Neurescience exploration and consequences

Interesting articles and comments regarding future directions:

Bursting the Neuro-Utopian Bubble

By BENJAMIN Y. FONG

 

".....Rafael Yuste, lead author of an ambitious brief that appeared in the prominent neuroscience journal Neuron in 2012. The paper proposed the need for the “Brain Activity Map Project, aimed at reconstructing the full record of neural activity across complete neural circuits.” This April, the Obama administration endorsed the project, setting aside $100 million for it in 2014 alone, and renaming it the Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies Initiative, or the Brain Initiative for short.

Pyschosocial problems cannot simply be solved in the neuroscientist’s lab.

 

The project has been compared by the administration to the Human Genome Project, which focused on a problem — the sequencing of the human genome — as daunting as the recording and mapping of brain circuits in action. The success of the Human Genome Project was both scientific and financial: the $3.8 billion invested in it by the federal government has reportedly returned $796 billion, a fact that advocates of the Brain Initiative have been quick to cite as justification for their own undertaking.

 

Critics of the Human Genome Project have voiced many concerns about genomic sequencing, most of which can also be leveled at the Brain Initiative: What happens when health insurance companies get hold of this information? Could it lead to invasions of our privacy? And, perhaps most fundamentally, aren’t these scientists once again trying to play God? ......."

 

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/11/bursting-the-neuro-utopian-bubble/?ref=opinion

 

 

This Moment Life, Ongoing Zazen: Non-talking, Non-looking Around

Elihu Genmyo Smith

“To study the Buddha Way is to study the self, to study the self is to forget the self, to forget the self is to be awakened as the myriad dharmas. To be awakened as the myriad dharmas is to be free from one’s body-mind and that of others. No trace of awakening remains, and this traceless awakening is continued forever.”(Eihei Dogen in Genjokoan)

To forget the self is to be awakened as the myriad dharmas. “As” the myriad dharmas, rather than “by” the myriad dharmas, makes it clearer. Dharmas mean phenomena, inside/outside phenomena, mental/physical phenomena. To be awakened as this dharma, as this moment. This is nothing-extra life, which is myriad forms ongoing zazen. Being awakened as the myriad dharmas is to be freed from one’s body-mind, freed from one’s attachment to body-mind and to body-mind of others – since it is the attachment which entangles us and which results in suffering, unsatisfactoriness.

Our life is clear. The difficulties we have are only our lack of clarity. The pratityasamutpada, the traditional Buddhist twelve-links cycle of existence which results in suffering, stress, dissatisfaction, begins with avidya, which can be translated as “ignorance,” meaning lack of clarity of what is so. The Chinese translate the Sanskrit avidya as wuming (mumyo in Japanese), 無明, the characters for no-brightness or no-clarity. When we are not clear about what is occurring the result is samskara, or volitional formations, conditional formations, discriminations, fabrications, and accompanying stress and suffering.

 

 

for the rest of this article see:
 

http://prairiezen.org/Readings/Text_list.html
 

(c) 2013 Elihu Genmyo Smith

Memories all over body -Two thought provoking articles, many studies

Worms regrow their decapitated heads, along with the memories inside

By Jacob Kastrenakes on July 10, 2013 12:09 pm                  

 

        

 

 

Some memories just won't die — and some can even be transferred to a whole new brain. Researchers at Tufts University have determined that a small, yellow worm known as a planarian, which has long been studied for its regenerative properties, is able to grow back a lot more than just its body parts: after the worm's small, snake-like head and neck are removed, its body will even regrow a brain that's capable of quickly relearning its lost skills.

