EDWARD'S LECTURE NOTES:
More notes at http://tanguay.info/learntracker
C O U R S E 
Buddhism and Modern Psychology
Robert Wright, Princeton University
https://www.coursera.org/#course/psychbuddhism
C O U R S E   L E C T U R E 
The Exterior Version of the Non-Self
Notes taken on September 14, 2017 by Edward Tanguay
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the interior version of the not-self
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looking inside your mind
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observing feelings and ideas
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not identifying with them
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the exterior version of the not-self
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getting the sense that the bounds of your body are more permeable and porous than you might have thought
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the boundaries are not so solid
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there's more of an interaction with the world out there
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it's a more fluid interaction than you might have appreciated
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our realities are a confluence of connections, interactions and relationships
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we normally think of ourselves as acting on the world
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but actually the world acts on us quite a bit
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much of our behavior and thoughts are a consequences of things that have impinged upon us
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in this sense our behavior if a form of output in response to all this input
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there's less room for an autonomous self which is generating and initiating thought
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a feeling that you have in your body is no more a part of your self than a sound you hear outside, since depending on what they rae, they both can influence you in a variety of ways with on wide spectrum of intensity
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both send signals to your brain
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that one is inside your body and one outside
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more of an arbitrary difference than a fundamental difference when you consider how much impact each can have on how your self responds and what it becomes
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becoming conscious of these boundaries dissolving can be a peaceful and freeing experience
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your sensory apparatus no longer seems like such a fine dividing point
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one can identify with others as one identifies with oneself
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one need not even identify with any of them
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there is just an empty, slow presence here
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if you're nothing, you are everything
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it sounds cryptic
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a bird's song that you hear can be just as much a part of you as the tingling in your foot
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and the tingling in your foot does not have to be a part of you to begin with
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one disaggregates the self internally
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one sees things outside the body as much a part of you as those experiences coming from inside the body
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moral implications
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not so much waves of empathy for other human beings, but more identifying with them
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since you identify more often with the world outside you, there is less reason to harm that part of reality
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if everyone were to meditate regularly and identify themselves as being the inseparable from the world
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can give people the feeling that not harming things is just the logical thing to do