Tibetan and Himalayan Library - THL

Description: The canonical Buddhist account of the cognitive processes underlying our experience of the world
prefigures recent developments in neuroscience. The developments in question are centered on two main trends in
neuroscience research and thinking. The first of these involves the idea that our everyday experience of ourselves
and of the world consists in a series of discrete microstates. The second closely related notion is that affective
structures and systems play critical roles in governing the formation of such states. Both of these ideas are
contained within the Buddhist theory of dependent co-origination. This paper explicates the theory of dependent
co-origination in light of the aforementioned developments. It examines the role of the theory of dependent coorigination
within Buddhism and it draws attention to critical differences with the neuroscientific account of the
same process. Finally, it discusses specific ways in which these differences may be usefully applied to neuroscience
research and thinking.

Means of availability: Should be available as a pdf file for free at publisher's webpage.