Zen Into Science

The memes of most religions are not compatible with science, but some kinds of spiritual practice are. Zen practice and science have much in common and each may benefit from the other. They may even lead to some of the same insights about self, mind and consciousness.

So begins this short but well written article. Dr. Blackmore asks:

And what about the world that I seem to see out there? Research on change blindness, inattentional blindness, and the timing of awareness all suggests that the visual world is a grand illusion (Noë 2002). There really is no picture in the head, even though psychology and cognitive science have long assumed there must be. What then do I see? According to the sensorimotor theory of vision, seeing is not building a picture of the world but is a kind of doing; a mastery of the relationships between what this body does and the way the world responds (O’Regan and Noë 2001).