While in graduate school in the early 1990s, Chris Niebauer noticed striking parallels between the latest discoveries in psychology and neuroscience and the teachings of Buddhism, Taoism, and other schools of Eastern thought. At the time, his findings were dismissed by his academic supervisor as “pure coincidence, nothing more.” Now, some 20 plus years later, the Buddhist/neuroscience connection has become something of a publishing phenomenon. While Niebauer does feel somewhat vindicated by the sudden interest, he asserts that research has hardly begun. We have yet to understand fully the link between Eastern philosophy and the latest discoveries in psychology and neuroscience, and we have not really begun to grasp what these ideas mean for the human experience. In this groundbreaking book, Niebauer writes that modern science has effectively proven the fundamental tenant of Buddhism called anatta (the doctrine of no self), and he argues that our sense of self, or what we commonly refer to as the ego, is an illusion created entirely by the left side of the brain. Niebauer is quick to point out that this doesn't mean that the self doesn't exist but rather that it does so in a way that a mirage in the middle of the desert exists, as a thought rather than a thing. Filled with the latest research and startling observations, this book is enhanced by a series of exercises and practices that will enable the reader to experience his or her individual truth in an entirely new way. It is a book designed to change the way we experience the world—one that is based on being rather than thinking—and to alleviate suffering in the process.
