My Stroke of Insight

Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened -- as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding -- she studied and remembered every moment. This is a powerful story about how our brains define us and connect us to the world and to one another.

Or, if you'd prefer, you can read the transcript here.

Breakthrough

A great mountain sage sits in his cave – smiling
A seeker seeks him out and asks
Master, what can I do to attain what you have attained?

A year goes by while the sage waits for a reply to come to him
The stars and moon and sun and clouds wheel around his head
And not a single thought crosses his mind

The same year goes by for the seeker
He prides himself on his patient endurance of such a severe test
Surely this is the straight and narrow path, he thinks to himself

At last the sage focuses his eyes and clears his throat
I have done all I can do to answer you, he says…
And still after a year you hold onto that need to attain perfection

The seeker suffers the shock of that reply and staggers blindly from the cave –
And there, confronted by a ring of mountains draped in blue snow
He stops caring about enlightenment

And there, with his bare feet on cold stone he wakes…

~Grace Gibson

Breakthrough Mandala

Breakthrough

mandala art by Shirley Gibson