No Self, No Problem: How Neuropsychology Is Catching Up to Buddhism

when you become conscious of the interpreter, you are free to choose to no longer take its interpretations so seriously. In other words, when you realize that everyone's brain is constantly interpreting, in ways that are subjective and often inaccurate or completely incorrect, you might find yourself able to grasp this as “just my opinion” or “the way I see it” rather than “this is the way it is.

Why are you unhappy? Because 99.9 percent of everything you think, and of everything you do, is for yourself—and there isn't one.

it is the process of thinking that creates the self, rather than there being a self having any independent existence separate from thought. The self is more like a verb than a noun. To take it a step further, the implication is that without thought, the self does not, in fact, exist.

To live in a world of abstractions—based on language, concepts, beliefs, patterns, labels—is to live in a dream world rather than reality.

I invite you to redirect awareness to the space between your hands, the space between you and the next person you see, the space between any objects in front of you now. There is so much space that there are infinite variations of this practice, and you don't have to leave Earth to experience it. One practice is to look outward into the night sky and focus on the space between things. There is something about space that slows the mind, since the mind has no way to understand it because it has no content and no container.

the left brain also becomes so dependent on language that it mistakes the map of reality for reality itself.

because many people are not conscious of the left-brain interpreter, they can't even consider that their thoughts are interpretations, but rather feel secure they are seeing things “as they really are.

A sense of freedom can emerge from the realization that you are under no obligation to be consistent.

We are the only species that we know of that can believe in ourselves, lie to ourselves, convince ourselves, love or hate ourselves, accept ourselves, push and even pull ourselves.

When you listen to someone speak, or when you speak yourself, bring some attention to the silent space between the sounds. Can you sense in the same way a figure is dependent on the background that sound is dependent on silence? Without silence, sound would have no meaning.

For one who has conquered the mind, the mind is the best of friends; but for one who has failed to do so, his mind will remain the greatest enemy. —Bhagavad Gita

The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift. —Albert Einstein

Rather than embrace reality as it is, the left brain is hopelessly addicted to storytelling and interpretations about reality, which provide a short-term hit of purpose and meaning but an inevitable crash of suffering. And most people never even know this cycle is going on.

it is also true that by constantly looking for patterns the left brain “complicates” what is perceived in a way that can be unnecessary and unhelpful.

In one study, subjects listened to music while half of them tried as hard as they could to be happy.5 The half that tried to be happy were less happy than the group that just listened. Another study found that those who put a high value on happiness had more negative emotions.6 Of course, long ago the Buddha explained how desire leads to suffering; this seems to also hold even for the desire to be happy.

In your world, the unspoken has no existence. In mine the words and their contents have no being. . . . My world is real, while yours is made of dreams.” To live in a world of abstractions—based on language, concepts, beliefs, patterns, labels—is to live in a dream world rather than reality.

Mistaking the voice in our head for a thing and labeling it “me” brings us into conflict with the neuropsychological evidence that shows there is no such thing. This mistake—this illusory sense of self—is the primary cause of our mental suffering. What's more, I contend that it blocks access to the eternal, expansive thread of universal consciousness that is always available to us.

Perhaps the reason we can't find the self in the brain is because it isn't there.

During a now famous lecture, the Eastern philosopher and spiritual teacher J. Krishnamurti asked the audience “Do you want to know what my secret is?” According to several accounts of this story, in a soft voice, he said, “I don't mind what happens.

Instead of being so identified with the “me” in our heads, we find ourselves noticing things like “that's my left-brain interpreter telling stories.” When the stories it creates don't evoke as strong a mental or emotional reaction, our suffering lessens as a result.

if you have a why, you can deal with any how.

Even an eight-week mindfulness-based stress reduction program had a significant impact on the brain.

the self must continue to think in order to stay in existence and therefore will always change the measuring stick—always adding a new “better” to fall short of.

Researcher Martin Teicher has found that verbal abuse is at least as harmful as physical abuse and a strong risk factor for depression and other psychological disorders

Marvin Minsky put it, “The mind is what the brain does.

there is greater activity in the right brain when subjects experienced the sensations of gratitude,

Stop thinking, and end your problems. —Lao Tzu, The Tao Te Ching

Einstein said that a problem cannot be solved with the same level of thinking that created it.

have you ever felt a threat to your ego? Ever felt stupid or embarrassed? In those moments your sense of self wasn't as secure as you thought it was, so you likely shifted and reinterpret the events to account for this unexpected change. This reinterpreting or reinvesting can happen in a variety of ways. You may do anything from discounting others (i.e., “their opinion is of no value”) to refocusing your identity another way (“well, I may not be as rich as they are, but I am much smarter!” or focus on how patriotic you are, or how spiritual, or any other prized pattern of the self that compensates for the area in which your ego felt threatened).