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

by Rick Hanson

It’s a general moral principle that the more power you have over someone, the greater your duty is to use that power benevolently. 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.

What happens in your mind changes your brain, both temporarily and in lasting ways; neurons that fire together wire together. And what happens in your brain changes your mind, since the brain and mind are a single, integrated system. Therefore, you can use your mind to change your brain to benefit your mind—and everyone else whose life you touch.

Small positive actions every day will add up to large changes over time, as you gradually build new neural structures. To keep at it, you need to be on your own side.

Wholesome changes in the brains of many people could help tip the world in a better direction.

Most of the atoms in your body—including the oxygen in your lungs and the iron in your blood—were born inside a star. In the early universe, hydrogen was just about the only element. Stars are giant fusion reactors that pound together hydrogen atoms, making heavier elements and releasing lots of energy in the process. The ones that went nova spewed their contents far and wide. By the time our solar system started to form, roughly nine billion years after the universe began, enough large atoms existed to make our planet, to make the hands that hold this book and the brain that understands these words. Truly, you’re here because a lot of stars blew up. Your body is made of stardust.

Since we are each connected and interdependent with the world, our attempts to be separate and independent are regularly frustrated, which produces painful signals of disturbance and threat. Further, even when our efforts are temporarily successful, they still lead to suffering. When you regard the world as “not me at all,” it is potentially unsafe, leading you to fear and resist it. Once you say, “I am this body apart from the world,” the body’s frailties become your own. If you think it weighs too much or doesn’t look right, you suffer. If it’s threatened by illness, aging, and death—as all bodies are—you suffer.

Heating Up Suffering is not abstract or conceptual. It’s embodied: you feel it in your body, and it proceeds through bodily mechanisms. Understanding the physical machinery of suffering will help you see it increasingly as an impersonal condition—unpleasant to be sure, but not worth getting upset about, which would just bring more second darts. Suffering cascades through your body via the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPAA) of the endocrine (hormonal) system. Let’s unscramble this alphabet soup to see how it all works. While the SNS and HPAA are anatomically distinct, they are so intertwined that they’re best described together, as an integrated system. And we’ll focus on reactions dominated by an aversion to sticks (e.g., fear, anger) rather than a grasping for carrots, since aversive reactions usually have a bigger impact due to the negativity bias of the brain. Alarms Go Off Something happens. It might be a car suddenly cutting you off, a put-down from a coworker, or even just a worrisome thought. Social and emotional conditions can pack a wallop like physical ones since psychological pain draws on many of the same neural networks as physical pain (Eisenberger and Lieberman 2004); this is why getting rejected can feel as bad as a root canal. Even just anticipating a challenging event—such as giving a talk next week—can have as much impact as living through it for real. Whatever the source of the threat, the amygdala sounds...

Key Parts of Your Brain Each of these parts of your brain does many things; the functions listed here are those relevant to this book. Figure 6: Key Parts of Your Brain Prefrontal cortex (PFC)—sets goals, makes plans, directs action; shapes emotions, in part by guiding and sometimes inhibiting the limbic system Anterior (frontal) cingulate cortex (ACC)—steadies attention and monitors plans; helps integrate thinking and feeling (Yamasaki, LaBar, and McCarthy 2002); a “cingulate” is a curved bundle of nerve fibers Insula—senses the internal state of your body, including gut feelings; helps you be empathic; located on the inside of the temporal lobes on each side of your head (temporal lobes and insula not shown in figure 6) Thalamus—the major relay station for sensory information Brain stem—sends neuromodulators such as serotonin and dopamine to the rest of the brain Corpus callosum—passes information between the two hemispheres of the brain Cerebellum—regulates movement Limbic system—central to emotion and motivation; includes the basal ganglia, hippocampus, amygdala, hypothalamus, and pituitary gland; sometimes also considered to include parts of the cortex (e.g., cingulate, insula), but for simplicity we will define it anatomically in terms of subcortical structures; many parts of the brain besides the limbic system are involved with emotion Basal ganglia—involved with rewards, stimulation seeking, and movement; “ganglia” are masses of tissue Hippocampus—forms new memorie...

