Our Ordinary Sense of Self. Different Aspects of “No Self” During States of Absorption and Kensho

　　  The end of the conceit “I am” –-- that is the truly greatest happiness of all.
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　  

James H. Austin 博士是世界著名神经心理学专家，美国密苏里大学健康中心神经学教授，美国科罗拉多大学健康中心名誉教授。Austin博士多年来致力于研究东方禅宗的脑机制与心理过程，其代表性著作有 Zen and the Brain: Toward an Understanding of Meditation and Consciousness (MIT press, 1998)、Zen-Brain Reflections: Reviewing Recent Developments in Meditation and States of Consciousness (MIT Press, 2006) 以及Zen-Brain: Selfless Insight (MIT Press, 2008) 等。

Zen meditators train attention both during sitting and daily life practice. How else can we conceptualize the process of long-range Zen meditative training? One suggestion is that it involves a deconditioning, the kind that whittles away old maladaptive aspects of the egocentric self. Only then, during decades of gradually re-training our pre-attentive mode of attention, of mindful introspection, of awakenings both gradual and sudden, can a less self-centered person emerge. This individual, in the course of  a long process of  “re-programming” can become increasingly aware, simplified, stable, compassionate and humane.(1)

From this basic perspective of deconditioning, each individual self begins as an active, tangible (if transient) entity. Figure 1 illustrates the ordinary mental field of this individual self. [Figure 1 Here]

Infants and children become conditioned all too soon to acquire their array of personal assets and liabilities. Among the liabilities developed are three dysfunctions of selfhood. Reduced to simplified, operational terms, these liabilities are referable to our constructs of “I, Me, and Mine.” Figure 2 illustrates how this triad of self occupies the axial center, looking out toward the outer world of the environment. [Figure 2 Here]

The liabilities of the assertive sovereign I-self are manifested in overt acts of arrogance and aggression. Those of the fearful, vulnerable Me-self generate inner turmoil, feelings of being battered by life and besieged by anxieties. The Me is an object, the target of life’s vicissitudes.

The dysfunctions of the intrusive Mine are more subtle. They are observable in the ways children and adults cling to possessions, covet material goods, and cherish their own fixed opinions. This pejorative triad, the “ABCs of our I-Me-Mine,” causes suffering not only during childhood, but at every age. It becomes the basis for adult longings and loathings, and for many unfruitful, overconditioned, egocentric aspects of our personalities.

Recent research suggests that most aspects of our multifaceted self are attributable to defined networks that blend their interactions in a variety of subtle functions.(2)(3) As one oversimplification, much of the higher levels of our bodily self-image --- our soma --- is normally represented along posterior pathways that lead up toward the superior parietal region.

Yet this major sensory supply into the parietal lobe must first pass through deeper thalamic circuits. In this respect, the thalamus serves as a “bottleneck.” Notably, its GABA-containing reticular nucleus acts as a “shield.” This inhibitory function becomes important when we ask: How can one’s sensate, physical self vanish during some of the superficial states called the absorptions? Figure 3 illustrates the nature of the mental field during internal absorption when this ordinary sense of a somatic self drops out of awareness. [Figure 3 Here]

However, our ordinary psychic attributes --- those of our psyche --- are more complex. Although their functions build on the scaffolding of this basic physical axis, the higher-level expressions of our psyche are more referable to networks linking other regions. These associations are elaborated on during interactions that link the cortex of the frontal and temporal lobes, and join in consultation with other parietal, thalamic, limbic and paralimbic systems.