Realizing Awakened Consciousness

Interviews with Buddhist Teachers and a New Perspective on the Mind

by Richard P. Boyle

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Pub Date Jun 09 2015 | Archive Date Jul 21 2015

Description

If, as Buddhism claims, the potential for awakening exists in all human beings, we should be able to map the phenomenon with the same science we apply to other forms of consciousness. A student of cognitive social science and a Zen practitioner for more than forty years, Richard P. Boyle brings his sophisticated perspective to bear on the development of a theoretical model for both ordinary and awakened consciousness.

Boyle conducts probing interviews with eleven prominent Western Buddhist teachers (Shinzen Young, John Tarrant, Ken McLeod, Ajahn Amaro, Martine Batchelor, Shaila Catherine, Gil Fronsdal, Stephen Batchelor, Pat Enkyo O'Hara, Bernie Glassman, and Joseph Goldstein) and one scientist (James Austin) who have experienced awakening. From the paths they traveled to enlightenment and their descriptions of the experience, he derives three fundamental properties of awakened consciousness. He then constructs an overarching model that explains how Buddhist practices help free the mind from attachments to reality and the self and make possible the three properties of awakening. Specifically, these teachers describe how they worked to control attention and quiet the mind, detach from ideas and habits, and open themselves to compassion. Boyle's account incorporates current theories of consciousness, sociological insights, and research in neuroscience to advance the study of awakened consciousness and help an even greater number of people to realize it.

Richard 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.

If, as Buddhism claims, the potential for awakening exists in all human beings, we should be able to map the phenomenon with the same science we apply to other forms of consciousness. A student of...

Advance Praise

"In addition to the interviews with well-known American Buddhist teachers, which are the heart of the book and make fascinating reading in themselves, the author develops a provocative frame of reference for understanding/discussing philosophically the meaning of some common features he identifies in the interviews regarding the form of consciousness generally referred as “awakening.”"—David Preston, San Diego State University

"In addition to the interviews with well-known American Buddhist teachers, which are the heart of the book and make fascinating reading in themselves, the author develops a provocative frame of...