Chris Niebauer - The No Self, No Problem Workbook

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WHY ARE YOU UNHAPPY? BECAUSE 99.9

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AND OF EVERYTHING YOU DO, IS FOR

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n his bestselling book No Self, No Problem: How Neuropsychology Is Catching Up to Buddhism , Professor Chris Niebauer explored the incredible link between Eastern philosophy and recent findings in neuropsychology, which is now confirming a fundamental tenet of Buddhism: anatta, or the doctrine of no self.

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We are just beginning to understand these parallels and what they mean for the human experience.

Now, Niebauer takes a deeper dive, offering exercises and practices

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you can do right now to experience the state of no self and its benefits. These include being more present, finding inner peace, and seeing the world through the eyes of what Niebauer calls

clear consciousness. Read this book, do the practices, and begin W

to disidentify with the false sense of self that is the root cause of almost all the anxiety, depression, and fear we experience as ORKBOOK

W O R K B O O K

human beings.

CHRIS NIEBAUER earned his Ph.D. in cognitive neuropsychology at the University of Toledo, specializing in the differences between the Exercises & Practices from Neuropsychology left and right sides of the human brain. He is a former professor at Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania, where he taught courses and Buddhism to Help You Lose Your Mind

on consciousness, mindfulness, left- and right-brain differences, and artificial intelligence.

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Exercises & Practices From

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Copyright 2022 by Chris Niebauer All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this work in any form whatsoever, without permission in writing from the publisher, except for brief passages in connection with a review.

Cover design by Adrian Morgan

Cover art by Shutterstock

Print book interior design by Frame25 Productions Ponzo illusion by Frame25 Productions

Shaded squares by Frame25 Productions

Hierophant Publishing

San Antonio, Texas

www.hierophantpublishing.com

If you are unable to order this book from your local bookseller, you may order directly from the publisher.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022910060

ISBN: 978-1-950253-35-7

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

The ability to think about what is not happening is a cognitive achievement that comes at an emotional cost.

Matthew A. Killingsworth and Daniel T. Gilbert

Contents

Introduction: The Clouds of Thought xiii Practice: The Power of Small Moves xix Waking Up to Mind 1

Studying the Split Brain 3

The Mind Likes to Think 6

Use the Mind, or It Will Use You 7

Practice: Breathing 7

The Left Brain Makes Stuff Up 8

Exercise: Whats the Next Number? 9

Exercise: Why Get Your Glasses? 10

Practice: The Dont Know Mind 11

Practice: The Story Im Making Up 12

Exercise: The Left Brain Likes to Follow the Rules 13

Exercise: Could the Opposite Be True? 16

Confirmation Bias and the Self 17

Exercise: Better Than Average 19

Motivated Reasoning 21

Putting on a Mask

Practice: Pretend to Be Another Self

Overcoming Left-Brain Laziness with Logic and Awareness 24

Exercise: Welcome to Your Lazy Mind

Practice: Three Ways to Access Better Logic

Informal Fallacies

Exercise: The Person or the Argument?

Awareness

Practice: Strengthen Your Awareness

The Left Brain Gets Fooled, the Right Brain Gets Wise 33

Exercise: The Mind Believes What It Sees

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain

Exercise: Draw Your Room

Exercise: Upside Down Drawing

Attention

Exercise: What Draws the Eye

Practice: Become the Observer of Attention

Practice: Noticing the Unnoticed

Are You a Weirdo?

Practice: Let Your Weirdness Out

Abstractions and Categories

viii

T H E N O S E L F, N O P RO B L E M WO R K B O O K

Exercise: Judging a Book by Its Cover 45

Exercise: Still Judging a Book by Its Cover

Practice: How Patriotic Are You?

Irrational Phobias and Superstitions

Practice: Dont Believe Everything You Think

Practice: Find a Power Object

Exercise: In Which Category Do the Squares Belong?

Practice: The Mind, Categories, and Physical Perception 54

Thinking about Thinking

Falling Out of Love with Abstraction

Falling in Love with the Present Moment

Practice: It Is Still Now

Practice: Learn from Nonhumans

The Mind Is a Problem Creator, Not a Problem Solver 60

Exercise: First-World Problems

Problem Inflation

Practice: Revisit Your Problems

Practice: Stop Seeking

Gratitude

Practice: Telling a Story of Gratitude

Practice: The Simplest Path to Gratitude

Co n t e n ts

ix

Letting Go of the Past

Practice: Forgiveness

Practice: Repairing Harm

Practice: Kintsukuroi on Your Memories

Memory as the Tool of the Self

Exercise: Faulty Memory

Memories Are Myths

Practice: Less Certainty about Your Memories

Memories and Self

Memories Are Reconstructions

Exercise: Being Henry

Exercise: Your Worry List

The Fiction of Normal

Categorization

The Happiest Right-Brained People on the Planet 90

Exercise: Imagine Life without Social Categories 93

Exercise: A Day without Any Stories of the Past 94

Exercise: Notice All the Ways the Mind Uses Numbers 95

Connecting with the Earth

Practice: Get the Shoes Off and Walk the Earth 99

The Mind Hides from Itself

x

T H E N O S E L F, N O P RO B L E M WO R K B O O K

Exercise: A Simple Observation 100

The Stress of Stressful Thoughts 103

Mental Imagery: The Minds Eyes and Ears 105

Exercise: Visual Mental Imagery 105

Practice: Let the Sunshine In 106

Desire 108

Practice: What Do You Want? 109

Practice: Mindful Eating 110

Habituation 111

Practice: Doing Nothing 112

Mind Check 113

Balance 115

Integration 116

Balance without Control 117

Practice: Drop the Doing 119

Distraction Therapy 120

Practice: Allowing and Accepting 121

The Feeling Universe 123

Distinguishing between Bias and Intuition 125

Exercise: Where Do I Think? Where Do I Feel? 126

Practice: The Whole-Body Yes 127

Co n t e n ts

xi

Practice: Uncover the Emotional Story 128

Rituals 129

Exercise: Create a Personal Altar 130

Exercise: Make a Family Ritual 131

Exercise: Fallen Leaves Ritual 131

Exercise: Harnessing Randomness 132

Somatic Practices 134

Exercise: Box Breathing 135

Is Music God? 136

Practice: The Drum Circle 139

Thoughts and Problems 140

The Extra Horse 142

The Dream of Thinking 143

Practice: Waking Up to Lucid Living 147

Conclusion: The Mystery and the Metaphor 149

Acknowledgments 153

Notes 155

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T H E N O S E L F, N O P RO B L E M WO R K B O O K