The Neurobiology of Insight Meditation
I    Neurobiology                       Â
 i)                   the cell
ii)Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â CNS cellular communication
iii)Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â overview of the brain and ANS
iv)Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â neurobiological development
v)Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â sensory, association, and motor systems
vi)Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â selection and competition
vii)Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â LTP: learning and memory
viii)Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â declarative and procedural memory
ix)Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â memory and experience
x)Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â memory, experience, identity
  II  Neurobiology and Insight Meditation    Â
 i)                   insight meditation
ii)Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â the neurobiology of identification and understandingÂ
iii)Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â insight meditation and neurobiological competition
iv)Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â neurobiology and psychology: biopsychology
  III Neurobiology and Insight Meditation in the S.N. Goenka Tradition
 i)                   insight meditation in the S.N. Goenka tradition
ii)Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â the discourse summaries
iii)Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â the neurobiology of insight meditation in the S.N. Goenka tradition
iv)Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â contexting body sensations
The Neurobiology of Insight Meditation details the relationship between neuroscience and the practice of insight meditation. Chapter one presents the current findings and hypotheses of neurobiology. Chapter two looks at the relationship between neurobiology and insight meditation. In chapter three, the current findings of neurobiology are applied to the technique of insight meditation as taught by S.N. Goenka.
           What I hope this booklet will achieve is threefold. Firstly, to present neurobiology in a way that is meaningful and relevant to the life experiences we have. Secondly, to introduce insight meditation as a practical and straightforward task that can be used to change the life experiences we have. Thirdly, to give a neurobiological perspective to the practice of insight meditation that will hopefully allow a practitioner to work in a more efficient manner.
I have endeavored to keep this booklet as brief as possible while still incorporating as much material as was deemed useful. It is my intention to include this booklet in a larger project currently underway, which will present my research into philosophy, psychology, as well as other techniques of insight meditation.
                       I    Neurobiology
 In this chapter the current findings and hypotheses of neurobiology are detailed. Section one introduces the main components of the cell and how they work together. In section two the functioning and interaction between cells in the central nervous system is looked at. Section three provides an overview of the main functional properties of the central nervous system and how it interacts with the autonomic nervous system. In the fourth section the neurobiological development of a person is followed beginning from conception. The sensory, association, and motor systems are presented in section five. Section six uses a neural Darwinist approach in looking at how our neurobiology works. The seventh section details the neural interactions involved in learning and memory. Section eight gives an overview of two types of memory: procedural and declarative. The relationship between memory and experience is discussed in section nine, while section ten looks at the relationship between memory, experience, and identity.Â
While neurobiological research has advanced considerably in the last few decades as a result of developments in brain imaging technology, there are still many unknowns. There is sometimes no popular consensus regarding the function of and interactions between different neural systems. Papers written about neurobiology need continual updating in order to reflect the outcome of the research being conducted. Although we donât know all the answers, we can form hypotheses to be tested once the technology becomes available. These theoretical ideas are necessarily speculative and this is the case in some of the material presented here. A detailed presentation of neurobiology is beyond the scope of this chapter, and the interested reader may independently pursue a fuller understanding of this field.
 Our body and brain are made up of some one hundred trillion cells, those of the central nervous system (CNS) and those of the peripheral nervous system (PNS). CNS cells are found in the brain and spinal cord, while PNS cells are found in the body. CNS cells are known as neurons, of which there are over one hundred billion in the brain.
While the interior of the cells is the same, both have the same organelles, the exterior is quite different. A PNS cell maintains a circular shape and does not come in contact with other cells (See Fig. 1.1.), while the membrane of a CNS cell extends itself in order to come in contact with other cells (See Fig. 1.2.).
 The cell is a miniature ecosystem. Every organelle within the cell has diverse roles and interactions with the nucleus as well as with other organelles. In this section we focus on one particular cellular interaction: gene transcription for the production of cell membrane protein.
When a cell membrane requires additional protein, a signal is sent to the cell nucleus. The nucleus is a membrane-enclosed organelle that contains DNA, the cellâs genetic material, which are a giant set of blueprints that contain the genetic instructions for the development and functioning of every process in the body and brain. The signal crosses the nucleus membrane and attaches itself to the portion of DNA that contains the instructions for building more protein. The instructions are then transferred from the DNA to the RNA, and the latter takes the genetic code to an organelle outside the nucleus, the ribosome, which is responsible for manufacturing peptides and proteins from amino acids. Once the protein has been assembled, it is then shipped off to its target location which in this case is the cell membrane.
 2  CNS cellular communication
 CNS cells do not directly touch one another. When two CNS cells come in contact with each other, a space called a synapse remains between them as can be seen in Fig. 1.3.
 Fig. 1.3. Synaptic communication
 On one side of the synapse is the axon terminal, which sends messages in the form of neurotransmitters (i.e., glutamate, acetylcholine, dopamine, etc.) into the synapse. On the other side of the synapse are receptors referred to as dendrites and more specifically as dendritic spines. Dendrites take the chemical, electrical, and gaseous messages that are being put into the synapse and convert them into electrical signals. These signals are then sent along the cell bodyâs membrane towards a part of the neuron called the axon hillock. If enough dendrites send enough electrical signals, then the axon hillockâs membrane momentarily depolarizes. When this happens the neuron âfiresâ and the message is sent to other neurons.
A neuron can fire anywhere between ten and a hundred times a second. When a neuron fires, the message travels along a projection of the neuron called the axon. The axon is insulated to some degree with glial cells, white matter known as myelin, which increase the speed at which messages are sent. The message then arrives in numerous separate chemical synapses known as axon terminals, by which the firing neuron can connect with up to ten thousand synapses of other cells. Each terminal has vesicles that contain neurotransmitters, and when the message reaches these vesicles then a particular neurotransmitter is released into the synapse to be received by the receptors on the nearby dendrites of other neurons. Synaptic activity is a complex interaction between neurotransmitters and membrane receptors. As the spines receive messages, the dendritic receptors in turn send messages back to the terminal vesicles. The messages on either end might be telling the neuron to start or stop firing, to fire faster or slower, for DNA to transcribe one instruction or another.
There are over forty common neurotransmitters that the brain uses to communicate with itself. In this book, we look at three of these. Glutamate is used in learning and memory. Acetylcholine facilitates synaptic formation and strengthening to encode information, a process that continues when we are in REM sleep. Dopamine is both a neurotransmitter and a neurohormone that is involved in motivation and reward.
 3  overview of the brain and ANS
 In this section we look at neurobiological activity on a masscellular level. The CNS has three functional regions: the forebrain, brainstem, and spinal cord. The forebrain consists of a number of parts including the cerebral cortex, the cingulate cortex, the basal ganglia, the limbic system, the neuroendocrine system, the cerebellum, and the thalamus. We now look at each of these parts beginning with the cerebral cortex.
The cerebral cortex (see Fig. 1.4.) is divided into four lobes, each of which have different functions. The occipital lobe is the back of our brain and is responsible for our vision; the temporal lobe is the lower middle part of our brain and is responsible for our sense of sound and smell, as well as for processing complex stimuli like faces and scenes; the parietal lobe is the upper middle part of our brain and is responsible for our sense of sensation, integrating information from various senses, as well as for visual-spatial processing; the frontal lobe is the front of our brain and is responsible for our body movements, while the prefrontal cortex (especially the dorsolateral prefrontal and orbitofrontal cortices) is responsible for many higher cognitive functions such as planning complex cognitive behaviors, decision-making, personality expression, and moderating correct social behavior.
 Fig. 1.4. The main divisions of the cerebral cortex
 The anterior cingulate cortex (see Fig. 1.5.) is a neural system with extensive connections throughout the brain. It monitors competition between conflicting aspects of neuronal circuitry, weighs biases and influences from goals, stimuli, and motor plans, determines priorities in the process of selecting and responding to stimuli, and sends feedback to cortical areas that shape behavior.
The basal ganglia (see Fig. 1.5.) is a series of circuits with connections throughout the brain including the cerebral cortex, limbic system and brainstem. The neural system stores and retrieves automatized experiences. It gives us our procedural memory, which allows us to undertake actions such as driving a car or touch typing without conscious effort. The nucleus accumbens is a structure within the basal ganglia with major inputs to the amygdala, dopaminergic neurons in the ventral tegmental area, and prefrontal cortices, and is involved in pleasure, laughter, reward, and addiction.
The limbic system (see Fig. 1.5.) is a series of nerve pathways located within the temporal lobes that have extensive cortical connections. This system has two important parts: the hippocampus and the amygdala. The hippocampus directs and helps retrieve our declarative memory, which allows us to remember facts as well as recollections of past events and experiences. The amygdala is involved in the processing and memory of emotional experiences.
 Fig. 1.5. The anterior cingulate cortex, basal ganglia, and limbic system
 The neuroendocrine system (see Fig. 1.6.) consists of two glands that produce the hormones that regulate temperature, appetite, sleep patterns, sexual drive, reproductive functions, as well as response to anxiety. The hypothalamus is the master gland, and through the pituitary gland links the CNS to the autonomic nervous system (ANS). The ANS is how the brain reaches out and talks to the cells in our body. The ANS is made up of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and the parasympathetic nervous system (PSNS). The SNS excites the heart and inhibits the gastro-intestinal tract. This causes the body to become more active, such as during emergency situations like the âfight, flight, or freezeâ response, or during times of arousal. The PSNS does the reverse of the SNS. It slows down blood pressure, increases appetite, makes us calm and induces sleep. When we are feeling an emotion like anger, the amygdala is telling the hypothalamus to send out hormones that activate the SNS and inhibit the PSNS, and as a result the other glands and cell systems produce the experiences that make us feel angry.
 Fig. 1.6. The neuroendocrine system
 The cerebellum is part of the motor system. Every time a movement is made, the cerebellum is sent a message of the intended movement which it then compares with the actual movement made. If there is any discrepancy between the intended action and the actual action, the cerebellum initiates motor activity to correct this discrepancy. The thalamus processes and relays sensory information selectively to various parts of the cerebral cortex. The brainstem controls vital body processes such as waking and sleeping, breathing, swallowing, and the circulation of blood. The spinal cord allows for information to pass between the CNS and the PNS.
The different cortical areas of the brain communicate with one another through intercortical pathways. The prefrontal cortex has significant interconnections with the limbic system, and the VTA and nucleus accumbens have significant interconnections to the orbitofrontal cortex by means of the mesolimbic dopaminergic pathway.