Life on Simmer Getting fired up for good reason—such as becoming passionate and enthusiastic, handling emergencies, or being forceful for a good cause—definitely has its place in life. But second darts are a bad reason to light up the SNS/HPAA system, and if they become routine, they can push the needle on your personal stress meter into the red zone. Further, apart from your individual situation, we live in a pedal-to-the-metal society that relies on nonstop SNS/HPAA activation; unfortunately, this is completely unnatural in terms of our evolutionary template. For all of these reasons, most of us experience ongoing SNS/HPAA arousal. Even if your pot isn’t boiling over, just simmering along with second-dart activation is quite unhealthy. I...

Physical Consequences In our evolutionary past, when most people died by forty or so, the short-term benefits of SNS/HPAA activation outweighed its long-term costs. But for people today who are interested in living well during their forties and beyond, the accumulating damage of an overheated life is a real concern. For example, chronic SNS/HPAA stimulation disturbs these systems and increases risks for the health problems listed (Licinio, Gold, and Wong 1995; Sapolsky 1998; Wolf 1995): Gastrointestinal—ulcers, colitis, irritable bowel syndrome, diarrhea, and constipation Immune—more frequent colds and flus, slower wound healing, greater vulnerability to serious infections Cardiovascular—hardening of the arteries, heart attacks Endocrine—type II diabetes, premenstrual syndrome, erectile dysfunction, lowered ...

Anxiety Repeated SNS/HPAA activity makes the amygdala more reactive to apparent threats, which in turn increases SNS/HPAA activation, which sensitizes the amygdala further. The mental correlate of this physical process is an increasingly rapid arousal of state anxiety (anxiety based on specific situations). Additionally, the amygdala helps form implicit memories (traces of past experiences that exist beneath conscious awareness); as it becomes more sensitized, it increasingly shades those residues with fear, thus intensifying trait anxiety (ongoing anxiety regardless of the situation). Meanwhile, frequent SNS/HPAA activation wears down the hippocampus, which is vital for forming explicit memories—clear records of what actually happened. Cortisol and related glucocorticoid hormones both weaken existing synaptic connections in the hippocampus and inhibit the formation of new ones. Further, the hippocampus is one of the few regions in the human brain that can actually grow new neurons—yet glucocorticoids prevent the birth of neurons in the hippocampus, impairing its ability to produce new memories. It’s a bad combination for the amygdala to be oversensitized while the hippocampus i...

Taking in the good is not about putting a happy shiny face on everything, nor is it about turning away from the hard things in life. It’s about nourishing well-being, contentment, and peace inside that are refuges you can always come from and return to.

When experiences are consolidated in memory, they take with them whatever else is also in awareness, especially if it is intense. You can use this mechanism to infuse positive material into negative material; this is the second remedy. Simply have a positive experience be prominent in awareness while the painful one is sensed dimly in the background. Use this method in two ways: when you have a positive experience, help it sink into, soothe, and replace old pains; when negative material arises, bring to mind emotions and perspectives that are its antidote.

You can reap the benefits of relaxation not only by initiating it in specific, stressful situations, but also by training your body “offline” to relax automatically; the methods that follow can be used in either way. First, here are four quick ones: Relax your tongue, eyes, and jaw muscles. Feel tension draining out of your body and sinking down into the earth. Run warm water over your hands. Scan your body for areas that are tense, and relax them.

Bring Mindfulness to Fear Anxiety, dread, apprehension, worry, and even panic are just mental states like any other. Recognize fear when it arises, observe the feeling of it in your body, watch it try to convince you that you should be alarmed, see it change and move on. Verbally describe to yourself what you’re feeling, to increase frontal lobe regulation of the limbic system (Hariri, Bookheimer, and Mazziotta 2000; Lieberman et al. 2007). Notice how the awareness which contains fear is itself never fearful. Keep separating from the fear; settle back into the vast space of awareness through which fear passes like a cloud.

