My modest contribution to keeping alive the values of the Enlightenment
Do you meditate? If so, why? Is it because you are spiritual? Do you hope it may lead to enlightenment? What is enlightenment anyway? Does it even exist? In this article I discuss these questions in the light of my experience of two methods of meditation, Transcendental Meditation (TM) and Buddhist insight meditation (mindfulness). Read the article.
It’s also available at the Secular Web.
In 2003 Flanagan wrote an article for New Scientist with the title “The Colour of Happiness”, about preliminary research using brain imaging (PET and fMRI) to study the brains of Buddhists to see if there was evidence that they were exceptionally happy. They turned out to have a marked degree of activation in an area of the brain (the left prefrontal cortex) that had earlier been identified as related to positive emotions (negative emotions activate the right prefrontal cortex). Continue reading