 4       neurobiological development
 This section looks at neurobiological development from the moment of conception. Cell division and growth first begins when the twenty-three chromosomes of a sperm meet with the twenty-three chromosomes of an egg. The first phase of cell growth is termed the embryonic period and lasts for about eight weeks. During this time the DNA releases instructions for the synthesis of proteins which build cell systems with functions as diverse as bones, blood, acid, tissues, muscles, organs, skin and hair. By the eighth week, neurogenesis has progressed to where the embryo is capable of motion.
The second phase of development is termed the fetal period and lasts up to the time of birth. During this time the brain develops rapidly, and at birth the fetus has more brain cells than the adult brain. While in the womb, different neural systems develop that are essential for survival. One set of systems develops between the brainstem and the various body organs such as the heart, lungs, digestive tract, etc. Another set of systems develops between sensory organs and the cerebral cortex, such as the auditory lobe and the ears, the occipital lobe and the eyes, the parietal lobe and the body sensations, etc.
After birth neurobiological development continues in response to the changes in environmental and somatic stimuli. New synaptic connections between neurons are formed and strengthened while the synapses and neurons that arenât used die. Neural systems that are frequently used are further strengthened by the addition of myelin. Around the age of ten months the parts of the cerebral cortex that understand language begin myelinating, and two to three months later the parts of the cerebral cortex where language is generated starts myelinating.
Around the age of two the streamlining of synaptic connections happens more rapidly. By the age of four children have all the neurons theyâll ever have, and by the age of ten they have nearly the same number of neurons as the average adult. When a person reaches their thirties, the next big change happens. Up to this time the brain naturally synthesizes myelin, but after thirty the production of myelin slows down. This means that something like learning a new language might seem more difficult because there is not as much new myelin being made.
 5  sensory, association, and motor systems
 Our neurobiology can be divided into three systems: sensory systems that process incoming stimuli, association systems that synthesize the sensory systemâs stimuli, and motor systems that respond to the stimuli. There are three types of stimuli: environmental (whatever is outside our body), somatic (body sensations and movements), and cognitive (thinking, imagining). These three are oftentimes interrelated, as is the case with feelings/emotions/moods which are a somatic-cognitive stimuli. In this section we look at how these three systems process, appraise, and respond to these three types of stimuli.
The sensory systems span both the PNS and CNS. Environmental and somatic stimuli are experienced in the PNS by nerves which conduct these signals into the thalamus and then into the primary sensory cortices of the CNS. Sights are processed in the visual cortex of the occipital lobe, with spatial awareness and guidance of actions occurring in the parietal lobe, and object recognition and form representation occurring in the temporal lobe. Sounds are processed in the auditory cortex of the temporal lobe, with lexical and semantic processing occurring in the temporal lobe, and syntactic processing occurring in the basal ganglia and frontal lobe. Sensation and taste are processed in the somatosensory cortex of the parietal lobe, while smell is processed in the piriform cortex of the temporal lobe. Cognitive stimuli are processed in multiple cortical areas, including the dorsolateral prefrontal, orbitofrontal, hippocampal, and basal ganglia cortices.
           Once sensory stimuli have been processed in the primary cortices, their visual, auditory, somatic, gustatory, and olfactory information is sent into the sensory polymodal association cortex. This cortex has connections throughout the occipital, parietal, and temporal lobes which further process and analyze the stimuli. This information is then sent into the motor polymodal association cortex which has connections throughout the prefrontal, limbic as well as other subcortical areas. It is in this cortex that sensory information is brought together into a meaningful experience, responses formulated and appraised by the reward system of the brain, and personal and social decisions made.
The motor systems span both the CNS and PNS. The cognitive, somatic, and environmental stimuli that are being processed and appraised in the primary and polymodal association cortices are then sent into the motor cortices. Voluntary body movements and speech are initiated in the primary motor cortex together with the basal ganglia and cerebellum. Thoughts and decision making processes are initiated in the dorsolateral prefrontal and orbitofrontal cortices. At every step the anterior cingulate assesses which response to the stimuli is most appropriate, and by means of neurotransmitters activates the neural systems that result in a particular behavior.
Although these three systems are presented separately, they are part of an interdependent neural mechanism that is operating at a speed of milliseconds. Activities are all the time taking place in different parts of each system, influencing and being influenced by one another. Even as sensory system activities are appraised in association cortices with resulting motor system responses, these very motor activities are being appraised by the association areas as the sensory activities which are now happening. Stimuli are being processed, appraised, and responded to in parallel loops that simultaneously involve the sensory and motor polymodal association cortices.
Whereas these neurobiological processes are not consciously noticed by us, their environmental, somatic, and cognitive counterparts can be noticed. Whatever stimuli happens is first of all experienced as body sensations, which produce a certain affect and give an emotional tone of liking or disliking to the stimulus. The information in the sensory association cortex has no emotional tone, while the body sensation affect in the limbic system of the motor association cortex gives the information an emotional tone. This affect plays a major role in how stimuli are appraised and body movements and cognitive activities selected.
 6       selection and competition
 The human brain is a marvel of complexity. The brain we have today is a product of a series of changes that have taken place over hundreds of millions of years. When we look at the brain from an evolutionary point of view, then we are concerned not only with the neural mechanisms subserving experience but why we have these mechanisms in the first place.
           Some mechanisms are well established, hunger and mating for instance. Hunger is signaled by mechanisms in the hypothalamus that respond to low glucose levels. With regard to mating, a female goes into estrus and the male becomes responsive due to the pheromones, appearance, and sound of the female. The brain has a wide assortment of neural mechanisms that subserve a wide array of processes, and modern neurobiology is still in the process of hypothesizing what these are. In this chapter we look at the functioning of neural mechanisms from two related angles: selection and competition.
           Environmental, somatic, and cognitive stimuli are appraised as positive or negative by the neural systems subserving these experiences, neurological mechanisms which are tied into the reward system of the brain. The neural mechanism that subserves stimulus appraisal consists of the amygdala, the orbitofrontal cortex, dopaminergic activity in structures including the basal ganglia, as well as the body itself. Motivation is subserved by this reward system. If appraisals are positive, a person will undertake action to acquire the goal; if negative, action tendencies toward stimuli associated with the target will be diminished.
Actual appraisals are made in neural structures, but their circuitry is directly connected to the PNS where the appraisal causes a bodily state. This bodily state is communicated to the brain as body sensations. On the basis of these sensations, personal and social decisions are made. Once frequent associations have been made between particular appraisals and particular body sensations, the body state can become centrally represented in the brain itself, to a degree obviating the need for processing in the PNS.
Neural systems are in an interdependent relationship with the environmental, somatic, and cognitive stimuli they subserve. Neural systems select for and are selected by stimuli just as stimuli select for and are selected by neural systems. Stimuli (an empty stomach; a potential mating partner) select neuronal circuitry that make satisfying these experiences a positive and rewarding goal, while the circuitry selects those stimuli and responses that are assessed as being most likely to acquire the goal. A drop in glucose selects the neuronal circuitry that subserve the cognitions and behaviors that are motivated to acquire food, and these cognitions and behaviors then select stimuli that will achieve this goal.
Some decision making processes have neural mechanisms that immediately and automatically select for a response. In cases like these no conscious decision making process appears to be involved. For example, when we are asleep and the homeostatic state of our body temperature is out of balance, we pull off the blanket without even realizing it. With decisions that are not subserved by such neural mechanisms â which clothes to wear, which restaurant to eat at, which car to buy â the appraisal of stimuli as positive or negative is the result of competition between neuronal circuitry.
Neurobiological competition involves a multitude of events that are taking place molecularly at both the genetic and synaptic levels including control for production of neurotransmitters, the ionic permeability of cell membranes on both sides of the synaptic cleft, the activity of organelles, the transcription of genetic instructions, the release of hormones, the excitability of axon hillocks, the dopaminergic responses, body sensation affect, and so forth.
Just as the hypothalamus is like a master switch in the neuroendocrine system, the anterior cingulate is like a master switch in the competition for selection process. The anterior cingulate selects which neuronal circuits will be responsible for processing, appraising and responding to stimuli. Information is sent to it from various structures (orbitofrontal cortex, amygdala, nucleus accumbens), neuromodulators (e.g., dopamine) and body sensations involved in appraisal and homeostasis. It then weighs the influences of possible responses and actions to these competing influences, and through inhibitory mechanisms sends feedback to the cerebral cortex by suppressing those actions with a weaker bias. Â
The decision of whether to order one dish or another, to wear one shirt or another, is made only after a neuronal circuit has been appraised as the more rewarding response and so is selected by the anterior cingulate. Due to individual differences, however, what one brain selects for is not what another brain selects for. One person wants to stand out in the crowd, another doesnât want to be noticed, while another doesnât consider the crowd at all. Whatever the unique neurobiological architecture of a person is, that contributes to the selection process by which decisions are made.
Neural selection is a counter intuitive way of cognizing the experiences that happen. On the table is a piece of fruit and a knife. These environmental stimuli select those neuronal circuits that will result in the most rewarding outcome, in this case the satisfaction of eating the fruit once it has been cut. The hand doesnât select the knife, but rather the knife selects the cortical activations for finger movements and goal-oriented behavior. In the same way, the knife doesnât select the fruit; the object to be cut selects the knife that will be most suitable to cutting it, and then the knife selects the hand. The sensory stimuli selects the motor activities that are going to lead to the desired outcome.
 7  LTP: learning and memory
 In this section we look at how learning and memory happens. Learning happens when the functioning of a pre-existing synapse is strengthened by changing the likelihood of getting a signal through its vesicles and receptors. Memory is formed when at the same time we are learning something, such as the letters of the alphabet, large amounts of the neurotransmitter glutamate are being put into the dendrite receptors. When lots of glutamate is dumped into the dendritic spine one hundred times a second for ten seconds, then even weeks later a bigger and longer lasting response happens when that spine is stimulated.
Hundreds of genes are actively involved in the formation of memory. These genes transcribe code for ribosomes to make peptides and hormones that then travel to the vesicles and receptors on the cell body synaptic membranes. The receptors on the dendritic spine of a cellâs membrane are made up of proteins, which themselves are made up of molecular compounds. These peptides and hormones can alter the molecular structure of the synaptic membranes, as well as altering the axon hillock to make it more jumpy, with the result that it takes less of a stimulus to get a strong response.
