ABSTRACT
https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203785881/6e46c1a1-290c-4b5d-9427-eef037010800/content/common.tif"/> I END THIS BOOK with feelings of respect, humility, and acceptance. I have a great and renewed respect for our scientific tradition, and for those researchers who are pushing the frontier of our knowledge by investigating meditation practices. I have a similar respect for those involved in the personal quest on the meditation path. My humility is rooted in the goals I set at the start of the book, a mission of trying to bring these two traditions together. While writing I heard voices criticizing me. The “Western” voices said, “Shapiro is getting soft and anti-scientific; we always knew he was a bit of a flake anyway.” The “Eastern” voices said: “Shapiro is corrupting our tradition; he’s become too scientific, rigid and analytical; and does not know what he is talking about.” I imagine both voices have a certain truth in them. I am not sure I can clearly bridge these two traditions. I feel somewhat humbled at the very idea of it, and, in retrospect, somewhat surprised at the “hubris” that allowed me to try to undertake it.
