Chapter 18: Waking Up

Introduction

Siddharta Gautama, after 7 days of fasting under a pipal tree, became enlightened, he “woke up”. His message for the world was not to look in others, like himself, for truth, but to see it within oneself. He said “work out your own salvation with diligence”. This was where the Buddhism, as we know it, really came to life. Siddharta, later known as Buddha, proposed four truths:

1. Dukkha: Everything is impermanent, so with life inherently comes suffering.
2. Samsara: We’re trapped in a cycle of being and becoming, because we cling to things we like and reject those we don’t
3. Nirvana: Recognizing Samsara, and letting go of it, ends suffering
4. The way: Buddha’s recommendation, an eightfold path to right understanding, thought, speech, action etc.

Despite warning of tradition, Buddhism became a religion, first Theravada Buddhism in southern India, Ceylon and Burma, then Tibetan Buddhism in Tibet, Chan Buddhism in China, Zen Buddhism in Japan, and now Western Buddhism… in the west, obviously. 

So, this final chapter of the book discusses the following: Can we change our consciousness?  Buddhism is one discipline in which spiritual and scientific learning are among the most interweaved. Buddhism also finds a place in psychology more than any other religion. Since 1987, Dalai Lama has been engaging with western scientists, in 2005 held a speech at the biggest annual neuroscience congress. 

Why Buddhism? 

So why do we like Buddhism so much? Maybe because there is no god or otherwise supreme creator, no indestructible human soul (only, Buddha is a bit like Jesus but less from outer space and more an idol that people strife to be like) and absolutely no duality! Also, Buddhism is almost empirical: If you do X, you will experience Y. Straightforward instructions, based on practice and experience.

Also, Buddha said: Everything is relative and interdependent, arising out of what came before, and giving rise to something new. This is like the scientific principle of cause-and-effect and that’s also applied to consciousness. What it comes down to is that there’s no consciousness without matter, sensations, perceptions, and actions that condition it. 

Buddhism focuses on methods, not doctrines. It has none, and in addition thus also no dogmas, rituals, worship or saviour. (At least, that was what it was supposed to be, they do kind of look up to Buddha as someone to worship)

So why is Buddhism not a scientific discipline?

‘Waking up’ is not always necessarily the same for everybody, which makes the practise untestable.

Core Buddhist teachings, like the Abhidharma, propose psychological phenomena, which is good, but they’re fixed and cannot and shall not be tested or modified, which is bad. This part is thus closer to religious dogma than science.

Teachings like the Abhidharma are derived not from third-person experiments, but from retrospection, phenomenological insights – which is a start though, psychology also started that way, and some of their insights actually overlap nicely with scientific evidence.

Which form of Buddhism is the best fit for science?

Zen Buddhism is most preferred for scientific approach, because it’s the most systematic (but also most elusive), also no reincarnation beliefs, and no outward culture (like shrines, images) which is irrelevant to science. 

How are the objectives of Buddhism and science alike?

They both try to reach full awareness of the mind, however science to be able to conduct science for the sake of knowledge, and Buddhism for the sake of freeing oneself from suffering. So, in theory, Buddhism is more like psychotherapy than science.

According to some guy named Alan Watts, Buddhism, Taoism, Vedanta and Yoga are actually closer to psychotherapy than they are to religion or philosophy. However, these things have strikingly different methods. Also, they have very different goals. In both practises, it’s about being happy, but psychotherapy also about functioning well in society, while in Buddhism you can be happy as a hermit in the woods as well. (And that from a collectivist culture… wow)

For some, psychotherapy is also just the first step into full enlightenment, and after psychotherapy, the spiritual journey begins. Some other guy, Engler, says: “you have to be somebody before you can be nobody” What this comes down to is that one should only start with Buddhism when one is fully somebody. When people start their spiritual journey to heal the problems, they are at risk to further damage themselves. 

What’s the situation now?

Buddhism is very often weaved into psychotherapy. Also, mindfulness is big, for example MBSR by Kabat-Zinn (about paying attention and developing a non-judging awareness). Mindfulness is used in prisons, schools, parenting. There’s also mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (8 session long MBSR group therapy program) 

What up with ‘spontaneous awakening’?

In Buddhism, waking up is the goal of the journey, but for some people waking up is the beginning of their spiritual life. For a lot of people, this goes by realizing they have no head… they look at their body, and see their body, but where their head is, they only see the world, and they realize they are one with it. This is one “koan”, which are in Zen Buddhism sayings, often questions, without a right answer, meant to induce consciousness. 

Awakening can also just mean a permanent psychological transformation, can also be from a poisoned brain (changing your brain in ways comparable to lots of meditation), turmoil or trauma. Enlightenment is an accident, and meditation helps you become more accident-prone.

What is Enlightenment?

In Buddhist terminology, enlightenment = bodhi. Apparently, enlightenment happens to many people, even the straight-laced western business people. Momentls like those are called Kensho, and they are brief experiences of enlightenment (according to neuroscience, these are usually triggered by unexpected sensory stimuli). What can be considered enlightenment and what not is highly discussed, but Buddhist teachers don’t take self-reports at face value, they have methods of finding out whether one has actually experienced enlightenment.

But really, it’s just the question of subjectivity again. Those who claim to have been enlightened, say it cannot be explained or described. It’s the cessation of all phenomena, just complete emptiness and bliss.

What does all that have to do with consciousness?

In Buddhism, we try to break all illusions. In the science of consciousness, we wonder whether the world is a visual illusion, stream of consciousness is an illusion, and self and free will may be illusory as well. Buddha says to this: what we call ‘I’, or ‘being’, is only a combination of physical and mental aggregates, which are working together interdependently in a flux of momentary change within the law of cause and effect, and that there is nothing permanent, everlasting, unchanging and eternal in the whole of existence.

The aim of dharma practice is to free ourselves from the illusion of freedom; according to Buddhism, there is no free will, since everything obeys the law of cause and effect.

So what it the moral of the story here?

The deepest mystical insights are compatible with the world described by physics, completely monist: “the universe is one, the separate self is an illusion, immortality is not in the future but now, and there is nothing to be done.”

The hard problem is not what needs solving, but the question why we feel there is such a thing as a hard problem.

Final note of the writer of this summary

Hii, that’s it! You’ve reached the end of the book.

Now, this is a summary, so it doesn’t quite equal reading the book, but it’s a good start! And if you feel confused, that’s alright. Like said at the beginning, it’s supposed to make you feel like that.

Good luck at the exams!!
 

Emy :)