本集节目回顾了Sam Harris在过去十年中关于冥想主题的对话。节目从与Sam的冥想老师兼朋友Joseph Goldstein的首次对话开始，Goldstein回忆了如何通过一个词语的启示，解开了他的思维，让他充分认识到冥想的力量。随后，作家Richard Lang引导我们了解“无头之路”的奇妙见解，哲学家和神经科学家Thomas Metzinger则运用其在神经生物学和冥想领域的专业知识，阐述了我们的大脑如何构建世界和自我的模型，以及冥想如何帮助我们捕捉这一过程。精神科医生Judson Brewer将话题转向正念冥想的实用应用，通过重新训练大脑的奖励中心来解决食物、吸烟或药物等成瘾问题。接下来，Daniel Goleman和Richard Davidson深入探讨了冥想的脑神经科学，并讨论了经验丰富的冥想者如何改变自己的大脑。随后，我们聆听了Sam与作家Robert Wright的对话，Wright为“佛教是真实的”这一论点辩护。Sam和Wright讨论了这一论点的有效性，同时确保将其与佛教国家和个人的政治和道德行为区分开来。节目最后，Sam回答了比利时神经科学家Steven Laureys提出的问题，并以此为基础，全面介绍了他的哲学思想。他将自己的道德分析、对科学和真理的尊重以及他为何继续冥想以及为何自豪地推广这一实践的原因联系在一起。

🧘‍♀️ **冥想带来的启示：**节目从Sam与他的冥想老师Joseph Goldstein的对话开始，Goldstein回忆了通过一个词语的启示，解开了他的思维，让他充分认识到冥想的力量。这表明，冥想可以帮助我们洞察内心，获得新的视角，并解开思维的束缚。

🧠 **大脑的模型与冥想：**哲学家和神经科学家Thomas Metzinger解释了我们的大脑如何构建世界和自我的模型，并指出冥想可以帮助我们捕捉这一过程。这表明，冥想可以帮助我们意识到思维的运作方式，并让我们更好地理解自我和世界。

🧠 **冥想与成瘾：**精神科医生Judson Brewer将话题转向正念冥想的实用应用，他认为通过重新训练大脑的奖励中心，可以帮助解决食物、吸烟或药物等成瘾问题。这表明，冥想可以帮助我们改变行为模式，并克服成瘾的困扰。

In this episode, we traverse a decade of Sam’s conversations on the topic of meditation. 

We start with the very first recorded episode from the archives: a conversation with Sam’s meditation teacher and friend, Joseph Goldstein. Goldstein recalls how his thinking was unlocked—allowing him to fully realize the power of the practice—by the utterance of one single word.

We then hear from author Richard Lang as he guides us towards a strangely obvious insight that came to be known as “the headless way.” Next, philosopher and neuroscientist Thomas Metzinger employs his vast expertise in both neurobiology and meditation to show how our brains generate a model of the world and self, and how meditation can help us catch that process in the act.

Psychiatrist Judson Brewer then shifts the conversation to some very practical applications of mindfulness meditation, addressing the problem of addiction to things like food, smoking, or drugs by retraining the reward centers in our brains. Next, Daniel Goleman and Richard Davidson dig into the neuroscience of meditation and discuss how experienced meditators may actually be physically altering their brains. 

We then listen in on Sam’s conversation with author Robert Wright, who defends the claim that “Buddhism is true.” Sam and Wright discuss the validity of this claim while ensuring they keep it separate from the political and moral behaviors of Buddhist nations and individuals.

We conclude with Sam delivering the answer to a question posed by the Belgian neuroscientist Steven Laureys. In doing so, Sam provides a comprehensive tour of his philosophies. He ties together his personal brand of moral analysis, his reverence for science and truth seeking, and his reasoning as to why he still meditates and why he proudly promotes the practice.

 

About the Series

Filmmaker Jay Shapiro has produced The Essential Sam Harris, a new series of audio documentaries exploring the major topics that Sam has focused on over the course of his career.

Each episode weaves together original analysis, critical perspective, and novel thought experiments with some of the most compelling exchanges from the Making Sense archive. Whether you are new to a particular topic, or think you have your mind made up about it, we think you’ll find this series fascinating.