Zen and the "Outside In" Mind
In a previous post, I challenged the idea that our "mind" or "soul" should be pictured as something inside our body (it feels like it's behind our eyes). Separation from "mind" and the physical world goes a long way back. It makes it possible to think of the Christian idea of the "soul", whose fate is very different from the physical body. In Eastern traditions, the idea of reincarnation is more or less assumed. In others, the "soul" of ancestors are assumed to hang around in some way long after their bodies have been discarded.
But we know better. Especially in the Zen traditions that feed into the Western idea of "Mindfulness", we are starting to picture the "contents" of the mind (ideas, sensations, hopes, dreams ...) as being the mind. In other words, the mind does not have ideas, it is ideas. To put it another way, there's "nobody home" in our heads and the sensation that "we" inhabit a space between our eyes is a persistent illusion.
Zen and the Brain picks apart this "persistent illusion" and shows how it can be taken apart, bit by bit, either by brain injury or Zen meditation. For example, the feeling we are "in" our bodies can easily be lost. For a reader steeped in assumptions that go all the way back to Plato, the significance of this change of perspective is hard to understand or build upon. When paired with the insights of Zen, it starts to make more sense. Seagal's courses in Mindfulness, especially the course offered through "Great Courses", builds around this idea in the context of neuroscience rather than "Zen"(I personally see little difference between Zen and Mindfulness, especially the version taught by Seagal).
But where do all these ideas and sensations come from? Mostly, they come from the "real" physical world, or the "outside" in the Platonic picture of things. It is not necessary to accept the Zen idea that we are nothing but the ideas and sensations that run through our heads. It's just that such ideas and sensations are obviously the lion's share of what we think of as "us", even if we persist in thinking that we "have" these ideas rather than we "are" these ideas. Through Zen meditation, it is possible to experience or at least glimpse a state of being where such mental contents are absent or at least relegated to "background noise". However, it is not necessary to experience Zen meditation to understand the basic point: what is going on in your head is strongly (or mostly) influenced by the "real world". What is worse, the "real world" is not a "level playing field". Especially in modern society, we are surrounded by messages that want to get our attention and "spin" our ideas in one direction or another.
Our mental contents are far from being within our control, as imagined by Christian ethics (for example). Politics is public relations. Debate is all about "framing the issue" and selecting issues in a way that crowds out a vast array of issues that could be or should be in our minds.
At the moment, it is difficult not to think about Donald Trump and his ominous threat to become President of the US. Trump's strategy is quite visibly to limit options, frame issues and crowd out debate. The "Trump issue" itself crowds out other things we should be thinking about, such as whether we are eating too much sugar. Millions are convinced that the next Presidential election is more important to them than surviving to see it.
In fact, it seems scarcely possible to "think for ourselves", even though we imagine we do. We think it's others who disagree with us, who are under the influence of outside forces and are not thinking for themselves. In theory, there is only one reality and it should be easy to agree on what that reality consists of. However, that assumes that we all "think for ourselves". In fact, our heads are packed full of ideas put there deliberately (in most cases) to prevent objective perception of reality.
The dire conclusion is that we are not who we think we are. We are not "influenced" by outside forces. We are composed of ideas and sensations thrust upon us from the "outside". There is no "inside". We are not influenced by irrational thoughts. We become irrational thoughts.
Or at least, that's the "Outside In" idea.
But we know better. Especially in the Zen traditions that feed into the Western idea of "Mindfulness", we are starting to picture the "contents" of the mind (ideas, sensations, hopes, dreams ...) as being the mind. In other words, the mind does not have ideas, it is ideas. To put it another way, there's "nobody home" in our heads and the sensation that "we" inhabit a space between our eyes is a persistent illusion.
Zen and the Brain picks apart this "persistent illusion" and shows how it can be taken apart, bit by bit, either by brain injury or Zen meditation. For example, the feeling we are "in" our bodies can easily be lost. For a reader steeped in assumptions that go all the way back to Plato, the significance of this change of perspective is hard to understand or build upon. When paired with the insights of Zen, it starts to make more sense. Seagal's courses in Mindfulness, especially the course offered through "Great Courses", builds around this idea in the context of neuroscience rather than "Zen"(I personally see little difference between Zen and Mindfulness, especially the version taught by Seagal).
But where do all these ideas and sensations come from? Mostly, they come from the "real" physical world, or the "outside" in the Platonic picture of things. It is not necessary to accept the Zen idea that we are nothing but the ideas and sensations that run through our heads. It's just that such ideas and sensations are obviously the lion's share of what we think of as "us", even if we persist in thinking that we "have" these ideas rather than we "are" these ideas. Through Zen meditation, it is possible to experience or at least glimpse a state of being where such mental contents are absent or at least relegated to "background noise". However, it is not necessary to experience Zen meditation to understand the basic point: what is going on in your head is strongly (or mostly) influenced by the "real world". What is worse, the "real world" is not a "level playing field". Especially in modern society, we are surrounded by messages that want to get our attention and "spin" our ideas in one direction or another.
Our mental contents are far from being within our control, as imagined by Christian ethics (for example). Politics is public relations. Debate is all about "framing the issue" and selecting issues in a way that crowds out a vast array of issues that could be or should be in our minds.
At the moment, it is difficult not to think about Donald Trump and his ominous threat to become President of the US. Trump's strategy is quite visibly to limit options, frame issues and crowd out debate. The "Trump issue" itself crowds out other things we should be thinking about, such as whether we are eating too much sugar. Millions are convinced that the next Presidential election is more important to them than surviving to see it.
In fact, it seems scarcely possible to "think for ourselves", even though we imagine we do. We think it's others who disagree with us, who are under the influence of outside forces and are not thinking for themselves. In theory, there is only one reality and it should be easy to agree on what that reality consists of. However, that assumes that we all "think for ourselves". In fact, our heads are packed full of ideas put there deliberately (in most cases) to prevent objective perception of reality.
The dire conclusion is that we are not who we think we are. We are not "influenced" by outside forces. We are composed of ideas and sensations thrust upon us from the "outside". There is no "inside". We are not influenced by irrational thoughts. We become irrational thoughts.
Or at least, that's the "Outside In" idea.
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