About the Book
Enlightenment for Grown Ups is a consequence of what happened to me a number of years ago when I started practicing mindfulness meditation to change how I saw the world. I really didn't expect anything to happen, but to my lasting surprise it did. Little by little at first, and then with flashes of insight as mindfulness practice changed and developed. Eventually, I reached a tipping point from which there was no return. The book is a reverse-engineering of what I ultimately did to myself.We live in exciting, and scary, times for the brain. Neuroscience is making huge advances in both mapping the brain and in explaining how its wiring dictates how we perceive and interact with the world. It shows the brain to be not a fixed structure, but a plastic one, changing throughout our lives. Evidence shows how new brain cells form in parts of the brain and then migrate to other parts, changing the very wiring that makes us 'us'. This rewiring can be aimed at specific medical conditions such as anxiety, or can be used for other things such as accelerating learning, or insight.Medical research is rapidly approaching a time when this rewiring can be done to us, hopefully for the best possible reasons, using drugs or other external stimuli such as focused electromagnetic pulses. We will soon come to see it as a normal type of treatment done to us by medical practitioners. However, research also shows that we can undertake such changes ourselves, at our own pace and in our own homes just by sitting quietly, using some ancient meditation practices. Practices I just happened on by chance in my own experiments.The book is written for anyone who wants to explore changing their lives, for whatever reason. It is a step by step guide to rewiring the brain using tried and tested techniques, but based on my own experiences of insight meditation. It can be used as a dipping-the-toe-in experience, maybe for relaxation or to reduce anxiety, or can be taken all the way to full enlightenment practice aimed at permanently changing your relationship with the world.The first part is to convince you that we can, and need to, change how we 'see' the world, by utilising the plasticity of a brain, which allows for its own wiring to be permanently altered. The section includes a look at the brain and mind, and at current research into strategies that others can use on us, before describing somewhat less scary methods that we can use on ourselves. The 'grown ups' part of the title reflects the permanent nature of changes arising from meditation, a warning that you should think long and hard before committing yourself to the programme.The next part helps the reader develop insight meditation, which is vital in bringing about this structured rewiring. Insight meditation resets the brain to a more natural, integrated state by mindfully reflecting on fundamental ideas, ideas which are neither to be taken on board nor rejected, but used as a focus that allows for changes to take place in the brain. Changes that bring about moments of insight into the nature of reality, moments of altered states of consciousness leading to enlightenment. Following this is a look at the subjective, and rather fleeting, nature of enlightenment experiences, and how they have been expressed in literature and other works of art. I also reflect on my own enlightenment, the experiences that I went through, and how it has affected me. The reader is then invited to explore what their new brains will bring to the rest of their lives.
About the Author: My name is Philip John Gundy. Recently retired from teaching, I have a number of qualifications, including an MA in teaching science, technology and computer studies, and in educational research. My interest in the science of perception led me to experiment with meditation techniques, more as a hobby than anything else. To my astonishment, they actually worked. Needing to find some sort of explanation for what had happened to me I joined a western- style Buddhist group and in 2003 became a 'Mitra' in a public ceremony that meant I could officially call myself a Buddhist. Eventually I decided that religions were all very fine, but not for me to 'push'. Meditation itself is for everyone, and too important to be left to those cultures and belief systems where it had its origins. To spread the word more, I decided to write something that would persuade people to have a go at vipassana, or insight meditation, with a view to altering how they see the world. My first book, Enlightenment for Grown Ups, is written in an authoritative, but chatty, everyday sort of language, designed to gradually develop a meditation practice, based on a scientific understanding of what goes on in our brains as we meditate. Anyone can use it, as there is no requirement to adopt or deny any religion or faith, just a willingness to sit mindfully and wait a while until we see the world in a new way. Other books are to come, revisiting other meditation practices and the history of religion, in the light of my enlightenment experiences. I spend rather too much time reading, either science fiction or books by Vietnam vets, but try to get outside walking in some hills when I can, or gardening when at home; a typical Englishman, I guess. Hopefully, you will be able to get in touch with me via social media, as I'm happiest chewing the fat with people about meditation and (safe ways of) altering states of consciousness. Philip John Gundy
