Early in his career as a neuroscientist, Chris Niebauer was dismissed for exploring a connection between findings in neuroscience and ancient Buddhist wisdom. The idea of non-duality, or ‘no self’, is a concept in Buddhism, which says that there is no author of our thoughts—there is no pilot steering the ship of existence. In neuroscience, we can point to specific areas of the brain responsible for almost every human function, except for the sense of self. In No Self No Problem, Niebauer illuminates the idea that much of our suffering arises from nothing more than pattern recognition and language. He does not maintain that the sense of self doesn’t exist, but that we need to stop taking it so seriously. In this summary of No Self No Problem: How Neuropsychology Is Catching Up To Buddhism, I’ll share what I believe are the most practical takeaways.
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Summary of No Self No Problem by Chris Niebauer
Niebauer contends that virtually all our mental suffering is caused by our firm attachment to the sense of self—the sense of ‘me’. He points out that although the idea of an independent self can seem incredibly real, neuroscience has yet to identify any area of the brain in which it resides.
Believing wholeheartedly in the fictions we tell ourselves about our sense of self leads to suffering.
“Why are you unhappy? Because 99.9% of everything you think, and of everything you do, is for yourself—and there isn’t one”
– Wei Wu Wei
Much of what we believe about our sense of self comes from the language-centered and pattern-recognizing left brain.
The left brain uses language and pattern recognition to make sense of the world, but language and patterns do not truly exist in the natural world. They exist only as mental constructs. This applies equally to the sense of self—it is a mental construct whose purpose is to help us relate to patterns, but it does not exist in the physical world.
The left brain makes value judgments about the world and about ourselves. When we learn to observe the ‘interpreter’ that is our left brain, we can take these value judgments and interpretations less seriously. The left brain also gets things wrong. Its attempts to identify patterns and then describe them with language often fail to reflect reality.
Categories, beliefs, and patterns (including the ones we notice about ourselves) only truly exist in our minds.
Right brain consciousness is less bound by value judgments. Mindfulness is a good tool for experiencing this level of consciousness.
Right brain consciousness is often portrayed as unconscious, but this is inaccurate. It is involved in empathy and seeing wider perspectives, among other things.
Language is like a map. We could have called a bed a donkey in the English language, but it would still be a good place to sleep. The left brain mistakes the map for the territory all the time but never realizes it. As it relates to the sense of self, the best example of this is mistaking our inner self-talk (the map) with who we really are (the territory). This is partly why the illusion of self is so difficult to see.
Much of our suffering comes from the failure to see language as a mere interpretation of reality. Instead, we usually confuse language for reality itself.
“There is no ‘me’ without ‘not me’.” The left brain creates the illusion of self by relating to differences between you and others. It then furthers the delusion by mixing in memories and preferences.
No matter how many goals we achieve, the self will never be satisfied, because the self must continue to think in order to exist, so it will always move the goalposts.
A healthy attachment to the sense of self means viewing thoughts as “happenings” rather than absolute truths.
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