Brain and Happiness read online full. Three Survival Strategies

Rick Hanson, Richard Mendius

Buddha's Brain

The Practical Neuroscience

of Happiness, Love and Wisdom

Translation from English Vera Shtaerman

Scientific editing Marina Shirokova

Decoration Petra Petrova

Excellent book, comprehensive presentation of the topic. The authors in an accessible form told us how our brain works and how you can change it to make your life happier and fuller.

Its fundamentality is based on the latest achievements of neuroscience and reinforced by a deep understanding of contemplative practice. This accessible, exciting and profound book is the epitome of practical wisdom.

Philip David Zelazo, Ph.D., Nancy M. and John E. Lindal, Professor, Child Development Institute, University of Minnesota

Fascinating, easy to read and very useful book. She skillfully answers the main question in the life of each of us - how to become happy? - presenting us with the basic rules of Buddhism, combined with a story about how our brain works. This book will be useful to anyone who wants to understand the time-tested methods of wise living, tested by the most modern science.

I wish I had a science teacher like Rick Hanson when I was in school. This book is funny, engaging, and deep at the same time. It not only shows us the right paths to true happiness, but also gives us a psychological explanation for them. This book teaches us to enjoy positive experiences. Take for granted the good information it contains and savor it.

Rick Hanson is a man with a scientific mind, a psychologist's approach, a father's wise heart, and at the same time a sincere adherent of meditation. He has created a guide for those who wish to explore and embrace ingenious new research that combines neuroscience, psychology and true spiritual aspirations. The latest discoveries, combined with modern training techniques, make reading this book very rewarding.

Richard A. Heckler, Ph.D. John F Kennedy in Pasadena Hills, California

This highly informative book creates a synthesis of state-of-the-art neuropsychology and ancient Buddhist wisdom, full of practical methods for gradually changing your brain towards a happier life. The book is bright, accessible, with good humor.

John Prenderhurst, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology at the California Institute for Integral Studies, editor-in-chief of The Sacred Mirror and Listening to the Heart of Silence

The book will show you mind exercises based on the contemplative tradition that will help you live a peaceful and happy life. This book provides a scientific understanding of such techniques and guides the pursuits that cultivate a wise and free heart.

This book allows you to understand how the human operating system works, and through this, act smarter, live a fuller life, treat yourself and others with compassion, kindness and care. I especially liked Rick Hanson's ability to clearly identify the causes of suffering and outline acceptable ways to change the situation and lasting change at all levels - in our psyche, in the body and in relationships with people. His informative, calm, easy-to-read style motivated me to take this book in my hands again and again and each time delve deeper into the complexity of the human device.

Richard K. Miller, PhD, Founding President, Integrative Recovery Institute

This book is a significant contribution to the ongoing dynamic dialogue between neuroscientists and psychologists and practitioners of Buddhist brain improvement. The authors, based on their own experience gained in the course of meditation, and on scientific methods, again and again point out the possibility of a deep restructuring of our psyche and life.

Recent advances in psychology and neuroscience have resulted in fruitful insights into how our brains work. They are largely consistent with the wisdom of a thousand-year tradition of contemplative practice. The authors have provided us with a practical guide to using these two learning methods to teach ourselves and others wisdom, compassion, and focus.

Robert Truogh, M.D., Professor at Harvard Medical School, Executive Director of the Institute for Professionalism and Ethical Practice, Senior Critical Medicine Consultant at Boston Children's Hospital

Introductory remarks

This book encourages us to focus our minds and focus on improving our lives and relationships with others. Dr. Rick Hanson and Dr. Richard Mendius have created a thought-provoking guide that contains practical steps for awakening consciousness. The authors combined the ancient techniques of the Buddhist tradition and the modern discoveries of the brain sciences. Relatively recently, scientists have found that the adult brain can continue to develop and improve throughout life. Previously, many of them argued that the human psyche is nothing more than the activity of the brain, but now we can look at the relationship between these two dimensions in a different way. If we understand the psyche as a material and relative process that regulates the flow of energy and information, we will come to the conclusion that it can indeed change the brain. The simple truth is that the orientation of our attention, the conscious direction of the flow of energy and information through the neural networks, can literally change the structure and activity of the brain. That is why it is important to know about ways to use consciousness to improve your life. Having understood that thinking is relative, and the brain is a social organ of the body, we understand one more thing: our relationships with each other are by no means a secondary part of our life. They play a critical role in how our minds function and are essential for brain health. Our relationships with people form the interconnections between the structures of our brain. And this means that the forms and manner of communication shape the neural connections in the brain, especially in the sense of maintaining our internal balance. Science has shown over and over again that by developing an attentive, compassionate attitude towards people, without judging anyone, by fully focusing on the present moment, we begin to change our attitude towards ourselves.

Richard Mendius, Rick Hanson

Rick Hanson, Richard Mendius

Buddha's Brain

The Practical Neuroscience

of Happiness, Love and Wisdom

Translation from English Vera Shtaerman

Scientific editing Marina Shirokova

Decoration Petra Petrova

Excellent book, comprehensive presentation of the topic. The authors in an accessible form told us how our brain works and how you can change it to make your life happier and fuller.

Its fundamentality is based on the latest achievements of neuroscience and reinforced by a deep understanding of contemplative practice. This accessible, exciting and profound book is the epitome of practical wisdom.

Philip David Zelazo, Ph.D., Nancy M. and John E. Lindal, Professor, Child Development Institute, University of Minnesota

Fascinating, easy to read and very useful book. She skillfully answers the main question in the life of each of us - how to become happy? - presenting us with the basic rules of Buddhism, combined with a story about how our brain works. This book will be useful to anyone who wants to understand the time-tested methods of wise living, tested by the most modern science.

Frederic Luskin, PhD, author of Forgive Once and For All and director of the Stanford Forgiveness Project

I wish I had a science teacher like Rick Hanson when I was in school. This book is funny, engaging, and deep at the same time. It not only shows us the right paths to true happiness, but also gives us a psychological explanation for them. This book teaches us to enjoy positive experiences. Take for granted the good information it contains and savor it.

Rick Hanson is a man with a scientific mind, a psychologist's approach, a father's wise heart, and at the same time a sincere adherent of meditation. He has created a guide for those who wish to explore and embrace ingenious new research that combines neuroscience, psychology and true spiritual aspirations. The latest discoveries, combined with modern training techniques, make reading this book very rewarding.

Richard A. Heckler, Ph.D. John F Kennedy in Pasadena Hills, California

This highly informative book creates a synthesis of state-of-the-art neuropsychology and ancient Buddhist wisdom, full of practical methods for gradually changing your brain towards a happier life. The book is bright, accessible, with good humor.

John Prenderhurst, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology at the California Institute for Integral Studies, editor-in-chief of The Sacred Mirror and Listening to the Heart of Silence

The book will show you mind exercises based on the contemplative tradition that will help you live a peaceful and happy life. This book provides a scientific understanding of such techniques and guides the pursuits that cultivate a wise and free heart.

This book allows you to understand how the human operating system works, and through this, act smarter, live a fuller life, treat yourself and others with compassion, kindness and care. I especially liked Rick Hanson's ability to clearly identify the causes of suffering and outline acceptable ways to change the situation and lasting change at all levels - in our psyche, in the body and in relationships with people. His informative, calm, easy-to-read style motivated me to take this book in my hands again and again and each time delve deeper into the complexity of the human device.

Richard K. Miller, PhD, Founding President, Integrative Recovery Institute

This book is a significant contribution to the ongoing dynamic dialogue between neuroscientists and psychologists and practitioners of Buddhist brain improvement. The authors, based on their own experience gained in the course of meditation, and on scientific methods, again and again point out the possibility of a deep restructuring of our psyche and life.

Recent advances in psychology and neuroscience have resulted in fruitful insights into how our brains work. They are largely consistent with the wisdom of a thousand-year tradition of contemplative practice. The authors have provided us with a practical guide to using these two learning methods to teach ourselves and others wisdom, compassion, and focus.

Robert Truogh, M.D., Professor at Harvard Medical School, Executive Director of the Institute for Professionalism and Ethical Practice, Senior Critical Medicine Consultant at Boston Children's Hospital

Introductory remarks

The authors combined thousands of years of Buddhist practice with the latest discoveries in the field of brain function in order to show how a person can consciously improve himself. Modern living conditions often force us to live on autopilot, constantly impose on us countless standards, overload with information, set the pace that stresses our brain, leaving no time to simply live. That is why it has become an urgent need to find a way to stop in the midst of this chaos. However, only a few find time to satisfy it. " Brain and happiness invites us to take a deep breath and think about the need to slow down the pace of life, bring the brain into balance, improve relationships with others and with ourselves.

The exercises described here are based on practices that scientific research has shown to have a positive effect on our inner world, making us more attentive, flexible and cheerful, enriching our inner resources. In addition, this well-practiced gradual progress develops a person's ability to understand other people, to empathize more, to care for those with whom we are connected in this world. This is an opportunity to improve our souls, through exercises to change the brain, to create, step by step, a solid foundation of goodwill and inner well-being. What more could you want? And when is the best time to start if not now?

