Zen and the Right Mind

Zen.

I'd picked up a few books on the subject while living in San Antonio, TX and undergoing a stressful time of on the job training. I'd been interested in Japanese culture for quite some time and wanted a bit of relief from thinking about the job.

Didn't understand a word.

Recently, however, I've delved back into the subject by reading a book called The Method of Zen. Its an older book, but I think I've finally figured out a bit of what this whole business is about.

First, a primer for what got me interested again. This nice lady is a neuroscientist who happened to have a stroke. In the video she will explain how parts of her brain switched on and off in a kind of surreal play by play of the event:



All done? Depending on your point of view, by the end of this little talk you're convinced that either she's a blithering idiot or she has had a genuine spiritual experience. Neither matters much to me personally, except that this lady made me realize the connection between the brain and that sort of experience.

Specifically, the bit about the right brain having no sense of self, having a universal consciousness where there is no subject and object, being outside of self and time all reminded me of the experience described as satori in Zen Buddhism. Of course, there are parallels in all religions, but that's what came to mind.

Anyway, the practice of Zen style meditation, of contemplating koans, it makes more sense now. In order to get into your right mind (so to speak), you must exit your left. Satori, the goal of Zen, is the moment when you, in a flash of insight unaided by logic or reasoning, experience the true nature of the universe, the primary and constant state of being of all things. Neurologically, I think, this is akin to the experience the scientist had in her story of experiencing those things her right hemisphere was telling her. And like her, I think that sometimes that just might be a place worth visiting.