It is this process of stimulating synapses over and over and over that causes memory. Each time the experience repeats, more receptors for glutamate are made, these receptors are receptive for a longer time, these receptors make the membrane more excitable so the axon hillock is more likely to fire, and as well these receptors send neurotransmitters back to the axon terminal which then synthesizes more glutamate. And these changes stay there, a larger number of receptors are maintained for a longer time.
The strength between neurons can change; learning is changing the strength of synapse connections and making neural circuits work more readily than before. To have a memory means that a synapse has been strengthened. This is the effect of LTP: long-term potentiation. LTP is learning. Once a neuron has been potentiated, then any single little whisper to any dendritic spine makes the neuron more likely to pass on the message. When these receptors are next activated, the memory is again experienced.
While every experience we have is processed by our bodyâs nervous systems, not every experience we have is remembered. If we have low energy or are intoxicated, or if we are highly stressed or if there is no stress at all, then there is not going to be enough available glutamate to make LTP. If we have eaten well and gotten enough rest, or if we are in a moderate stress situation, then LTP has the best chances of getting made.
 8  declarative and procedural memory
 There are several different cognitive models that try and account for how memory works. In the context of this book, behavior and learning is subserved by neural mechanisms. Neuronal circuits are selected to subserve the signals by which skill and knowledge are acquired, stored, and retrieved.
This section will focus on two types of memory: declarative and procedural. Declarative memory is our memory of facts, as well as memory of episodic memories or recollections of past events or experiences. As a result of this memory, we can remember what we were doing at a certain place months or years back, and can recall lists of information we have previously studied. Procedural memory is our memory for skills, procedures and how to do things. As a result of this memory, we can play a musical instrument, ride a bike and learn to speak a native language all without actively concentrating on what we are doing. In the case of learning a language, once words and phrases (âmy name is so-and-soâ) get established in the basal ganglia they are then automatically used without much if any conscious deliberation. It is generally assumed that declarative memories can be recalled consciously, while nondeclarative memory context cannot be accessed through conscious effort.
Declarative memory is formed in the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex, collectively known as the hippocampo-entorhinal area. Stimuli from the cortices of the brain are sent to the entorhinal cortex, which process the information and send it to the hippocampus to be encoded in its neural circuitry. The new information is then sent to the entorhinal cortex where it is compared with previously learned information. This comparing process continues until there are no discrepancies, at which point the information is sent to the association cortex and other cortical areas further strengthening the memory. Finally, the information has traces of it stored in both the hippocampus and cerebral cortex.
Procedural memory is formed in the basal ganglia, which itself contains many distinct neural systems. Acquiring procedural memory is a matter of automatization. Both cognitive and motor activities can proceed procedurally, which means without actually noticing how they are happening. As an experience is being learnt to the point of automatization, the cortical areas involved send this information to the basal ganglia where it is learned, stored, and becomes available for retrieval. It is difficult to get an experience into this memory, but once it is there it is very difficult to get rid of it.
When someone asks us our name, we automatically reply without hesitation. This information has been stored in our procedural memory, and so is retrieved automatically and without effort. If we use the voice in our head and start thinking the phrase âmy name is so-and-soâ, then we are making an effort in retrieving this information. The difference between automaticity and making an effort is in which neural system is operating. In the case of procedural memory, the basal ganglia as well as other cortices are involved; in the case of declarative memory, the hippocampal system as well as other cortices are involved.
Declarative and procedural memories develop at the same time. Studying a list of words results in declarative memory, but as they are automatized they are stored in procedural memory. The declarative and procedural memory systems are not independent of one another, but have extensive cortical connections linking them. If we get involved in declarative memories long enough, the procedural memory system will pick up on it. Take, for example, a recurring fantasy we have. When this fantasy is in the declarative memory system for even a short time, within a very short period of time the procedural memory system says: âoh, this fantasy? Ok! Letâs get that reward system going!â.
 9  memory and experience
 Memory can only be of what has been experienced. In the context of this book, experiences are thoughts, daydreams, imagination (cognitive); sensations, movements (somatic); feelings/emotions/moods (cognitive-somatic); whatever is outside our body (environmental). LTP only takes place because of the experiences we have over the course of our neurobiological development. This section looks at three situations in which experiences that result in learning and memory are subsequently experienced through memory.
In the first situation, an newborn infant is experiencing unpleasant body sensations. The PNS is sending signals to the somatosensory and limbic cortices, and these signals meet in the polymodal association areas where the unpleasantness of having sensations outside the normal homeostatic range is appraised as requiring a response. The anterior cingulate then selects the neural circuitry subserving the response that has been appraised as most likely to lead to a rewarding outcome. If a behavior such as crying is appraised as the most rewarding response, then the infant expresses discomfort by crying. When the caregiver attends to the child and eases the unpleasant sensation, the neuronal circuitry makes the connection between the caregiver and the relief from the unpleasant sensation. This recurring experience makes LTP take place in the synapses such that these appraisals and responses take place automatically. The next time an unpleasant sensation happens, the neuronal circuitry is selected that in turn selects crying as the response most likely to lead to a rewarding outcome.
In the second situation, a child around the age of two is learning the names of things. The child is outdoors with someone who points at something and says âtreeâ. As the child looks at the tree, light waves entering the eye, sound waves entering the ear, sensations, affect, smells, tastes, are all together synthesized in the primary and association sensory and motor cortices, and this entire contextual moment is processed for future retrieval in the hippocampo-entorhinal, basal ganglia, as well as other cortical structures. If the child then says âtreeâ, the motor cortices responsible for producing speech are also involved in learning and remembering. If LTP has taken place at the synaptic level, then the next time a tree is experienced the neural systems will be selected that lead to the child cognizing and saying the word âtreeâ.
In the third situation, a child is walking along the street and is suddenly bitten by a dog. The sensory primary and association cortices process what is seen (the dog, the blood, the surroundings), heard (the sound of the dog, the screaming and crying), felt as body sensations, while the amygdala processes the emotional affect of the body sensations, the neuroendocrine system processes the hormonal response in the ANS, the cerebellum processes the body movements, and all these processes are being appraised and weighed by the anterior cingulate which selects for responses that seem most rewarding. As the motor responses being made are evaluated as the sensory stimuli being experienced, the hippocampo-entorhinal cortex is storing all this information. When the situation is over and done with, the memory has been stored and can be retrieved. The next time the child sees or hears a dog, the cortical areas active during the attack can be activated even though the dog is not a threat: the body sensation affect makes the amygdala tell the neuroendocrine system to begin releasing hormones in the blood and neurotransmitters in the synapses to inhibit the PSNS resulting in the child again feeling and cognizing in a threatened way. A dog doesnât even need to be seen or heard for this process to take place. If cognitions are not causing cortical interference, then the limbic system is only going to recognize danger if a dog is actually threatening to attack. But when the child begins remembering and reliving the attack in their memory, the body sensation affect tricks the amygdala into responding as though the event is actually happening. The neuroendocrine system then starts releasing hormones in the blood and neurotransmitters in the synapses with the result that the child feels threatened, and has cognitions about this threat, even though the situation isnât actually happening. As the child rehearses this scene over and over it gets automatized in the basal ganglia, perhaps to such an extent that for their entire lifetime dogs are experienced as threatening. This same process is at work with experiences that bring pleasure. Some experience the child really likes happens, and then later on this experience is remembered and the body sensation affect tricks the limbic system into making the neuroendocrine system produce hormones in the blood and neurotransmitters in the synapses that support cognitive, somatic, and environmental motor responses â images, thoughts, emotions, movements â that persist because they are appraised as rewarding.Â
 10  memory, experience, identity
 We use terms like âselfâ and âmindâ to tell ourselves a story about who we are that helps make sense of the life we are living. We tell ourselves that who we are has grown up along with the body, and that we grow older as we become a child, an adolescent, an adult, a senior. We tell ourselves that we have a mind that has certain qualities and habits, which we are sometimes able to change and sometimes not. The self and mind may be felt as operating somewhere âdeep inside usâ, perhaps in a way that is not fully accessible to us. In the context of this book, there is no self or mind that is selecting things to happen; rather, whatever neural circuitry subserves the responses appraised as leading to the most rewarding outcome is selected. Our cognitive abilities have developed to the extent where we are capable of reflecting on how we are somebody who is doing something; however, the ability to reflect that we have a self that does things is subserved by the same neuronal circuitry that subserves the ability to reflect that there is no self that is doing things. In this section we look at the neural substrates that subserve the experience of self and mind by exploring their formation and function.
Children usually cannot remember anything before the age of eighteen months because the relevant areas of the cortex are not yet myelinating. Once the cortex starts myelinating, learning begins to happen and specific experiences in their situational contexts can be recalled and experienced again even though they arenât happening. As new situations happen, new experiences happen, new expectations are made, and new memories continue to be formed. The declarative memory is continuously potentiating synapses and forming new memories, which are experienced as a sort of autobiography.
           Two sorts of situation are most likely to result in memory: familiar recurring situational experiences and unfamiliar unexpected situational experiences. In the first case, familiar situations keep recurring such as when we are at home, in our room, at the dinner table, using the toilet, at school, at our friendâs house, at the playground, etc. In each of these situations there will be experiences that are of the most interest to us, whether it be something we like or dislike about the situation. The experiences that are of most interest to us naturally produce the strongest memories. (Interestingly, we tend to focus more on negative memories and less on good memories.) Each time familiar situational experiences happen, neuronal circuitry is automatically selected that makes these experiences appear as familiar as these experiences were the previous times we were in this situation. In the second case, the surprise or shock results in sustained deep learning and the situational experiences are not forgotten even though they only happened once.
Memory makes things appear in the same familiar way in which they previously appeared. The first time we walk into a classroom there is no sense of rules. But as this situation recurs and there is disapproval for not following the rules, circuitry subserving these memories and the correct way to respond are potentiated and myelinated. Eventually we go into the classroom and immediately these circuits are automatically selected and all the rules are followed. At the neurobiological level, when we respond to recurring situations in the same manner each time, synapses are potentiated and axons myelinated that process, appraise, and respond to the experiences in a way that only produces what has already been made sense of. Whether our memories are useful or healthy for us to remember or not, these circuits have been selected so many times that whatever we experience is dependent on one or another of them.
