SLIDE 3 3
Medial Prefrontal Cortex (mPFC)
experiences across time
- Holds memory of
- Self traits
- Traits of similar
- thers
- Reflected self-
knowledge
The Study
- Half of subjects engaged in 8 week MBSR
course, half on wait list
- All trained in narrative focus (NF) and
experiential focus (EF) modes of responding to adjectives
- All asked to do each approach while in fMRI
scanner
The Results
- In novices, experiential focus (EF) reduced
self-referential activity in medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC)
- In MBSR participants, EF resulted in more
marked and pervasive reduced activity in mPFC, along with increased engagement in several other areas
The Conclusion
- There is a fundamental neural dissociation
between two forms of self-awareness:
- The self across time
- The unfolding of moment-to-moment experience in
the present moment
- Mindfulness practice enables us to see these
as separate
- To see how the separate “self” is created out of a
narrative
To study Buddhism is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be enlightened by all things. To be enlightened by all things is to be free from attachment to the body and mind of
- ne's self and of others.
- - Dogen 13th Century
No one Home
moment-to-moment experience
dies each moment
witness
experience unfolding A human being is part of the whole called by us universe ... We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest. A kind of optical delusion of
- consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison
for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its
- beauty. The true value of a human being is
determined by the measure and the sense in which they have obtained liberation from the self.
Nargarguna
Thus neither self nor non-self Are to be apprehended as real. Therefore the Great Subduer rejected Views of self and of non-self.
1) Affect Tolerance
