Waking, Dreaming, Being: Self and Consciousness in Neuroscience, Meditation, and Philosophy

a human mind is a wandering mind, and a wandering mind is an unhappy mind. The ability to think about what is not happening is a cognitive achievement that comes at an emotional cost.

The central idea of this book is that the self is a process, not a thing or an entity. The self isn’t something outside experience, hidden either in the brain or in some immaterial realm.

the grasping mind cannot grasp its ultimate inability to grasp; it can only cultivate its tolerance of that inability.

The waking world isn't outside and separate from our mind. It's brought forth and enacted through our imaginative perception of it.

Concentration is the ability of the mind to focus exclusively or single-pointedly on the object; mindfulness is the ability to keep the object in focus without forgetting or floating away from it. Concentration differs from attention because it involves not just attending to an object but also sustaining that attention over time. Similarly, mindfulness involves more than attention because it retains the object in awareness from moment to moment, repeatedly bringing it back to mind and preventing it from slipping away in forgetfulness.

OM is the sound of brahman, the nondual source and basis of the phenomenal universe that’s also identical to the transcendent self, ātman.