my mind on books

I recently reviewed Wellbeing (The Art of Living Series) by Mark Vernon for Metapsychology Online Reviews, so I wanted to link to the review and add some related links here….

Author’s website and blog

Art of Living Series, publisher’s information, Art of Living Series at Amazon

“Further reading” from Wellbeing:

• Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment by Martin Seligman
• Happiness: Lessons from a New Science by Richard Layard
• Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment by Tal Ben-Shahar
• The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom by Jonathan Haidt
• The Selfish Capitalist: Origins of Affluenza by Oliver James
• The Head Trip: Adventures on the Wheel of Consciousness by Jeff Warren
• New Frontier of Religion and Science: Religious Experience, Neuroscience, and the Transcendent by John Hick
• Aristotle – Eudemian Ethics, Nicomachean Ethics
• Happy Lives and the Highest Good: An Essay on Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics by Gabriel Richardson Lear
• Plato – Phaedrus, Symposium
• Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals by Iris Murdoch
• Existentialists and Mystics: Writings on Philosophy and Literature by Iris Murdoch, Peter Conradi (ed.)
• A Secular Age by Charles Taylor
• The Monk and the Philosopher: A Father and Son Discuss the Meaning of Life by Jean-Francois Revel and Matthieu Ricard
• Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill by Matthieu Ricard
• The Spiritual Dimension: Religion, Philosophy and Human Value by John Cottingham
• Immortal Longings: Versions of Transcending Humanity by Fergus Kerr

“Consciousness is the appearance of a world.”

That is the first line of the new book The Ego Tunnel: The Science of the Mind and the Myth of the Self by Thomas Metzinger (Basic Books, 2009).

Product Description

We’re used to thinking about the self as an independent entity, something that we either have or are. In The Ego Tunnel, philosopher Thomas Metzinger claims otherwise: No such thing as a self exists. The conscious self is the content of a model created by our brain—an internal image, but one we cannot experience as an image. Everything we experience is “a virtual self in a virtual reality.”
But if the self is not “real,” why and how did it evolve? How does the brain construct it? Do we still have souls, free will, personal autonomy, or moral accountability? In a time when the science of cognition is becoming as controversial as evolution, The Ego Tunnel provides a stunningly original take on the mystery of the mind.

Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Dr. Stuart Brown and Christopher Vaughan (Avery, 2009) should be available on March 5.

Product Description
From a leading expert, a groundbreaking book on the science of play, and its essential role in fueling our intelligence and happiness throughout our lives.

We’ve all seen the happiness in the face of a child while playing in the school yard. Or the blissful abandon of a golden retriever racing with glee across a lawn. This is the joy of play. By definition, play is purposeless and all-consuming. And, most important, it’s fun.

As we become adults, taking time to play feels like a guilty pleasure—a distraction from “real” work and life. But as Dr. Stuart Brown illustrates, play is anything but trivial. It is a biological drive as integral to our health as sleep or nutrition. In fact, our ability to play throughout life is the single most important factor in determining our success and happiness.

Dr. Brown has spent his career studying animal behavior and conducting more than six thousand “play histories” of humans from all walks of life—from serial murderers to Nobel Prize winners. Backed by the latest research, Play explains why play is essential to our social skills, adaptability, intelligence, creativity, ability to problem solve, and more. Play is hardwired into our brains—it is the mechanism by which we become resilient, smart, and adaptable people.

Beyond play’s role in our personal fulfillment, its benefits have profound implications for child development and the way we parent, education and social policy, business innovation, productivity, and even the future of our society. From new research suggesting the direct role of three-dimensional-object play in shaping our brains to animal studies showing the startling effects of the lack of play, Brown provides a sweeping look at the latest breakthroughs in our understanding of the importance of this behavior. A fascinating blend of cutting-edge neuroscience, biology, psychology, social science, and inspiring human stories of the transformative power of play, this book proves why play just might be the most important work we can ever do.

Dr. Stuart Brown is the founder of the National Institute for Play. A sample chapter is available at the book’s website.

Thanks to Eric from Open Learning for the book suggestion!

James H. Austin and Susan Blackmore, two favorite authors on consciousness, have new books out. First,
Selfless Insight: Zen and the Meditative Transformations of Consciousness by James H. Austin (MIT Press, 2009):

Product Description
When neurology researcher James Austin began Zen training, he found that his medical education was inadequate. During the past three decades, he has been at the cutting edge of both Zen and neuroscience, constantly discovering new examples of how these two large fields each illuminate the other. Now, in Selfless Insight, Austin arrives at a fresh synthesis, one that invokes the latest brain research to explain the basis for meditative states and clarifies what Zen awakening implies for our understanding of consciousness.

Austin, author of the widely read Zen and the Brain, reminds us why Zen meditation is not only mindfully attentive but evolves to become increasingly selfless and intuitive. Meditators are gradually learning how to replace over-emotionality with calm, clear, objective comprehension.

In this new book, Austin discusses how meditation trains our attention, reprogramming it toward subtle forms of awareness that are more openly mindful. He explains how our maladaptive notions of self are rooted in interactive brain functions. And he describes how, after the extraordinary, deep states of kensho-satori strike off the roots of the self, a flash of transforming insight-wisdom leads toward ways of living more harmoniously and selflessly.

Selfless Insight is the capstone to Austin’s journey both as a creative neuroscientist and as a Zen practitioner. His quest has spanned an era of unprecedented progress in brain research and has helped define the exciting new field of contemplative neuroscience.

Then Ten Zen Questions by Susan Blackmore (Oneworld Publications, 2009) :

Product Description
Who are you? When are you? What were you conscious of a moment ago? This groundbreaking book sees acclaimed psychologist Susan Blackmore combining the latest scientific theories about mind, self, and consciousness, with a lifetime’s practice of Zen.

Alongside her research on consciousness and memes, Susan Blackmore has been practising Zen for over twenty-five years; not as a Buddhist, but as a scientist who longs to understand the mind. Many neuroscientists and philosophers believe that we need first-person approaches as well as third-person scientific research in order to fully comprehend consciousness. In Ten Zen Questions, she brings the two together for the first time.

Seeking to understand whether personal experience can help penetrate the scientific mystery of consciousness, she uses traditional techniques of calming the mind and looking directly into experience as she delves into ten great questions, including “How does thought arise?”, “Am I conscious now?”, and the Zen koan “There is no time. What is memory?”

Featuring the ten questions, a critical response from her Zen master, and lively illustrations, Ten Zen Questions offers a revolutionary way to try to understand who we are. This is not the kind of book that provides final – or easy – answers, but instead offers an inspiring exploration of how intellectual enquiry and meditation can tackle the questions behind some of today’s greatest scientific mysteries.

Website for the book