Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and other great teachers were all born with a brain built essentially like anyone else’s. Then they used their minds to change their brains in ways that changed history.
With the new breakthroughs in neuroscience, combined with insights from thousands of years of contemplative practice, you, too, can shape your own brain for greater happiness, love, and wisdom.
Written with neurologist Richard Mendius, M.D., and with a Foreword by Daniel Siegel, M.D. and a Preface by Jack Kornfield, Ph.D. Buddha's Brain: The practical neuroscience of happiness, love and wisdom joins modern science with ancient teachings to show you how to have greater emotional balance in turbulent times, as well as healthier relationships, more effective actions, and greater peace of mind.
Buddha’s Brain has been praised by leading scholars, psychologists, and meditation teachers – including Sharon Salzberg, Roger Walsh, Joseph Goldstein, Jennifer Louden, Fred Luskin, Tara Brach, Jerome Engel, James Baraz, Phillip Zelazo, Richard Miller, Christina Feldman, Wes Nisker, and many others
Well-referenced and grounded in science, the book is full of practical tools and skills that you can use in daily life to rewire your brain over time. The brain is the bodily organ that most affects who you are and your experience of living – so learning how to take good care of it, and strengthen and direct it in the ways that will help you the most, is a profound gift to yourself, and to everyone else whose life you touch.
You’ll learn how your brain creates worry or inner strength, heartache or love, anger or peacefulness, confusion or clarity, and suffering or its end – and how to:
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Take in good experiences to feel happier and more confident – defeating the brain’s negativity bias, which is like Velcro for bad experiences but Teflon for positive ones
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Train your brain to cool down stress, greed, and hatred – and come home to your natural core of calm and contentment
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Energize the neural networks of compassion, empathy, and love – and clear out resentment, envy, and ill will
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Improve attention for daily life, mindfulness, and meditation
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Feel more at one with the world, and less separate and vulnerable
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Get the nutrients your brain needs to maintain a good mood, relieve anxiety, sharpen memory, and strengthen concentration
If you can change your brain, you can change your life.
That’s the promise of Buddha’s Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom
Buddha’s Brain joins the forces of modern neuroscience with ancient contemplative teachings to show readers how they can work toward greater emotional well-being, healthier relationships, more effective actions, and deepened religious and spiritual understanding. This book will explain how the core elements of both psychological well-being and religious or spiritual life—virtue, mindfulness, and wisdom—are based in the core functions of the brain: regulating, learning, and valuing. Readers will also learn practical ways to apply this information, as the book offers many exercises they can do to tap the unused potential of the brain and rewire it over time for greater peace and well-being.
Author: Rick Hanson pub 2009 USA Pb 251
