Finding Nirvana

Geeks Are Sexy reports:

Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened — as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding — she studied and remembered every moment.

Here's the video of Bolte Taylor's presentation. It's long, so click when you have the time to view it.

She calls the moments of complete loss of left hemisphere function "Nirvana," and it's certainly very similar to the experiences of mystics in many traditions throughout history and across the globe. The purposeful "turning off" of the self-conscious self is a central feature of Hinduism and Buddhism. For instance,

In Mahayana, nirvana is an emphasis on the unified nature of the world. Nirvana is conceived as a human experience of oneness with unconditioned consciousness (the absolute). Which gives insight into the unity of the world (samsara), body, mind and soul. It is a state of transcending conditioned consciousness.

Similarly, St. John of the Cross believed that "the soul must empty itself of self in order to be filled with God, that it must be purified of the last traces of earthly dross before it is fit to become united with God."  Christian mysticism in general involves

a spiritual transformation of the egoic self, the following of a path designed to produce more fully realized human persons, "created in the Image and Likeness of God" and as such, living in harmonious communion with God, the Church, the rest of humanity, and all creation, including oneself. For Christians, this human potential is realized most perfectly in Jesus and is manifested in others through their association with Him, whether conscious, as in the case of Christian mystics, or unconscious, with regard to persons who follow other traditions . . . . The Eastern Christian  tradition speaks of this transformation in terms of theosis or divinization, perhaps best summed up by an ancient aphorism usually attributed to Athanasius of Alexandia: "God became human so that man might become God."

To learn about the tradition of mysticism in Christianity, one cannot do better than to read  Evelyn Underhill's Mysticism, available in full here. This book has had a profoundly life-changing influence on  my own spiritual development.

The terminology and the details of interpretation differ across cultures -- as must be the case when dealing with something that can only be defined by all as ineffable -- but the effect is much the same. Experiences such as this are achieved by "turning off" left hemisphere consciousness and sensing the same kind of blending of self with otherness -- often through focused meditation or sensory deprivation -- that Taylor experienced during her stroke.

The Hindu principle of Moksha is also illuminating:

Moksha is seen as a final release from one's worldly conception of self, the loosening of the shackle of experiential duality and a realization of one's own fundamental nature which is true being, pure consciousness and bliss (satcitananda) an experience which is ineffable and beyond sensation. According to the branch of Hinduism known as advaita vedanta, at liberation the individual soul or atman is realised to be one with the Ground of all being* – the Source of all phenomenal existence known as Brahman. The self-as-individual is realised to have never existed. In other (dvaita) traditions it is held that the identification between the liberated human being and God is not total but there is always some distinction between the two. In Vaishnavism, one of the largest branch of Hinduism, Moksha involves forsaking everything material and establishing one's existence as a purely devoted servant of Vishnu (Bhagavan or God; also known by many other names such as Krishna, Rama, Narayana, etc.). Hindu scripture  like the Bhagavad Gita, Mahabharata, Ramayana, and so on especially emphasize this personal, devotional conception of Moksha, which is achieved through the practice of Bhakti Yoga. On the other hand, works of the non-dualistic Hindu school, Advaita Vedanta or Brahmavada whose doctrinal position is derived from the Upanishads, say that the Self or Super-Soul is formless, beyond being and non-being, beyond any sense of tangibility and comprehension. These two Hindu concepts of Moksha - personal and impersonal - are seen differently depending on one's beliefs.

*See also Paul Tillich, Teilhard de Chardin, etc.

Photo: Mahaparinirvana Temple in Kusinara, Uttar Pradesh, India; shows the death of the Buddha and transition to parinirvana or "final nirvana."

Comments

[nursemyra]

having a stroke... nirvana...?

[gail]

That's the way she experienced it.

[gail]

Her description is fascinating.

[Ana]

It's amazing. Can we consciously bypass the left brain? 'Cause mine's loud and bossy.

[Barbara]

I am studying Eastern thought, and noted the similarity at once. The presentation was fascinating and moving. I emailed the link to my daughters as soon as I could collect myself.

[gail]

Yes we can Ana -- by meditation. That's what zen meditation is all about, quieting the "monkey mind". There's also a whole Christian tradition of focused meditation -- St. Ignatius is the main proponent of that -- but the Jesus prayer, which comes from the Eastern tradition, is an extremely powerful mantra when said in time with the beat of your heart (which is why it is also called the Prayer of the Heart).