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Find out what it was like to grow up in rural, Southwest Louisiana
in the late '4O's and early 50's, such as: How we made it without
electricity, What we boys did for entertainment, What lots of
families ate during those lean times, Why most yards were
grassless, How we made our own toys, Butcher a hog; make lye soap;
scrub chairs happened when a boy's dog was lied about, and how the
family milk cow changed the way a boy 'looked at things'. have
changed. Share some camping/fishing experiences that only happen
once (thank goodness). their biscuit sandwiches from a rust-spotted
lunch bucket and listen in on bits and pieces of their long ago
conversations. a campfire, while being serenaded by hoot-owls and
bullfrogs, until sleep takes over; then awaken to the sounds of
nature greeting a new day.
A personal story of the ways in which persistence, chance, and
creativity interact in biomedical research. This first book by the
author of Zen and the Brain examines the role of chance in the
creative process. James Austin tells a personal story of the ways
in which persistence, chance, and creativity interact in biomedical
research; the conclusions he reaches shed light on the creative
process in any field. Austin shows how, in his own investigations,
unpredictable events shaped the outcome of his research and brought
about novel results. He then goes beyond this story of serendipity
to propose a new classification of the varieties of chance, drawing
on his own research and examples from the history of
science-including the famous accidents that led Fleming to the
discovery of penicillin. Finally, he explores the nature of the
creative process, considering not only the environmental and
neurophysiological correlates of creativity but also the role of
intuition in both scientific discoveries and spiritual quests. This
updated MIT Press paperback edition includes a new introduction and
recent material on medical research, creativity, and spirituality.
Attention, self-consciousness, insight, wisdom, emotional maturity:
how Zen teachings can illuminate the way our brains function and
vice-versa. When neurology researcher James Austin began Zen
training, he found that his medical education was inadequate.
During the past three decades, he has been at the cutting edge of
both Zen and neuroscience, constantly discovering new examples of
how these two large fields each illuminate the other. Now, in
Selfless Insight, Austin arrives at a fresh synthesis, one that
invokes the latest brain research to explain the basis for
meditative states and clarifies what Zen awakening implies for our
understanding of consciousness. Austin, author of the widely read
Zen and the Brain, reminds us why Zen meditation is not only
mindfully attentive but evolves to become increasingly selfless and
intuitive. Meditators are gradually learning how to replace
over-emotionality with calm, clear objective comprehension. In this
new book, Austin discusses how meditation trains our attention,
reprogramming it toward subtle forms of awareness that are more
openly mindful. He explains how our maladaptive notions of self are
rooted in interactive brain functions. And he describes how, after
the extraordinary, deep states of kensho-satori strike off the
roots of the self, a flash of transforming insight-wisdom leads
toward ways of living more harmoniously and selflessly. Selfless
Insight is the capstone to Austin's journey both as a creative
neuroscientist and as a Zen practitioner. His quest has spanned an
era of unprecedented progress in brain research and has helped
define the exciting new field of contemplative neuroscience.
A seasoned Zen practitioner and neurologist looks more deeply at
mindfulness, connecting it to our subconscious and to memory and
creativity. This is a book for readers who want to probe more
deeply into mindfulness. It goes beyond the casual, once-in-awhile
meditation in popular culture, grounding mindfulness in daily
practice, Zen teachings, and recent research in neuroscience. In
Living Zen Remindfully, James Austin, author of the groundbreaking
Zen and the Brain, describes authentic Zen training-the commitment
to a process of regular, ongoing daily life practice. This training
process enables us to unlearn unfruitful habits, develop more
wholesome ones, and lead a more genuinely creative life. Austin
shows that mindfulness can mean more than our being conscious of
the immediate "now." It can extend into the subconscious, where
most of our brain's activities take place, invisibly. Austin
suggests ways that long-term meditative training helps cultivate
the hidden, affirmative resource of our unconscious memory.
Remindfulness, as Austin terms it, can help us to adapt more
effectively and to live more authentic lives. Austin discusses
different types of meditation, meditation and problem-solving, and
the meaning of enlightenment. He addresses egocentrism
(self-centeredness) and allocentrism (other-centeredness), and the
blending of focal and global attention. He explains the remarkable
processes that encode, store, and retrieve our memories, focusing
on the covert, helpful remindful processes incubating at
subconscious levels. And he considers the illuminating confluence
of Zen, clinical neurology, and neuroscience. Finally, he describes
an everyday life of "living Zen," drawing on the poetry of Basho,
the seventeenth-century haiku master.
A guide to Zen meditative practice informed by the latest findings
in brain research. This is not the usual kind of self-help book.
Indeed, its major premise heeds a Zen master's advice to be less
self-centered. Yes, it is "one more book of words about Zen," as
the author concedes, yet this book explains meditative practices
from the perspective of a "neural Zen." The latest findings in
brain research inform its suggestions. In Meditating Selflessly,
James Austin-Zen practitioner, neurologist, and author of three
acclaimed books on Zen and neuroscience-guides readers toward that
open awareness already awaiting them on the cushion and in the
natural world. Austin offers concrete advice-often in a simplified
question-and-answer format-about different ways to meditate. He
clarifies both the concentrative and receptive styles of
meditation. Drawing widely from the exciting new field of
contemplative neuroscience, Austin helps resolve an ancient
paradox: why both insight wisdom and selflessness arise
simultaneously during enlightened states of consciousness.
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