Two mind books I wish to recommend

Dear colleagues and friends,

I wish to recommend two mind books that you will find very useful in the study of how the mind works. Do not think that the study of Abhidhamma is only the study of the human mind. No, it is not. It comes from the teachings of the Buddha and he was talking about all the beings in this universe and all other universes. He was talking about not only this galaxy (the milky way) but other galaxies as well.

How he did this was very simple. He classified the beings into 31 planes of existence. See below: -

1. Four lower abodes
2. Human plane
3. Six planes of devas (lower celestial beings)
4. Twenty planes of Brahmas (higher celestial beings).

Now about the two books.

1. Train your Mind, change your Brain (Sharon Begley)
Publisher: Ballentine books, New York

2. Can't remember what I forgot (Sue Halpern)
Publisher: Harmony books, New York.

I got the first book "Train your Mind, change your Brain as a birthday present from my dear wife in 2007 and was fascinated by its contents ever since. For one thing Sharon Begley writes very well. She is clear and very descriptive. It is not boring to read her book as she tells this subject like a story. It talks about a groundbreaking collaboration between neurosicence and Buddhism. The thing that interests me is to see how modern science is gradually finding out, through practical experiences in the laboratories what had been discovered by Gautama Buddha (that is for this world cycle) and all other past Buddhas that came before him, too numerous to count like the grains of sand on a beach. The Buddhas did not need any equiptments or laboratories. They had the best equiptment in the world, the human mind and this was enough to unravel how the mind works and how the mental processes occur and how to gain ultimate wisdom doing vipassana meditation. The Buddhas were able to travel to all the planes of celestial beings and many times, the devas and the Brahmas came down to earth to listen to the sermons given by Lord Buddha.

In the first book, the scientists were trying to prove that there was "plasticity" of the brain. This means that the circuits of the human brain can be changed by meditation and other stimuli. The other important thing that they studied in detail, in collaboration with the Dalai Lama was that meditation can change the way the human mind thinks. This has tremendous implications. This means that meditation and not medication is the way to help people who are having depressions, addictions or people who have harmful thoughts.

One of the most popular meditation teachers of our times, Mr. Goenka even conducted meditation classes in prisons with great success. He was able to make the inmates think of more positive thoughts as opposed to thoughts that are harmful to themselves and society.

Kyaw Myaing