Excellent comments, Steve.. The evidence does indeed point out that "neueons that fire together--wire together". As time now is short, I'll offer a web link for any here interested in listening to some relevant thoughts on this. I think I've mentioned Dan Siegel, MD here before. His 2010 Mindsight book). Plus, Rick Hanson, Ph.D. and Dr. Mendius' book, "A Buddha's Brain", is both readable and cutting edge science.
Sounds True: Insights at the Edge - Download free podcast episodes ... Download or subscribe to free podcast episodes from Sounds True: Insights at the Edge by Tami Simon on iTunes. itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/sounds-true-insights...edge/id307934313 - Cached Dr. Mendius, M.D., is #68. Excellent discussion on this! Rick Hansen is #69, Dr. Siegel is #66 Thanks Bill for your well wishes, and a note to Dave.. If you really want to learn more about the LSD- thing, listen to Dr. Mendius' lecture on this.. # 68. *bows* to all. Kristy --- On Tue, 1/18/11, SteveW <[email protected]> wrote: From: SteveW <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [Zen] the death of the prince, vegetarianism?(to Chris/Kristy/list) To: [email protected] Date: Tuesday, January 18, 2011, 12:33 PM --- In [email protected], "ED" <seacrofter001@...> wrote: > > > > > > Deep-seated cultural memes, imbued into our minds in childhood, are > almost impossible to detect and erase, the realization of Buddha Nature > notwithstanding. > > --ED > > Hi ED. Yes. And not only cultural conditioning, but genetic predisposition as > well. As a Buddhist, I regard all of this as being karmic. However, on a practical level, although much of this can never be seen directly, we can be aware of the conditioned volitional impulse (samskara)approx. half a second after it activates. I refer you to Dr. Benjamin Libet on this. In that half-second, we have the capability of vetoing the conditioned volitional impulse. This isn't so much Free-Will as it is Free-Won't. If we veto negative impulses, after they percolate into awareness, often enough, then the impulse will die-out from lack of reinforcement. Conversely, if after vetoing the negative samskara, we substitute a positive alternative, our brains will re-wire themselves in that direction. This is the scientific basis of The Eightfold Path. Its not an independant agent (which is an illusion) initiating actions as a First Cause, but rather a feed-back loop. IMO. Steve