Daniel Siegel, MD

the Science of Personal Transformation” and “Attentive Brain:

reflections on achieving and cultivating well-being”.

Consciousness Alteration Institute and Research Center

UCLA Mindfulness, Los Angeles, CA

Foreword

Book " Brain and happiness by Dr. Rick Hanson and Dr. Richard Mendius gives us a crystal clear and practical insight into the wise teachings of the Buddha. The authors reveal to the reader the secrets of the psyche in the view of modern science and give a new interpretation of the ancient penetrating teachings on deep meditation. The book skillfully combines the classical tradition and the revolutionary discoveries made in the field of the sciences of the psyche, which confirm that every person is capable of contemplative focus, compassion and self-regulation.

This book will introduce you to scientific research and point out the possibilities inherent in each of us to reduce suffering and achieve in practice a state of inner well-being and peace. You will learn about a new wise approach to life and the biological foundations that allow such an approach to be implemented. As you progress through the chapters of the book, you will begin to better understand how our psyche works and what happiness, empathy and connection are from a neurological point of view.

The messages underlying the chapters of the book - to virtuous truths, conscious attention, the development of morality, love, kindness, the ability to forgive and inner peace - are stated simply, clearly, with a disinterested, like in the Buddha, an invitation to each person to understand himself. The practical instructions that follow these principles are also simple and consistent with spiritual traditions. Essentially, these are the same practical instructions that you would receive in a meditation temple.

I watched Rick and Richard conduct their classes. I respect the positive impact they have on the thoughts and feelings of students.

Today, more than ever, people need to find love, understanding, peace - both on a personal and global scale.

May this book help in this paramount task. I bless her!

Jack Kornfield PhD

Rock Spirit Center, Woodacre, California

June 2009

Thanks

We would like to acknowledge many people. First of all, to our spiritual teachers Christine Feldman, James Baraz, Tara Brach, Ajahn Chaa, Ajahn Amaro, Ajahn Sumedho, Ajahn Brahm, Jack Kornfield, Sylvia Burstein, Guy and Sally Armstrong, Joseph Goldstein, Kamala Masters (special thanks to her for the chapter on equanimity), as well as Steve Armstrong, Gil Fronsdel, Philip Moffit, Wes Nisker, and Adi Da.

We are grateful to our intellectual teachers and mentors: Evan Thompson, Richard Davidson, Mark Leary, Bernard Bars, Wil Cunningham, Phil Selaso, Antoine Lutz, Alan Wallace, William Waldron, Andy Olensky, Jerome Ingle, Frank Benson and Fred Luskin. We honor the memory of Francisco Varela. We express our gratitude to all those who helped us. These are Spirit Rock Meditation Center, Mind and Life Institute, Peter Bauman, members of the San Rafael Meditation Group, Patrick Anderson, Terry Petten, Daniel Ellenberg, Judith Bell, Andy Dracher, Michael Hagerty, Julian Isaac, Stephen Levin, Richard Miller, Dina Clarke, Dharma Leadership Program Society, and Sue Tool.

We also thank our attentive readers who made many valuable comments. Among them are Linda Graham, Carolina Pinkus, Harold Hedelman, Steve Meyers, Guy Watson, John Casey, Cheryl Wilfong, Jeremy Lent and John Prendergast. We would like to thank the wonderful publishers and designers of the book: Malissa Kirk, Jessa Beebe, Emmy Shoup and Gloria Stursenacker, as well as the hardworking and warm-hearted illustrator - Brad Reynold su. We thank our families. We are talking, of course, about Jen, Forrest and Laura Hanson; Shelly Scammell; Courtney, Taryn and Jane Mendius; William Hanson, Lynn and Jim Bramlett, and Case and Jenny Hanson, Patricia Winter Mendius, Katherine M. Graber, E. Lewis Mendius, and Karen M. Cooljian. We express our gratitude to many, many other people who opened their soul and heart to us.

Introduction

You hold in your hands a book on how to penetrate the depths of your own brain and achieve happiness, love, wisdom. This never-before-seen combination of psychology, neuroscience and contemplative practice aims to answer two questions:

What brain states underlie the mental state of happiness, love, wisdom?

How can a person use the resources of his psyche to strengthen these favorable brain states?

The result is a practical guide to your brain, complete with a set of guidelines to help you gradually change it for the better.

Richard is a neurologist. I am a neuropsychologist. I have written most of the words that make up this book; Richard is a longtime collaborator of mine and we do training together. Woven into the book are his ideas about how the brain works, based on 30 years of experience in medicine. We co-created the Wellspring Institute of Neurology and Contemplative Wisdom. (The website www.wisebrain.org has many articles, lectures, and other information.)

Our book will teach you how to cope with adverse psychological conditions: stress, bad mood, apathy, absent-mindedness, anxiety, grief and anger. However, we will mainly focus on positive states, psychological growth, spiritual exercises. For thousands of years, contemplators - these masters of psychological training - have studied the human psyche in practice. In this book, we have combined Buddhism (the best-studied contemplative tradition) with modern brain science to pave the way to happiness, love, and wisdom.

The nature of the brain is not yet fully understood, but we are increasingly learning how to stimulate and strengthen the neurological foundations of joy, caring, creative thinking.

How to use this book

To read this book, you do not need any special knowledge of neuroscience, psychology, or meditation. Different information and techniques are organically combined in it. The book is both an online tutorial on your brain and a toolbox. And you yourself choose those tools that suit you best.

The brain is a fascinating topic. Therefore, we have included in the book a lot of the latest scientific information about him and a large list of references - in case you want to read scientific articles yourself. (But to keep the book from becoming a textbook, we have simplified the description of neural activity by focusing on its key points.) On the other hand, if you are more interested in practical methods, you can skim through the scientific part. Of course, psychology and neurology are relatively young sciences, much is not yet clear here. So we didn't try to cover anything and everything. We acted somewhat opportunistically in drawing attention to traditional methods. These techniques have been time-tested, but it is not known exactly how exactly at the neurological level they generate a state of inner fullness, goodwill and peace.

One method is guided meditation. We deliberately gave lengthy instructions for it, often in poetic and prayerful language, and not in dry scientific language. You are free to approach them in different ways: just read them and think about them, or use them in one way or another in any meditation that you are already doing. Our instructions can be useful for you to work with a friend, or you can write them down and use them while meditating alone. These are more suggestions, improvised information. Treat them however you like. There are no wrong paths in meditation, here the right path is the one that seems right to you.

One small warning. This book is not a substitute for seeing a doctor if necessary. It will not cure you of mental and physical ailments. Different things help different people. Sometimes this or that method can awaken unpleasant sensations, especially if you have ever had an injury. Don't be afraid to ignore a method, perhaps discuss it with a friend (or advisor), change it, or not use it at all. Be kind and considerate to yourself.

And finally, if there is one thing I am absolutely sure of, it is that small changes that will gradually occur in your consciousness will then lead to significant changes in your brain and your life. I have observed this transformation many times in many people with whom I have worked as a psychologist or meditation teacher, and in myself. You can really push your entire existence for the better every day.

By changing your brain, you change your life.

The brain that transforms itself

The main activities of the brain generate changes in its very structures.

Marvin L. Minsky

If our mind changes, our brain also changes. Psychologist Donald Hebb writes: when neurons together emit an impulse, they transmit it together - brain activity literally creates new neural structures ( Hebb, 1949; LeDoux, 2003). As a result, even fleeting thoughts and sensations can leave a permanent imprint in our brain. So streams of rainwater leave grooves on the hillside. London taxi drivers, for example, are required by profession to remember many winding streets, so they develop an unusually large hippocampus, the part of the brain that is primarily responsible for visual-spatial memory. The thing is that the taxi driver's hippocampus has to work unusually hard ( Maguire et al., 2000). As you become happier, your brain's left frontal lobe becomes more active ( Davidson, 2004).

The flow of your thoughts molds your brain. Hence it follows that with your thoughts you can change your brain for the better and it will benefit you and everyone around you. Our book will help make that happen. You will know what happens in the brain when you are happy, loving, reflecting. You will learn many techniques to activate these states, each time gradually strengthening them. And thanks to this, the connections in the brain will begin to gradually rebuild - from the inside out, securing well-being, improving your relationships, and a state of peace of mind.

BRAIN - BASIC FACTS

The brain is a cottage cheese-like substance containing 1.1 trillion cells, including 100 billion neurons. Each neuron is connected to others by about 5,000 contacts on average - the so-called synapses (Linden, 2007).

The neuron receives signals from other neurons at the receiving synapses. Usually this is a portion of chemicals, the so-called neurotransmitters (neurotransmitters). Such signals tell the neuron whether it should fire or not. The state of activity (excitation) of a neuron depends on many combinations of signals it receives every minute. When excited, each neuron, in turn, sends signals through the transmitting synapses to other neurons - it tells whether they need to be activated or not.

A typical neuron fires 5 to 50 times per second. As you read the text in this box, there are literally quadrillions of signals going through your brain.

