Reddit mentions of The Science of Enlightenment: How Meditation Works

This is a fair question. A condition to practicing toward awakening is a desire to awaken, which comes from good teachings. For pragmatic dharma resources, I recommend you check out the sidebar links, particularly Daniel Ingram's MCTB and Ron Crouch's website (and, specifically, his post "Why Meditate?". Those inspired me to practice.

There are lots of other interesting books on the subject too, including Shinzen Young's recent book The Science of Enlightenment, Sam Harris's Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion, and Adyashanti's The End of Your World: Uncensored Straight Talk on the Nature of Enlightenment. Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now also is quite popular.

And, really, depending on your bent, you can't get any better than the original Buddhist teachings. On the subjects of Enlightenment, the Diamond Sutra and the Heart Sutra are two of my personal favorites. (These are as translated by Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh.)

So, I'd recommend reading and seeing if you feel inspired by the teachings. For me, there was something about the very idea of "Enlightenment" that stirred a desire deep within my heart. It was palpable, and it started at an early age, sometime in middle school or high school when I had to do a project on religions and happened to be assigned Buddhism. Encyclopedia-like resources don't necessarily point you in the direction of Enlightenment, but the explanation of "Nirvana" had some sort of primal appeal to me.

Once pragmatic dharma teachers like Daniel Ingram and Ron Crouch started claiming that some form of "awakening" was actually possible for Average Joe Layperson (like me), I was intrigued, and I decided to give the experiment a shot. Of course I did.

What changes? It depends on how you define "stream entry" and who you ask. There are lots of different models for Enlightenment (as discussed in Daniel's MCTB). Using the pragmatic dharma definition, stream entry is defined as the first time a practitioner completes a fully cycle of insight (typically measured against the Progress of Insight maps) and experiences a "cessation" event. What changes varies from practitioner to practitioner, but on the Fetters Model, which I think is as good as any, three important "fetters" are dropped: (a) belief in self, (b) doubt about the Path, and (c) attachment to rites and rituals.

Concretely, based on my experience, the fetters model (filtered, of course, through my still sometimes cloudy conceptual lens) made a lot of sense. Regarding "self view," the "cessation" experience has a way of kicking you out of the linear way of looking at your life, as an existent self living chronologically in time. While often this insight fades for a while, it is pretty clear at the point of initial awakening, and I speculate that a part of your mind never forgets that. This insight deepens with further practice. Your perspective on your experience shifts from being caught typically in the horizontal dimension of time to instead tuning into the vertical dimension of "just this," in which time, like all things, including the self, is seen as just a concept, a particular way of looking at this immediate, obvious, and manifest reality. Seeing "just this," and recognizing that there is no permanent self that is just this or that provides tremendous relief. Most of our lives are spent trying to protect the self, improve it, make it happy. Seeing through this delusion, even for a moment, has a way of radically transforming one's perspective on experience.

Second, after you complete a cycle of insight, you don't really doubt "just this." There's a lot of work necessary to integrate and deepen that insight. But it feels like you have directly touched reality, the Tao, Nirvana, God, or whatever. Interestingly, in my experience, that which seems to remains when all else fades is all that you ever wanted to begin with. So, the value of this Path becomes obvious. Faith is no longer necessary. A deep part of your mind understands that "this is it."

Finally, the attachment to rites and rituals goes away because you realize that it's "just this." You might have done a lot of work to realize that, but once you do, it's all pretty simple. That realization can't be taken away from you. It's done. It's always available. As a practical matter, that realization tends to fade, come and go, which teaches us an interesting thing about "awakening experiences," a lesson we will have to learn well as we continue to deepen our practice. But generally speaking, after "stream entry," one realizes that awakening is not somehow external to one's present situation, indeed the very idea of internal and external is just another concept which has no concrete, permanent status (is ultimately empty). Thus, the need for rites and rituals is seen through.

All that said, these realizations may not be perfectly obvious at the conceptual level after stream entry. As a practical matter, people generally feel lighter, relieved, happier, at least for a time. But those states are just states, which are not permanent. Enlightenment, Awakening, Liberation, Nirvana, or whatever you want to call it is something that goes beyond particular states or this or that. Once you begin to open up to that dimension of being, you experience a much more profound and lasting sense of peace with just this existence, as it is. It's a nice spot to be in. :)

Hope that helps.

I think a retreat, whether zen sesshin or vipassina is extremely helpful and for many people (such as Sam Harris) even if they do 1 hour a day, it is during a retreat where they first begin to understand how to actually meditate.


Also committing to meditate at specific times, especially when I don't want to has been really helpful in terms of continuity and momentum in my practice.


This book helped me more than any podcast, video, dharma talk, or reading material I found prior. I can think of many ways why that is the case but mostly in how he talks about meditation in a way I've not heard anyone else do. I'll post the book description below the link.

https://www.amazon.com/Science-Enlightenment-How-Meditation-Works/dp/1591794609
merges scientific clarity, a rare grasp of source-language teachings East and West, and a gift for sparking insight through unexpected analogies, illustrations, humor, and firsthand accounts that reveal the inner journey to be as wondrous as any geographical expedition. Join him here to explore:
Universal insights spanning Buddhism, Christian and Jewish mysticism, shamanism, the yogas of India, and many other paths
How to begin and navigate your own meditation practice
Concentration, clarity, and equanimity—the core catalysts of awakening
Impermanence—its many aspects and how to work with them
Experiencing the “wave” and “particle” natures of self
Purification and clarification—how we digest mental blockages and habits through inner work
Emerging neuroscience research, the future of enlightenment, and much more
For meditators of all levels and beliefs—especially those who think they’ve heard it all—this many-faceted gem will be sure to surprise, provoke, illuminate, and inspire.

