[Buddha-l] neuroscience: neural plasticity

[Joy Vriens]

Steve,

>> It strikes me that "meditation research" is already flawed *from a   
>> spiritual point of view* in similar ways as yoga or tantra. 
 
>You feel the Buddhist tantras and yogas are flawed in some way? 

Yes, but it doesn't matter that much as long as one knows that.
 
>> It makes the -in my most humble POV- mistake of defining (and   
>> reifying) a result and then looking for possible other ways to   
>> achieve it (utilitarianism). It's driven by control wheras genuin   
>> spirituality, as I see it and which goes along the lines of William   
>> James' "surrender of self", isn't. It's driven by a belief in   
>> methods, technics and technicality (magic we would have called it   
>> in a remote past). 
 
>Indeed it is. But some of the research is really basic and about   
>things valuable to know like 'what happens to the person in samadhi?'   
>Can anyone achieve this and if so, how long would it take? How does   
>it change the mode of functioning in our neural hardware (the brain   
>and nervous system)? What happens to the brain when negative emotions   
>diminish? 

I suppose they have already done those tests on a person who is asleep. What happens in the brain of a sleeping person and does what happens involve that person somehow? What exactly qualifies as "happening"? What happens in the other organs? I don't know, it seems to me that there are so many a prioris with which these tests are done. E.g. "negative emotions", what is negative about negative emotions, what are negative emotions? I guess that whatever disturbs the peace of mind is negative. But then how about love and compassion that can disturb that peace? If it is not entirely clear what a negative emotion is then how can it be measured? What exactly are we measuring when we measure and how much credit/value do we attribute to the result of measuring? The measuring and the use of technology involve the use of mathematics and then mathematical laws apply. Is all that adequate? E.g. can we measure how much we love a piece of music with a ruler? And all this is so frightfully!
  subjective IMO. 
 
>Many of these things we still simply do not know. And it is possible   
>with brain wave entrainment, meditative states could actually be   
>fostered and assisted by technology. There could come a time when   
>part of basic education would include the ability to be free from   
>afflictive emotions. 

I am not sure emotions are afflictive in themselves and even if they are I am not sure that not having them would be better.

Joy