[Buddha-l] Neurophysiology (was: Different criticisms...)

[Franz Metcalf]

Gang,

Thanks, Margaret, for the link to the Mind & Life folks. I'm glad they 
seem to be becoming a clearinghouse for this work.

I'm not sure I'd go so far as to say neuroplasticity "suggests that 
there really is no such thing as 'hard-wiring'." Rather, hard-wiring 
exists and certain mental practices (such as meditation, or, indeed, 
the cultivation of hate) and re-wire that wiring. But here we're just 
quibbling over the definition of "hard," not that there is wiring.

On this subject I was intrigued when James Austin's book, Zen and the 
Brain, came out. I just saw that he's got a new one: Zen-Brain 
Reflections (The MIT Press, 2006). Has anyone looked at it?

Franz