Realizing Awakened Consciousness: Interviews with Buddhist Teachers and a New Perspective on the Mind

Richard Boyle

Published by Columbia University Press 2015

Realizing Awakened Consciousness

Interviews with Buddhist Teachers and a New Perspective on the Mind

Richard Boyle

https://doi.org/10.7312/boyl17074

Overview
Contents

About this book

Buddhist teachers and scientists collaborate on a scientifically-based approach to understanding enlightenment.

Author / Editor information

Richard P. Boyle was an associate professor of sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles, until 1972, when he left to pursue his studies in Buddhism in the mountains of northern New Mexico. Some years later, he moved to Albuquerque and worked as a senior research scientist at the University of New Mexico's Institute for Social Research. He is recently retired.

Reviews

More than any book I have read, it left me optimistic that awakened consciousness is not some myth but an attainable human potential.

David Preston, San Diego State University, author of Constructing Trans-Cultural Reality: The Social Organization of Zen Practice:
In addition to the interviews with well-known American Buddhist teachers, which form the heart of this book and make fascinating reading in themselves, Boyle develops a provocative frame of reference for understanding and discussing philosophically the meaning of some common features he identifies in the interviews, regarding the form of consciousness generally referred as 'awakening.'

Paula England, New York University, and president, American Sociological Association:
When meditators have an 'awakening,' what is it really like? Richard P. Boyle interviewed eleven Western Buddhist teachers to find out, and we get to read their accounts in their own words. Then, drawing on these interviews and on scientific research, Boyle offers an innovative view of how awakening happens and how it can transform each of us.

Anthony Giddens, London School of Economics:
'Awakening,' as described and practiced in Buddhism, Boyle shows, is a process that is real and can be appraised in scientific terms.

David Loy, author of A New Buddhist Path: Enlightenment, Evolution, and Ethics in the Modern World:
If Buddhism is to realize its liberative potential in the modern world, we need to learn a lot more about the nature of awakening. This book is an important step in that direction. Boyle's interviews with well-known Western teachers are insightful (sometimes fascinating) in themselves, and the conclusions that he draws from them are a significant contribution to our understanding of contemplative traditions.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Preface Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xi
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. Interview with Shinzen Young Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	21
2. Interview with John Tarrant Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	33
3. Interview with Ken McLeod Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	49
4. Interview with Ajahn Amaro Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	69
5. Interview with Martine Batchelor Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	91
6. Interview with Shaila Catherine Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	105
7. Interview with Gil Fronsdal Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	121
8. Interview with Stephen Batchelor Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	137
9. Interview with Pat Enkyo O’Hara Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	149
10. Interview with Bernie Glassman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	163
11. Interview with Joseph Goldstein Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	177
12. Developing Capacities Necessary for Awakening Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	191
13. Properties of Awakening Experiences Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	205
14. Evolution of Ordinary and Awakened Consciousness Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	227
15. The Awakened Baby? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	244
16. The Human Condition and How We Got Into It Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	249
17. Modeling Consciousness, Awakened and Ordinary Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	273
APPENDIX. Interview with James Austin, Neuroscientist Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	293
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	303
Glossary of Buddhist Terms Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	317
References Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	323
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	337

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Edition: Pilot project. eBook available to selected US libraries only
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 368
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 11
- Other: Eleven photographs

eBook

Published: June 2, 2015
ISBN: 9780231539234