As we grow older, our likes and dislikes change. What we were interested in when we were four years old is all but forgotten about by the time we are eight years old. As forgetting happens, the memories we remember change. When we are eight years old and try to remember what we did when we are four years old, perhaps only a few memories are retrievable. This is because since then we have spent our time potentiating the synapses of memories that we do remember. Our memory changes because the circuitry being potentiated is changing because the situational experiences that are happening most frequently are changing. Whatever circuitry has the most synaptic potentiation at a given time is going to be selected and so determine how we respond to the experiences that happen in the situations we are in. Our imagination, past memories, and future expectations, these are part of the synaptic pathways that ended up having the most potentiation, and thatâs why we remember them and not any of the other experiences that happened.
As we age, the sense of selfhood begins developing more strongly as more and more neuronal circuits subserve this experience of self. When these neuronal groups and the hormones specific to them are being selected, the experiences that happen naturally appear as something familiar to us in a way that we might feel âthis is who I amâ. When we look back on all the different circuitry that has been, and how some neuronal groups stopped while others continued being potentiated, we can realize that whatever circuitry currently determines our experience of ourselves and our possibilities is arbitrary. We may think we are somebody because when we take the time to reflect on it we come upon circuitry that makes us feel âthis is who I amâ. Yet did we choose to have the memories we have? Did we choose to have the thoughts and moods we have? Did we choose how we changed? Why did we do one thing and not another at a certain point in our life? It so happened that in a particular situation a neuronal circuit was selected that released hormones in our bloodstream and the affect from our body sensations made us act as we did. Although we never sat down with a plan to make this circuitry happen, or to have it selected, it has nevertheless happened that it is selected due to what we have thought, imagined, felt, and done every day and night of our life.
 In this chapter an account of our neurobiological architecture was presented. According to the neurobiological perspective, every experience we have can be understood in terms of the neuronal circuitry subserving the experience. A considerable number of neural structures and neuronal interactions are involved in processing, appraising, and responding to the cognitive, somatic, and environmental experiences we have. Although neuroscientists do not yet have a complete understanding of every process in our brain, we now know enough as to be able to formulate hypotheses about how these processes are involved in bringing about our experiences. Although some of these hypotheses are speculative and may be falsified by future neurological research, they can be rewritten once more results have come in. I feel it is important to present a complete hypothesis about the relationship between neurobiology and experience, a hypothesis that can be modified in accordance with future research.
                   II   Neurobiology and Insight Meditation
 In this chapter I look at the principles of practicing insight meditation as well as the neurobiological substrates to this practice. The first section introduces the practice of insight meditation. Section two provides a neurobiological mechanism to the practice of insight meditation, while section three looks at how this mechanism operates while a person is meditating. Section four argues for a distinguishing between neurobiology and biopsychology.
Meditation is an area that typically falls outside the realm of scientific investigation. One reason may be that the study of meditation has traditionally not been regarded as a legitimate field of research. Another reason is that few testable hypotheses have been formulated. It is our position that the practice of meditation can be studied in a scientific manner. With the advent of brain imaging technology, hypotheses about the neural substrates involved in insight meditation can be tested. These tests will not only provide information on the neural mechanisms that subserve our cognitive, somatic, and environmental experiences, but will also serve as material for the meditation practitioner to work with.
           1  insight meditation
 There are many techniques that a person can use when they decide to practice meditation. In this section we look at the technique of insight meditation.
           How do we know what our name is? When someone asks us our name, do we have to think about it? Rather, we automatically say our name. The response comes immediately, automatically, without any effort, because this is how the procedural memory works. We could choose to declaratively recall our name over and over again so that for a continual stretch of time we are thinking this phrase with the voice in our head. However, once we are conscious of what our name is, the thoughts themselves are not needed because the affect of our body sensations are the living recollection of our name.
Without even looking at our feet, do we know they are there? Do we need to think that they are there? Instead, we understand our feet are there without requiring any effort at all. We donât have to think about it, because it is so self-evident, such an obvious fact. When we understand something, the understanding is established at the somatic level of our body sensations without requiring any cognitive support. Although cognitions may have been used to get at this understanding, for we initially started thinking about it, once the affect of the understanding is established then they arenât involved at all. Even it is not the sensations themselves, but the âgut feelingâ which isnât the sensations per say but is the body affect. The body affect is the residence of understanding.
To understand something is to have insight into how that something is. Such an understanding can be applied towards absolutely anything; that is, we can have insight into anything. When we understand that our feet are there without cognitive involvement, then we have established insight into something. In the context of this text, there is nothing special about having insight into something. The aim of insight meditation is to establish a particular understanding in which our experiences happens. (An experience is whatever we see, hear, touch, feel, sense, smell, taste, cognate; that is, whatever happens and is noticed to be happening is an experience.) When we practice insight meditation, we are making a conscious effort to have our experiences happen within a particular understanding.
The understanding that will be looked at in this section is disinterest itself. Understanding understands that it is disinterested in whatever experience happens, and so is untouched by the experiences that happen. When we begin to observe our experiences as though they were happening to someone else, or observe our experiences as though they are happening on a movie screen, we are fully aware that all these situational experiences are happening to someone else and not to us. In the same way that what is happening to a person we have never met is unknown to us, so is understanding disinterested in and untouched by whatever cognitive, somatic, or environmental experiences happen. These experiences happen within an understanding that does not allow these experiences to stick to it.
The aim of this insight meditation is to establish an understanding within which experiences happen for as long a time at a stretch as possible. By continually contemplating this particular understanding, it begins to be established as a body affect in the same way that our understanding our name became a body affect. This meditation technique does not involve trying to stop or change the experiences that happen. Things happen, and as they happen so is the understanding established: âI am that which is untouched by experienceâ.
As we make conscious efforts to practice insight meditation, we find that we are unable to do it continuously for extended periods of time at a stretch. Most often we simply forget to do it. One minute we will be meditating, and then some time later we realize that we had forgotten to practice. Instead of understanding that we are untouched by experience, we have become caught up in and identified with the experiences that are happening. Instead of living with disinterest, we are living in identification. In identification there is nothing left of you; youâre so caught up in the situation you donât even realize it. Identification takes the form of habitual patterns that are subserved by neuronal circuits. In the context of this book, if we do not have understanding then we are identified. Either we are in one state or the other: understanding or identifying with the experiences that happen.
 2  the neurobiology of identification and understanding
 In the context of this book, identification is the state we are living in when we arenât living with understanding. Unless we have started practicing insight meditation, then there is no automatic selection of cortical areas with potentiated and myelinated neural structures involved in subserving the processing, appraising, and responding to the cognitive, somatic, and environmental experiences that support understanding. Every part of life, lying down on our bed to sleep, waking up in the morning, turning on and off the light, opening and closing the door, taking a shower, watching a television program, runs on neuronal circuitry subserving the state of identification. Every stimuli is processed and appraised in such a way that a neuronal group whose motor activities support living in identification is selected because the anterior cingulate has decided this is the most rewarding choice.
In this section we look at how understanding gets established in such a way that it is selected throughout not just both types of memory but every cortical area. Whereas identification is already established in every circuit of the brain and operates automatically, understanding has neither circuitry nor automaticity. The aim of insight meditation is for every cortical area of the brain to be potentiated and if possible myelinated so that every sensory and motor procession, appraisal, and response supports understanding such that understanding is constantly selected for. This task turns out to be exceptionally challenging as the neuronal circuits that support identification keep getting selected automatically anyways. As it is, our neurology selects in a way that does not help establish insight. Â
When we first read about how to practice insight meditation, the information gets stored and retrieved from our declarative memory. We have not yet tried to practice and live the information, so the information remains limited to this memory. Once we start to meditate, the declarative memory remembers some of the experiences we have, those in which we are trying to have understanding as well as those in which we do have understanding. The storage of these declarative memories happens automatically, and can be retrieved if wanted.
Acquiring declarative memories is one part of insight meditation. These memories can be useful in inspiring and motivating us to practice, and as well they can help us recall and implement strategies that were previously successful. Acquiring procedural memories is another part of insight meditation. Although understanding may initially be established by thought or by using the hippocampo-entorhinal system, once it is established in the procedural memory as body affect then it no longer needs that impetus; the cognitive efforts that were needed to establish understanding are to some degree obviated as the experience gets potentiated (and perhaps myelinated) in the basal ganglia system.
Establishing circuits in the basal ganglia is a challenging task because of how our brain evolved. If anything we wanted could be put into this memory, then it wouldnât serve any useful purpose at all. On the other hand, once something is in this memory it is very difficult to change it. How is it that we learn to ride a bike, to swim, to speak another language? It is because we put time and effort into it. Once we have learnt this skill, it is automatic and effortless to ride a bike, swim, speak in another language. Similarly, establishing understanding in procedural memory takes time and effort. This is a challenging task.
During those times that understanding is established, and while episodic declarative memories are being formed, the how-to is automatically being stored in procedural memory. Declarative memory is storing the episodic memory while procedural memory is storing those experiences that are the living understanding itself. When the procedural neuronal circuitry is supporting understanding, the hippocampo-entorhinal area is to some degree obviated. When we are learning to ride a bike, the learning happens without the need for cognitive input. We donât need to think about or imagine riding the bike for we are actually physically riding the bike. In the same way when we are living with understanding without requiring cognitive involvement, the potentiation (and possible myelination) of neural circuitry that subserve this understanding automatically happens.
We can use declarative memory as the means by which to get at procedural memory. We âpowerâ the hippocampal area by making its circuits subserve the practice of insight meditation. This involves holding something in our declarative memory in a continuous manner, such as being impenetrably intent on having understanding persist over an indefinite stretch of time. With our intensified practice there is a noticeable change in our body affect due to the changes in hormones and neurotransmitters that comes when the anterior cingulate is selecting for understanding as the most rewarding outcome. Dopaminergic neurons receive this input, encode information about reward and then communicate this information to basal ganglia system enables the automatization of understanding which allows it to persist in a more effortless manner. This persistence is changing synaptic transmissions of neuronal circuitry in the hippocampal-entorhinal system, basal ganglia, and other cortical structures which subserve understanding. This change is a result of new signals being sent to the cell nucleus for gene transcription that support the experiences of understanding taking place in the synapses and hillocks. The hippocampal area may to some degree be obviated such that the basal ganglia system becomes the neural substrate subserving the selection of such experiences.