Each neural signal is a piece, a “bit” of information. Our nervous system transmits information about how blood vessels conduct blood - listening to the heartbeat. The totality of this information, most of which never reaches our consciousness, we call the generalized word "psyche" (mind). By this term, we will understand both the signals that regulate the response to stress, and the ability to ride a bicycle, and personal inclinations, hopes, dreams of a person and his understanding of the meanings of the words that you are reading here.

The brain is the main motor and organizer of the psyche. It works so hard that it takes 20-25% of the glucose and oxygen our body receives, although its mass is only 2% of our body mass ( Lammert, 2008). The brain, like a refrigerator, is always buzzing, always working and using almost the same amount of energy when you sleep and when you think hard ( Raichle and Gusnard, 2002).

The number of possible combinations of impulses from 100 billion neurons is approximately 101,000,000 (10 to the power of a million), that is, one with a million zeros. Basically, this is the number of possible states of your brain. For comparison: it is believed that the number of atoms in the universe is "only" 1080.

Our mental states are based on some sort of temporal coalition of synapses connecting and disconnecting, usually within seconds, like bubbles in a stream ( Rabinovich, Huerta, and Laurent, 2008). Neurons can also form long-term connections, strengthening certain interneuronal contacts as a result of certain mental activity.

The brain works as a single integrated system. So tying mental processes, such as attention or emotions, to only one of its anatomical parts is largely a simplification.

Our brain interacts with other systems of our body, and they, in turn, interact with the outside world through the psyche. The psyche, in the broadest sense, is created by the brain, and the body, and nature, and human culture, and also creates itself ( Thompson and Varela, 2001). Therefore, to consider the brain as the basis of the psyche is a gross simplification.

Mind and brain are connected with each other so inextricably and everywhere that it is easier to understand them as a whole, as an interdependent brain/psyche system.

Unprecedented opportunities

Just as the microscope has revolutionized biology, so new research methods used in recent decades, such as functional magnetic tomography, have greatly increased our scientific knowledge about the mind and brain. As a result, we now have many more ways to make our daily lives happier and more fulfilling.

We seem to have learned more about the brain in the past twenty years than in all of recorded history.

Alan Leshner

On the other hand, interest is constantly growing in the so-called contemplative traditions, which for thousands of years have been studying the inner world of a person, and therefore the brain, have learned to calm the psyche / brain so much that their quietest whisper becomes audible, and have developed sophisticated methods of reorganizing the psyche (and , respectively, of the brain). If you want to master a craft, you should learn from those who already know it. So, culinary art is good to learn from chefs when they give master classes on television. If you are striving to learn to think more clearly, to feel stronger, more peaceful, and happy internally, it makes sense to join the experience of contemplatives, enlightened laymen and monks who have succeeded in developing these qualities.

Anything that does not reach the level of a contemplative approach to life is almost a sure road to misfortune.

Father Thomas Keating

The word “contemplation” may seem exotic, but if you have ever meditated, prayed, or simply gazed at the starry sky with delight, you have already been contemplating. There are many contemplative traditions. Most of them are associated with world religions: Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism. Of all these teachings, Buddhism is closest to a scientific approach. Like science, Buddhism invites people not to accept anything unfounded and does not require indispensable faith in God. In addition, Buddhism has developed a detailed model of the psyche that translates well into the language of modern psychology and neuroscience. Therefore, in paying tribute to other contemplative spiritual traditions, we will focus mainly on the approaches and methods of Buddhism.

The history of science is replete with examples of the fruitfulness of combining two different methods to find new truths - combining two sets of ideas developed in different contexts.

Robert Oppenheimer

Imagine the area of each of these disciplines - psychology, neuroscience, contemplative practice - in the form of a circle (Fig. 1). We are only just beginning to understand how fruitful research can be at the intersection of these circles. However, scientists, clinicians, and contemplatives have already learned a lot about brain states and their corresponding mental (mental) states, and have learned how to activate certain brain states.

Rice. one. Intersection of three disciplines

These important discoveries give us great opportunities to influence our own psyche. You can use these opportunities to minimize stress and functional psychological disorders, find inner well-being and spiritual support. This is the most important part of the activity that can be called road to awakening, and our goal is to use the sciences of the brain to help you progress along this path. No book will make your brain the brain of a Buddha, but if you better understand the functioning of the brain and psyche of those people who have already advanced far along this path, then you can achieve the same state of joy, peacefulness and fullness of consciousness.

Awakening brain

We – both Richard and I – believe that there is something transcendental in the psyche, consciousness, and the path to awakening. You can call this entity God, Spirit, Buddhist nature, primary source, or not name it at all. But whatever it is, by definition it lies outside the physical world. Since this statement can neither be proved nor disproved, it is very important, and quite in the spirit of science, to accept that perhaps it is true.

On the other hand, research is showing more and more how much the mind depends on the brain. For example, a child's mind develops as his brain develops. If the brain is damaged, then there are mental disorders. Subtle changes in brain chemistry alter mood, focus, and memory ( Meyer and Quenzer, 2004). By suppressing the limbic system, which, among other things, manages emotions, with the help of strong magnets, one can change the moral judgments of a person ( Knoch et al., 2006). Even some spiritual states correlate with neural activity ( Vaitl et al., 2005).

Any aspect of the psyche that is not transcendent must be based on the physical processes taking place in the brain. If you look at the maps of neuronal activity in the brain, then any mental activity, conscious and unconscious, is similar to the structure of the sunset image on your computer screen, which is created by the pattern of magnetic charges on a hard drive. In addition to potentially transcendent factors, the brain is an obligatory and practically sufficient condition for the presence of the psyche. Only practically sufficient, because the development of the brain is associated with a vast network of biological and cultural factors and conditions, and is also influenced by the psyche itself.

Of course, no one yet knows exactly how the brain "makes" the mind, or, in the words of Dan Siegel, how the mind uses the brain to create itself. It is believed that the most important questions that science has yet to answer are the following. What caused the Big Bang? What should be the unified theory that will unite quantum mechanics and general relativity? What is the relationship between the brain and the psyche, especially the brain and consciousness? The last question is on a par with the first two, because it is no less difficult and no less important.

Let's consider this analogy. After Copernicus, most educated people accepted that the earth revolves around the sun. But no one could explain why this is so. About 150 years later, Isaac Newton formulated the law of universal gravitation, which provided the first explanation for why the Earth revolves around the Sun. After another 200 years, Einstein built the general theory of relativity, thereby refining and detailing Newton's ideas. It will take another 350 years, maybe more, before we fully understand how the brain and the psyche relate to each other. However, today there is a fairly well-working hypothesis that the mental is directly related to the brain.

This means that the awakening of the soul is connected with the awakening of the brain. Throughout history, nameless men and women and great teachers alike have cultivated special mental states, inducing special brain states. For example, when Tibetan monks enter deep meditation, their brains generate unusually strong and penetrating waves of electrical activity called gamma waves. At the same time, the vast neural fields of the brain synchronously produce impulses with a frequency of 30–80 times per second ( Lutz et al. 2004), integrating and unifying the entire psyche.

So, bowing low to the transcendental, we will remain within the framework of Western science and see what effective methods for achieving happiness, love and wisdom can be offered by modern neuropsychology, supplemented by contemplative practice.

Of course, these methods will not replace traditional spiritual practice. You don't need an electroencephalogram (EEG) or a Ph.D. to observe yourself and the world around you and become happier and kinder. But understanding how to influence your own brain can be helpful, especially for people who don't have time for the intense practice that a monastic life involves.

Causes of suffering

Life is not only full of joys and pleasures, it has many unpleasant and sad sides. The latter can be seen as a side effect of three strategies designed to help animals, including us, pass on their genes. For simple survival, these strategies work great, but they also lead to suffering (which we will discuss in more detail in the next two chapters). In short, as soon as the behavioral strategy encounters difficulties, inconveniences, sometimes even suffering, an alarm is sent through the nervous system to put the animal back on the right track.

However, problems arise again and again, since any strategy is internally contradictory when a living being seeks to do the following:

Divide what is truly interconnected, trying to create a boundary between yourself and the world.

Stabilize what is constantly changing in order to keep your internal systems within strict limits.

Hold on to fleeting pleasures and avoid inevitable pain in order to empower yourself and avoid risks.

The nervous system of most animals is complex enough to allow the shortcomings of these strategies to grow into considerable trouble. But the much more developed human brain provides fertile ground for all sorts of suffering. Only we humans worry about the future, regret the past, blame ourselves for the present. We get frustrated when we can't get what we want, and we are disappointed when what we like ends. We suffer because that we are suffering. We are sad because we are in pain, we are angry that death exists, we are sad because we wake up in a sad mood.

This kind of suffering, namely the one that underlies most of our frustrations and displeasures, is created by our own brain. It's fabricated. And in this fact there is both irony, and bitterness, and very high hopes. For if the brain can be the cause of suffering, it can also be its healer.

Virtue, Concentration and Wisdom

More than two thousand years ago, a young man named Siddhartha, who had not yet known enlightenment and did not bear the name Buddha, began to train his psyche (and, consequently, his brain) and did so for many years. On the night of his awakening, he looked deep inside himself (his psyche, which also reflects the work of the brain) and saw there the causes of suffering and the path to liberation from them. After that, he wandered around North India for 40 years and shared his insights with anyone who wanted to listen to him. The spiritual practice he founded taught the following.

