Neuroscience and Karma

Author(s): Jethalal S Zaveri, Mahendramuni
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati

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Neuroscience & Karma program stored in his brain will be proportionate to his learnedness. 2. Learning and Remembering (a) Learning
Learning is one of the processes by which programs are written in the brain. We learn because we are provided by heredity with programs that enable us to do so. These inborn mechanisms are not infinitely powerful, i.e. we cannot learn any thing or every thing. The power to learn will obviously vary between individuals and there may be limits, determined by everybody's karman, to what it is possible for any person to leam. We can say that a brain is not a general-purpose computer into which any information can be placed. It is more like one that already has a system of programs within it. The information at each point of a computermemory is determined wholly by the programmer (though some computers include programs for search of the environment). Information can be added to the store and it can be totally erased and replaced by quite different information. Obviously, brains are not like this. Can you imagine total erasure of all the information in your head and its replacement? The memory of a person or animal is something that is constructed and grows as a result of a unique series of experiences and actions from conception onwards. It can be added to, but never wholly remade. Indeed, its very existence is only possible as part of that program of events that we call a lifetime. (b) Remembering - What is memory ?
Memory is man's record of experience. The ability to remember is essential to buman personality uniting his past and present and creating a continuing sense of identity. And by drawing on the past, he prepares for the future. Thus memories are action systems that allow for the setting up of programs of action effective for survival. In human memory, there are two interrelated components, parts or systems known as short-term and long-term memory.
Before anevent can be stored in the memory, it must be experienced. Short-term memory retains information long enough for the mind to grasp it and it stores an average of seven items (the length of a telephone