The declarative and procedural memories are neural substrates that have extensive connections throughout the brain, and yet our aim is to have every cortical area of the brain supporting understanding. The establishment of understanding needs to take place not only in these neural substrates, but in every neural circuit of every cortical area. We require a means of getting at every cortical area. One way to get at this circuitry is by our active involvement in every environmental, somatic, and cognitive experience that happens to us. When an experience happens and understanding is present, these neuronal circuits which are supporting the selection of identification are now also given the impetus to select for understanding. This intentional introduction of stimuli that select for circuits which subserve understanding, as will be discussed in more detail in the following section, is a competition for genes, synapses, and hillocks.
In the identified state, the sensory and motor processions, appraisals, and responses are automatic; stimuli and the responses to this stimuli are automatically appraised as either good or bad, positive or negative, likeable or dislikeable, and our motivation, decision making, and goal directed behavior moves in whichever direction seems most rewarding. When we meditate, we are establishing neuronal circuits that automatically select for understanding, and in this way getting the neurobiological stimulus appraisal mechanism to appraise understanding as the most rewarding response to whichever stimuli happen. The motivation to persist in establishing a particular understanding increases or diminishes depending on stimulus appraisals. Motivation is multi-pronged, and to get the brainâs reward system working for us, we need to very skillfully make several crosscortical efforts involving sensory appraisals. As a result of persistent practice, the reward system of the brain starts automatically selecting for neuronal circuits that support understanding over a continuous period of time.
 3  insight meditation and neurobiological competition
 From a neurobiological point of view, the aim of insight meditation is to establish neuronal circuitry not only in the declarative and procedural memories but throughout the brain. This neuronal circuitry would automatically appraise the cognitive, somatic, and environmental stimuli that happen in such a way that understanding is continually selected for, and as a result our experiences continuously happen within the understanding we have. To get this circuitry we need a greater persistence of understanding, and so require something that will allow understanding to continually persist. This something is competition with identification. The environmental, somatic, and cognitive stimuli that automatically happen, and which appear to us as recurring habits and patterns, are an opportunity for understanding to compete.
Understanding competes by not identifying with whatever stimuli happens while simultaneously making use of the stimuli. It is not trying to change or eradicate the habitual and patterned stimuli, but rather use these experiences to remember itself. As experiences subserved by identification circuitry happen we are disinterested and donât bother getting involved in them, and instead take them as an opportunity to practice insight meditation. We are not trying to cause a change to happen, for we have no control at the molecular and cellular levels where changes take place, yet we could believe that changes will happen as a result of our practice, namely, that the experiences we have automatically happen within our understanding.
Our task is to compete by using every stimulus that happens in such a way that the neurology starts selecting for insight. If environmental, somatic, and cognitive stimuli are going to happen anyways, and neural substrates supporting identification are going to keep on selecting and being selected by stimuli anyways, then what we want is to use the naturally occurring experiences subserved by these substrates as part of our meditation practice. Every environmental, somatic, and cognitive experience that happens is subserved by neural activity, and by changing our response to stimuli so is the neural substrate to some extent also changing.
Competition at the level of our experiences does not need to take the form of a conflict we are having with ourselves. It does appear as though there is a conflict, however. One part of us feels (through the body affect): âyes, do it, bite your nails, have a cigarette, watch tvâ; while another part feels: âno, donât bite your nails, donât have a cigarette, donât watch tv,â. It sometimes happens that some part of us feels one way and another part of us feels another way. Competition does not involve setting these two opposing wills against one another, but rather seeing to it that identified experiences take place within the understanding that has been established.
When there is a âyes-noâ conflict, then neural systems which subserve identification are being selected for. Understanding identifies with neither the âyesâ nor the ânoâ; it is disinterested in both of them. Rather than getting involved in this conflict, understanding disinterestedly makes use of these neural groups and their neurotransmitters in order to sow the circuits with itself. The neuronal circuitry will automatically keep on saying âyes, do itâ or âno, donât do itâ, while understanding is disinterested and untouched by the cognitive, somatic, and environmental responses of these circuits. Understanding understands how things are and gets involved in neither the activities that express or suppress the identified experiences.
We practice insight meditation in order to establish disinterest in the experiences that happen, and at the same time disinterestedly make use of the neurobiological architecture by competing on the side of understanding. As every neuronal circuit supporting identification arises with sensation, the body sensation affect is registered in every synaptic activity. As body sensations are the primary affect that influences neural activity, it is by disinterestedly observing sensations while environmental, somatic, and cognitive events are occurring that we compete in every cortical area of the brain. The role of sensation in the practice of insight meditation is looked at in more detail in the following chapter.
At a subcelluar level, competition is for the receptors in the DNA, synapse, and hillock membranes. It takes place between the neurotransmitters and hormones, between the chemicals, electrical signals, and gasses in the genes, vesicles, spines, hillock, as well as the axon and its sheath. At a masscellular level, competition is for the neuronal circuitry of different neural systems. It takes place between the anterior cingulate and the signals sent from competing neural groups. We now look at some neurobiological mechanisms that could be used to subserve this competition.
First, we can use the cognitive experiences that happen to get at the neural substrates subserving them. Experiences that are considered cognitive include thoughts, visualizations, imagination, moods, and collectively these have circuits established throughout the CNS and PNS. When we meditate we may sometimes notice a constant cognitive activity that has many sides to it, and with different cognitions there are different neural systems selecting and being selected. Competition in our cognitions involves understanding disinterestedly observing the cognitions and their underlying sensations supporting identification, such that the anterior cingulate weighs in favor of the neural circuitry being selected by understanding and in turn selecting for understanding.
Second, we can use the somatic experiences that happen, of which we look at two sorts: body sensations and voluntary body movements. We can use the body sensations that happen as hormones in the blood and neurotransmitters in the synapses inhibit and excite the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. The mechanism by which we do this follows. What we want are more dendritic spines that store and retrieve understanding, as well as more axon hillocks more responsive to firing the neuronal circuitry subserving understanding, as well as the four cortical lobes, their association areas, and the subcortical areas including the anterior cingulate, hippocampal-entorhinal, basal ganglia, limbic, and neuroendocrine systems, all supporting understanding. To get more spines and hillocks we need to change the neurotransmitters at the presynaptic and postsynaptic membranes. This can be accomplished through genetic transcription getting ribosomes to create amino acids, peptides, and proteins that then change the spines and hillock. Genes are gotten at through using the experiences that come and go during a day; the thoughts, daydreams, and moods we have, every one of which has neuronal circuitry registering the affect of the body sensations.
We can also use our body movements. Here we compete by establishing understanding regardless of what movements happen due to the workings of the identification circuitry. Habitual experiences and patterns we follow will automatically happen with the result that this motor activity is appraised as most rewarding in this situation. Understanding understands that these experiences are a result of the neuronal circuitry subserving them, and that as soon as the circuitry changes the experience will too. Not reacting to sensations by understanding every reaction to be rewarding only to identification circuitry is another means of competition. A third means is by moving the body only when we can foresee what we are going to do. By using a variety of means, we aim to compete in every cortical activity supporting these sensory and motor processions, appraisals, and responses.
Third, we can use the environmental experiences that happen to compete in our neurobiology. Sights, sounds, smells, tastes, sensations, altogether these are responsible for a large amount of cortical activity and involve every subcortical area. We establish understanding so that every environmental stimuli is experienced through it.
These three areas of competition are not separate efforts but are a multi-pronged approach that involves using the stimuli that automatically happen without any conscious effort on our part. When we meditate, stimuli continue to happen, and either we get identified with them or we use them. Our intention is not to change the habit, but rather to use it to establish understanding, and whether the habit automatically changes or not is happenstance. As well as using the experiences that automatically happen, three ways in which we can consciously make an effort are now looked at.
First, we can compete by getting the reward system of the brain involved on the side of understanding. The brainâs reward system is accessed through its genetic-synaptic-hillock interactions. By making understanding the most rewarding thing for us, and practicing meditation as continuously as possible, the anterior cingulate begins selecting the neuronal circuits that process, appraise, and respond to the environmental, somatic, and cognitive stimuli that happen in such a way that supports understanding; in turn, the stimuli themselves begin to select for neuronal circuitry that supports understanding. When the identified state is happening, the reward systems of the brain are selecting the neuronal areas and circuitry involved. When we then use these experiences as catalysts to the practice of insight meditation, we are usurping these reward systems. So not just usurping the circuitry of a neural system, but as well usurping the intercortical reward pathways.
Second, we can compete with the habitual patterns established in procedural memory. A habit is something whose circuitry is subserved by multiple cortical areas, including the basal ganglia. The habit gets selected automatically because the neural circuitry that subserves this habit has been deemed as the most rewarding response to the stimuli currently being experienced. As a result of repeated selection, it is pervasive and highly inflexible. The reason it is so difficult to change a habit is because of the procedural LTP, and for this reason procedural LTP makes great soil for establishing understanding. The basal ganglia can subserve understanding just as it does identification. Establishing understanding is an effort in establishing more neuronal circuitry supporting understanding in the basal ganglia so that these circuits may be selected by the anterior cingulate instead of the selection of competing circuits supporting identification. Understanding that doesnât require declarative memory works through a procedural memory with connections already established in every cortical area of the brain. To this end we can use the already well established basal ganglia subserved experiences/habits by using/powering the hippocampal-entorhinal area to skillfully establish understanding as disinterested in the experiences happening. In this way these circuits are to some extent usurped with the result that the competition at the genetic-synaptic-cortical level is being weighed by the anterior cingulate in favor of understanding, and so understanding is being written into the memory of this crosscortical circuitry. By powering the hippocampus to make declarative memory a place of insight, and then being motivated to using the stimuli and responses that automatically come in order to support understanding so that there is disinterest and no identification with the habit, there is an alteration in the genetic information sent to the molecular synapses and neurotransmitters involved in coding this habit, and as the molecular structure of the synapse changes so does the habit it subserves. The declarative system can only intervene in the procedural system if there is significant cortical support, that is, if every environmental, somatic and cognitive experience that happens is used by means of a conscious effort. And according to how potentiated the habit is, that much motivation is needed.
Third, we can compete by using whatever experience is currently happening. Competition is possible whenever an environmental, somatic, or cognitive experience is happening, and one or more of these three are always happening. When we are awake, the environment is always happening, and cognitions are as well commonplace. Whether we are awake or asleep the body sensations and affect continue to be monitored, appraised, and responded to. Therefore, the way to compete is by using every situation, every experience, every mundane activity, each and every time they happen in order to practice in every possible situation. If we only practice in a sitting position, a set of neuronal circuits may come to subserve understanding, but then when we stand up and walk around these circuits do not work because no connections with the motor areas have been made. There are two means of establishing such connections: first, to practice insight meditation while moving about, lying down, eating, showering, using the toilet, etc; second, to make use of intentionality, which is to get into the motor circuits and experience moving about even though we are not moving about, we get the muscles involved and experience every muscular contraction made.
