The science of enlightenment

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1. dceddiaNov 2024
   The Science of Enlightenment by Shinzen Young has an interesting overview of multiple traditions and how they overlap in a lot of ways.
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2. sn9Nov 2024
   The karmic traditions developed this most completely and thoroughly. You don't need to buy into the supernatural claims to benefit from them.

   A great starting point can be Shinzen Young's The Science of Enlightenment and/or Sam Harris's Waking Up.

   After that, you might look into Why Buddhism is True or The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali or Mindfulness in Plain English.

   The Healthy Gamer Youtube channel also has great videos going into this and how they tie into psychology.

   David Chapman's https://meaningness.com/ is also pretty great.

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3. sn9May 2024
   You should read Shinzen Young's Science of Enlightenment.
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4. nazgulnarsilOct 2022
   Shinzen Young, in The Science of Enlightenment, posits a strong time dilation effect from regularly meditating. After experimenting, I found this to be true, and have at least doubled my subjective life span.
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5. nprateemJul 2020
   Advanced Zen practitioners most definitely do report what many would call spiritual experiences. The difference is they let those experiences go instead of chasing them or attaching much significance to them.

   See for example the later chapters of "The Mind Illuminated", or the excellent "Science of Enlightenment" audio talk by Shinzen Young.

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6. DennisPDec 2018
   I suspect a better place to start is one of the excellent books on mindfulness meditation that's available now.

   The Mind Illuminated by John Yates is the one I see recommended the most, and it's helped me tremendously. It goes through ten stages, from novice to very advanced. I'm still close to the beginning, but the instructions in the first several chapters have helped me make far more progress than I ever had before.

   The Science of Enlightenment by Shinzen Young is also quite good, with more of an emphasis on insight rather than concentration meditation. There's also the classic Mindfulness in Plain English.

   I do use one app. It lets me set a countdown timer, and plays a quiet gong when time is up. That's it.

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