The document summarizes perspectives on the self from psychology, neuroscience, and Vedanta. It discusses how psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Jill Bolte Taylor see the differences between the experiencing self and remembering self. Neuroscience reveals the left hemisphere focuses on the past and future while the right hemisphere lives in the present. Vedanta teaches that the true self is the witness to these selves and can identify with either the experiencing self or infinite energy. Bringing these views together, the self can choose its identity and consciousness moment to moment.

1. CHINMAYA MISSION BOSTON
Enquiry of the ‘SELF’
A Psychological, Neuroscientific and Vedantic Perspective
March 4th, 2012
Maximum Happiness to the Maximum Number of People for the Maximum Time

2. Enquiry of the ‘Self’
Riddle of Experience vs Memory
Widely regarded as the world's most
influential living psychologist, Daniel
Kahneman won the Nobel in
Economics for his pioneering work in
behavioral economics -- exploring the
irrational ways we make decisions
about risk
Stroke of Insight
Brain researcher Jill Bolte Taylor
studied her own stroke as it happened
-- and has become a powerful voice for
brain recovery
© 2012 Chinmaya Mission Boston Page 2

3. Enquiry of the ‘Self’
Riddle of Experience vs Memory
Widely regarded as the world's most
influential living psychologist, Daniel
Kahneman won the Nobel in
Economics for his pioneering work in
behavioral economics -- exploring the
irrational ways we make decisions
about risk
© 2012 Chinmaya Mission Boston Page 3

4. Experience vs Memory
Experiencing Self Remembering Self
• Experience through the senses • Remembers the experiences
• No decisions • Makes decisions
• Objective • Subjective
“From the point of view of the “For the remembering self, a two-
experiencing self if you have a week vacation is barely better
vacation, and the second week is than the one-week vacation
just as good as the first, then the because there are no new
two-week vacation is twice as memories added”
good as the one-week vacation”
© 2012 Chinmaya Mission Boston Page 4

5. Bhagavad Gita – Chapter 5.Verse 11
YOGIS, having abandoned attachment, perform actions merely by the body,
mind, intellect and senses, for the purification of the self (ego) .
A Karma-Yogin's attempt is to keep himself within himself --- as a detached but
interested observer of all that is happening around and within himself. When he thus
observes himself, from within himself, as a worker in any given field, it becomes easy
for him to see that all actions belong to the above-mentioned instruments-of-action and
not to the detached OBSERVER in him.
Here, however, he must realize that the OBSERVER in himself is not the Truth, but this
OBSERVER is "Truth standing on the open balcony of the intellect." Even while thus
observing ourselves in action, we are ever conscious of the very OBSERVER in
ourselves. "The Consciousness that illumines the very OBSERVER, is the Spiritual-
centre, the Self," is the declaration of all Upanishads. – Swami Chinmayananda
© 2012 Chinmaya Mission Boston Page 5

6. Enquiry of the ‘Self’
Stroke of Insight
Brain researcher Jill Bolte Taylor
studied her own stroke as it happened
-- and has become a powerful voice for
brain recovery
© 2012 Chinmaya Mission Boston Page 6

7. Stroke of Insight
Right Hemisphere Left Hemisphere
• All about the ‘present’ – here and • All about the ‘past’ and the ‘future’
now – anxieties and expectations
• Seeing the ‘one in the many’ • Seeing the ‘many in the one’
“I am an energy-being connected “It‟s the little voice that says to
to the energy all around me me „I am. I am‟. And as soon as
through the consciousness of my my left hemisphere says to me „I
right hemisphere” am‟, I become separate/”
“We are energy beings “I become the single solid
connected to one another individual, separate from the
through the consciousness as energy flow around me and
one human family” separate from you.”
© 2012 Chinmaya Mission Boston Page 7

8. Geeta Vaatika – The Perfect Man
In the right understanding of his own Self and the resulting
realization of his own Self , he becomes the Self everywhere. He
discovers a unity in the perceived diversity and a subtle rhythm in
the obvious discord in the world outside.
To him, who has realized himself to be the Self which is all-
pervading, the entire universe becomes his own Self , and therefore,
his relationship with every other part of the universe is equal and
same.
Whether I get wounded in the hand or the leg, on the back or in the
front, on the head or on the shoulder, it is the same to me, since I
am equally identifying with my head, my trunk, and my legs, as
myself. – Swami Chinmayananda
© 2012 Chinmaya Mission Boston Page 8

9. Synthesis – Psychological, Neuro-scientific and Vedantic perspectives
Experiencing Self Remembering Self
Right Hemisphere Left Hemisphere
The ‘true SELF’ is the WITNESS to the Experiencing and Remembering Selves.
Self-Realized people can ‘consciously’ identify with the experiencing self and
with the ‘infinite energy’ while falling back to the remembering self, as needed.
© 2012 Chinmaya Mission Boston Page 9

10. Synthesis – Psychological, Neuro-scientific and Vedantic perspectives
“So who are we? We are the life-force power of the universe, with manual
dexterity and two cognitive minds. And we have the power to choose, moment
by moment, who and how we want to be in the world.
Right here, right now, I can step into the consciousness of my right
hemisphere, where we are. I am the life-force power of the universe. I am the
life-force power of the 50 trillion beautiful molecular geniuses that make up my
form, at one with all that is.
Or, I can choose to step into the consciousness of my left hemisphere, where I
become a single individual, a solid – separate from the flow, separate from
you.” – Jill Bolte Taylor
© 2012 Chinmaya Mission Boston Page 10