I will confess to you all that I have no idea what David Brooks means by saying that science is going to turn us into "neural Buddhists." As distinct from, I dunno, gonadal Episcopalians? Please help me figure this out. Excerpt:
In their arguments with Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins, the faithful have been defending the existence of God. That was the easy debate. The real challenge is going to come from people who feel the existence of the sacred, but who think that particular religions are just cultural artifacts built on top of universal human traits. It’s going to come from scientists whose beliefs overlap a bit with Buddhism.In unexpected ways, science and mysticism are joining hands and reinforcing each other. That’s bound to lead to new movements that emphasize self-transcendence but put little stock in divine law or revelation. Orthodox believers are going to have to defend particular doctrines and particular biblical teachings. They’re going to have to defend the idea of a personal God, and explain why specific theologies are true guides for behavior day to day. I’m not qualified to take sides, believe me. I’m just trying to anticipate which way the debate is headed. We’re in the middle of a scientific revolution. It’s going to have big cultural effects.
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You see a lot in the pop-culture flicks today that ties Buddhism to science in lots of ways. The mindfulness-to-you-can-change-your-nuero-connections, type of personal development that is going on.
1. Harmonic Wealth by James Arthur Ray - he talks throughout his entire book about how mindfulness and meditation tie into what you want throughout your life, without mentioning Buddhism.
2. The Answer by John Assaraf and Murray Smith - They talk about using visualization and meditation techniques to change the "set point" and RAS (reticular activating system) in the brain to allow for us to reach greater heights of acheivement. Relating to mindfulness in Buddhism
3. What the Bleep Do We Know - while some may argue with me about the whole "Ramtha" involvement in this docu-drama, its still touches on many Buddhist teachings on mindfulness and meditation that she has taught and relating them to the Quantum field, heck, she even has Fred Alan Wolf involved in this, and last I read in an interview with him, he has Buddhist beliefs.
4. The Secret - This really popularized the Law of Attraction, without going much further and getting people hopes up on lots of levels. But if it did one thing, it opened the mass population up (even through Oprah) to meditation and visualization. Even if you are sitting there going, "show me the money" in your chair, its not going to happen, but if if got people to quiet their minds a bit and show them a little bit of personal development science through people like Ester Hicks (in the original) and Bob Proctor, then that's pretty darn amazing on some level.
So, maybe neural Buddhism isn't the way to put, but the melding of science and spirituality is. Maybe some hard doctrines go away, or we finally figure out what they really meant by what they said long ago. Remember, they thought the Earth was flat, then thought the Earth was at the center of the Universe, then figured out that it wasn't. We could be doing the same thing here... doctrine and dogma may have been the way to corral all the faithful together, but maybe the faithful are figuring out there is so much more than those two things. Just my two pennies and observations. I don't claim to know anything, but I can see some things that make me go Hmmm... sometimes. :)
Neuroscience will, hopefully, lead to greater understanding and acceptance of the much larger influence of our subconscious mind has on us. Visualization is the training and influencing of that part of the mind. The "self" is really that core inside us, the subconscious, which affects our outward thoughts and actions. That self, as in "Atman" which is a Hindu idea not Buddhist, is the subconscious itself.
TRUTH............ Each and every human being is born with "knowing" of a Creator in their core, and such has been from the very beginning of "us"- Before expression or reading and writing, Worship of a higher being existed and has been a practice and documented endlessly as far back as cavemen in their dens- The endless discussion, debate, argument and separation comes only in the name tag- Be it self, God, Mohammad, Buddah or ???, it stiil came with the package of human existance- The more things change the more they stay the same......FACT.... We are all in this together and it's tag is named, "The Human Race" and respect should be given all way around for people to chose and live and worship as they see fit without threat or worry of being labeled and dissected by whim or fashion- Take it ALL in- Study every religion and it's insight and gift and make an informed decision of where it all fits in your journey though this life and for all our sakes, do so in love, kindness and tolerance- That would be a fresh concept-
Love one another -Be kind- Remember tolerance-
Love one another -Be kind- Remember tolerance-
Sounds reasonable. Yet this post itself is rife with errors.
Should we allow them to stand undisclosed, like flatulence at a formal dinner party? I must disagree with the feeble call for dis-engaging our hard won clear thinking and discernment from the disucssion of human thought-forms such as religion,esp. religion ! Which so often are claiming some sort of special status while grossly mis-leading millions. Rationality is a useful tool when confronting such perversions of real spirituality and morality as: animal sacrifice, 'holy' wars , and Mohammed's 9 year old bride.
Creator fixation is not a universal truth ( there have been milions of atheists, and even more agnostics). The Enligthened Buddhas are only distorted into a god/God role by the ignorant. Also is a mis-spelling, unless one is using eubonics to refer to premium cannabis !
Oh, Crest, you should have stopped at "Sounds reasonable" because you were totally lost after "Should we allow", then gone when driven to disclose or ignore or even use a fart at a party as an example- Whew! The millions of atheists and agnostics"Creator fixation" is canceled out/replaced with self fixation therefore the "narrow path" of believers in Christ- Therefore the Zion belief of "so few will enter the Kingdom' radical teaching- Distorted and ignorant was fitting though it can be tolerated, you are loved and kindness would definately carry you farther than disrespect- You sure made ME feel good about my posting and I thank you for that- It had you thinking and posting which led to dialog and that is a good thing........
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