(after typing it seems like I should start with the caveat that what follows is mainly recalled from memory, so don't quote me on the research)

There are certainly similarities, in that awakening has effects on brain activity. For example, I remember reading an article about brain scans on long-term meditators (specifically Tibetan monks that claimed certain attainments that would correlate to what we call awakening here) that could basically shut off their default mode network at will, which is the area associated with identification with the self concept. When they'd intentionally enter other 'modes' of experience, the brain would reflect that.

The obvious difference is the loss of control. Citing my own experience, awakening eliminates the rigid attachment to the personal identity, but the capacity is still there as a perspective. It's just not a limiting perspective.This is very convenient, because without it, functioning in the world would be hard if not impossible.

For example, one may experience states where there is a complete loss of separation to the point they can't draw distinction between their body and someone else's. If they were hungry, they literally wouldn't know where to put food to address that hunger.

To me awakening seems like a natural maturation process, and similar to any other human transition there are balanced and imbalanced versions. Often the imbalanced stories (like someone not knowing where to put food) draw a lot of attention because of the contrast they show to normal experience. They have 'shock value' compared to the balanced version, which seems more mild in comparison.

There are benefits to a mild process (the lack of abruptness gives one time to adapt, which reduces the likelihood of dysfunction), but sometimes abrupt contrasts serve a purpose. A lobotomy would be an example of an abrupt contrast, with the obvious drawback of being relatively final and haphazard. Psychedelics are another example. The psychedelic experience is more controlled, but because the changes in brain chemistry aren't permanent, the effect will eventually fade (the main reason I never found them that attractive personally).

The aims of practices like meditation are similar - to cause changes in brain chemistry - but it's generally more mild and requires a fair amount of time, effort, and commitment, which is the major downside (IMO).

If there were a way to perform something similar to a lobotomy in a controlled and precise manner, it may result in similar benefits of long-term meditative practice without the downsides. The best of both worlds. This still seems a bit far-off though, given the complexity of the brain and our limited knowledge of human consciousness.

Combining meditation with technology (brain scans, etc) in addition to more research into applied psychedelics in a controlled manner seems more promising in the immediate future.

Shinzen Young's book The Science of Enlightenment might be worth reading, if you haven't already. He is currently researching a "God Helmet" which could affect brain states similar to a lobotomy but in a short-term and controlled manner.

How spiritual awakening translates to brain activity is super interesting to me, thanks for a fun post

I went to one AA meeting when I first got clean and never went back. I understand people have found support and success in it but to me, personally, I felt it only increased the stigma of drug addicts as these broken hopeless people barely hanging on by a thread. It's an outdated system that relies on little science or attempting to progress the participants and relies more on holding people in place and focusing on the past. Instead I just worked towards becoming a normal person. Here are some of the resources I used:

r/Fitness - Getting Started: Exercise is probably the #1 thing that will aid you in recovering. It can help your brain learn to produce normal quantities of dopamine again as well as improve your heath, mood, well being and confidence.

Meetup: You can use this site to find people in your area with similar interests. I found a hiking group and a D&D group on here which I still regularly join.

Craigslist: Same as above - look for groups, activities, volunteer work, whatever.

Diet

This will be the other major player in your recovery. Understanding your diet will allow you to improve your health,mood, energy, and help recover whatever damage the drugs may have done to your body.

How Not To Die Cookbook

Life Changing Foods

The Plant Paradox

Power Foods For The Brain

Mental Health

Understand whats going on inside your head and how to deal with it is also an important step to not only recovery but enjoying life as a whole.

Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy

The Emotional Life Of Your Brain

Furiously Happy

The Science of Enlightenment: How Meditation Works

Educational

If you are like me you probably felt like a dumbass when you first got clean. I think retraining your brain on learning, relearning things you may have forgot after long term drug use, and just learning new things in general will all help you in recovery. Knowledge is power and the more you learn the more confident in yourself and future learning tasks you become.

Illegal Drugs: A Complete Guide to their History, Chemistry, Use, and Abuse

Why Nations Fails

Ideas: A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud

The Modern Mind: An Intellectual History of the 20th Century

Thinking, Fast and Slow

The Financial Peace Planner: A Step-by-Step Guide to Restoring Your Family's Financial Health

Continued Education / Skills Development

EdX: Take tons of free college courses.

Udemy: Tons of onine courses ranging from writing to marketing to design, all kinds of stuff.

Cybrary: Teach yourself everything from IT to Network Security skills

Khan Academy: Refresh on pretty much anything from highschool/early college.

There are many more resources available these are just ones I myself have used over the past couple years of fixing my life. Remember you don't have to let your past be a monkey on your back throughout the future. There are plenty of resources available now-a-days to take matters into your own hands.

*Disclaimer: I am not here to argue about anyone's personal feelings on AA**

We strive to not become attached to any practice, but especially not to a practice that does not fit into our lives. Why have any desire? Why have a desire that cannot be filled? This is how suffering is created.

I'd recommend the book The Science of Enlightenment by Shinzen Young. There are a couple of books by this name, so here's a link: https://www.amazon.com/Science-Enlightenment-How-Meditation-Works/dp/1591794609/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=XJ5VCMA881V81A4FARQ0

Remember: Trying to get to the destination by following the path of another makes enlightenment harder than it needs to be. There is no honor in a harder path, only a farther distance from the truth.

I've been reading Shinzen Young's new book The Science of Enlightenment, and he talks a lot about the very questions you raised - there's even a whole chapter on impermanence. It may be worth a look.

Haven't gotten far enough to know if there's good instruction in there, but it looks to be a non-mystical analysis of meditation.

https://www.amazon.com/Science-Enlightenment-How-Meditation-Works/dp/1591794609