Siddhartha's Brain: Unlocking the Ancient Science of Enlightenment

This book is worth four stars based solely on the skillful summary of scientific evidence on the benefits of mindfulness. The author is an experienced science writer and it shows.

The book earns a fifth star for the surprising, ambitious, thoughtful chapter on "The Fall," which claims that mental illness and suffering evolved in the African Savannah, when humans diverged from chimps. It is a fascinating theory that puts the book's claims in a much broader perspective. As I listened to the final chapters on the mindfulness studies, I found myself anxious for this chapter to arrive.

Any drawbacks are minor: The summaries of the science are repetitive at times, but the author breaks up the parade of data with interesting and illustrative anecdotes. The speculation about the biology of "Siddhartha's Brain" feels a little clumsy and forced at times—but it's a small part of the book, and it helps to emphasize the secular and scientific dimension of the book's argument. (I.e., the Buddha had a brain, too, like the rest of us.)

The author did an excellent job of comparing Science and Buddhism. One of my all time favorite 100 books. Well written and read.

This is a well-researched book that relates how the brain is effected by "mindful meditation." The reader would do well to review the dozen-or-so figures in the accompanying on-line references, though they are not critical to understanding the thread of the text. Overall it was an interesting read.

That said, I was hoping for a bit more of the biography of Siddhartha and Buddhism. There is certainly a Buddhist flavor to the text, though it focuses on effects of mediation on the physical human brain.

This book is definitely worth listening to. In fact I will buy the hard copy for future reference. The story is magnificently told around fact based research regarding the effects of meditation both psychologically as well as physical affects of the brain. This book is recommended for anyone studying meditation. I will listen again i

This book walked a fine line between religion and science and walked it well. It used the stories in Buddhist theology as an effective narrative tool to explore the effects of mindfulness on the very structure of the human mind. James Kingsland neither proselytizes the religion nor does he dismiss it. Rather, he invites us to embrace the benefits of practiced attention in our daily lives through a critical review of numerous scientific studies on the effects of mindfulness.

A common theme in many areas of the book is that mental “illness” could be a trait of the human condition rather than a something which afflicts only a few. Depression, as one example, is something that many people struggle with, even without the number of symptoms that would qualify as diagnosable in clinical psychology. This book cites research showing that a specific type of mindfulness intervention was particularly effective over active controls at preventing depressive episode relapse. By simply learning to pay attention, without grasping or aversion, subjects in similar studies were able to suppress activity in a part of the brain associated with automatic thought. This was able to help some people stop the cycle of negative thoughts and emotion that would lead to this kind of depression.

The performance was great. I was particularly impressed by how Steven Crossley was able to bring out the comedic timing implied by the text at several points. As there were also several Briticisms in the writing his British accent allowed the reading to sound cohesive.

I was particularly impressed by the author’s humility of understanding in that he made repeated efforts to present counter points and highlight where the scientific evidence is still inconclusive. However, the story that the research is starting to tell will emerge in the context of the tenants of one of the world’s major religions. Because of this, I also salute the author’s bravery in not ignoring Buddhism as would have been the easier choice for this kind of book. Instead this book weaves them together beautifully. I was most impressed by the books objectivity toward the benefits of practices that were, until very recently, cast aside by the novelty of scientific thought.

I deeply enjoyed listening to this audio-book and I feel like it brought me a deeper understanding of the phenomena of life. I would compare this to one of my favorite books, Born to Run by Christopher McDougall, as it alternates between scientific lens and narrative storytelling to explore the complexities of one of the most simple things that humans do. I look forward to listening to it again and again.

Absolutely brilliant and beautiful work. The narrator kept my attention and the Buddha's story, interspersed within the modern scientific findings, was composed well. An excellent book for any skeptic, secular, scientific or spiritual person alike.

Parts were well researched observations about the physiological and behavioral changes related to meditation. There was some dharma, some personal observation by the author/practitioner, and stories of the Buddha, a chapter on evolutionary biology. A lot of it, I already knew. It was poorly organized, with some studies reported 3 times nearly verbatim in different sections, and a lot was said twice.

It's a matter of taste, but I found the narrator irritating in that he injected too much of himself, with different tones and voices first for quotes, and then apparently just for fun. Emphasis on wrong words sometimes made the more technical parts more difficult to follow. It's a refined British voice that sounds -- to me -- a little full of itself. Lilted bordering on stilted. Might not bother others tho, could just be me.

The author kept it practical, which I liked, and gave nice summary directions for several meditation practices.

Most people got stuck and have never reached the other sides. One of the main problems is their method of mindfulness medication is not effective, not easy, not simple enough.

I had similar experience when I was 18. Until I ran into a stupid Thai monk. Okay, he was more of an uneducated monk since he can not read nor write. Buddhist monks generally needs to know how to read and write. He could not.

Maybe because of his inability to read, it frees him to see through too much bullshits and get straight to what really counts.

I tried his extremely easy mindfulness meditation for 5 minutes. I knew he got it. The catch? You have got to do it with your eyes open.

No, seriously.

It was the best approach
and go against practically all other meditations. The idea is to not take it seriously. Meditates like we are playing around.

It is not the body movement that matters. It's the brief silence of the body movement that counts.

See Mahasati dot org for his method. Yeb, as free as in beer. No strings attached.

Definitely worth the listen. Mindfulness is not overrated. The style of reading and flow of ideas was easy to follow.

Enlightening
Enjoyable
Encouraging

Learning about the brain and meditation

His accent is very pleasant to listen to. And his engagement with the material makes for easy-listening.

No, too much information for me to consider in one sitting. I listened in bits. Set it aside to digest. Then listened more and again, digested.