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A little training makes it all come back

........ see the rest of the article in the link:

http://www.theverge.com/2013/7/10/4510580/planarian-worm-regrows-memories-after-decapitation


AND here is the second article and more studies:


How to Regrow a Head

A single gene switch makes worms regenerate their whole bodies from their tails

By Josh Howgego and Nature magazine

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"Researchers were able to trigger a latent ability in the milkwhite flatworm (Dendrocoelum lacteum) to regenerate its head from the rear of its body.Image: Wikimedia Commons/Eduard Solà

 

Knocking out a single gene can switch on a worm's ability to regenerate parts of its body, even enabling it to grow a new head. The fact that such a simple manipulation can restore healing abilities provides new insight into how the stem cells involved in this process are marshaled in animals.
Some animals, such as salamanders and newts, can regenerate entire body parts, and mice can regrow toes if left with enough nail (see 'How nails regenerate lost fingertips'). Yet other species, including humans, merely produce scar tissue after an amputation. A trio of studies published on Nature’s website today offers new clues as to what is behind these differences......."

the rest of the article is here

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-to-regrow-a-head

 

Joko on Zen

A short video of Joko Beck in which she briefly and succinctly describes Zen practice:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kw1h3GVBFnY

Enjoy.

On Being Spacious

by Elihu Genmyo Smith

When we think that our life is limited or small, then all sorts of events and circumstances can disturb us and result in dissatisfaction, stress and suffering. We only have limited space, and can become disturbed (or worse) over what fits or not, what we like or dislike. When we know that our life is broad and vast and includes the many beings and circumstances that we encounter, then we can be at ease despite having to act and work with all sorts of situations – some quite difficult, painful, and initially seemingly unresolvable for us – because we know that our efforts are manifesting and revealing the life that we are. We are spacious and can act spaciously, making the efforts to be spaciously skillful and appropriate.   Unfortunately, we often do not recognize our life for what it is. When we do not see our life as it is, our actions may lead to further entanglement. If our actions are skillful and appropriate, grappling with conditions and circumstances can be an opportunity to encounter our life, expanding our vision and capacity, nurturing this moment’s encounter, this moment’s intimacy.  We are able to see and be reminded of who we are; our grappling and practicing in the midst of conditions allows the spaciousness of our life to be evident and manifest.....   The rest of this article is at : http://www.watkinsbooks.com/review/on-being-spacious-by-elihu-genmyo-smith (c) 2013 Elihu Genmyo Smith

"If the circumstances are such that a female Dalai Lama is more useful, then automatically a female Dalai Lama will come." His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso

 

In what circumstances is a male Dalai Lama more useful?

In what circumstances is a female Dalai Lama more useful?

What changes would a female Dalai Lama make in Tibetan Buddhism and culture today? What other consequences might we imagine today if there is a female Dalai Lama?

For the rest of this interesting article and comments by readers, see:

The Dalai Lama Says Female Leaders Are More Compassionate ... Hmm

http://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/06/the-dalai-lama-says-female-leaders-are-more-compassionate-hmm/276843/

What makes for compassion?

What nurtures and supports compassion in our life practice?

What makes compassion "difficult" for us?

And, most important for our ongoing life practice, what are our skillful and appropriate actions when these "difficult" circumstances arise?

(c) 2013 Elihu Genmyo Smith

Meditation, yoga and Christian fundamentalism

An interesting article that highlights issues Christian fundamentalists (and other theistic traditions ?) have with meditation, yoga and non-theistic practice.

Though the presentation of yoga and meditation are skewed and distorted, there are valuable points in the article.

"Yoga begins and ends with an understanding of the body that is, to say the very least, at odds with the Christian understanding. Christians are not called to empty the mind or to see the human body as a means of connecting to and coming to know the divine."

"The purpose of such meditation is to empty oneself. . . . [Satan] is happy to invade the empty vacuum of your soul and possess it. That is why people serve Satan without ever knowing it or deciding to, but no one can be a child of God without making a decision to surrender to him. Beware of systems of spirituality which tell you to empty yourself. You will end up filled with something you probably do not want."

http://www.theatlantic.com/garance-franke-ruta/


Some valuable questions to ask are:

What is "meditation"?

What is "surrender" and to what does one surrender?

How do we understand "empty oneself"?

What practice efforts would support and enable "emptying oneself"?

And what is discovered when self is "empty"?



(c) 2013 Elihu Genmyo Smith