Aware?

 

Where attention goes, neural firing flows, and neural connection grows. 

Daniel Siegel, page 19

I do like those words above.

I am reading Aware by Daniel J. Siegel and to be honest I am having a bit of a time with it. I am struggling to intrepret what he means as he writes. He created some thing called The Wheel of Awareness which is actually named up to six times on every page...as if the writer is trying to create some power of suggestion. To me this wheel is just the Buddha's teachings of right mindfulness and concentration (two of the rights in the eightfold path) slapped into a circle and reworded in a way that triggers me to feel a little "stupider" than the author. (I had to keep going back and asking...what exactly is he saying here about things I thought I  already knew about like objective Observer, awareness, sensory experience, attention and concentration etc)...I am trying to link what I know about the ancient wisdom with what he is claiming to be his novel ideas as I read. His teaching tools are being marketed as a "ground breaking meditation practice" but  in truth, what he is sharing has been around for a lot longer than Seigel ever was. It leaves me a little confused.  I am looking for the novelty and uniqueness in what he is teaching, what he is claiming to be his..." a tool I've developed over many years". Maybe if he referred to what he is sharing as ancient wisdom that has been around for eons, rather than his discovery, I would feel better about what I am reading. I do not think I have heard him mention "The Buddha" once and to me that feels like plagerism...like he is claiming The Buddha's intellectual property, as his own. He does mention that "other cultures" teach some of what he is teaching....but so far, I see that all of what he is teaching comes from other ancient cultural teachings.  

Now, I know he is trying to promote a scientific approach to meditation ...which is great...but one cannot deny the real ground breaking work that has already been done by the rishis and the Buddhas of this world.  They were scientists in the truest sense of the word...spending every day in the laboratory of the mind and soul. They did the real work. They discovered and created the real tools related to consciousness he seems to be claiming as his own.

I may be a little harsh here.  Maybe, I am missing something and misconstruing this author's intentions.  I am going to try to step back from my judgements  and this gnawing feeling in my gut that I get when I read certain things where the intention does not seem as pure as I would like it to be.  It is not the author or the book I am having a problem with...it is my reactivity to it that is causing the problem. In all fairness to the author, whom I do not know and who may actually have nothing but the purest of intentions, I need to read the whole book before making a decision of its value. I need to read the whole book prior to recommending it or putting it in my personal library, as well.  

I am going to finish reading it.  And I will get back to you.

All is well. 

Daniel J. Siegel ( 2018) Aware.  Tarcher Perigree