Every time I hear some story about how someone has identified a part of the brain (the brain being a single organ) that does the processing for activity “X”, I usually mutter a “hmph”. We are so missing the boat if we think that the brain is some master organ and the body is its obedient slave.
Our bodies are vastly – vastly – more integrated than that. Modern medicine stumbles across this every time they come up with something to fix symptom A, only to cause symptoms B, C, D, etc.
So, here’s little piece in the NY Times about how we learn things through physicality. Alice Miller, my favorite psychologist, has a book about how memories (and other learning) are stored in the body – they are not just neural artifacts.
My understanding of Tibetan Buddhist studies is that the more you are aware of the totality of your, er…, being-ness, the happier you are, the more in tune with others and with the world you are. It’s what being grounded means. Not that the world becomes a warm and fuzzy Mr. Rogers neighborhood – but rather you can face the joys and sufferings of life with more equanimity and more reality.