as speculation, however highly informed and suggestive. Indeed, what emerges seems less a brain-based account of Zen than a Zen-based interpretation of modern neuroscience's relevance for the inner life. Whether it counts as speculative science or humanistic synthesis, Austin has constructed this long, profoundly ambitious study out of richly textured, allusive, compelling, persuasive, fascinating prose. Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. D. V. Feldman; University of New Hampshire