Even as we compete for understanding, identification circuitry will compete with such automaticity that we find that even as we try to meditate identification will automatically be doing its thing. A substantial amount of motivation is required to compete for understanding, and individual differences in peopleâs reward systems will make one person more likely to practice than another. Due to the differences in individualâs neurobiological architecture, people with a hypertrophy towards being interested in philosophy, psychology, neurobiology, and insight meditation will be more likely to have neuronal circuitry selected which appraise practicing insight meditation as more rewarding than other experiences. Whether a person has such a hypertrophy or not, many people might benefit by entering into an environment that has been intentionally structured as to support the establishing of understanding. Such a place would have an increase in environmental, somatic, and cognitive stimuli that select for sensory and motor processions, appraisals, and responses that support understanding persisting in a more continuous manner.
  4       neurobiology and biopsychology
 In the context of this book, all cognitive activities are subserved by neural mechanisms. Whatever we consider to be psychological in us can be understand as biological activities. However, even though psychology can be reduced to neurobiology, anybody who has psychological experiences will tell you that whatever their cause these experiences are very real and require immediate responses. In this section a distinction is drawn between neurobiology and biopsychology. Neurobiology is the study of the neural mechanisms involved in environmental, somatic and cognitive stimuli. The circuitry of these mechanisms operates at a speed of milliseconds and isnât experienced by us. Biopsychology is the study of the environmental, somatic, and cognitive experiences that we have. Although the neural circuitry subserving these experiences is operating biologically at speeds imperceptible to us, the experiences themselves do persist for a measurable period of time.
Our body sensations/affect are the link between our neurobiology and our psychology. Our body sensations are the experiential trace of our neurobiology, a junction between what is happening above and below the threshold of our biopsychology. Every neurobiological interaction is registered as a body sensation affect. This affect is in the field of biopsychology because it can be experienced. This affect is our direct link to changing both the biology and psychology of our human life.
The insight meditation that will be presented in this chapter develops upon the understanding established in sections two and three above. Understanding now incorporates biopsychology into how it relates to the experiences that happen within it. This understanding is two-pronged: the âbioâ refers to understanding the automaticity of the competition taking place in the PNS and CNS, while the âpsychologyâ refers to understanding the automaticity of the environmental, somatic, and cognitive experiences that happen. Three situations that a person experiences when they practice insight meditation are now looked at.
           In the first situation, we are not meditating at all. Neuronal groups that support understanding arenât being selected for, while neuronal groups that support identification are being selected for. The competition that takes place is between neural networks that subserve the sensory and motor processions, appraisals, and responses that happen in the identified state. When this happens, the body affect is supporting circuitry in which experiences involving understanding never arise; rather, the persisting experiences we have may involve habitual patterns and routines.
           In the second situation, there is a simultaneous operation of circuitry subserving understanding and identification, and competition is taking place between these circuits for selection by the anterior cingulate. If the reward system of the brain appraises understanding as the best response due to the prevailing body affect, then experiences subserved by neuronal circuitry in which understanding persists are selected even while experiences subserved by the identification circuits persist. At the same time we find that we like and dislike something, do and donât want to do something, because both sets of circuitry are firing at the same time. There is no single signal coming through from the affect and so we experience indecisiveness. If we then happen to forget about understanding, it is because its neural networks were not given enough support to continue firing; that is to say, the reward system of the brain selected identification as being the more rewarding set of experiences. When we practice insight meditation, sometimes we find there is constant competition from every cortical area. At the same time that we are meditating, any number of other neuronal circuits which are processing, appraising, and responding to environmental, somatic, and cognitive stimuli are also happening.
           In the third situation, experiences in which understanding persists are automatically being selected for by the brain. The affect and reward system (biology) has appraised understanding (psychology) as the best response to the experiences happening in this situation, and the experiences subserved by these selected circuits are the experiences of understanding.
           In the first and third situations, our biopsychology is automatically subserved by identification and understanding circuitry respectively. We now look at the second situation in more detail. When we are meditating and habitual experiences happen, they are understood as being due to neuronal circuitry, and so understanding is untouched by them. Yet understanding also makes use of these experiences, using this circuitry to remember itself. This circuitry is being usurped in such a way that when these neuronal groups next fire understanding automatically arises. By usurping more and more circuitry, experiences of understanding are established in genes, synapses, and hillocks with the result that potentiation and myelination of neuronal groups happens in support of understanding. As more and more neuronal groups are usurped, a biology that supports a psychology of understanding is selected more and more often. When neuronal groups have been usurped to the point where every stimuli is processed, appraised, and responded to by understanding, and every neuronal circuit that arises does so with understanding, then every experience that happens is one of understanding.
When we meditate over a period of days, months, or years, the circuitry that automatically selects for understanding gets established to the point where because it is already there in our neurobiology it is simple and straightforward to activate. This circuitry gets established in the same way identification circuitry gets established, which is by making the persistence of understanding part of our habitual routine. When we donât get caught up in all the individual cognitions and sensations that happen, we keep understanding them as biological activities, then from this disinterested vantage point we can patiently persist in establishing the understanding in which every experience arises and passes. The competition for selection of understanding supports cognitive, somatic, and environmental responses that make us feel more calm, more relaxed, more equanimous, more vigilant, more confident, more caring.
           Different people will have different experiences as they practice insight meditation. The neuroendocrine system might bring about the parasympathetic activity of a tranquil somatic, emotional and cognitive state, while the limbic system measures the body affect and the prefrontal cortex produces cognitions indicative of the state of understanding; or sympathetic activity might bring a feeling of stress, lust, anger, etc., while the limbic system senses a tensed body affect and the prefrontal cortex produces cognitions indicative of the state of identification; or any number of different experiences might be happening due to the neuronal circuitry being selected. Regardless of what the experience is, pleasant or unpleasant, understanding is disinterested in and untouched by it while using these experiences as a means of establishing itself
Identification and understanding both just happen. Both processes are reactive, in response to neurobiological mechanisms. The conscious efforts we make arenât to try and stop or change the identification experiences that happen, but to use them as a means of establishing the understanding in which these experiences subsequently happen. No matter how many times might usurp a particular experience that comes around, we may find that an experience nevertheless continues happening for days, months, or years. Due to genetic-synaptic-hillock reactions, one or another experience may for what seems like no reason express itself from time to time. Understanding never feels defeated by these random neural activity reactions, but understands these experiences will last for as long as the circuitry subserving them lasts, and until they go away understanding simply wonders: âwhat circuitry did these experiences come from? For what reason was this circuitry selected? And already the circuitry of these experiences is changing! All I can do is wonder about it!â.
 In this chapter I introduced the practice of insight meditation as a method by which to alter the relationship that we have with our experiences, and then presented a general map of the neural substrates involved in this practice. People who are interested in practicing insight meditation can use this map to recodify the experiences they have. By understanding every experience as neuronal interactions, we are directly involved in our neurobiology at the biopsychological level. Rather than codify experiences as âdistractionsâ which inhibit practice, a meditator who understands the neural mechanics involved can relate to these experiences with disinterested efficacy.Â
                   III  Neurobiology and Insight Meditation in the S.N. Goenka Tradition
 In this chapter the relationship between neurobiology and insight meditation as taught by S.N. Goenka is looked at. The first section presents the theoretical side of this meditation technique, while the second section presents an overview of the practical side. In section three the neurobiological substrates of this insight meditation are discussed. Section four elaborates upon the role of sensations in both neurobiology and insight meditation.
The technique of insight meditation taught by S.N. Goenka has been likened to a deep surgical operation of oneâs own mind. As this section intends to make clear, this technique involves a conscious effort in altering our neurobiological architecture. In order to learn this technique it is necessary to participate in a ten-day course. If one only reads about the technique, then they will form some concept of it without actually trying the technique out. The conditions of a ten-day course are such that within a short period of time a person can get a clear experiential understanding of the technique. While the technique has not been written in its full detail, enough information has been provided to discuss the essentials of this insight meditation.
 1       insight meditation in the S.N. Goenka tradition
 Whatever we experience only lasts for a period of time before it goes away. An itching sensation may last a couple of minutes, an illness may last for several days, a job may last for several years. These experiences arise, happen for some time, but ultimately pass away. In the same way that our body has arisen just to pass away, so does every planet, solar system, galaxy, and universe arise just to pass away. There isnât anything that persists over all time; there isnât anything that is permanent. In the Pali language this impermanence is known as anicca. Anicca is one of the three basic characteristics of existence. Once it is clearly understood that there isnât anything permanent, then the second characteristic, anatta, which means there is no permanent self can also be understand. In the same way that everything there is has arisen just to pass away, so does the experience of self that we seem to have from time to time arise and pass away. The third characteristic, dukkha, which means unhappiness, misery, suffering, can now also be understood. When we want something to happen and it doesnât happen, we become unhappy. When we want something to stop happening and it doesnât stop, we become unhappy. When we want things that we donât have, and we arenât satisfied with the things that we do have, then we have cravings and aversions and this is dukkha.
The practice of insight meditation in this tradition involves two key tasks: establishing sati and upekkha. Sati is at the same time and in equal amounts mindfulness (continuity of practice at the body sensation level), and understanding (the wisdom, insight, panna, of the three characteristics of existence). Sati is the understanding of anatta, anicca, and dukkha at the body sensation level in as continuous a manner as possible. Establishing sati is one half of the practice of vipassana (also known as satipatthana) meditation. The other half of the practice is the developing of upekkha, which means equanimity. Upekkha is a disinterest towards whatever experience happens. As situational experiences arise just to pass away, we observe them disinterestedly without identifying ourselves with them. And as every experience is registered as a body sensation affect, the aim of this meditation technique is for equanimity to be established at the body sensation level by understanding the basic characteristics of every sensation(anatta, anicca, and dukkha), and with this understanding to neither identify with nor react to any sensation during the course of its arising and passing. Sati and upekkha are like the two wings of a bird, where each must be equal in size and equal in strength for the bird to fly.