How to cool the flames of greed and hatred and find inner wholeness.

How to calm and focus the mind (consciousness, psyche) in order to see what lies behind its disorder.

How to find the path to liberating enlightenment.

In other words, the Buddha preached virtue, fullness of consciousness (which is also called concentration) and wisdom. These are the three pillars of Buddhist spiritual practice, a fertile source of peace, psychological growth and spiritual realization.

Virtue means regulating one's actions, words and thoughts in order to, if possible, bring others and oneself more good than evil. In the brain, this function is associated with prefrontal, or frontal, cortex. Prefrontal means "near-frontal", that is, the most frontal part of the brain just behind and above the forehead. The cortex is the top layer of the brain, it consists of the so-called gray matter.

In addition, virtue relies on a pacifying effect. parasympathetic nervous system and positive emotions associated with limbic system.

In Chapter 5 you will learn how to work with these brain structures. Next, we will explore virtue in relationships, for this is often where this principle is most difficult to follow. Then, on this foundation, we will get acquainted with the techniques for achieving virtuous brain states: empathy, kindness, and love (chapters 8, 9, and 10).

Concentration (full attention) implies the skillful distribution of one's attention in relation to the external and internal world. Because our brains learn primarily what we pay attention to, focus, or mindful attention, is the way to take in positive experiences and make them part of ourselves. In Chapter 4, we'll learn how to do this, and in Chapters 11 and 12, we'll explore techniques for activating brain states that promote focus, all the way to deep meditation and self-awareness.

Wisdom is the fullness of meaning. You get it in two stages. First, you begin to understand which behavior is harmful and which is good. In other words, you comprehend the causes of suffering and ways to get rid of them (chapters 2 and 3). Then, based on this knowledge, you get rid of everything superfluous and evil and strengthen what is good (chapters 6 and 7). As a result, over time, you will feel more involved in everything, you will be more calm about changes, it will become easier for you to experience pleasure and pain without chasing the first and not fighting the second. Finally, in chapter 13 we will talk about what is perhaps the main challenge to the state of wisdom - about the feeling of being a person, isolated from the world and at the same time vulnerable to it.

Regulation, training and selection

Virtue, focus, and wisdom are based on three fundamental brain functions: regulation, learning, and selection. Our brain regulates itself and all other systems of our body through the processes of excitation and inhibition - green light and red light. The brain learns by creating new neural circuits and strengthening or weakening old ones. And he takes away what experience has taught him to consider significant. For example, even an earthworm can be taught to choose a path that does not threaten it with electric shock.

The functions of regulation, learning and selection operate at all levels of the nervous system: from the intricate dance of molecules in the space of synapses to the control, acquisition and comprehension of experience exercised by the brain as a whole. And all three functions are involved in any mental activity.

Interestingly, each of the aspects of contemplative spiritual practice is closely related to one of the three main functions of the nervous system. Virtue is highly dependent on regulation - both phenomena are designed to increase positive tendencies and eliminate negative ones. Focus leads to new knowledge. Because it is thanks to attention, its concentration, i.e. due to the achievement of a stronger and more complete awareness, that new neural connections arise and learning takes place. Wisdom is related to the issue of choice, such as giving up a lesser pleasure for a greater one. Thus, by developing virtue, focus, and wisdom, you force the brain to increase its level of regulation, learning, and selection. And vice versa: the improvement of these three functions of the nervous system (we will describe how this can be done below) strengthens what the contemplative practice is based on.

Guide your psyche

You begin the path to awakening from where you are now. Gradually, with effort and the right methods, you will improve your virtue, focus, and wisdom, and you will begin to feel happier and more loving. Ancient contemplative traditions describe this process as the discovery of one's essential nature - the true "I", which is always present in a person, other religious approaches understand it as a transformation of the soul and body. In fact, we are talking about two complementary aspects of the path to awakening.

On the other hand, your true nature is both a refuge and a resource in the difficult work of psychological and spiritual growth. It is interesting that the people who have succeeded the most on this path, who have penetrated into the very depths of their souls - sages and saints of all religious denominations - more or less equally describe our true essence: it is pure, benevolent, filled with peace, radiance, love, wisdom and is directly connected with the Highest reality, the primary source of everything and everything, no matter how we call Him. Our true "I" is usually hidden for the time being behind irritation, stress, anxiety, resentment, unfulfilled hopes, but it always exists in the depths of the psyche. Knowing this fact can be a great comfort.

On the other hand, work on one's soul and body, designed to develop all that is good and drive out the defective, is the main line of any path of psychological and spiritual growth. Although, as Tibetan Buddhists say, spiritual practice is just “removing obstacles” on the way to one's own essence; clarification of one's true self requires constant training for the sake of gradual purification and transformation. Paradoxically, we need time to become who we really are.

In any case, changes in the psyche - the disclosure of inner purity and the cultivation of positive qualities - lead to changes in the brain. If you better understand how the brain works and transforms, how, under the influence of emotions, it can lose control over itself or, on the contrary, acquire a calm virtue, how it spreads or concentrates, makes harmful or beneficial choices, you will be able to control it more effectively and, hence your psyche. In this way, developing spiritual morality, benevolence, and creativity in yourself will be more productive and will help you go as far as you want on the path of awakening.

Believe in yourself

The general moral principle is that the more power you have over someone, the more you must use that power for good. And over whom do you have the most unlimited power? It's about your own essence! She is entirely in your hands. And how diligently you take care of her depends on what she will be like.

One of the most significant events of my life happened one evening on the eve of Thanksgiving. I was then six years old. I remember that I was standing on the other side of the street, in front of my house, at the edge of the Illinois wheat fields. The furrows in the dark soil were full of water: it had recently rained. Faint lights gleamed on the distant hills. In my soul I felt clarity and calmness and at the same time sadness because of the misfortune that happened in our house that evening. And suddenly I was struck with extraordinary force by the thought that me, and it depends only on me whether I will be able to reach these lights and the happiness that they embody.

That moment stayed with me because it showed me what we have power over and what we don't. You cannot change the past or the present. They can only be accepted as they are, and try to achieve a better future. The ways to achieve this are for the most part simple and accessible. For example, as will be discussed below, we can only take a deep breath, and then a slow long exhalation, and thus activate the parasympathetic nervous system that calms us. Or, when we remember something unpleasant, it is enough to think about someone we love, and the sad memory will gradually disappear and be replaced by a pleasant feeling. Also, to calm down, you should purposefully prolong the feeling of happiness: then you will increase the amount of the neurotransmitter dopamine, which promotes concentration.

The effectiveness of these simple techniques increases over time. Our normal daily activities, like any personal growth or spiritual exercises, contain dozens of possibilities that allow us to radically change our brain. And it is wonderful that such a transformation really depends on us, given that this world is full of forces over which we have no control. One raindrop does not produce a noticeable effect, but there is a well-known truth that water wears away a stone.

However, in order to take these steps, you must first accept yourself. At first, not everyone succeeds. Most of us find less kindness for ourselves than for others - we are even more demanding of ourselves than of others.

In order to accept and support yourself, it may be helpful to turn to some arguments that can change your attitudes to positive ones. Think, for example, about this.

You were once a child who deserves as much care as any other child. Can you imagine yourself as a child? Wouldn't you wish all the best for this little man? The same is true today: you are a human being like any other of us, and have no less right to approval, love, and happiness.

Moving forward on the path of awakening will have a positive effect on your work and relationships with people. Imagine how many opportunities to benefit others will open up for you if you are more supportive of yourself and people, if you become kinder and wiser.

Taking care of your own development is by no means selfish. In fact, by doing this you will be of great help to the people around you.

The world is on the edge of a knife

Imagine small waves that will spread far and wide due to your growth. Perhaps this is the most important thing. Even seemingly inconspicuous steps will really help this world full of greed, confusion, fear, anger. Our world is dancing on a knife edge and at any moment can break anywhere. Fortunately, conservationists are slowly but surely growing across the planet, democratization is spreading, and we are becoming more aware of our fragile interconnectedness. But, on the other hand, the world is heating up, weapons are becoming more deadly, millions of people go to bed hungry every night.

The tragedy and the hope of this historical moment are one and the same: natural and technological resources must push us back from the edge of the abyss where we standing now. And it's not a lack of resources. It is a lack of goodwill, restraint, attention to what is really happening, a pronounced egoism - in other words, a lack of virtue, concentration and wisdom.

The more people embark on the path of conscious control of their psyche and, accordingly, their brain, the sooner the world will begin to change in a favorable direction.

Chapter 1: Key Thoughts

✓ What happens in your soul changes your brain - both on a short and long time scale; neurons that jointly emit impulses conduct them jointly.

✓ Therefore, by changing the psyche, you can change your brain for the benefit of yourself and everyone with whom you are connected in life.

✓ Those who practiced deep contemplation became true masters in mastering their psyche. The ability to train it (and, accordingly, the brain) opens the way to happiness, love, wisdom.

