Zen and the Art of Consciousness

By Susan Blackmore

Who are you? When are you? What were you conscious of a moment ago? This groundbreaking book sees acclaimed psychologist Susan Blackmore combining the latest scientific theories about mind, self, and consciousness with a lifetime’s practice of Zen. Framed by ten critical questions derived from Zen teachings and designed to expand your understanding and experience of consciousness, Ten Zen Questions doesn’t offer final - or easy - answers, but instead provides an inspiring exploration of how intellectual enquiry and meditation can tackle some of today’s greatest scientific mysteries. Dr Susan Blackmore is a writer and broadcaster. She lives in Bristol, UK.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Oneworld Publications
• Release date: Feb 15, 2014
• ISBN: 9781780745916

Reviews for Zen and the Art of Consciousness

[rhydtybyans · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I would like to suggest that this book could serve as a manual for the exploration of one's self, but along the way the author explains how the self does not actually exist. This is orthodox Buddhist dogma but I myself - yes! - believe that whether the self can be said to exist or not depends purely on how one defines the self.

Socrates is reputed to have said that the unexamined life is not worth living, which I regard as an overly extreme, unharmonious,and therefore unGreeklike position, but I can certainly agree that an examined life is a richer, more complex life.

That said, this well-written and intriguing book presents the most basic questions as the tools by which one can examine one's life.

The one blemish of the book is, in the opinion of my humble self, the know-it-all, school-masterish, pseudo-guru-ish "Response of a Zen Master" which the author tacked on to the end of the book.