What's wrong with enlightenment? What's wrong with Nirvana? From the Biomystical Christian perspective, it is freezing the mind into one particular brain state and elevating it's importance as supreme, a brain state that involves the deactivation of a major brain function--the parietal lobes where the brain's sense of self is located, i.e., the creation of a literal dead zone, a dead zone which can be seen to be projected outwards in Buddhist philosophy as the Void and ultimate reality. A few years ago some brain research scientists got permission to do brain scans of meditating Buddhist monks to see what was going on inside their heads as they meditated. A surprising discovery was made which was that Buddhist monks were learning how to shut down a small sector of the human brain that seems to control our sense of self.* This center controls our internal sense of self and when it is deactivated there seems to be a corresponding feeling of "oneness" with the world, an oceanic feeling that seems a pleasurable state of mind and has been called variously "satori" or "nirvana" as it excludes self-awareness or anything that separates our self from everything else. There was a direct correspondence between the level of ego-less achievement of this calm and blissful state of mind by meditating monks and their level of neural activity in their sense of self brain centers. The less electrical activity, the more one feels a sense of oneness with the Universe. Buddhists hold this as the highest mental state attainable by human beings. It is the goal of Buddhism to enable Buddhists to be in this self-less mental state as much as possible as they believe that in this state purer, less violent and more wholesome social consciousness naturally evolves. The Buddhist philosophy of life derives from the task of learning how to eliminate the ego and its desires and they have learned a meditation way to physically do that by literally shutting down a part of their brains, the part that controls the sense of self. * See Buddhist Brain Studies page in the New Gnosis Library section. The problem with this philosophy and meditation technique is this: In a complex world is it a wise thing to have as a personal goal the deactivation of a major part of our brains? Brain scans of these meditating monks shows what is essentially the creation of a hole in the head, a blank spot in the brain where there is little if any electrical activity going on. Sure, it feels good and there are benefits from losing one's often overwhelming ego desires but in terms of functioning as complete human beings, well, what is the real difference between meditation techniques to tranquilize our brains and taking drugs to do that same thing? I think there's the major flaw in Buddhism and all spiritual paths that aim at reduction of ego which physiologically seems to mean shutting down electrical activity in the brain's sense of self center.
Creative problem solving comes from the ability to associate related and supposedly unrelated things together in new combinations. Creative people are not known for ego-lessness; just the opposite is usually the case. And historically, Buddhists are not known for creative enterprises. In fact, creativity, outside of a narrow natural themes in poetry and art as well as traditional stylized symbolic art production and appreciation, is seen more as an ego problem. Societies where Buddhism is the majority religion, e.g., Tibet, are not noted for their progressive social programs. It is Biomystical Christian opinion that the Buddhist goal of destruction of the sense of self center in our brains has the inevitable effect of destroying also our abilities to creatively think. This brings us back to the main point: in a complex world is it a good thing to disable a major function of our brains?
Let's put this into another perspective: There are many drugs available to human beings that have brain disabling effects. We've all noticed them and universally drug induced disabling of differing brain functions is condemned even if the drug user swears up and down that he or she benefits from this type of brain manipulation. Well, Buddhists don't use drugs to shut down part of their brains; they use meditation techniques. But the result is more or less the same. Escape from complex worldly reality and worldly cares that indeed demand creative problem solving into a simplified existence that if universalized would rob us of our most precious gift: the ability to use our heads to survive, maintain, prosper and evolve to higher levels of consciousness and creative human expression.
You just can't create a hole in your head in order to avoid existential pain without paying a price: the price is creativity. It takes egotism to be able to even think you could create something or solve something. Who are you to think you could? Only what that little part of your brain that tells you who you are and what you can do. Without your ego, yes, you can become "one" with Life and avoid all the psychic pains that accompany our egos if you use Buddhist meditation techniques but then why not drill a hole in your head for that "Third Eye" or have a lobotomy. These techniques too deaden the brain to psychic pain. Buddhism and all spiritual meditation practices that aim at reduction of ego through elimination of the sense of self are now exposed as brain disabling techniques not really different from drug induced brain disabling. Sorry, but that's why these are the beginning of the End Times of Buddhist philosophy.
Please note that the accusation of Buddhism being merely a brain manipulation technique for altering one's perceptions of the world instead of a philosophy of how to attain higher consciousness also applies to all meditation religious practices such as those used by Christian mystics to achieve ecstatic states of consciousness. Only one's brain has been changed--reality hasn't as it is neither the Void of Buddhists nor the mystic's oneness with God. These are just altered states of consciousness while God's reality and our human place in that reality is so much more.
