Waking Up

A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion

Sam Harris, Hillsdale 204 H3161w 2014 , Simon and Schuster

• meditators should have a "healthy sense of self", no schitzophrenia

• Advaita Vedanta non-dualist, no "higher" external being

• Harris: Stanford BA philosopy 2000, UCLA PhD Neuroscience 2009, April 1967

  • mother LA writer/producer Susan Harris

• ''vipassana'' Mindfulness (sati), clear awareness, "free mind from suffering"

• Mindfulness and loving-kindness meditation (metta)
• consciousness without the self, avoiding suffering
• visual "blind spot"
• decreases representation in the DMN Default Mode Network, self representation
• LSD alters consciousness, but uncontrollable extremes

Harris's approximate classifications (not necessarily mine!)

"good"

• Swami Vivekananda 1893 Vedanta
• Theravada Buhddism
• Dzogchen: Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche
• HWL Poonja
• Sayadaw U Pandita
• Douglas Harding

"bad"

• Helena Blavatsky
• Joseph Smith
• Sri Aurobindo
• J.Z. Knight / Ramtha

• Marshall Applewhite,Heaven's Gate

• Rashneesh / OSHO
• Gurdjieff, Ouspensky
• Chopyam Trungpa Rinpoche / Osel Tendzin