Barre Center for Buddhist Studies

Barre Center for Buddhist Studies

  • About Us
    • New and Notable
    • COVID-19 Safety Protocols
    • Mission and Values
    • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
    • Staff
    • Board of Directors
    • IMS
    • Job Openings
    • Getting to BCBS
    • Mailing List
    • Contact Us
  • Onsite Programs
    • Current Course Calendar
    • Everything You Need to Know About Residential Programs
    • Lottery Programs
    • Typical Residential Schedule
    • Continuing Education Credits
    • Financial Assistance
    • Teacher Dāna
  • Online Programs
    • Upcoming Programs
    • Wisdom Collaborations
    • Previously Offered Programs
    • Cancellation Policy
  • Path Programs
  • Teaching Faculty
  • Resources
    • Insight Journal
    • Bhikkhu Anālayo’s Offerings
    • The Daily Sit
    • Freely Offered Dharma
      • Events
      • Courses
    • BCBS Bookstore
    • BCBS Publishing
    • Access to Insight
    • Dharma Seed
    • Ways to Engage in Social Justice
      • Suggested Books/Publications/Talks
      • Partial Glossary of Terms to Better Understand Racialization in America
  • Generosity
    • Donate
    • Recurring Donations
    • Planned Giving
    • Stocks, DAFs, and IRA Gifts
    • Teacher Dāna
    • Volunteer

Mapping the Mind

Article
Andrew Olendzki
2014

If you haven't already, join our mailing list to receive quarterly articles in your inbox.

Share

snow-covered BCBS stupa seen through branches of Japanese maple

For the last couple of years I have been participating in and contributing to the Mind & Life Institute’s Mapping the Mind initiative. Among scientific researchers this topic primarily involves mapping out the wiring and firing of various neural networks in the brain, and indeed for those with strong materialist inclinations (which includes most scientists) mapping the mind can only really mean mapping the brain.

For practitioners of Buddhist meditation, however, the situation is entirely reversed. Meditation involves giving careful attention to the detailed and nuanced investigation of experience as it unfolds moment by moment. Mind is seen to consist of episodes of awareness arising and passing away one after another, and when engaged in the process of observing these closely, the notion of a brain is only a conceptual abstraction.

Standing at the intersection of these two world views, I have been working on the building of bridges. On the one hand I am trying to understand the classical Buddhist teachings in a naturalized if not secular way, looking for compatibilities between ancient and contemporary ideas. The subject at hand, the human experience of mind and body, is presumably universal, so the third-person standpoint of modern science and the first-person perspective of ancient contemplative practices should be ultimately complementary rather than antithetical.

I have also been trying to bring to the scientific community some of the insights and observations preserved in the Buddhist tradition, and the video recording offered here as the December issue of the Insight Journal is an example of this. The talk was given at Mind & Life’s Summer Research Institute, held at the Garrison Institute in June of 2013, and its title is Early Buddhist Maps of the Mind. The audience comprised mostly young researchers from all over the world who are contributing in many creative ways to the emerging field of contemplative studies.

My hope in offering this outline of the classical Buddhist map of lived experience (which will be familiar to the many graduates of BCBS’ Buddhist Psychology course) is to plant some seeds or spark some fires among this next generation of scientists. These researchers are already sensitive to the value of mindfulness and meditation, and are already shaping the new paradigms with which we will come to understand ourselves in the years to come. The presentation should also be of some interest to the many Insight Journal readers whose own meditation practice is guided and informed by the classical teachings of the Buddha.

If you found this article helpful, please consider supporting the work of BCBS.

Insight Journal

2014

In this volume:

Mapping the Mind

By Andrew Olendzki

Article

Silent Illumination

By Guo Gu

Article

Buddhist Roots & Ethics

By Lynette Monteiro

Interview

How is the Medium Changing the Message?

By Ken McLeod

Article

Natural Buddhism

By Gil Fronsdal

Article

Jhāna Practice and True Happiness

By Shaila Catherine

Interview

Awareness of Thinking: Recollective Awareness Practice

By Jason Siff

Interview

Neuro-Bhavana: A Video Series with Rick Hanson

By Rick Hanson

Article

The Evolving Sangha

By Jay Michaelson

Interview

Some (mostly secular) thoughts about Emptiness

By Gay Watson

Article

Secular mindfulness: potential & pitfalls

By Jenny Wilks

Article

Wise Attention

By Sayadaw U Jagara

Interview

 

All issues:

See all Insight Journal issues

Located in Central Massachusetts

149 Lockwood Road, Barre, MA 01005
978 355 2347     contact@buddhistinquiry.org

 

Support BCBS

 Donate
 Volunteer

Connect With Us

 Join Our Mailing List
 Find us on Facebook
 Find us on Instagram
 Find us on YouTube

Copyright © 1994-2023 Barre Center for Buddhist Studies
logo
  • Home
  • About Us
    • New and Notable
    • COVID-19 Safety Protocols
    • Mission and Values
    • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
    • Board of Directors
    • IMS
    • Staff
    • Job Openings
    • Getting to BCBS
    • Mailing List
    • Contact Us
  • Onsite Programs
    • Current Course Calendar
    • Everything You Need to Know About Residential Programs
    • Typical Residential Schedule
    • Continuing Education Credits
    • Financial Assistance
    • Teacher Dāna
  • Online Programs
    • Upcoming Programs
    • Wisdom Collaborations
    • Previously Offered Programs
    • Cancellation Policy
  • Path Programs
  • Teaching Faculty
  • Resources
    • Insight Journal
    • Bhikkhu Anālayo’s Offerings
    • The Daily Sit
    • Freely Offered Dharma
      • Events
      • Courses
    • BCBS Publishing
    • BCBS Bookstore
    • Access to Insight
    • Dharma Seed
    • Ways to Engage in Social Justice
  • Generosity
    • Donate
    • Recurring Donations
    • Planned Giving
    • Stocks, DAFs, and IRA Gifts
    • Teacher Dāna
    • Volunteer