I have been practising Zen for nearly thirty
years; not as a Buddhist, but as a scientist with a great dislike of
religions and dogma. Fortunately Zen lends itself to deep inquiry
and a rejection of orthodoxy and so I have managed not to rebel but
to learn from its traditional techniques of calming the mind and
looking into the nature of experience.
In this book I bring together my scientific
training with my Zen practice to delve into ten great questions.
Among them are “Who is asking the question?” and “Am I conscious
now” as well as some traditional Zen koans. The aim of the book is
to see whether personal experience can help penetrate the scientific
mystery of consciousness. Many neuroscientists and philosophers
working on consciousness believe that a first person approach should
be able to do so, but few have attempted to bridge the gulf between
science and personal practice.
The book begins with two introductory
chapters; Falling into Zen describes my own practice and how
I set about tackling the questions, and The problem of
consciousness outlines the scientific and philosophical issues
at stake. There are then ten chapters devoted to the questions, a
very brief conclusion and, finally, a critical commentary from my
own Zen teacher.
I found struggling with these questions an
enormous challenge. The idea of writing about them is not to provide
final answers but to show how intellectual inquiry and meditational
inquiry can be brought together to tackle some question that are, at
the moment, real mysteries for science.
The illustrations were originally going to be
commissioned by Oneworld but in the end I decided to do them myself.
I chose to use Chinese brush and ink, a medium I had never used
before. This seemed appropriate, given that my meditation training has mostly
been in Chan Buddhism (the Chinese precursor of Japanese Zen). To
paint them I went back to places where I had done much of the
meditation and writing, and hoped the brush would provide its own
inspiration. They are therefore not professional illustrations but I
hope they will serve to slow down your reading at certain points,
and help you to sink into the questions as you read.
On this site I hope to publish some of the
questions and invite all you meditators out there to share your
thoughts and join in a discussion. You might like to meditate on one
of the questions first and then read the chapter, or the other way
around.