There are four areas of our experience that we can use in order to establish sati and upekkha: our body, our sensations, our emotional and cognitive states, and our cognitions. Each of these will be surveyed in turn. We observe our body by establishing sati and upekkha during whatever we do at the physical level: walking, eating, working, showering, etc; as well as contemplate on how the body will age, decay, and die. We observe our sensations by establishing sati and upekkha regardless if the sensations are pleasant, neutral, or unpleasant. We observe our emotional and cognitive states by establishing sati and upekkha regardless of what state our thoughts and emotions are in. We do not want to observe the individual thoughts themselves, but to observe the emotional and cognitive state which is making them happen. We observe our cognitions by establishing sati and upekkha while we contemplate on the logistics of the insight meditation. The satipatthana sutta lists several logistics, one of which are the khandha, which means five aggregates.
Every experience we have is the interaction of five khandha: rupa (matter), vinnana (consciousness), vedana (sensation), sanna (perception/evaluation), and sankhara (reaction). Whatever we experience is the result of atomic, molecular, and cellular interactions; it is the result of matter. These experiences are initially processed by our biology without affect; they are experienced as pure undifferentiated consciousness. This consciousness produces a sensation somewhere or other at the bodily level. Based on this body sensation affect, the experience is perceived as pleasant or unpleasant; evaluation has taken place. Whenever an evaluation has taken place, this means that memory is deciding how the experiences should be responded to; our behavior is reactive. The experiences we have are stored in our memory as sankhara. A lifetime of cravings and aversions has already been stored due to our habitual patterns of liking some things and disliking other things, wanting some things to happen and other things not to happen. We will now look at how to stop reacting to the experiences that our memory produces, the experiences we have come to exclusively experience through our memory.
For the body to survive, we must give it food. If we stop giving it food, then it will continue for some time by consuming the fat deposits, but eventually it will die. Similarly, for the cognitions to survive, they must be given food. If we stop giving them food, then they will continue for some time by consuming the sankhara. When we stop giving food to the cognitions, and do not react to the sankhara that automatically happen, then no new sankhara are made. When there are no sankhara then there are no evaluations. When there are no evaluations then the body, sensations, emotional and cognitive states, and cognitions that happen are observed disinterestedly. Consciousness is disinterest itself, a disinterest in whatever arises and passes.
The Buddha said: âeverything that arises in the mind is accompanied by sensationâ. When we practice vipassana, the pleasant, neutral and unpleasant life experiences are again experienced in the form of pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant body sensations. When a certain kind of sensation arises, what is happening is that a mass of kalapa, sub-atomic particles/wavelets, are arising with a certain characteristic, whether it be heaviness, lightness, vibration, etc. It is through experiencing the sensations on the body with awareness and equanimity that the sankhara are removed. If we understand the characteristics of these kalapa, then we will neither identify with nor react to the experiences they are bringing about. This understanding and equanimity at the body sensation level is such that we do not get involved in the reaction, and as a result the memory and its way of experiencing things is not supported. The extent to which we are able to be aware and equanimous with the sensations experienced is the extent to which these sankhara are eradicated.
At a very advanced stage of meditation practice, when all sankhara have been eradicated, the field of experience can be transcended. This extinction of the conditioned mind is known as nibbana, which is a series of states in which the sense faculties effectively stop working. The aim of vipassana, however, is not nibbana, for these states will automatically happen once the conditions are there for them to happen; rather, the aim of vipassana is the eradication of all sankhara by means of awareness and equanimity.
 2       the discourse summaries
 In this section the technique of Vipassana meditation as taught by S.N. Goenka is presented. The following paragraphs are taken from transcriptions of the evening discourses given during a ten-day course in 1983, and which were published by the Vipassana Research Institute as The Discourse Summaries in 1987. The page number is written at the end of each paragraph.
The entire external universe exists for a person only when he or she experiences it, that is, when a sensory object comes into contact with one of the sense doors. As soon as there is a contact, there will be a vibration, a sensation. The perception gives a valuation to the sensation as good or bad, based on oneâs past experiences and conditionings, past sankhara. In accordance with this coloured valuation the sensation becomes pleasant or unpleasant, and according to the type of sensation, one starts reacting with liking or disliking, craving or aversion. Sensation is the forgotten missing link between the external object and the reaction. The entire process occurs so rapidly that one is unaware of it: by the time a reaction reaches the conscious level, it has been repeated and intensified trillions of times, and has become so strong that it can easily overpower the mind. (30-31)
Whenever craving arises in the mind, it is accompanied by a physical sensation. Although at a deep level a storm of agitation has begun, at a superficial level one likes the sensation and wishes it to continue. This can be compared with scratching a sore: doing so will only aggravate it, and yet one enjoys the sensation of scratching. In the same way, as soon as a desire is fulfilled, the sensation that accompanied the desire is also gone, and so one generates a fresh desire in order that the sensation may continue. (25)
Whenever a pleasant sensation arises, one likes it and wants to retain and multiply it. Whenever an unpleasant sensation arises, one dislikes it and wants to get rid of it. (26)
The old habit of the mind is to react, and to multiply reactions. Something unwanted happens, and one generates a sankhara of aversion. As the sankhara arises in the mind, it is accompanied by an unpleasant physical sensation. Next moment, because of the old habit of reaction, one again generates aversion, which is actually directed towards the unpleasant bodily sensationâŚThe unpleasant sensation causes one to react with aversion, which generates another unpleasant sensation, which again causes one to react. (43)
Unless one deals with sensations, one will be working only at a superficial level of the mind, while in the depths the old habit of reaction will continue. By learning to be aware of all the sensations within oneself and to remain equanimous towards them, one stops reactions where they start. (31)
To deal with the reactions, one must become aware of them at the point where they start; they start with sensation, and so one must be aware of sensations. (59)
There are two aspects of the technique: awareness and equanimity. One must develop awareness of all the sensations that occur within the framework of the body, and at the same time one must remain equanimous with them. As one develops in awareness and equanimity, naturally one penetrates deeper into the unconscious mind, and uncovers impurities hidden there. So long as these deep-lying complexes remain in the unconscious, they are bound to bring misery in the future. The only way to eliminate them is to allow them to come up to the surface of the mind and pass away. When such deep-rooted sankhara arise on the surface, many of them may be accompanied by unpleasant, gross sensations or blind areas within the body. If one continues to observe without reacting, the sensation passes away, and with it the sankhara of which is it a manifestation. (35-6)
Every sankhara is a seed which gives a fruit, a result after some time. Whatever sensation one experienced when planting the seed, the same sensation will arise when the fruit of that sankhara comes to the surface of the mind. If one does not give the input of a new reaction to the mind, automatically an old reaction will give its fruit, manifesting as sensation. One observes, and it passes away. Again one does not react; therefore another old sankhara must give its fruit. In this way, by remaining aware and equanimous, one allows the old sankhara to arise and pass away, one after another: one comes out of misery. (32-33)
Understand how this process works. The input for the body is the food one eats, as well as the atmosphere in which one lives. If one day one does not eat, the flow of matter does not stop at once. It continues by consuming the old stocks of energy contained within the body. When all the stored energy is consumed, only then the flow stops, the body dies. The body needs food only two or three times a day, but the flow of mind requires an input at every moment. The mental input is sankhara. Every moment the sankhara that one generates is responsible for sustaining the flow of consciousness. If at any moment one does not generate a new sankhara the flow does not stop at once; instead it draws on the stock of old sankhara. An old sankhara will be forced to give its fruit, that is, to come to the surface of the mind in order to sustain the flow; and it will manifest as a physical sensation. If one reacts to the sensation, again one starts making new sankhara, planting new seeds of misery. But if one observes the sensation with equanimity, the sankhara loses its strength and is eradicated. Next moment another old sankhara must come up to sustain the mental flow. Again one does not react, and again it is eradicated. So long as one remains aware and equanimous, layer after layer of old sankhara will come to the surface and be eradicated; this is the law of nature. (44)
Every sensation, whether gross or subtle, has the same characteristic of impermanence. A gross sensation arises, seems to stay for some time, but sooner or later passes away. A subtle sensation arises and passes away with great rapidity, but still it has the same characteristic. No sensation is eternal. Therefore one should not have preferences or prejudices towards any sensation. When a gross, unpleasant sensation arises, one observes it without becoming depressed. When a subtle, pleasant sensation arises, one accepts it, even enjoys it, without becoming elated or attached to it. In every case one understands the impermanent nature of all sensations; then one can smile when they arise and when they pass away. (36)
           Awareness and equanimity will lead to purification of the mind. Whatever one experiences on the way, whether pleasant or unpleasant, is unimportant. The important point is not to react with craving or aversion, since both will create nothing but misery. The only yardstick to measure oneâs progress on the path is the equanimity that one has developed. And the equanimity must be at the level of bodily sensations if one is to go to the depths of the mind and to eradicate the impurities. If one learns to be aware of sensations and to remain equanimous towards them, it becomes easy to keep oneâs balance in external situations as well. (44-45)
 3       the neurobiology of insight meditation in the S.N. Goenka tradition
 In the discourse summaries, several metaphors are used to convey the meditation technique including the unconscious, the mind, deep-rooted sankhara, the eradication of sankhara, seeds giving fruits, and so forth. When we are told that we have an unconscious mind, and that things are happening deep inside this mind, this might lead us to form an idea about some abstract place deep in our head where all of these other things are happening. In this section we provide an alternative approach to these metaphors by looking at the neurobiological substrates subserving them.
           The unconscious mind is a metaphor for our neurobiology. This mind is unconscious because it happens at a level that is below the threshold of our experience. To bring the unconscious mind onto the surface is a metaphor for observing the neurobiological events at the level of our experiences. Whatever experience happens is because some neuronal circuitry is firing, and by establishing awareness and equanimity towards every experience that happens we compete with this circuitry. We use our experiences to change our neurobiology. When deep-rooted sankhara are described as arising on the surface of the mind, this is a metaphor describing how neuronal circuitry subserving experiences involving a lot of craving and aversion have been selected in the CNS and so an accompanying sensation is happening in the PNS. The eradication of these deep-rooted sankhara is a metaphor about how our awareness and equanimity at the body sensation level is changing the genes, synapses, and hillocks of that circuitry. Sowing the seeds of a fruit tree is a metaphor about how one seed from a huge tree grows from a single seed, and this tree gives hundreds of fruits which contain thousands of seeds from which thousands and thousands of more trees come. At the neurological level, this metaphor is describing the potentiation and myelination of reactive circuitry that is likely to be appraised as the most rewarding response, and so be selected, as a result of which we have might announce that we are having a certain experience. Â
           The process by which we have experiences is presented in the formula of the khandha. Whatever we experience is only happening because we have a body that is in an environment, which is rupa. Whatever happens between our body and our environment is processed by our brain. Every event that happens first of all is processed by the primary cortices. These cortices process the information but do not provide any evaluation. There is not yet any appraisal or response designated, and this is referred to as vinnana: âIn seeing there is only seeing; in hearing only hearing; touching only touching; tasting only tasting; smelling only smelling; cognizing only cognizingâ; there is no evaluation. As this information is sent into the polymodal association cortex, the body sensation affect, vedana, is registered by the limbic system and significantly contributes to which neural groups are selected in the appraisal of this information. The subsequent evaluation of information, sanna, is the sensory and motor appraisal process; neuronal groups compete for selection and the circuits chosen are those that have been evaluated, appraised, as the most rewarding. However, this entire sequence is happening due to biochemical-electrical reactions. The selection of circuitry happens reactively, and the experiences subserved by these circuits are equally reactive; these experiences are sankhara.
