{"id":7739,"date":"2026-04-21T17:57:41","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T17:57:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/?p=7739"},"modified":"2026-04-21T17:57:42","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T17:57:42","slug":"neuroscience-learns-what-buddhism-has-known-for-ages-there-is-no-constant-self","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/?p=7739","title":{"rendered":"Neuroscience learns what Buddhism has known for ages: There is no constant self"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Buddhist Monks have known for thousands of years what science is just now learning: the mind can be changed by training it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Proving that science and religion can, in fact, overlap, University of British Columbia researcher Evan Thompson has confirmed the Buddhist teaching of the not-self, or \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/bigthink.com\/ideafeed\/good-news-science-buddha-agree-theres-no-you\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">anatta<\/a>,\u201d is more than just a theory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBuddhists argue that nothing is constant, everything changes through time, you have a constantly changing stream of consciousness,\u201d&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/qz.com\/506229\/neuroscience-backs-up-the-buddhist-belief-that-the-self-isnt-constant-but-ever-changing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">he tells Quartz<\/a>. \u201cAnd from a neuroscience perspective, the brain and body is constantly in flux. There\u2019s nothing that corresponds to the sense that there\u2019s an unchanging self.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>This reality that nothing stays the same should be liberating, because if people believe it, they\u2019ll no longer define themselves by their thoughts or be limited by a fixed idea of who they are. Their possibilities will be endless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Buddhist Monks have known for thousands of years what science is just now learning: the mind can be&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/journals.plos.org\/plosbiology\/article?id=10.1371\/journal.pbio.0050138\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">changed by training it<\/a>. Neuroplasticity, as it\u2019s called, endows people with the ability to grow and evolve, triumphing over bad habits and becoming more like the individuals they want to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.upworthy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/origin_39aa2b.gif\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Still, exactly how consciousness relates to the brain eludes both Buddhism and neuroscience. Buddhists suppose there\u2019s an iteration of consciousness that doesn\u2019t require a physical body; neuroscientists disagree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIn neuroscience, you\u2019ll often come across people who say the self is an illusion created by the brain,\u201d Thompson&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/qz.com\/506229\/neuroscience-backs-up-the-buddhist-belief-that-the-self-isnt-constant-but-ever-changing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">says<\/a>. \u201cMy view is that the brain and the body work together in the context of our physical environment to create a sense of self. And it\u2019s misguided to say that just because it\u2019s a construction, it\u2019s an illusion.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Buddhist Monks have known for thousands of years what science is just now learning: the mind can be changed by training it. Proving that science<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7740,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/672683272_1434073245420329_6045274533402647100_n.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7739"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7739\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7741,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7739\/revisions\/7741"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}