GoogleTechTalks - Zen and the Brain : Dr James Austin

Cool - this GoogleTechTalk was recorded a year ago, but they just now posted it. Good stuff - I'm a fan of Austin's Zen and the Brain.

Zen and the Brain


Presented by Dr James Austin


Google Tech Talk
November 8, 2010
 

ABSTRACT



What has been learned about the brain that helps understand how selfless insight-wisdom can develop on the long-term meditative path? Recent brain-imaging research clarifies the relationships between two key issues: 1) How we use both top-down and bottom-up modes of attentive processing; and 2) How we constructed an egocentric Self so strong that it so often generates suffering.

Speaker Info: James H. Austin



James H. Austin is Emeritus Professor of Neurology, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. Austin is the author of his well known book Zen and the Brain, which aims to establish links between the neurological workings of the human brain and meditation. Austin has written two sequels to it: Zen-Brain Reflections (February, 2006), and Selfless Insight Zen (2009). He was student of the late Rinzai roshi Kobori Nanrei Sohaku.