Dhamma Wheel Buddhist Forum

The July 2010 issue of Scientific American Mind has an article on the nature of the self:

* "We perceive the “I” as stable, but the self is actually a construct that the brain works constantly to maintain.
* Self-knowledge involves both simple mental processes, such as knowing where one’s body is in space, and complex ones, such as fabricating a life story out of past events.
* A critical aspect of self-awareness is the ability to recognize and temper one’s emotions."

http://www.scientificamerican.com/artic ... self-and-i

...and an article on gaps in perception at New Scientist
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg2 ... sight.html
Which feeds right into the other one, since our sense that we perceive things reliably contributes to the myth that we 'are' unitary, cohesive 'selves'.

Kim

It's amazing how much attention is the foundation for what we perceive as reality.

Thanks for posting that.

Nibbida wrote:It's amazing how much attention is the foundation for what we perceive as reality.

Thanks for posting that.

Attention is the core of the Buddha's teaching about reality, which can be wrongly perceived or rightly perceived based upon the nature of the attention we cultivate. http://dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.php?f= ... 628#p74628" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This is a good article.

But the Buddha discovered it a long time ago.

Thanks, Nibbida. I'll read that when I go to the library. I like those kinds of articles.

Kim, on that video... I wonder if someone proficient in vipassana meditation would be more, or less, likely to notice the changes? Just the other day I saw a related demonstration:
http://www.quirkology.com/UK/Video_Colo ... rick.shtml" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Absolutely relevant and pretty neat, too.
I don't know if vipassana meditation would help anyone be more aware of all the changes.
I think the main difficulty is to do with how many things we can can give our attention to in the time available. We ignore what we think is unimportant so that we can maximise our attention on what we think is important. That is a pretty good survival strategy - and that is probably why we do it: if our ancestors stopped to admire the butterflies when a sabre-tooth tiger was after them, they didn't live long enough to become our ancestors.
Some people are better at observing than others, and most can improve with practice and training. (Look up "Kim's game" (named after the character whose name I adopted, not after me) for instance .)
And I recommended Quirkology to Cooran just a couple of days ago ... small world, huh?

Kim

Kim O'Hara wrote: And I recommended Quirkology to Cooran just a couple of days ago ... small world, huh?
Kim

Oh, that is probably how I wound up on that site, then. I couldn't remember how I came across it. The internet is a lot like our minds, click click click, one link leads to another, and another, and another.