(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Neurological Koans [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-06-23 29,672,231 views | Jill Bolte Taylor |TED2008 • February 2008 Her stroke began in the morning of Dec. 10, 1996. She awakened at 7 am with no idea that anything was wrong except a piercing pain behind her left eye, and an aversion to sunlight. As she tried to get ready for work, the next symptom was a feeling of dissociation. It was as if the integrity of my mind/body connection had somehow become compromised. She was aware of a succession of changes in her mind, but could not think of what they meant. The harder I tried to concentrate, the more fleeting my ideas seemed to be. Instead of finding answers and information, I met a growing sense of peace. I was comforted by an expanding sense of grace. In this void of higher cognition and details pertaining to my normal life, my consciousness soared into an all knowingness, a “being at one” with the universe. I found it odd that I could no longer discern the physical boundaries of where I began and where I ended. I sensed the composition of my being as that of a fluid rather than that of a solid. I no longer perceived myself as a whole object separate from everything. Instead, I blended in with the space and flow around me. At 8:15 she suddenly realized that she was in grave danger, and needed to get to a hospital. It was only then that her right arm became temporarily paralyzed, and she understood that she was having a stroke. The next task was to call for help, which took 45 minutes, without being able to remember phone numbers in the ordinary way, and with her perception of the numbers on her telephone keypad rapidly deteriorating. With great effort, she remembered the number of a colleague and wrote it down, and then punched in the digits one at a time. Then she found that she couldn’t say words that were clear in her mind, and could only make random noises. But the colleague she called recognized her voice, realized that there was something radically wrong, and rushed over. Then in the rest of the book we get an account of her emergency treatment, her eight years of recovering various brain functions, her discarding of previous anger and other negative emotions and attachments, and her career during and since all of that. I am passing over all of that here, but recommend it to your attention. I'm no authority, but I think the Buddhists would say I entered the mode of existence they call Nirvana. An excellent start, but not entirely. As the Heart Sutra puts it, Going, going, going on beyond, and always going on beyond, always becoming awakened. Or Dogen Zenji. The journey is hindered by arrival, but definitely not hindered by non-arrival. As Taylor recovered other brain functions, she kept the ability to turn the boundaries of self off or on at will. She is now doing brain wave research on people in deep meditation or prayer, experiencing union with the universe or the divine. We call it Buddha Nature, or the Unborn, Uncreated, Not made, Not formed, or raising the eyebrows and blinking the eyes of old Shakyamuni. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/6/23/2247919/-Neurological-Koans?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/