We can observe how images and thoughts of fear, excitement, worry, anger, lust, guilt, depression or any other emotional state will immediately produce certain sensations on our body. These sensations, vedana, are processed by vinnana in the unimodal somatosensory cortices while at the same time the body affect is being appraised in the limbic and polymodal association cortices by sanna. Â The body sensation affect is then evaluated as either pleasant, neutral, or unpleasant, perhaps at any one time more than one evaluation is being given, and based on this appraisal a response is made. This response at the biological level involves the release of hormones from the neuroendocrine system and neurotransmitters from dopaminergic neural systems, and with these hormones in the blood and neurotransmitters in the synapses, neuronal circuitry gets selected whose genes, spines, and hillocks persist for some time. At the psychological level, the cognitive, somatic, and environmental experiences continue to happen in the form of images, thoughts, emotions, sensations, body movements, and ways of responding to the environment.
           The process by which we make use of this insight meditation to remove sankhara is as follows. Whatever happens in the circuitry of the CNS is accompanied by a sensation in the PNS. Although we are unable to directly experience the synaptic interactions involved, we are able to directly experience the body sensations. While we donât experience dopamine neurotransmitters directly, we experience their effects as sensations. By establishing awareness and equanimity at the level of body sensations, we compete with our sanna. Whatever evaluations/appraisals happen are based on the memory of how these experiences have been previously evaluated and appraised. The cognitive, somatic and environmental experiences we have are then the reactions of the memory subserved by a reactively selected neuronal group. We compete with these neuronal groups by appraising our body sensations with sati and upekkha, awareness and understanding. When the body sensations are not appraised then they are not reacted to. neither suppressing or expressing the experiences that happen, vinnana is established even as sankhara continue to arise and pass away. Understanding the three characteristics competes for neuronal circuitry, and affects rupa, the relationship our body is in with our environment.
           Body sensations are the key to this technique of insight meditation, for it are our body sensations that are selecting for neuronal circuitry. Body sensations are the source of appraisal for whether something is pleasant and rewarding and so should be pursued or whether it is not rewarding and should be avoided. It are the body sensations that lead to the sanna and sankhara, appraisal and response, the neural circuits that subserve the cognitive, somatic, and environmental experiences we have; including the cognitive activities in which we believe we are a self that is experiencing the environment, the pleasurable, painful, and neutral body sensations, the emotional and cognitive states, as well as the cognitions that happen. It is by not reacting to body sensations that we begin to compete most directly with the procedurally operating neuronal circuits that subserve such cognitive activities. Equanimous observation of sensations immediately changes molecular activity both genetically and synaptically, in a way that observation of cognitive activities alone cannot.
The selection of neuronal circuitry is an entirely reactive process, which makes our practice of insight meditation counter intuitive. As we sit and meditate, circuitry gets selected reactively and experiences subserved by them happen reactively. Awareness and equanimity is the establishing of understanding at the level of our body sensations and biopsychological affect, and this understanding understands that whatever experiences happen are the reactive selection of neuronal circuitry. These experiences will last for only so long as genes, synapses, and hillocks subserving them are being selected as the most rewarding outcome by the anterior cingulate. This circuitry has arisen just to pass away, and understanding is disinterested in it whether it is arising, persisting, or passing. Reactive neuronal circuitry will go firing even if we are able to permanently understand how things are. The aim of this insight meditation isnât to stop or change the experiences we have, but to understand that it is neurobiologically certain that from time to time for the remainder of our lifespan reactive experiences will arise, be stuck on us for some time, but sooner or later pass. The possibility of the total eradication of sankhara, at which point these reactive experiences will stop arising, is equated with the series of states in which the sense faculties effectively stop working. Unless these series of states happen to us, we must be reconciled to the neurobiological certainty of reactions having nothing to do with understanding continuing to happen unabated for the remainder of our lifespan.
 4       contexting body sensations
 As body sensation is central to this technique of insight meditation, in this section we present three additional perspectives upon sensation. First, we review the role of sensation in neurobiology. Second, we look at the different layers to sensation, from the cellular to sub-atomic levels. Third, the competition for selection that happens at each layer of sensation is discussed.
           A sensation is inherently neither pleasant nor unpleasant; primary and unimodal somatosensory cortices in the parietal lobe only give information such as the location of the sensation. The sensations that come from the parietal lobe are neutral and without affect, even in the sensory association cortex. At the same time as sensations are being processed neutrally, they are also being processed as an affect in the limbic and prefrontal polymodal motor association cortex. This affect is the evaluation (sanna) of the sensations (vedana) projected from the sensory association cortex by the motor association cortex; this motor cortex appraises and responds to the sensory information being sent from the sensory cortex, giving an emotional tone of liking or disliking to this information (whatever is being seen, heard, felt, touched, smelled, tasted). The sensory primary and association areas are where vinnana and vedana take place, and it is only when this sensory information has been passed over to the motor association cortex that sanna and sankhara happen.
Sensations can be understood as having many layers. When we have sensations, it is because something is happening in the flesh and bones, organs and muscles, tissues and blood of our bodies, which is being processed by the somatosensory cortex. Sensations are the experience of our body, and our body is a product of about one hundred trillion cells. Our brain, bones, blood, skin, sensations, thoughts, imagination, feelings, are a result of the nerves in the body and the neurons in the brain: biochemical-electrical cellular activity. At this cellular level, experiences arise and pass with great rapidity, on the order of millions of times a second. Insight can be established at this cellular level of sensation.
Each of these hundred trillion cells are made up of the activity of chemical compounds called molecules. The simplest molecule has just one proton and one electron and is called hydrogen. The language of cells is molecular in nature, so when we look at a strand of DNA, or at the receptors on the cells, what we find is molecular activity. The body sensations can be observed with insight established at the molecular level, where experiences arise and pass at a greater rapidity than the cellular level.
Each molecule is made up of atoms, which themselves are made up of protons, neutrons and electrons. Protons and neutrons are further made up of quarks. Quarks and electrons in turn are made up of interactions of vibrating strands of energy. Insight is here established in the strands of energy that bring about the atoms that give rise to the molecules of each of the hundred trillion cells producing our body sensations.
            Sankhara are stored in our brain and, accompanied by body sensations and their affect, influence every event throughout the body. Every event, every CNS and PNS reaction, is subserved by cellular activity, which in turn is subserved by molecular activity, which is subserved by atomic activity, which in turn is subserved by something else. When neuronal circuitry is selected due to body affect, multiple layers of selection are taking place. On one level we can measure changes in which neural systems are operating, as well as excitations in the brain waves, i.e., theta or ripple. when different moods, etc., are stored in the cortex, and then later accessed by the brain waves happening when the experience was stored. On a subtler level we can measure the changes in cellular activity, as to which genes, synapses, and hillocks are working and to what purpose. At a subtler level we can measure what is taking place in the molecular synapses. At a subtler level measurements can be taken at the atomic and subatomic levels. When we are told sankhara are released through kalapa trillions of times a second, it suggests that subatomic events are as involved in the storage and retrieval of memory and experience as are the events at the atomic, molecular, cellular, and mass-cellular levels.
Psychological experiences are subserved by neurobiological circuitry, which are subserved by cellular activities, which are subserved by molecular interactions, which are subserved by atomic interactions, which are subserved by subatomic interactions, which are being subserved by something else in turn. And at each these different layers of sensation competition is happening at the neurobiological and biopsychological levels. That is to say, competition for neuronal selection is simultaneously taking place at cellular (includes hormonal), molecular, atomic, and subatomic levels. At each of these levels there is a different sort of receptor involved. At the cellular level the receptors are made of protein, which can be changed by gene-transcribed amino acids and peptides that alter the chemical-electrical-gaseous interactions of the receptor. At the molecular level the receptors are made of the force made by the atomic bits involved. At the atomic level the receptors are in the interactions of the subatomic bits. As events arise, persist, and pass due to what is happening in the receptors, competition is taking place in every sort of receptor. At the cellular level, this competition is for genes, synapses, and hillocks, as well as for amino acids, peptides, and proteins, all of which are involved in the storage and retrieval of information. At the molecular level, this competition is for how the atoms are made into elements, as well as how these elements form compound molecules from which things like cells come about. At the atomic level, this competition is for the receptors of elementary particles and strands of energy. All of these processes are taking place at the level of our body sensations. By establishing awareness and equanimity at the body sensation level, we are simultaneously competing for selection at every layer of our unseen experience, from the receptors on our synaptic membranes to the subatomic bits arising and passing trillions of times a second.
 In this chapter I introduced and provided neural substrates to the technique of insight meditation as taught by S.N. Goenka. This technique emphasizes making use of the body sensations, a key theme also introduced throughout chapters one and two. It is through observing the body sensations with awareness and equanimity that our neural architecture is altered.
          Conclusion
    In this book I attempted to present the neural mechanisms involved in insight meditation. I had two goals in mind as I did this: one, to present material with which to form testable hypotheses; and two, to assist people who are interested in practicing insight meditation. Oftentimes instructions for how to practice a technique of insight meditation is couched in metaphors, which are left for the meditator to make sense of in the experiences they have. In this book I argue for a neural Darwinist approach to practicing insight meditation. As it is, whatever circuitry is selected is a reactive process, regardless whether understanding or identification is being selected for. By understanding the neural mechanisms involved in processing, appraising, and responding the cognitive, somatic, and environmental events which happen, a meditator can skillfully relate to the experiences that happen in a way that assists the persistence of their practice.