You’re trying to see the world clearly, without distortion, confusion, or selective attention. What are the facts? Science, business, medicine, psychology, and contemplative practice are all founded on the truth of things, whatever it may be; in Buddhism, for example, ignorance is considered the fundamental source of suffering. Not surprisingly, studies have shown that appraising a situation more accurately leads to greater positive emotions and fewer negative ones (Gross and John 2003). And if there really is something to worry about, deal with it as best you can (e.g., pay the bill, see the doctor). Not only will doing something and moving forward feel better in its own right, it will also usually improve a situation that’s worrying you (Aspinwall and Taylor 1997).

chapter 5: Key Points The most powerful way to use the mind-body connection to improve your physical and mental health is through guiding your autonomic nervous system (ANS). Every time you calm the ANS through stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), you tilt your body, brain, and mind increasingly toward inner peace and well-being. You can activate the PNS in many ways, including relaxation, big exhalations, touching the lips, mindfulness of the body, imagery, balancing your heartbeat, and meditation. Meditation increases gray matter in brain regions that handle attention, compassion, and empathy. It also helps a variety of medical conditions, strengthens the immune system, and improves psychological functioning. Deliberately feeling safer helps control the hardwired tendency to look for and overreact to threats. Feel safer by relaxing, using imagery, connecting with others, being mindful of fear itself, evoking inner protectors, being realistic, and increasing your sense of secure attachment. Find refuge in whatever is a sanctuary and refueling station for you. Potential refuges include people, activities, places, and intangible things like reason, a sense of your innermost being, or truth.

Do all that you can, with all that you have, in the time that you have, in the place where you are. —Nkosi Johnson

Ironically, one answer to “What’s left out?” is the wolf of hate itself, which is often denied or minimized. For example, it makes me uncomfortable to admit how good it feels when the hero kills the bad guy in a movie. Like it or not, the wolf of hate is alive and well inside each one of us. It’s easy to hear about a dreadful murder across the country or terrorism and torture across the world—or milder forms of everyday mistreatment of others close at hand—and shake your head, thinking, “What’s wrong with them?”But them is actually us. We all have the same basic DNA. It is a kind of ignorance—which is the root of suffering—to deny the aggression in our genetic endowment.

Be mindful of factors that stimulate your sympathetic nervous system—such as stress, pain, worry, or hunger—and thus prime you for ill will. Try to defuse this priming early on: eat dinner before talking, take a shower, read something inspiring, or talk with a friend.

Be cautious about attributing intentions to other people. Prefrontal theory-of-mind networks attribute intentions routinely, but they are often wrong. Most of the time you are just a bit player in other people’s dramas; they are not targeting you in particular.

Imagine that you are relaxing in a canoe on a river, when suddenly there is a hard thump against the side of it, dumping you into the water. You come up sputtering, and see that two teenagers with snorkels have snuck up and tipped you over. How do you feel? Next imagine that everything is the same—the canoe, the sudden dumping into the river—except this time when you come up sputtering, you see that a huge submerged log has drifted downstream and smacked into your canoe. Now how do you feel? For most people, the second scenario doesn’t feel as bad: the first dart still landed (you’re dumped in the river), but there is no need for second darts in the form of hurt and anger from feeling picked on personally. Truly, many people are like logs: it’s wise to get out of their way if you can—or reduce the impact—but they’re not aiming at you. Consider, too, the many factors upstream that have led them to do whatever they’ve done (see the Ten Thousand Things exercise).

The Ten Thousand Things Do this exercise at whatever pace you like, with your eyes open or closed. Relax and steady the mind, focusing on the breath. Pick a situation in which you feel someone has wronged you. Be mindful of your reactions to this person, especially the deeper ones. Scan yourself for any ill will. Now reflect on some of the various causes—the ten thousand things—that have led this person to act in the way that he has. Consider biologically based factors affecting him, like pain, age, innate temperament, or intelligence. Consider the realities of his life: race, gender, class, job, responsibilities, daily stresses. Consider whatever you know about his childhood. Consider major events in his life as an adult. Consider his mental processes, personality, values, fears, hot buttons, hopes, and dreams. Consider his parents in light of whatever you know or can reasonably guess about them; consider, too, the factors that may have shaped their lives. Reflect on the historical events and other upstream forces that have formed the river of causes flowing through his life today. Look inside yourself again. Do you feel any differently now about him? Do you feel any differently about yourself?

