Merle, Group,
In the past, I used to lament, and joke, that in the West "we" are so prepared
and well-equipped with medical instrumentation and psychological
experimentation to investigate and test meditation subjects, BUT that we could
not produce ONE damned meditation subject worth studying.
They all had to be imported.
Maybe that's changing a little by this time.
The review of the study here in this article, Merle, draws some conclusions,
but some of these can be due solely to "selection effects", as we call them,
simple biases in selecting subjects, and in pidgeon-holing them in accord with
their own self-description (e.g., "religious", "spiritual": these terms have
become cultural code-words already).
Interesting study! But I'd say, read carefully, and then read again.
They also don't seem to have studied anyone who is said to have awakened. An
interesting study would be to go to a Roshi who has a sizable mature sangha and
ask the Roshi to please consider asking his or her disciples who have awakened
through Zen practice to consider to be studied.
Granted, things keep changing in practice for an awakened person, but I think
things change more rapidly and drastically for people not far along (in time)
in their practice. But "time" alone is not a guarantee that a person is well
established in practice. This is why the Roshi's reference to senior students
(or others) who have definitely awakened could be so valuable for the
researchers. I'd like to see some generalizations about a study done upon THAT
population.
Or, there could be a study of teachers who have received transmission.
--Joe
> Merle Lester <merlewiitpom@...> wrote:
>
> How spirituality induces liberal attitudesMarch 1st, 2013 in Other Sciences /
> Social SciencesÂ
> >
> >Meditation affects political beliefs differently than does religious prayer.
> >Credit: RelaxingMusic via Flickr
<snip>
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