Figure 3 – The Mental Field of Internal Absorption with Sensate Loss.

A major absorption dissolves the bodily self. It effaces the ordinary physical boundaries of the I-Me-Mine. What remains? A witnessed, silent, heightened, clear, ambient awareness. The sensory blockade shuts off not only the stimuli from the outer world. It also shuts off proprioceptive information relayed up from the head and body. Most emotions do not register aside from a pervasive enchantment and bliss.

Figure 4 – The Mental Field of Insight-Wisdom (Kensho-Satori).

The brain’s intuitive capacities approach their peak. Subjectivity dissolves. A totally unifying objective vision comprehends the whole outside world. The impression is: All things as they REALLY are; immanent, eternal perfection. Fear vanishes because the entire I-Me-Mine drops out at every affective level. (Dashed lines serve only to suggest the location of former boundaries.)

Figure 5 – Parallel Universes.

At the top of this figure, our usual self/other mode is shown. It constructs two separate parallel universes. On the left side of this duality is our own larger, self-centered universe. We’ve always given it the higher priority. Off to the right lies the rest of the world “outside” us. Farther down, however, in a supraordinate state of consciousness, egocentricity vanishes. The ordinary world (Samsara) and the noumenal world (“nirvana”) are now perceived as unified within an impression of “Oneness.” At the bottom, after kensho, the former over-inflated self (on the left) has become “thinner.” Larger “pores” exist in its formerly rigid boundary. They are intended to suggest that this newly awakened self enters into a fresh appreciation of the outside world, and can engage it actively on terms that are now much more open, direct, and inclusive.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 　　　　　　　　 James H. Austin, MD

James H. Austin is Clinical Professor of Neurology, University of Missouri Health Science Center, and Emeritus Professor of Neurology, University of Colorado Health Science Center. Austin is the author of his well known book Zen and the Brain, which aims to establish links between the neurological workings of the human brain and meditation. Austin has recently written a sequel to it, Zen-Brain Reflections, published in February, 2006.

Austin is also a practicing Zen Buddhist. After a number of years of Zen meditation, Austin spontaneously experienced what Zen practice calls "enlightenment" on a subway platform in London. The chief characteristic of his experience seems to be a loss of the sense of "self" which is central to human identity, and a corresponding feeling of union with the outer world. Austin speculates as to what might be going on in the brain when the "self" module goes offline, and also discusses the seeing timelessness of the experience in the context of the brain's internal clock mechanisms. In Austin's own words[1],

It strikes unexpectedly at 9 am on the surface platform of the London subway system. (Due to a mistake)...I wind up at a station where I have never been before....The view is the dingy interior of the station, some grimy buildings, a bit of open sky. Instantly the entire view acquires three qualities: Absolute Reality, Intrinsic Rightness, Ultimate Reflection. With no transition, it is all complete....Yes, there is the paradox of this extraordinary viewing. But there is no viewer. The scene is utterly empty, stripped of every last extension of an I-Me-Mine (his name for ego-self). Vanished in one split second is the familiar sensation that this person is viewing a city scene. The new viewing proceeds impersonally, not pausing to register the paradox that there is no human subject "doing" it. Three insights penetrate the experient, each conveying Total Understanding at depths far beyond simple knowledge: This is the eternal state of affairs. There is nothing more to do. There is nothing whatever to fear.

Austin claims that the experience represented "objective reality" in that his subjective self did not exist to form biased interpretations. Uncompromisingly scientific, Austin notes that how little Zen Buddhism and scientific rigor conflict.

James H. Austin, Zen and the Brain: Toward an Understanding of Meditation and Consciousness.

　　 Zen and the Brain is a groundbreaking work that bridges the gap between the fields of religion and science.

　　 A great deal has been written by medical doctors on the functioning of the brain/ and by mediators on the effects of meditation on the human personality. Medical researchers/ who have attempted to bridge this gap through scientific studies on the efficacy of meditation in bringing about physiological and mental changes in the human personality, have been downright skeptical concerning meditation's positive efficacy. However, serious meditators have enthusiastically cited the history of the Eastern and Western meditation tradition as a justification for their claims. One of the major hurdles in this fascinating area of research has been the fact that very few medical researchers have had any personal experience with meditation while the vast majority of meditators have had no training in the neurology of the brain.