Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom

by Rick Hanson

Well, who is the one person in the world you have the greatest power over? It’s your future self. You hold that life in your hands, and what it will be depends on how you care for it.

The issue is not a lack of resources. It is a lack of will and restraint, of attention to what’s truly happening, and of enlightened self-interest—a shortage, in other words, of virtue, mindfulness, and wisdom.

The energy you use to get a drink of water comes from sunshine working its way up to you through the food chain—in a real sense, light lifts the cup to your lips.

Once burned, twice shy. Your brain is like Velcro for negative experiences and Teflon for positive ones—even though most of your experiences are probably neutral or positive.

it typically takes about five positive interactions to overcome the effects of a single negative one

First darts are unpleasant to be sure. But then we add our reactions to them. These reactions are “second darts”—the ones we throw ourselves. Most of our suffering comes from second darts.

Inactive synapses wither away through neuronal pruning, a kind of survival of the busiest: use it or lose it.

infuse positive material into negative material