Reddit reviews My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey

Check out this book My Stroke of Insight
She might have had mixed aphasia, but I know it was a left hemi stroke for sure

Both Drew and Gun are percieved by You, thus they are not You. You are simply awareness. If you are interested in science's point of view in this matter, you might like My Stroke of Insight by Jill Taylor.

> I watched the video you recommended and I feel that this man is trying to explain something un-explainable, which is what these states are. As such, there was nothing to be understood from this explanation. It sounded really deep, but it was all on the surface. I think a better approach would be look at the approach/method in each case which can be put into words rather than comparing the end destinations which can't be put into words.

Like I said, he is one of the more extreme non-dualists out there. But your clinging to concept was precisely why I chose him to share vs another teacher that was more conceptual. You do not need any more concepts or anything else to think about, that's for sure! In reality, his teaching, while indeed "on the surface" is all that is truly required. The simplicity is the beauty of his teaching. It's meant to be jarring, and that jarring helps to break the mind down to release some of its concepts and identifications.

> Do you have a link to a good guide that summarizes your method?

For meditation I practice Kriya Yoga. I have yet to see a website or book describe the techniques properly. Kriya is a system of one on one guru/disciple instruction, and I'm not at liberty to share the techniques themselves. I can tell you on a high level it has to do a lot with using breath control and energy work in the chakras to create a deep and profound level of stillness and bliss (Pratyahara) and then from that silence we practice what we call Paravastha, which is really just going from Dharana to Dhyana to Samadhi through use of the internal lights that happen at the Kutastha (third eye), the astral sounds/music that come in the right ear, or if neither of those are presenting themselves in that session simply expanding consciousness to full equinanimous awareness of the whole until the self melts away.

I also practiced Advaita Vedanta Self-Enquiry throughout the day in accordance with the teachings of Ramana Maharshi. You can get his book "Who Am I?" if you would like more details on this. As far as awakening of consciousness is concerned, this Self-Inquiry was what really broke my mind down.

> It's not a matter of rejecting these things

You can say that now from the outside. Once you are on the inside, and you truly get your first taste of the non-dual, you will understand. It truly is a death of the person. "Dispassion, renunciation, and cessation" are a natural part of any death. They are side effects of death, contrary to popular belief they are not practices to achieve it. Any technique that keeps the person alive is bound to fail, or at least leave the full awakening up to pure chance. If there is a person who is renouncing or being dispassionate there is still a person, and a such they are still rolling around in illusion. Most meditations paths without some direct form of non-dual teaching (Advaita Vedanta, Zen, or Dzogchen are all wonderful non-dual teachings you could add on to your current practice) tend to soften the ego, but they do not directly lead to ego death. This softening is good, in that it can create the environment to increase the odds that the death can randomly happen. But there is no guarantee that the death will happen on these paths alone, it is leaving everything up to chance. Many people get stuck by trading a personal identity for a spiritual identity. This is like upgrading to a slightly nicer car. But you still have a car. The identity that "I am a yogi", "I am a Buddhist", "I am a seeker", and any concept that goes along with those like "I am trying to avoid rebirth", "I want to achieve Nirvana", "I want to be enlightened" are all concepts and identities that MUST be burned at the stake in order to truly make it home. As long as these mental conceptions are alive, you are still in illusion. These are also the most difficult and sticky identities, concepts, and conditionings we have to deal with. A soft ego is better than a hard ego, but an ego is still an ego.

And of course, once one has this self-realization they then have to find a way to take the backwards step back into the world. One realizes they have a blank slate, and realizes they need an ego to function in the world, so they they in turn have to consciously build and wear a new ego like wearing a mask. This is something I myself am struggling with at the moment. When one truly realizes that all the things they used to pursue are pointless, and one has a blank slate with which they can do anything, what does one do and how do they create a point/meaning to it all? Every day when I wake up and have to go to work, it's like why? This is pointless and meaningless. Why do I want to go work somewhere that is nowhere, to make money which is nothing, to trade for things that are nothing. I already have infinite nothing, why would I need more of it? And who is the "I" that could possibly need it? Things that are of the illusion just naturally fall away like this. I don't have to consciously renounce anything, it just becomes pointless and as a byproduct all desire and attachment naturally and effortlessly falls away. I never had to practice non-attachment, non-attachment practiced me. I'm still only 37 years old though. My body is still alive, and will be for many years, therefore I still have a role to play in the great Divine dream. The thing is, I've now been not only given the knowledge that it is a dream, but I've also been given a blank script along with the full ability and responsibility to write my own story. But, what is it that I want to write when there is no "I" to write about? This is the greatest irony of all. If I had this blank script a year or two ago before I had the breakthrough I would have abused the hell out of it. But, without desire, how does one decide how to write their story? I'm still trying to figure this out. For now, the only answer I have is that I simply do not know. In the meantime, I'm simply playing the game purely for the sake of playing the game.

> The second state was one I happened to hit one night when my concentration was extremely one-pointed, and so refined that it refused settle on or label even the most fleeting mental objects. I dropped into a state in which I lost all sense of the body, of any internal/external sounds, or of any thoughts or perceptions at all — although there was just enough tiny awareness to let me know, when I emerged, that I hadn't been asleep. I found that I could stay there for many hours, and yet time would pass very quickly. Two hours would seem like two minutes. I could also "program" myself to come out at a particular time.

This is Samadhi right here ^^^

> After hitting this state several nights in a row, I told Ajaan Fuang about it, and his first question was, "Do you like it?" My answer was "No," because I felt a little groggy the first time I came out. "Good," he said. "As long as you don't like it, you're safe. Some people really like it and think it's nibbana or cessation. Actually, it's the state of non-perception (asaññi-bhava). It's not even right concentration, because there's no way you can investigate anything in there to gain any sort of discernment. But it does have other uses." He then told me of the time he had undergone kidney surgery and, not trusting the anesthesiologist, had put himself in that state for the duration of the operation.

Going back to the start of this thread, he states he felt "groggy" coming out of Samadhi. This might lead someone to think they were in "dullness". But they aren't. By the way, I experienced this "groggy" feeling as well when I first started hitting Samadhi. It is a very common side-effect. This stance also points exactly to my point about how Buddhists weapon of choice is Dhyana not Samadhi. "It's not even right concentration, because there's no way you can investigate anything in there to gain any sort of discernment" points right to this fact. One needs to be in duality as an observer/concentrator to "investigate" and form "discernment". These are active practices. Samadhi is a state of pure non-action. It is like being naked, just you being exactly who you are exactly as you are.

> In both these states of wrong concentration, the limited range of awareness was what made them wrong. If whole areas of your awareness are blocked off, how can you gain all-around insight?

This is judgment, and false judgment at that. Labelling a state of Samadhi as "wrong concentration" is a joke. Samadhi is a state of pure knowledge. That knowledge is beyond words. "Insight" is of the mind, therefore it is conceptual and can be put into words. Whether one gets the pure raw intuitive knowledge in Samadhi, or they build Insights in the mind through Dhyana, either way they are still downloading the info one way or another. Just a matter of whether that is raw data or processed data. Although I will agree with him on one point, that those that train powerful one pointedness do tend to, in my experience, suffer from some psychological consequences as a result. I think the main reason for this is that one pointed focus is pure left brain activity, and the ego lives in the left brain. Whereas, open awareness is of the right brain, and freedom/liberation resides in the right brain. See this super fascinating example of a brain scientist who had a stroke that cut off their left brain, and in living exclusively from the right brain she fit all the criteria of one who is "enlightened" https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0019IB0II/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1