In an exploration of the intersection of science and contemplative wisdom, Dr. Richard J. Davidson relates how extraordinary brain activity occurred while conducting an EEG on Tibetan Buddhist monk and teacher Mingyur Rinpoche while in a deep meditative state. His brain almost immediately began generating gamma oscillations “when the brain integrates information across distributed neural systems -- periods of perceptual binding, learning, and insight.” They realized the “capacity for insight itself may be trainable.” Insight generates powerful “aha” learning in that it helps distinguish mental constructions created by the mind from fixed truths. “This recognition does not eliminate thoughts or emotions. But it changes our relationship to them,” and can free a sense of self previously limited by those constructs.
