mindful meditation...Whether this sort of cognition really requires a robust notion of selfhood, as most Western philosophers would argue, would be disputed in many Eastern traditions. Here the highest level of mental autonomy is often seen as a form of impersonal witnessing or (in the words of the Indian-born philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti) 'observing without an observer' (though even this pure form of global meta-awareness still contains the implicit knowledge that the organism could act if necessary). There seems to be a middle way: perhaps mental autonomy can actually be experienced as such, in a non-agentive way, as a mere capacity. The notion of 'mental autonomy' could therefore be a deep point of contact where Eastern and Western philosophy discover common conceptual ground.

Posted: Sunday, July 10, 2011 1:00 pm | Updated: 2:20 pm, Sun Jul 10, 2011. By Ken Colburn, Data Doctors East Valley Tribune | Q: Do you have a favorite video capture software to capture otherwise non-downloadable video running on the Internet?