Notes from Buddha's Brain

What happens in your mind changes your brain, both temporarily and in lasting ways; neurons that fire together wire together. And in 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.

People who've practiced contemplative traditions are the “Olympic athletes” pf the mind. Learning how they've trained their minds and thus their brains reveals powerful ways to have more happiness. Wisdom and love.

The brain evolved to help you survive but its three primary survival strategies also make you sufferer’s

Virtue, mindfulness and wisdom are the pillars of everyday well-being, personal growth and spiritual practice; they draw on the three fundamental neural functions of regulation, learning and selection.

The path of awakening involves both transforming the mind/brain and uncovering the wonderful true nature that was there all along.

Small positive actions every day will add up to large changes over time as you gradually build new neural structures.To keep 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.

Three fundamental strategies have evolved to help us pass on our genes, creating separations, stabilizing systems and approaching opportunities while avoiding threats

Although these strategies are very effective for survival, they also make you suffer.

The effort to maintain separations is at odds with the myriad of ways you're actually connected with the world and dependent upon it. As a result you may feel subtly isolated, alienated, overwhelmed or as if you're in a struggle with the world.

When the systems within your mind, body and relationships become unstable, your brain produces uncomfortable signals of threat. Since everything keeps changing, these signals keep coming.

Your brain colors experiences with a feeling tone – pleasant, unpleasant or neutral – so you'll approach what's pleasant, avoid what's unpleasant and move on from what's neutral.

In particular we evolved to pay great attention to unpleasant experiences. This negativity bias overlooks good news, highlights bad news, and creates anxiety and pessimism.

The brain has a wonderful capacity to simulate experiences but there's a price. The simulator pulls you out of the moment, plus it sets you chasing pleasures that aren't that great and revisiting plans that are exaggerated or not even real.

Compassion for yourself helps reduce your suffering.

Some physical and mental; discomforts are inevitable, unavoidable. These are the first darts of life

When we react to a first dart with one or more of the Three Poisons of greed, hatred or delusion (broadly defined) each one of which has a craving in it's center – we start throwing second darts at ourselves and others. In face we often toss second darts even when BO first darts it found. Most poignantly we sometimes throw second darts as a reaction to situations that are actually good, such as receiving a complement.

Suffering is deeply embodied. Physical reactions involving your sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and hypothalmic pituitary-adrenal axis (HPAA) cause suffering to snowball throughout your body.

Most people experience chronic second dart cascades with numerous negative consequences for their physical and mental health

The rest and digest parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) calms down SNA/HPAA activation.

The best odds prescription for a long, good life is a baseline of mainly PNS arousal with mild SNS activation for vitality combined with occasional SNS spikes for major opportunities or threats.

Being with whatever arises, working with the tendencies of mind to transform them, and taking refuge in the ground of being are the essential practices of the path of awakening. In many ways. These practices correspond respectively to mindfulness, virtue and wisdom.

On the path of awakening, keep going! Lots of little moments of practice will gradually and truly increase your contentment, kindness and insight.

To gradually replace negative implicit memories with positive ones, just make the positive aspects of your experience prominent and relatively intense in the foreground of your awareness while simultaneously placing the negative material in the background.

Imagine that the positive contents of your awareness are sinking down into old wounds, soothing chafed and bruised places like a warm, golden salve, filling up hollows, slowly replacing negative feelings and beliefs with positive ones.

The negative material you're working with could be from adulthood including current experiences. But it's often important to address explicit and implicit memories from your childhood, since these are usually the taproots of the things that keep upsetting you. People sometimes get angry with themselves about still being affected by things from the past. But remember the brain is designed to change through experiences, particularly negative ones. We learn from our experiences, particularly the ones that happened during childhood and it's natural for that learning to stick with us.

I've pulled a lot of weeds in my life. Frequently when I haven't pulled out the whole root system, the weeds have returned. Upsets are like that too. So sense down to the youngest, most vulnerable, most emotionally charged layers in your mind and feel around for the tip of the root of whatever is bothering you. With a little practice and self understanding, you'll develop a short list of “usual suspects,” the deep sources of your recurring upsets and you'll start routinely considering them if you feel irritated, anxious, hurt or inadequate. These deep sources might include feeling unwanted by others due to a difficult childhood or being unpopular in school, a mistrust of intimacy due to a painful break up,a sense of helplessness due to a chronic illness... When you find the tip of the root, take in the good that will gradually dislodge its hold on you so that you'll be pulling weeds and planting flowers in the garden of your mind.

Painful experiences are often best healed by the positive ones that are their opposite. Fr example replacing childhood feeling sod being weak with your current sense of strength is effective. If sadness from mistreatment in an old relationship keeps surfacing, recall being loved by other people and let those feelings sink in. Add the power of language by saying something like this to yourself: I got through all that. I'm still here and many people love me.

You won't forget what happened but it's emotional charge will decrease.

Try not to do this in a desperate way but to find a good balance e.g. when you have a positive experience today really let it sink in to old pains and should negative material arise today, bring to mind the positive emotions and perspectives that will be it's antidote. Research shows that negative material is most vulnerable to change just after it's been recalled so practice adding the positive within that same hour.

Add a more risky piece and do something your mind knows isn't harmful but worry wants you to avoid like telling someone how you really feel right now... When the results turn out to be good as they most likely will, take them in and slowly but surely clear out all those old fears. Most often taking in the good takes between a few seconds and a minute. It;s a private act that no one needs to know you're doing. But over time you really can build new positive structures in your brain.

Explicit memories are conscious recollections of specific events or other information. Implicit events are residues of past experiences that largely remain below awareness but powerfully shape the inner landscape and atmosphere of your mind.

Unfortunately the bias of the brain tilts implicit memories in a negative direction even when most of your experiences are actually positive.

The first remedy is to consciously look for and take in positive experiences. There are three simple steps: turn positive facts into positive experiences, savor these experiences and sense them sinking in.

When experiences are consolidated in memory, they tale with them whatever else is also in awareness, especially if it is intense. You can us 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 to sink into, soothe and replace old pains; when negative material arises, bring to mind emotions and perspectives that are its antidote.

Become aware of the deep roots of recurring upsets. The tips of these roots are typically lodged in childhood; different upsets amy have different experience roots. Deliberately direct positive experiences toward these roots in order to pull them out completely and stop them from growing back.

Every time you take in the good, you build a little bit of neural structure. Doing this a few times a day for months and even years will gradually change your brain and how you feel and act in far reaching ways.

It's good to take in the good. It builds up positive emotions, with many benefits for your physical and mental health. It's a great resource for kids, especially spirited or anxious ones. And it aids spiritual practice by supporting motivation, conviction and wholeheartedness.