✓ The evolution of the brain was aimed at survival, but the three main survival strategies simultaneously serve as a source of suffering.

✓ Virtue, concentration and wisdom - the three pillars of daily well-being, personal improvement, spiritual practice; they improve the three basic functions of the nervous system: regulation, learning, and selection.

✓ The path to awakening lies both through the transformation of the psyche / brain, and through the discovery of one's beautiful true essence, which in fact always exists.

✓ The effect of even modest daily positive efforts will accumulate over time and gradually create new neural structures. It's all up to you, and you have to take care of yourself.

✓ Positive changes even in individuals help the world move for the better.

Causes of Suffering

The evolution of suffering

There are many beautiful things in life, but there are also many painful ones. Look at the faces of the people around you. Surely most of them express tension, disappointment, anxiety. And of course, you are well aware of your own sorrows and anxieties. We call this whole gamut of emotional states the word " suffering".

Most sufferings, such as anxiety, irritability, unfulfilled desires, are not so painful in themselves, but quite often they become chronic.

To correct this or that situation, it is necessary to understand why it arose.

No wonder all the great doctors, psychologists, spiritual mentors were excellent diagnosticians. For example, the Buddha Four Virtuous Truths defined malaise (suffering), diagnosed its causes (lust - an irresistible need for something), named a method of treatment (liberation from lust) and prescribed a medicine (Eightfold Path).

In order to establish the sources of suffering in our brains, we will look at suffering from an evolutionary perspective in this chapter. When will you realize why you are nervous, upset, tormented, sometimes you feel unnecessary, inadequate, depressed, these feelings will have less power over you, which in itself will bring you relief. In addition, such an understanding will help you to better, more fully use the “medicines” described in this book.

EVOLUTION OF THE BRAIN

Life originated on Earth about 3.5 billion years ago. Approximately 650 million years ago, the first multicellular organisms appeared (when you catch a cold, remember that microbes are almost 3 billion years older than you!). By the time the first jellyfish appeared - about 600 million years ago - living things were already so complex that their sensory and motor systems had to communicate information to each other. This is how nerve tissue came into being. As living organisms have evolved, so have their nervous systems. And gradually became so complicated that she needed a "general headquarters" - the brain.

Evolution creates something new on the basis of what has already been achieved before. Evolutionary progress can be traced in our own brain, in those parts of it that Paul McLean (1990) called the “reptile level”, “ancient mammal level” and “young mammal level” (see Fig. 2; all drawings are made schematically). , without details and are for illustrative purposes only).

The tissues of the cortex are relatively young, complex, slow, are engaged in the comprehension of information and are associated with the development of ideas, but do not motivate to something specific. They are located above the ancient brain structures - subcortical or stem– more simple, specific, fast, motivationally strong. (The subcortical region is located in the center of the brain under the cortex and at the top of the trunk, roughly corresponding to the "reptile brain" - see Fig. 2.) We can say that we have a lizard, squirrel and monkey brain in our head at the same time, which in everyday life forms our reactions are from the bottom up.

Rice. 2. brain evolution

Nevertheless, the modern cortex has a very strong influence on the rest of the brain. In the process of evolution, she acquired the ability to develop constantly improving functions of reproduction and education of offspring, establishing relationships, communication, cooperation, love ( dunbar and Shultz, 2007).

The brain is divided into two hemispheres connected corpus callosum. In the process of evolution, the left hemisphere specialized in the processing of sequences and linguistic information (in most people), in analysis, and the right hemisphere specialized in the synthesis of information as a whole and visuospatial processing. Of course, both hemispheres work in close contact. Most neural structures are duplicated, that is, they have departments in both hemispheres. However, brain structures are usually referred to in the singular (eg hippocampus).

Three Survival Strategies

Over thousands of millions of years of evolution, our ancestors developed three fundamental survival strategies:

Isolation: creating a boundary between oneself and the outside world, and between one mental state and another.

Maintaining Stability: Keeping the physical and mental systems in a healthy balance.

Exploiting Opportunities and Avoiding Dangers: Obtaining that which contributes to the production and survival of offspring, and resisting that which does not.

For survival, these strategies have proven extremely effective. But Mother Nature is not interested in what kind of Feel. In order to encourage animals (including you and me) to follow these strategies and pass on their genes, the nervous system has been forced by evolution to create the pain and frustration that we feel in some circumstances: when boundaries collapse, stability is broken, opportunities disappoint or threaten. danger. Unfortunately, these circumstances occur all the time because:

Everything is interconnected;

Everything changes;

Opportunities often remain unrealized or lose their appeal, and many dangers are unavoidable (for example, aging and death).

So why does all this make us suffer?

Not so isolated

Parietal shares brain are located in the upper back of the head ("lobe" is a rounded bulge of the cortex). In most people, the left parietal lobe is responsible for the isolation of this individual, distinguishes him from the rest of the world, dissociates himself from him, and the right "tends" to determine in what way he is similar to his environment. As a result of the isolation, a kind of basic premise automatically appears, something like: I am something separate and independent. In some respects this is true, but in other respects it is not true.

Not so separated

The life of an organism is maintained by metabolism, that is, the exchange of matter and energy with the environment. As a result, many of the atoms that make up our body are replaced by new ones within a year. The energy we spend to drink a sip of water is the energy of the sun's rays, accumulated in the food (vegetable and animal) that we eat. In other words, the sun raises a cup of water to our lips. So the wall between our persona and the outside world is more like a picket fence. And the border between the outside world and our inside is like a conditional line along the curb of the sidewalk.

We learn language and culture. They enter us and begin to shape our psyche from our very birth ( han and northoff, 2008). Empathy and love naturally connect us with other people, so that our psyche enters into resonance with their psyche ( siegel, 2007). This process is mutual, because we, in turn, influence the people around us.

In general, there are practically no distinctions in mental (mental) processes. Everything goes from one to another. Sensations turn into thoughts, feelings, desires, actions and new sensations. This stream of mental activity is accompanied by instantaneously created and constantly changing neural ensembles, and these ensembles often pass from one to another in less than a second ( Dehaene, Sergent, and Changeux, 2003; Thompson and Varela, 2001).

Not so independent

I am here because a Serbian nationalist assassinated Archduke Ferdinand and provoked the First World War, which led to the unlikely, generally speaking, meeting of my parents at an army holiday in 1944. To every of us is at the moment where he is, as a result of the confluence of a thousand circumstances. How far back in time can we trace them? My son, who was born with an umbilical cord wrapped around his neck, is here thanks to hundreds of years of medical technology.

You can go and much farther. Most of the atoms that make up your body, including the oxygen atoms in your lungs and the iron atoms in your blood, were formed inside stars. In the early universe, there was virtually nothing but hydrogen. Stars are gigantic nuclear reactors where hydrogen atoms combine to form heavier elements and release colossal energy in the process. Stars that exploded as supernovae ejected the contents of their interiors into space.

By the time our solar system began to form, about 9 billion years after the birth of the universe, there were already enough heavy elements to make up our planet, and the hands that hold this book, and the brain capable of perceiving what it is written in it. So you are here because so many stars exploded. Your body is made of stardust.

Your brain, your psyche also has a long pedigree. Think about the events and people that have shaped your views, personality, and emotions. Imagine that right after you were born, you would be replaced and raised by, say, poor shopkeepers in Kenya or some wealthy oil producer from Texas. How different would you be now?

Suffering due to alienation

Since we are all closely connected with the outside world and are interdependent, our attempts to separate ourselves from the world, to stop depending on it, usually fail, which leads to painful feelings of anxiety and anxiety. Moreover, even if such attempts temporarily succeed, it still leads to suffering. Thinking the world is “not me at all” is potentially dangerous. This attitude leads to fears and struggle with them. As soon as you say to yourself: "I am in this body, and it separates me from the world,” the imperfections of your flesh become your imperfections. If you think that you have gained excess weight or look somehow wrong, you are suffering. And because your body (like any other) is subject to disease, aging, death, you suffer.

inconstancy

Our body, brain, psyche includes many systems that must be in a healthy balance. The problem, however, is that changing conditions continuously perturb these systems, which leads to a sense of danger, pain, grief, that is, suffering.

We are dynamic systems

Consider a single neuron. One that produces the neurotransmitter serotonin (see Figures 3 and 4). This tiny neuron, being a part of the nervous system, at the same time is itself a complex system with a large number of subsystems necessary for its functioning.

When a neuron emits an impulse, the palps at the ends of its axon throw a portion of molecules into the synapses (through the synapses, the neuron communicates with other neurons). Each palp contains about 200 small vesicles (so-called vesicles), filled with the neurotransmitter serotonin ( robinson, 2007). Whenever a neuron fires, 5–10 vesicles open. Because a typical neuron fires about 10 times per second, the vesicles in each palp are emptied every few seconds.

Then the little molecular machines must either make new serotonin or use the unused serotonin that floats freely around the neuron. Then you need to fill the vesicles with serotonin and send it to where the action takes place - to the tip of each palp. All these multiple processes must be balanced, and a lot can go wrong. And the serotonin cycling system is just one of the thousands of subsystems in your body.

