Research Catalog

Title

Consciousness at the crossroads : conversations with the Dalai Lama on brainscience and Buddhism / edited by Zara Houshmand, Robert B. Livingston, and B. Alan Wallace ; with contributions by Patricia Smith Churchland ... [et al.] ; translations by Thubten Jinpa and B. Alan Wallace ; with an afterword by B. Alan Wallace.

Author

Bstan-ʼdzin-rgya-mtsho, Dalai Lama XIV, 1935-

Publication

Ithaca, N.Y. : Snow Lion Publications, c1999.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

• Churchland, Patricia Smith.
• Houshmand, Zara.
• Livingston, Robert B. (Robert Boyd), 1941-
• Thupten Jinpa.
• Wallace, B. Alan.

Description

183 p.; 23 cm.

Summary

Organized by the Mind and Life Institute, this discussion addresses some of the most troublesome questions that have driven a wedge between Western science and religion. Consciousness at the Crossroads resulted from meetings of the Dalai Lama and a group of eminent neuroscientists and psychiatrists. Is the mind an ephemeral side-effect of the brain's physical processes? Are there forms of consciousness so subtle that science has not yet identified them? How does consciousness happen? The Dalai Lama's incisive, clear approach and open-minded pursuit of knowledge both challenges and offers inspiration to Western scientists.

Subject

• Brain > Psychophysiology
• Brain > physiology
• Buddhism > Psychology
• Buddhism > psychology
• Cognition
• Consciousness > Buddhism
• Consciousness > Physiological aspects
• Mind-Body Relations, Metaphysical

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

1. Opening Remarks: Brain Science as a Path to World Peace -- 2. Toward a Natural Science of the Mind -- The Philosophical Roots of Science -- On Perception, Representation, and Conceptualization -- Mind and Brain: One and the Same? -- A Materialist Critique of Dualism -- The Technological Bias of Mind/Brain Metaphors -- 3. A Buddhist Response -- A Middle Path between Dualism and Materialism -- 4. The Spectrum of Consciousness: From Gross to Subtle -- When Does Consciousness Begin? -- On Specialization and Adaptation -- The Continuity of Subtle Consciousness -- Cosmology and the Origins of Consciousness -- 5. Mapping Brain Functions: The Evidence of Damage to Specific Brain Regions -- Categorical Distinctions in Consciousness -- The Brain's Representation of Body Awareness -- 6. Subliminal Awareness and Memories from Previous Lives -- 7. Steps toward an Anatomy of Memory -- Memory Reenacts Perception -- Isolating Memory: The Evidence of Damage -- Different Types of Memory -- 8. Brain Control of Sleeping and Dreaming States -- Measuring Sleep and Dream Cycles -- Neuronal Controls of Sleeping, Dreaming, and Waking -- What is the Purpose of Dreaming? -- Lucid Dreaming -- 9. Manifestations of Subtle Consciousness -- 10. What Constitutes Scientific Evidence? -- 11. Psychiatric Illnesses and Psychopharmacology -- Noninvasive Imaging: A Window on the Brain -- Classifying Mental Illnesses -- Advances in Psychopharmacology -- The Genetic Inheritance of Mental Illness -- 12. The Limits of Intervention -- 13. A Buddhist Deconstruction of the Mind's Self -- 14. In Conclusion: Building Bridges -- 15. Afterword: Buddhist Reflections B. Alan Wallace -- Appendix: About the Mind and Life Institute.

ISBN

1559391278

LCCN

^^^99034728^

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library