Science
For thousands of years, philosophers, poets, mystics, and ordinary people have wondered about human experience: What is the nature of, and what causes, all those sensations, thoughts, feelings, desires, and sense of “me?”
Building on that foundation, the modern sciences of psychology and neurology have been slowly but surely establishing a body of knowledge about the mind and its relationship to the brain and the body.
This emerging “science of mind” is in its infancy, particularly when compared to scientific fields such as astronomy or chemistry, and a certain humility is called for.
- How might the mind and brain be connected? When the mind changes, how does the brain change, and vice versa?
- What is happening in my mind/brain when I feel upset? Or peaceful or loving or happy?
- How are the brains of people connected, in some sense, with each other?
- What’s going on in the mind/brain when a person is having a personally meaningful insight? Meditating? In a state of deep absorption or bliss? Or – if it is even possible to ask – in communion with God, or in Nirvana, or in a condition of Enlightenment?
- What is the neurology of consciousness?
Here you will find resources grappling with these questions, including:
Learning to Learn from Positive Experiences
Brain FAQs
The Brain in the News
Key Scientific Papers
Papers Published on this Site
If there is any religion that would cope with modern scientific needs, it would be Buddhism.
—Albert Einstein
When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?
—John Maynard Keynes
The point of practice is to avoid fooling yourself.
—Zen saying