[Buddha-l] Book on shamatha

[curt]

jkirk wrote:
>
> Has anyone read _The Attention Revolution: Unlocking the Power of the 
> Focused Mind_ by B. Alan Wallace? He's a copious author and has an 
> institute in Santa Barbara.
>
>  
>
> <snip snip>
>
>  
>
> Sounds promising…….Comments anyone?
>
>
This Wallace guy maybe ain't too bad. Especially if you place what he is 
doing side by side with "The Secret".

Here's a quote from an interview with him (taken from the part of this 
Salon article that is available without a subscription: 
http://www.salon.com/books/int/2006/11/27/wallace/index_np.html ):

"Subjectivity is the central taboo of scientific materialism," he 
writes. He considers the Buddhist examination of interior, mental states 
far preferable to what he calls the Western "idolatry of the brain." And 
he says the modern obsession with brain chemistry has created a false 
sense of well-being: "It is natural then to view psychopharmaceutical 
and psychotropic drugs as primary sources of happiness and relief from 
suffering." Wallace also chastises cognitive psychologists and 
neuroscientists for assuming the mind is merely the product of the 
physical mechanics of the brain. And he talks openly about ideas that 
most scientists would consider laughable, including reincarnation and a 
transcendent consciousness.

- Curt