Bob Thurman - Neuroscience & Buddhism

The more we learn about how the mind works, the more it seems Eastern religion got there first.

Cognitive reseach has shown how our memories of events can morph and change over time, neuroscience has mapped several of the basic neural systems that interact to create our sense of self and the predictive model of the brain put forward by Jeff Hawkins at the Redwood Institue does support the Buddhist teaching of Samsara, or the idea that we live in a dream (albeit, one caused by the evolutionary functions of our neo-cortex).

I don't want to get mystical here, but I wonder how much more of this religion is going to be shown as a provable model for human conciousness. It's not a bad idea. I mean when was the last time you saw a Tibetan Buddhist Suicide Bomber?

This lecture is given by Tenzin Bob Thurman, who is the first American to be ordained by the Dalai Lama, and who became a Tibetan monk at age 24. He's now a professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist studies at Columbia University.

And yes, he is Uma Thurman's father.