Contents

List of Illustrations

Preface

Acknowledgments

By Way of a Personal Introduction

 

Part I    Looking Far Back into the Distant Past

1    Two Old Men Consult the Buddha

2    Neuropsychological Aspects of the Attentive Self

3    Neural Correlations of Meditating Selflessly

4    Buddhist Botany

 

Part II    Looking Back into Earlier Centuries of the Common Era

5    A Glimpse of “Just This” in Tang Dynasty China

6    Avian Zen

7    Homage to William James

 

Part III    Sampling Recent Reports

8    Recent Clinical Information

9    Mindfulness Starts as Present-Moment Awareness

10    Subconscious Background Qualities That Can Infuse Awareness

 

Part IV    Looking Out into the Distance above the Horizon

11    Reprocessing Emotionally Traumatic Imagery While Elevating the Gaze

12    Spontaneous Color Imagery during Meditation

13    A Way Out of the Grand Delusion

 

Part V    Peering into the Future

14    New Research Horizons

15    Resources of Enduring Happiness; Opening to “Just This”

 

In Closing

Appendix A The Forest as a Sanctuary for Re-creation

Appendix B Potentially Useful Words and Phrases

Appendix C Common Acronyms Used in Brain Research

Appendix D Elephants in the Living Room

References and Notes

Index