TYPICAL NEURON

Neurons, nerve cells are the basic building blocks of the nervous system. Their main function is to communicate with each other through tiny contacts - synapses. There are many types of neurons, but they all have a similar structure.

On the body of the cell there are processes - the so-called dendrites. They receive neurotransmitters (neurotransmitters) from neighboring neurons. (Some neurons communicate directly with each other using electrical impulses.)

To put it simply, this is how it works. The sum of the signals coming to the neuron, millisecond by millisecond, determines whether it will fire or not.

When a neuron is excited and emits an impulse, an electromagnetic wave runs along the axon (transmitting process of the neuron) to the neuron to which this impulse is addressed. Neurotransmitters are thrown into the synapses of the receiving neuron, suppressing or, conversely, activating it.

Nerve signals are accelerated by myelin, the fatty substance that makes up the sheath of the neuron.

Rice. 3. Neuron (simplified diagram)

The gray matter of the brain is formed mainly by the bodies of nerve cells (neurons). There is also white matter. It consists of neural axons and glial cells; these cells are responsible for metabolism in the brain, such as wrapping axons with myelin and reproducing neurotransmitters. The cell bodies of neurons are 100 billion switches connected by axon wires into a complex network in our head.

Rice. 4. Synapse (enlarged image shown in box)

It's hard to keep balance

For us to be healthy, all systems of our body and brain must maintain a balance between two conflicting needs. On the one hand, they must be open to exchange with the environment ( Thompson, 2007), because only a dead system can be closed. On the other hand, each system must maintain considerable stability and proper orientation and remain within reasonable limits, not too "cold" and not too "hot". For example, inhibition from the prefrontal (frontal) cortex and excitation from the limbic system must balance each other. With too much inhibition, we can do nothing, and with too much excitement, we will be overloaded.

Alarms

To keep all your systems in balance, sensors constantly monitor their state (like a thermometer in a thermostat) and, if it is necessary to restore balance (turn the stove on or off), they send the corresponding signal to the regulators. Most of these signals do not reach our consciousness. But some requests for corrective action are so important that they come to mind, for example, if we are too cold or we are so hot that we think we are about to boil.

These conscious signals are unpleasant in part because the demand to restore balance before everything rolls very fast and far down the hill has a tinge of menace. The signal can be weak - just a feeling of discomfort, or strong - frightening, even terrifying. But, be that as it may, it mobilizes the brain, forces you to take the actions necessary to restore balance.

Mobilization is usually expressed in desire - from a calm "I would like" to a desperate need - thirst. Interestingly, the word "desire" in Pali, the language of ancient Buddhism, is related to the word "thirst." This word, “thirst,” reflects the power of alarm signals on the body, even when it is not about life or some extreme, such as the possibility of being rejected. Alarm signals are effective precisely because they are unpleasant and make you suffer - sometimes a lot, sometimes not so much. But still we want them to stop.

Everything flows, everything is constantly changing

Sometimes alarms stop for a while - for as long as the system is in equilibrium. But the world is constantly changing, disturbing the balance of our body, psyche, relationships. And the regulators of vital systems are continuously working, trying to bring into static balance at all levels processes that are non-equilibrium in their very essence: from the lowest - the molecular level, to the highest - interpersonal relations.

Imagine how unstable the physical world is, consisting of moving quantum particles. Or take at least our Sun itself, which someday will become a red giant and swallow the Earth. Or imagine the rate of change in our nervous system. Let's say that in some areas of the prefrontal cortex that support consciousness, something changes 5–8 times per second ( Cunninghem and Zelazo, 2007).

This nervous instability underlies all brain states. For example, any thought assumes the instantaneous emergence in the nerve pathways of an appropriately organized ensemble of synapses, which immediately disappears in a fruitful chaos to open the way for new thoughts ( Atmanspracher and Graben, 2007). Follow a simple breath and you will notice how the sensations caused by it change, dissipate and soon disappear.

Changes all. Such is the universal law of the external and internal world. Therefore, while a person is alive, the balance in him is continuously disturbed. But the brain, in order to help the organism survive, always seeks to stop the flow, to keep dynamic systems in place, to single out stable structures in this unstable world, to build unchanging plans in changing conditions. And as a result, he constantly catches the moment that has just passed, tries to understand it and take control of it.

It's like we're living by a waterfall. Every moment falls upon us (we perceive it always and only as now) and immediately disappears. But the brain always grasps what has just passed by.

Not so pleasant or even painful

In order to pass on their genes, our animal ancestors had to decide many times a day whether to approach this or that object or run away from it. Modern man does the same not only with respect to physical objects, but also with respect to moral decisions. Thus, we strive for self-respect and avoid shame. But human aspirations and reluctances, subtle as they are, are based on the same neural mechanisms by which a monkey grabs a banana and a lizard hides under a rock.

Sensual tone of the event

How does the brain decide whether to approach something or not? Imagine that you are walking through a forest. The path turns sharply, and you see a curved object in front of you. Further events can be simply described as follows. The light reflected by a curved object during the first few fractions of a second enters the occipital cortex (it processes visual information) to turn into a meaningful image (see Fig. 5). From the occipital cortex, the image is sent in two directions. In the hippocampus - for a quick assessment of the degree of danger or usefulness of an object, as well as in the frontal cortex and other higher parts of the brain - for a longer and more detailed analysis of information.

Just in case, the hippocampus quickly compares the received image with what is stored in its small list of “bounce, then think” objects, quickly finds objects wriggling in the sand and sends amygdala(also called simply amygdala) urgent impulse: "Caution". The amygdala works like a tocsin. It immediately sends a general warning throughout the brain and a specific, quick “fight or flight” signal to your nervous and hormonal systems ( Rasia-Filho, Londero, and Achaval, 2000). We will talk more about the flight-or-fight cascade in the next chapter. Here we only note that a second or two after you notice a strange object, you bounce off it in fright.

Meanwhile, the powerful but relatively slow frontal cortex is retrieving information from long-term memory to determine whether this dubious object is a snake or a crooked stick. After a few more seconds, she determines that the object is stationary and that several people have passed in front of you without paying attention to it, and concludes that it is just a stick.

Rice. 5. You see a possible danger or a chance for pleasure

Everything that you have experienced during this time has been pleasant, unpleasant or indifferent. At first, walking along the path, you admired a pleasant view or remained indifferent to it. Then, when you saw what could be a snake, you felt an unpleasant fright, and then, when you realized that it was a stick, relief came.

Everything that you have experienced, pleasant, unpleasant or indifferent, in Buddhism is called sensual tone(or, in the language of Western psychology, hedonistic tone). Feeling tone is generated primarily by the amygdala ( LeDoux, 1995) and spreads very widely from there. This is a simple but powerful way to tell the brain as a whole what to do: approach a nice gingerbread or run away from an unpleasant whip, or something else.

KEY NEUROCHEMICAL AGENTS

Let us name the main neurochemical agents influencing nervous activity that are relevant to the content of our book.

Primary neurotransmitters

Glutamate - excites the receiving neurons.

Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) - inhibits receiving neurons.

neuromodulators

These substances (sometimes also called neurotransmitters) affect the work of the above-mentioned main neurotransmitters. When acting, they cover the brain as a whole and, therefore, have a strong effect.

Serotonin - regulates mood, sleep, digestion; Most antidepressants are designed to enhance its effect.

Dopamine - associated with rewards and attention; stimulates the "come" response.

Norepinephrine - excites and alarms.

Acetylcholine - Promotes alertness and learning.

Neuropeptides

These neuromodulators are made up of a special kind of organic molecules - peptides.

Opioids - relieve stress, soothe, relieve pain, cause a feeling of pleasure; opioids include endorphins.

Oxytocin - stimulates a warm attitude towards children and bonds couples, as it causes a pleasant feeling of closeness and love; Women have more oxytocin than men.

Vasopressin - maintains communication between partners; in men, it can cause aggressiveness towards a sexual rival.

Other neurochemical agents

Cortisol - released by the adrenal glands during the stress response; stimulates the amygdala and suppresses the hippocampus.

Estrogen – Both men and women have estrogen receptors in their brains; affects sexual desire, mood and memory.

In pursuit of gingerbread

Two large neuronal systems make us chase the carrot.

The first system works on the basis of a neurotransmitter dopamine. Dopamine-releasing neurons fire when we encounter something that has already been pleasantly rewarded in the past (for example, we receive a message from a kind friend whom we have not seen for several months). The same neurons fire when something promises future rewards, such as when a friend invites us to a party. The activity of dopamine-releasing neurons causes a state of desire, which motivates us: we wanted to call a friend. During a party, a part of our brain called cingulate cortex(about a finger wide, located at the inner border of the junction of both hemispheres), monitors whether we really get the reward we expected - fun pastime, good food ( Eisenberger and Lieberman, 2004). If we get, then the level of dopamine remains constant. But perhaps we are disappointed (let's say a friend is in a bad mood). Then the cingulate cortex sends a signal: “Reduce dopamine levels.” We feel it as unpleasant sensual tone(displeasure) that makes us wish for something (in the broadest sense) to restore dopamine levels.

