About

Can the Eastern concept of Enlightenment be explained – and even taught – in ideas and terminology familiar to the Western mind? Until now, Westerners have largely had to rely on translations of Eastern spiritual texts to guide them in this reorganization of their consciousness. Too often, these teachings use language, metaphors and imagery that have little resonance with Western thinking.

Fortunately, a new hypothesis of brain functioning by British psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist may help bridge these differences. This groundbreaking work potentially offers many new ways to frame Eastern teachings for Westerners.

While McGilchrist’s hemisphere hypothesis is central to the explorations of this blog, there are plans to discuss the work of other Westerners here, including Donald Hoffman, Jill Bolte Taylor, Bernardo Kastrup, Neil Theise and many more.

Hopefully, the site will become a place where people float and exchange ideas, get feedback and suggestions from others, and solve problems that are preventing their meditation practices from advancing.

Yes, the web site should be called The Buddhist Mind, not The Buddhist Brain.  However, this site is intended to be a bridge between Western thinking and Eastern spiritual traditions, so it seemed best to start with a Western idea of the embodiment of consciousness (and the domain name was too expensive).

This web site was created and the initial blog postings were written by myself, Gary Peterson. My interest in Eastern spiritual traditions was piqued after reading Aldous Huxley’s The Perennial Philosophy some 25 years ago. This led to a near daily practice of studying Buddhist, Mahamudra, and Bon tradition Dzogchen texts. Since 2006, I have used Daniel Brown’s Pointing Out the Great Way as a guiding text. I currently study with a Dzogchen teacher from the Mustang Bon Foundation. Originally from Minnesota, I am now retired after a career in the medical field and live as a bit of a nomad on Cape Cod.

NOTE: This web site does NOT generate revenue, nor gather personal information for marketing purposes, nor have any connection with any organization.  It is solely for the purpose of sharing ideas and information.