![]() ![]() As she continues asking it over the years, the "waking up" experience becomes more gradual. She repeatedly asks herself the question, each time saying "yes". Yes, I am conscious now." But she feels as though by asking the question, she has in a sense "awakened" herself, which leads her to wonder if she was conscious just before asking. Am I conscious now? īlackmore asks herself, "Am I conscious now?" and answers "Of course I am. īlackmore's discussion revolves around ten questions, discussed in the following sections. ![]() Rather, "I am someone with a questioning mind who has stumbled upon Zen and found it immensely helpful." Some of Blackmore's questions are not strictly Zen but rather come from Mahamudra traditions, though she got them from a Zen instructor, John Crook. The final chapter features a response by Blackmore's Zen teacher.īlackmore regards her book as an "attempt to see whether looking directly into one's own mind can contribute to a science of consciousness."īlackmore practices Zen, although she is not a Buddhist herself. ![]() Most chapters in the book center around a Zen question and describe Blackmore's inner monologue contemplating the question's implications for subjective experience. It describes her thoughts during zazen retreats and other self-directed meditative exercises, and how those thoughts relate to the neuroscience of consciousness. Zen and the Art of Consciousness (2011), originally titled Ten Zen Questions (2009), is a book by Susan Blackmore. ![]()
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