The second neuronal system is based on some other neuromodulators. This is the biochemical source of the pleasant tone evoked by the present or anticipated gingerbread. When the "pleasure chemistry" - natural opioids (including endorphins), oxytocin and norepinephrine - hit the synapses, they reinforce already activated neural circuits (patterns), increasing the likelihood of their joint excitation in the future.

Imagine a toddler who wants to eat a spoonful of pudding. After missing several times, he finally hits the spoon in his mouth (his perceptual-motor neurons finally fired accurately). And a wave of pleasure agents spreads through his brain, helping to solidify the synaptic contacts that create the movements that sent a spoonful of delicious food into the child's mouth.

In other words, the pleasure system determines what exactly serves as its pathogen (trigger, trigger) and pushes us to get pleasure again. Then it fixes and facilitates the actions due to which the pleasure was received. This system works hand in hand with the one based on dopamine. For example, when you quench your thirst, you feel good both because the unpleasant sensation of lack of dopamine disappears and because the “pleasure chemistry” allows you to feel how nice it is to drink a glass of cold water on a hot day.

Desire brings suffering

Both of these neural systems are essential for survival. In addition, they can be used with good intentions that have nothing to do with the general goal of passing on their genes to offspring. In particular, by carefully recording the results of, for example, morning exercises (feeling cheerful, energized), you can increase the motivation to do something healthy.

But the desire for pleasure can also bring suffering.

A strong desire for something in itself can be painful, and a weak desire can bring a feeling of discomfort.

If you do not achieve what you are striving for, you naturally feel disappointed, upset, confused. Perhaps even hopelessness and despair.

But even if you got what you wanted, will the pleasure be as you expected? Getting is good, but take a closer look. Is this pie really that delicious, especially the third slice? Has the recognition of your success at work really given you great and lasting pleasure?

Even really good results may not be worth the cost. The simplest example is a plentiful delicious dessert. And also think about what will happen if you achieve recognition, win an argument, force others to act in a certain way. What is the price/acquisition ratio?

Let's say you get what you want, and it's really something significant, and the price was not so great. But all good things pass sooner or later. Even the best. After all, over time, we lose everything that once gave us joy: friends stop appearing, children grow up and leave home, careers end, someday we will take our last breath. Everything that starts sooner or later ends. Everything that was once connected must, in due course, be separated and disappear. That is, no acquisition brings complete satisfaction. This is an unreliable foundation for happiness.

Thai sage, meditation master Ajahn Chaa ( Ajahn Chah) drew the following analogy: to strive for something pleasant means to catch a snake by the tail - sooner or later it will bite you.

The whip is stronger than the gingerbread

So far, we have talked about the stick and the carrot as equivalent stimuli. However, in reality, the whip is usually stronger: the brain is more wired to avoid than to approach. Indeed, in the struggle for survival, negative factors, as a rule, are more important than positive ones.

For example, imagine our ancestors - mammals. They weren't looking forward to meeting a dinosaur in the world's Jurassic Park 70 million years ago. They constantly looked back, ready at the slightest crack of bushes to freeze, run away or attack - depending on the situation. The dilemma is: fast or dead. If they missed out on the gingerbread—a meal or an opportunity to mate—they had a chance to get it later. But if they did not notice the whip (a predator, for example), they most likely died and they had no chance of getting a gingerbread. Those of our ancestors who survived and passed on their genes to their offspring (that is, to us) probably constantly paid attention to negative factors.

Let's take a look at six ways our brains can avoid the whip.

Vigilance and vigilance

When we are awake and not doing anything in particular, our brain activates an “underlying network”, one of the tasks of which, apparently, is to watch for the possible appearance of signs of danger ( Rachel et al., 2001). This latent vigilance is often accompanied by a general sense of unease that makes us alert. Try to walk around the supermarket for a few minutes so that you never experience inconvenience, displeasure, irritation. It's not that easy.

The fact is that our ancestors - mammals, primates, primitive people - were not only hunters, but also someone's prey. In addition, in most social groups of primates, both females and males are very aggressive towards each other ( Sapolsky, 2006). Hominid and later primitive hunter-gatherer tribes that lived a couple of million years ago died mostly violent deaths ( Bowles, 2006). So our basic anxiety is not unfounded: at one time there were more than enough dangers.

Susceptibility to negative information

Negative events usually affect us more than positive ones. Thus, after several failures, a person often begins to feel helpless, and this feeling does not completely disappear even after many successes ( Seligman, 2006). We spend more effort on avoiding losses than on acquiring something of equal value ( Baumeister et al. 2001). Accident victims take longer to calm down than lottery winners ( Brickman, Coates and Janoff-Bulman, 1978). Negative information about someone outweighs positive in terms of interest ( Peeters and Czapinski, 1990). In human relationships, it usually takes five positive results to compensate for one negative ( Gottman, 1995).

long-term traces

Even if we manage to cope with some kind of trouble, it still leaves an indelible mark on our brain ( Quirk, Repa an LeDoux, 1995). And this residual pattern is ready to be activated every time we encounter such a frightening event.

Malicious cycles

Negative events create cycles, making you feel pessimistic, over-reactive, and prone to negative action.

Avoidance is also associated with suffering.

As you can see, one of the properties of our brain is "negative bias" ( Vaish, Grossman, and Woodward, 2008), which encourages us to avoid anything that might arouse suspicion, while also causing us to experience all sorts of suffering. To begin with, it generates an unpleasant disturbing background, in some people it is very intense. Alertness makes it difficult to turn attention inward, to self-awareness and contemplative practice: the brain must constantly “look around” and make sure that everything is in order around. The negative bias also creates or reinforces other unpleasant emotions such as anger, grief, depression, guilt, or shame. It reminds you of past losses, inspires uncertainty about your capabilities in the present, exaggerates the obstacles that you may encounter in the future. As a result, the brain constantly strives to make a negative judgment about the character of a person, his behavior and potential. The weight of such judgments can really drag you down.

Trapped in a reality simulator

Buddhism says that suffering is the result of lust expressed in the three root poisons: greed, hatred and ignorance. These traditional terms describe a wide range of thoughts, words and deeds, including the most insignificant and fleeting. Greed is the desire to receive gingerbread, hatred is to turn the whip away from oneself; both involve striving for greater pleasure and minimization of pain. Ignorance is ignorance of the true nature of things, the relationships between them and their changes.

A virtual reality

Sometimes poisons are clearly realized, but mostly they act at the bottom of consciousness, they are activated and spread without hindrance. They do this thanks to the remarkable ability of the brain re-create happening inside and outside of us. So, blind spots on the retina of the right and left eyes do not give gaps in the visual field. The brain fills them in (this is how a photo editor removes red spots in the eyes of people who look at the flash in the photo). In fact, most of what we see "outside", our brain creates "inside", like a computer graphics editor creates films. Only a small part of what enters our occipital lobes comes directly from the outside world. The rest comes from the memory and structures involved in the semantic processing of perceived information ( rachel, 2006). Our brain models reality. Our life takes place in a virtual world, but close enough to the real one so that we do not bump into furniture when walking around the room.

Within the modeling systems, physically located, apparently, in the middle of the upper part of the prefrontal cortex ( Gusnard et al., 2001), very short films are constantly being played. These little clips serve as the building blocks of conscious mental activity ( Niedenthal 2007; Pitcher et al. 2008).

Our ancestors needed models of past events to survive: they reinforced the lessons of correct behavior by causing certain neurons to generate the appropriate impulses over and over again. Simulation of future events was also useful for survival, as it helped our ancestors to compare the possible consequences of different actions and choose the optimal ones, and prepared the sensory-motor circuits that were potentially necessary for them to be activated by alarm. Over the past three million years, the size of the brain has tripled, and for the most part due to improvements in the modeling engine. Nothing surprising. After all, he was so necessary for survival.

Imaginary models bring us misery

The brain continues to build models today, although they no longer have anything to do with survival. Remember how you imagine something or think hard about some problem, and you will see these clips playing inside you - small, a few seconds long, models of reality. Take a closer look at them, and you will understand several alarming factors.

The model, by its very nature, distracts you from what is happening in life at the moment. So you mentally prepare a presentation, go somewhere on business or think - and you immediately find yourself a thousand miles from reality, in the world of mini-clips. But true happiness, love, wisdom we find only Here and now.

The model represents the pleasures very big, whether it is a second piece of cake or a favorable review of the work done. But what do you feel in fact when imaginary events unfold in the real world? Is the enjoyment really that great? As a rule, no. Most of the real everyday pleasures are much weaker than imagined.

Model clips contain a lot of speculation. If I say X, of course he will say Y... They will let me down. It's quite obvious. Sometimes such hypotheses take on verbal forms, but in most cases they remain at the level of images. But justified Are these stated or unspoken hypotheses? Sometimes yes, but very often no. Mini-movies limit us to simplistic replays of real events from the past and identifying opportunities in the future, such as new ways to connect with people or overly ambitious dreams based only on what we have today. All this is the bars of an invisible cage. And our life turns out to be poorer than it could be. It's like a zoo animal. He is allowed to walk in a huge park, but he turns off in his old prison anyway.