What Buddha has done has glorified one brain state resultant of deadening a major area of the brain and called this "enlightenment" because it reduces psychic pain that naturally occurs in the course of a life lead in full embracement: pain, happiness, sorrow, love, the whole works of what being human is all about. The question Buddhists never ask is "is a single brain state, the "Buddha Mind", which is achieved by deactivating a central function of the human brain, i.e., maintaining the sense of self, a positive thing for all human beings? Is mental peace worth the loss of human creativity that springs from the very same psychic pain Buddhism seeks to annihilate? By seeking to destroy illusion Buddhism ends up destroying human hope. Along with the loss of ego, along with the loss of attachment, come the loss of hope.
Anyone who saw the Maharishi of Transcendental Meditation fame bubbling over in mirthful bliss all the time was seeing this brain state in constant operation. The problem though was seen clearly when Maharishi expressed his political opinion one time on national TV, poor guy, that Nixon's war in Vietnam was necessary for all the reasons Nixon gave. These "enlightened" brain states give no more guarantee of wisdom than the next snake oil salesman's secret of happiness spiel that comes along..e.g., LSD, Ecstasy, direct electrical brain manipulation next? Brain manipulation is not the way to true spiritual consciousness which must be holistic consciousness stemming from holistic brain functioning.
Another sign of Buddhist ethical brainfade is the lack of awareness of most Buddhists to the history of Zen Buddhists in service to warlords:
From an article in the NY Times re past
Zen miliarism which demonstrates that Buddhist "enlightenment" is no guarantee
of moral progress
"...many Americans, Zen Buddhists primarily devote themselves to discovering inner
serenity and social peace. But Zen has had strong ties to militarism — indeed so
strong, that the leaders of one of the largest denominations in Japan have remorsefully
compared their former religious fanaticism during Japan's brutal expansionism in the
1930's and 40's to today's murderously militant Islamists.
The unexpected apology for wartime complicity by the leaders of Myoshin-ji, the
headquarters temple of one of Japan's main Zen sects, was issued 16 days after 9/11, which
gave it a particular resonance. But the leaders of Myoshin-ji — as well as other Zen
Buddhist leaders who have also delivered apologies over the past two years — mainly
credit a disillusioned Westerner for their public regrets: Brian Victoria, a former
Methodist missionary, who is a Zen priest and historian.
Buddhist leaders in Japan and the United
States said in recent interviews that Mr. Victoria had exerted a profound influence,
especially in the West, by revealing in his 1997 book, "Zen at War," a
shockingly dark and unfamiliar picture of Zen during World War II to followers who had no
idea about its history. Keiitsu Hosokawa, secretary general of Myoshin-ji, made a speech
to the group's general assembly in September 2002 in which he said that the Japanese
edition of "Zen at War" had been one of several factors that "provided the
impetus" to issue the group's apology.
Now, in a new sequel called "Zen War Stories," Mr. Victoria has dug more
specifically into relationships between Zen leaders and the military during World War II.
From its beginnings in Japan, Zen has been associated with the warrior culture established by the early shoguns. But the extent of its involvement in World War II has stayed mostly submerged until recently. Many people in the United States and Europe know Zen's indirect traces through the poetry of the Beats or the quietist aura of contemporary architecture and clothing. Even John Dower, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian of modern Japan at M.I.T., whose early interest in Japan was kindled by Zen-inspired architecture, said that Mr. Victoria's works had opened his eyes to "how Zen violated Buddhism's teachings about compassion and nonviolence."
Ina Buitendijk, a Dutch Zen devotee, was so inspired by Mr. Victoria's work in 1999 that she mounted a letter-writing campaign pressing Zen leaders to confront their history. Mrs. Buitendijk's husband, along with other Dutch civilians, was interned by the Japanese in the Dutch East Indies during World War II. All this she put into the 28 letters she said she had written to Zen spiritual figures, educators and administrative leaders in Japan. A number of leaders responded, sending her official apologies, some of which were published. The Myoshin-ji statement, first issued on Sept. 27, 2001, for example, was expanded in a major religious newspaper in Japan in September 2002. The initial statement said that the conflict between America and an anti-American jihad made it important to remember "that in the past our nation, under the banner of Holy War, initiated a conflict that led to great suffering." The more detailed version apologized for helping to lend a religious purpose to invasions, colonization and the former empire's destruction of "20 million precious lives." The self-critical account also described how Myoshin-ji members followed Japanese invaders across Asia, "established branch headquarters and missions" in conquered areas, even "conducted fund-raising drives to purchase military aircraft." Two other Zen groups — the Tenryu-ji temple and the Sanbo-kyodan foundation — and several individual Zen leaders have also issued apologies after receiving Mrs. Buitendijk's letter for war-time complicity, which have appeared in Buddhist publications in Europe and the United States. Mr. Victoria, 63, is a former Nebraskan who lives in Australia and teaches Japanese studies at the University of Adelaide. He embraced Zen in 1961, partly because he believed its history was free of the violent conflicts that had marked Western religion."