Awareness, Neuroplasticity and Buddhist Psychology
Making use of our talents and creative abilities depends on being relatively unhampered by constricting or distorting emotions, and gaining a more fluid and open awareness.
As writer Susan K. Perry, PhD notes, “I don’t believe that when you get into a creative place, you’re giving up thinking. You’re super-thinking — better and with more parts of your mind than you do normally.” [From my article Creativity and Flow Psychology.]
Buddhism - or more to the point, Buddhist psychology - promises learning and strategies to realize that kind of super-thinking and life balance.
Writer Charles Johnson once said, “Were it not for the Buddhadharma, I’m convinced that, as a black American and an artist, I would not have been able to successfully negotiate my last half century of life in this country. Or at least not with a high level of creative productivity.” [From his book Turning the Wheel : Essays on Buddhism and Writing]
The Dalai Lama, a number of Buddhist monks and leading neuroscientists gather yearly at a conference about discoveries in the field of neuroplasticity: the study of how the human brain can change itself.
In her book Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain: How a New Science Reveals Our Extraordinary Potential to Transform Ourselves, Sharon Begley writes about this dynamic interaction of seemingly different areas of knowledge.
“Buddhism has taught for twenty-five hundred years that the mind is an independent force that can be harnessed by will and attention to bring about physical change.”
She quotes Francisca Cho: “The discovery that thinking something produces effects just as doing something does is a fascinating consonance with Buddhism, which challenges the traditional belief in an external, objective reality. Instead, it teaches that our reality is created by our own projections; it is thinking that creates the external world beyond us. The neuroscience findings harmonize with this Buddhist teaching.”
Begley adds, “Indeed, Buddhism believes that the mind has a formidable power of self-transformation. When thoughts come to the untrained mind, they can run wild, triggering destructive emotions such as craving and hatred. But mental training, a core of Buddhist practice, allows us ‘to identify and to control emotions and mental events as they arise,’ says Matthieu Ricard.”
French-born Buddhist monk Ricard further says that “If we place all our hopes and fears in the outside world, we have quite a challenge, because our control of the outside world is weak, temporary, and even illusory. It is more within the scope of our faculties to change the way we translate the outside world into inner experience. We have a great deal of freedom in how we transform that experience, and that is the basis for mental training and transformation… Buddhism defines a person as a constantly changing dynamic stream.”
Some related books:
The Biology Of Belief by Bruce H. Lipton, PhD
“Don’t believe everything you hear - even in your own mind.” Daniel G. Amen, MD - author of Change Your Brain, Change Your Life - quoted in the book The Success Principles - by Jack Canfield
Related Talent Development Resources pages:
awareness - thinking
mental fitness
Buddhist psychology
Buddhist psychology 2: sites books
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February 8th, 2007 at 8:13 pm
Good post. It is very interesting that we are reaching the same conclusion (neuroplasticity) from 2 very different starting points: a) meditation, b) computer-based training for cognitive rehabilitation and training.
Will be fun to see how they merge and evolve towards useful “brain fitness” programs for millions of people
May 7th, 2008 at 3:24 am
Hi
Nice post. The quote
“Don’t believe everything you hear - even in your own mind.” is superb.
Thanks for sharing.
Meditation