As soon as you feel mistreated, bring compassion to yourself—this is urgent care for the heart. Try putting your hand on your cheek or heart to stimulate the embodied experience of receiving compassion.

Inspect the underlying trigger of your ill will, such as a sense of threat or alarm. Look at it realistically. Are you exaggerating what happened in any way? Are you focusing on a single negative thing amidst a dozen good ones?

Put whatever happened in perspective. The effects of most events fade with time. They’re also part of a larger whole, the great majority of which is usually fine.

Use things that aggravate you as a way to practice generosity. Consider letting people have what they took: their victory, their bit of money or time, their one-upping. Be generous with forbearance and patience.

Life includes getting wounded. Accept as a fact that people will sometimes mistreat you, whether accidentally or deliberately. Of course, this doesn’t mean enabling others to harm you, or failing to assert yourself. You’re just accepting the facts on the ground. Feel the hurt, the anger, the fear, but let them flow through you. Ill will can become a way to avoid facing your deep feelings and pain.

Relax the sense of self. Experiment with letting go of the idea that there was actually an “I” or “me” who was affronted or wounded (see chapter 13).

Be mindful of the automatic mental processes that cause you to identify with a particular group (e.g., gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, political party, nation), and then regard members of different groups as others. Focus on similarities between “us” and “them,” not differences. Recognize that everything is connected to everything else, that “us” is the whole wide world—that, in a deep sense, the entire planet is your home and the people on it are your extended family. Deliberately create mental categories that include you along with people you usually regard as not-me; for example, when you see someone in a wheelchair, think about how we are all disabled in one way or another.

Be particularly mindful of the default processes of valuing your own group while devaluing others (Efferson, Lalive, and Feh 2008). Notice how often that valuing actually has no rational basis. Be aware of the little ways that your mind regards others as less of a person than you—as an “It” to your “I.” Focus on the good things about people in other groups. Regard people more as individuals than as representatives of a group, which reduces prejudice (Fiske 2002).

If compassion is the wish that someone not suffer, kindness is the wish that he or she be happy. It has a loving quality to it, thus the term “loving-kindness.” When you practice kindness, you tame the wolf of hate and nurture the wolf of love.

The Meditation Find a comfortable posture, one that is both relaxed and alert. Close your eyes or leave them open, gazing a few feet in front of you. Be aware of sounds coming and going. Aware of sensations in your body. Aware of thoughts and feelings. Notice anything that is particularly distracting; be mindful of this distraction for a while and then see if you can shift your focus to the breath. Form an intention for your meditation, perhaps with words or perhaps wordlessly. Imagine being someone very focused, either a person you know or a historical figure like the Buddha. Really relax. Take a big inhalation and then exhale fully, feeling the tension leave your body. Be aware of the internal sensations of breathing, cool air coming in and warm air going out, the chest and belly rising and falling. Don’t try to control the breath in any way, just let it be what it is. Stay aware of the breath throughout the meditation, using it as a kind of anchor. Feel as safe as you can. You’re in a protected setting, strong in yourself, able to relax vigilance and bring attention inward. Find some compassion for yourself. Bring to mind other positive feelings as well, including soft ones such as gratitude. Sense the benefits of this meditation sinking into you, nurturing and helping you, gently inclining your mind and brain in an ever more wholesome direction. All right. For the next five minutes or more, try to stay present with each individual breath from beginning to end. Imagine ...

Relax About What Others Think We evolved to care greatly about our reputation, since reputation affected whether others in the band would help or hurt an individual’s chances of survival (Bowles 2006). It is wholly human to wish to be respected and even cherished, and to seek that for yourself. But getting caught up in what others think is a different matter.

As Shantideva said (1999, p.113): Why should I be pleased when people praise me? Others there will be who scorn and criticize. And why despondent when I’m blamed, Since there’ll be others who think well of me?

Consider how much time you spend thinking—in even the subtlest way, in the back of the simulator—about what others think of you. Be mindful of doing things to get admiration and praise. Try to focus instead on just doing the best you can. Think about virtue, benevolence, and wisdom: if you sincere...

To be the whole expressed as a part, to be a part expressing the whole.