August Read

Title: Head Cases: Stories of Brain Injuries and Its Aftermath
Author: Mason, Michael Paul
Call Number: 617.48104 M411H 2008
Book Description from amazon.com:

Head Cases takes us into the dark side of the brain in an astonishing sequence of stories, at once true and strange, from the world of brain damage. Michael Paul Mason is one of an elite group of experts who coordinate care in the complicated aftermath of tragic injuries that can last a lifetime. On the road with Mason, we encounter survivors of brain injuries as they struggle to map and make sense of the new worlds they inhabit.

Underlying each of these survivors' stories is an exploration of the brain and its mysteries. When injured, the brain must figure out how to heal itself, reorganizing its physiology in order to do the job. Mason gives us a series of vivid glimpses into brain science, the last frontier of medicine, and we come away in awe of the miracles of the brain's workings and astonished at the fragility of the brain and the sense of self, life, and order that resides there. Head Cases "[achieves] through sympathy and curiosity insight like that which pulses through genuine literature" (The New York Sun); it is at once illuminating and deeply affecting.

My Read:

The following are takeaways from pages in the book:

"The most spiritual question in the world is not whether there is a god, or how we came to be in the universe. The most spiritual question in the world does not concern itself with knowing why there is suffering or why we are here; those ponderings stem from the most spiritual question. The aim of every mystical tradition in any religion is a sincere and relentless pursuit of the answer to the most spiritual question. The most spiritual question is about you. The question is: Who am I, really? Brain injury, above all other anguishes known to man, perpetually invites us to embark on the search for our selves. Who are we, other than our brains, really?"--Page 212-213

'Who are you, really?" I ask.

"I love myself the way I am now," she says. "I appreciate that I am not my brain injury

. It was a traumatic experience, to be sure, but it deepened my relationship to myself and to others. I have become a more loving person. I am a lot more empathetic, and I know what compassion is now."-page 223

A verse in Case 19 in the book "The Gateless Gate":

The spring flowers, the moon in autumn

The cool breeze of summer, the winter's snow;

If idle concerns do not cloud the mind,

This is man's happiest season.

A conversation in the koan in Case 19:

"What is the Way?"

"The ordinary mind is the Way."

"Should I direct myself toward it or not?"

"If you try to turn toward it, you go against it."

"If I do not try to turn toward it, how can I know it is the Way?"

"The Way does not belong to knowing or not-knowing. Knowing is delusion, not-knowing is blank consciousness. When you have really reached the true Way beyond all doubt, you will find it vast and boundless as the great empty firmament. How can it be talked about on a level of right and wrong?"

At these words, Joshu was suddenly enlightened.--page 219