# The Mind Illuminated Author: [[Culadasa]] ## Review This book opened my eyes to how and why meditation works, and what its ultimate purpose is. I became more serious and diligent about doing it after reading the first few chapters because I understand the 'why' and 'how' much better. No wonder this book has received so much praise, and has a wide following. There are two threads in the book that are developed in alternating chapters. One thread is a ten stage meditation instruction that provides practices and tips for training attention and increasing awareness. I finally understood that meditation is simply a way to train our attention by repeatedly bringing it back to a meditation object, once we notice that our attention has been captured by a distracting though or sensation. The meditation object can any single thing, commonly the breath in sitting meditation or sensations in the feet during walking meditation. It can also be an individual thought or idea during analytical meditation. By repeatedly bringing our attention back to the meditation object we increase our ability to stay on that object and ignore distractions in the future. We also train our awareness of thoughts and sensations, and how they interact with our attention. By observing how thoughts and sensations vie for attention, we get insight into how our mind actually works. The second thread builds up a model for how we should think about consciousness, attention and awareness. This model becomes more complex, and more interesting, as we progress through the stages of mediation. It helps relate the instructions and practices to what we are trying to achieve, and how that can be done. This interaction between the model and the instructions is what makes the book uniquely helpful. It describes consciousness as an interface to many different systems in our mind, all of which are vying for a spot in our moments of conscious attention. By having a strong intention to keep the meditation object in those moments of attention, we unify our mind around a single purpose. We strengthen our ability to direct attention, intentionally. Through increased awareness and stronger ability to direct attention we become more mindful of our daily behaviours, and more capable to change them. While these are great skills to have, the ultimate purpose of meditation is quite different. By building strong attention and metacognitive awareness we gain insight into how our mind truly works. The meditators belief system, how we perceive and interact with the world, is permanently altered based on this insight. Apparently, this we gain insight into the transitory and uncertainty of the world, that our self is a construct of our own mind, and that we only experience the world through our mental constructs. This insight can sometimes create a feeling of despair, but more often than not allows us to live our life with less suffering and with more joy. Now that I have experience with meditation and have read a bit on the topic, I realize that these experiences and processes are very difficult to describe. I think that's why many people use different terms and why they are often vague and spiritual. This book does a great job using more neutral (and understandable) language. The model and instructions makes it clear what we are trying to achieve and how we can do it. Slate Star Codex wrote a great review on this book with the funny opener that it would be a surprise to read a meditation book nowadays that is not written by a neuroscience PhD. Many scientists have obviously discovered that there is a lot of truth in the spiritual descriptions of meditation, and the outcomes that it achieves for meditators. While I wish I had gone down this rabbit hole sooner, I am glad I found it now. With that said, there are some aspects I am still skeptical of. That includes claims about physical and mental experiences adept meditators can have and how that changes their belief systems (and whether that is even desirable). For someone with no experience with meditation it would be useful to first read some of the research on the tangible effects it has. There are a few books like that, such as "Altered Traits" or "Siddharta's brain." Once you are convinced, or at least interested, you should read this book concurrently with starting a meditation practice. I imagine that meditation will have a similarly important place in society's mind as exercise does today. ## Key Ideas - meditation is training to strengthen our attention, and increase our awareness of sensations and mental objects. - We learn to shift attention, intentionally. - We need to cultivate intention with each moment to increase the strength of our attention. - Body scanning as a way to practice awareness. - We strive towards meta-cognitive awareness, where we are aware of the state our mind is in, and the processes going on in our mind. - Mindful Review as a helpful practice to alter our behaviour over the long term. - Analytical meditation can help us solve problems in creative ways, by keeping our focus on the subject and its characteristics. - The ultimate purpose is insight into the nature of the mind, which leads to a transformation shift in our belief system. - This books is worth reading again, after I have more experience with meditation. ## Related - [[Siddharta's Brain]]