02376    a2200157   4500008004100000020001800041080001400059100002000073245009800093260005200191300001100243505035600254520158100610650001802191650000902209260616b        ii ||||| |||| 00| 0 mal d  a9780231136952  a128.2 THO  aThompson, Evan   aWaking, dreaming, beingb: Self and consciousness in neuroscience, meditation, and philosophy  aNew York: bColumbia University Press, c2015.   a453p.   aThe Dalai Lama's conjecture -- Seeing: what is consciousness? -- Waking: how do we perceive? -- Being: what is pure awareness? -- Dreaming:
who am I? -- Witnessing: is this a dream? -- Imagining: are we real? -- Floating: where am I? -- Sleeping: are we conscious in deep sleep? -- Dying:
what happens when we die? -- Knowing: is the self an illusion?  aA renowned philosopher of the mind, also known for his groundbreaking work on Buddhism and cognitive science, Evan Thompson combines the latest neuroscience research on sleep, dreaming, and meditation with Indian and Western philosophy of mind, casting new light on the self and its relation to the brain.

Thompson shows how the self is a changing process, not a static thing. When we are awake we identify with our body, but if we let our mind wander or daydream, we project a mentally imagined self into the remembered past or anticipated future. As we fall asleep, the impression of being a bounded self distinct from the world dissolves, but the self reappears in the dream state. If we have a lucid dream, we no longer identify only with the self within the dream. Our sense of self now includes our dreaming self, the "I" as dreamer. Finally, as we meditate―either in the waking state or in a lucid dream―we can observe whatever images or thoughts arise and how we tend to identify with them as "me." We can also experience sheer awareness itself, distinct from the changing contents that make up our image of the self.

bContemplative traditions say that we can learn to let go of the self, so that when we die we can witness its dissolution with equanimity. Thompson weaves together neuroscience, philosophy, and personal narrative to depict these transformations, adding uncommon depth to life's profound questions. Contemplative experience comes to illuminate scientific findings, and scientific evidence enriches the vast knowledge acquired by contemplatives.  aConsciousness  aSelf