In the simulation system, sad past events are repeated over and over again, which unfortunately reinforces the neural connections between the event and the pain it caused. In addition, the same modeling system predicts trouble for you in the future. In fact, most of her threats do not come true, and those that do come true last less time and cause less suffering than the mere idea of them. For example, imagine that you are confessing your love to someone. There is a mini-movie in your brain in which you are rejected and you feel very bad. But in fact, when you confess your love to someone, everything usually goes well and you feel happy, don't you?

So, the simulator takes us out of the present, sends us in pursuit of a gingerbread that turns out to be not so tasty, and makes us miss out on more interesting opportunities (a sense of peace and peace of mind, for example). Imaginary mini-clips are full of limiting prejudice. In addition to amplifying painful emotions, the simulator makes us fear the whip, which in reality, as a rule, does not threaten us or hit us so hard. And he does all this hour after hour, day after day, even in his sleep, persistently creating neural circuits, most of which add to our suffering.

Self sympathy

Everyone suffers, many suffer often enough. Empathy is a natural response to suffering, including our own. Self-compassion is not pity, it's just warmth, attention, good wishes to ourselves - as if we were empathizing with someone else. This is something more emotional than self-esteem, so self-compassion is more likely to reduce the impact of adverse circumstances, help maintain your own dignity and develop resilience ( Leary et al. 2007).

In addition, it opens our heart. If we are deaf to our own suffering, it is more difficult for us to sympathize with others.

In addition to the daily suffering on the path to awakening, we face difficulties that also require compassion for ourselves. To become happier, wiser, to learn to love, you will have to swim against the old habitual currents of your nervous system.

For example, the three pillars of contemplative practice are in a certain sense unnatural. Virtue holds back the emotional reactions that have always worked so well. Concentration reduces alertness in relation to external factors. Wisdom challenges the beliefs that once promoted survival. Getting rid of the causes of suffering, unity with the world, following the changing moment, indifference to both pleasant and unpleasant contradicts the evolutionary scheme. Of course, it does not follow from this that we do not need all this! This means that we need to understand what we are fighting and have a little compassion for ourselves. In order to develop self-compassion in the soul and strengthen the corresponding neural circuits, the following must be done:

Recall meetings with someone who truly loves you. Feeling cared for activates attachment patterns deep in your brain and causes them to generate empathy.

Think of someone you sympathize with, such as a child or a loved one. This free flow of empathy promotes the production of its natural agents, including oxytocin, and activates a brain structure called island(this formation perceives the internal state of our body) and the cortex of the frontal lobes, “tunes” them to self-compassion.

Feel sorry for yourself. Be aware of your own suffering and extend care and good wishes to yourself. Feel sympathy descend on the withered parts of your soul, like a life-giving gentle rain. Touch enhances empathy Niedenthal, 2007), so put your hand on your cheek or on your heart with tenderness and warmth, as you would caress a crying baby. Mentally say to yourself: May I be happy again. Let go of the pain that torments me now.

In short, feel the warmth of empathy—it doesn't really matter to the brain whether the source of the pleasurable feeling is whether you feel compassion for yourself or someone else feels compassion for you. Allow comfort and care to flow through you.

Chapter 2: Key Thoughts

✓ In the process of evolution, we, living beings, in order to be able to pass on our genes, have developed three main strategies: separating ourselves from the environment; stabilizing system; using chances and avoiding dangers.

✓ These strategies are very useful for survival, but they make us suffer.

✓ In trying to separate from the world on which we depend, we come into conflict with our billions of connections with it. As a result, we begin to feel somewhat isolated from others, alienated, exhausted, as if we were fighting the whole world.

✓ When the internal structures of our body, psyche, relationships lose stability, our brain generates unpleasant signals that warn of a threat. And since everything is constantly changing, these signals come to us continuously.

✓ Our brain colors everything that we experience with a certain sensual tone, pleasant, unpleasant or indifferent. And we reach for the pleasant, avoid the unpleasant, ignore the indifferent.

✓ In the process of evolution, we have learned to pay more attention to unpleasant factors. These negative patterns, while highlighting negative signals, often miss the positive and give rise to anxiety and pessimism.

✓ The brain has an amazing ability to simulate facts and events, but this comes at a cost: the simulation takes you away from the present and also forces you to seek pleasures that are actually not so great, as well as avoid troubles that are not really so great scary, or outright mischievous.

✓ Self-compassion reduces suffering.

Primary dart and secondary dart

In the end, happiness comes down to choosing between the annoyance of being aware of your mental distresses and the annoyance of letting them control you.

Some physical discomfort is inevitable. This is the main signal that something needs to be done to protect yourself. For example, if you bring your hand too close to a hot stove, you feel pain.

Some psychological discomfort is also inevitable. For example, the need to emotionally invest in our children and other members of the tribe, developed in the process of evolution, made our ancestors take care to protect the lives of these carriers of their genes.

Therefore, it is understandable that we are worried when beings so dear to us are in danger, and we are upset if something happens to them.

In addition, humans have evolved to pay a lot of attention to our place in the tribe and in the hearts of our fellow tribesmen, so it is perfectly normal to feel resentment when we are rejected or despised.

As the Buddha said, inevitable physical and mental discomfort is the "primal dart" of existence. As long as you live and love, some of these darts will hit you from time to time.

The darts we throw at ourselves

Primary darts are undeniably unpleasant. But we also add our reaction on them. This reaction is the "secondary darts" that we throw at ourselves. Onito basically cause us suffering.

Imagine walking through a dark room at night and hitting your toe on a chair. After the primary dart of pain, you are immediately hit by the secondary dart of anger: "Who put that damned chair here?" Or perhaps someone you love is cold to you when you expect some warmth. In addition to natural disappointment (primary dart), you may find yourself unwanted (second dart), especially if you did not receive the warmth of your parents as a child.

Some secondary darts often stimulate, through neural association circuits, the firing of other secondary darts: you can be angry at the person who put this chair here, or sad that someone you love has wronged you. Secondary darts create harmful cycles in the relationship: your original secondary dart—your reaction—evokes a response in the other person, and that reaction provokes new secondary darts in you, and so on.

Surprisingly, most of the time we respond with a secondary dart when there really isn't a primary dart, when the situation is not inherently painful. We ourselves make it a source of suffering. For example, I come home from work and find a terrible mess. Children's things are scattered everywhere. Does this situation carry a primary dart? Is it really so painful to see children's coats and boots on the sofa and a lot of toys scattered on the table? Of course not. No one dropped a brick on my children's heads. Should I be upset? Probably not. I can ignore the children's things or just tidy up everything or ask the children to do it. Sometimes I succeed. And if not, secondary darts fly out. They are allowed Three Root Poisons: greed makes me want everything to be as it should be, anger makes me angry, disappointment makes me feel bad about this situation.

The worst thing is that sometimes we respond with secondary darts to a situation that is essentially positive. If someone compliments you, it's a positive situation. But then you might start thinking with a bit of nervousness and even shame: Actually, I'm not such a good person. Perhaps they will discover sooner or later that I am a scoundrel.”. And here is your unnecessary suffering.

warm up

Suffering is not an abstract concept. This is physical reality. You feel it in your body, it spreads through the structures of your body. Understanding the physical mechanisms of suffering will help you gradually begin to perceive it as something impersonal. Undoubtedly unpleasant, it nevertheless should not piss you off, that is, generate secondary darts.

Suffering spreads throughout the body through sympathetic nervous system(SNS) and axis hypothalamus - pituitary gland - adrenal glands(HPA) of our endocrine system. Let's see how it all works. Although the SNS and HPA systems are anatomically distinct, they are so related to each other that it is better to describe them together as a single whole system. We are in more Let's focus on whip avoidance responses (such as fear or rage) rather than carrot cravings, because avoidance responses are usually stronger due to the brain's initial negative predisposition to avoid danger described above.

Alert

Something happens. A car suddenly appears around a corner, or a co-worker let you down, or you just had an unsettling thought. Social or emotional factors can strike in the same way as a material object, because mental pain is largely determined by the same neural structures as physical pain ( Eisenberger and Lieberman, 2004). That is why if you are rejected, you feel just as bad as if you were hit. The anticipation of something exciting, such as performing in public next week, can be just as powerful as the performance itself. Wherever a threat comes from, our amygdala sends out an alarm signal, triggering several primordial responses.

The thalamus (a kind of staging post in the center of the brain) sends a “Wake up” signal to the brainstem, which in turn releases excitatory norepinephrine into the brain.

The sympathetic nervous system (SNS) sends a signal to the major organs and muscle groups of our body so that they are ready to run or fight.

The hypothalamus (the main ruler of the endocrine system) causes the pituitary gland to "order" the adrenal glands to start releasing "stress hormones" - adrenaline and cortisol.

Ready for action

A second or two after the first beep, our brains are on alert, our sympathetic nervous system (SNS) lights up like a Christmas tree, stress hormones are bubbling in our bloodstream. In other words, we are, at best, somewhat distressed. What happens in our body?

Adrenaline makes our heart beat faster (and pump more blood), dilates the pupils (so they collect more light). Norepinephrine promotes blood flow to major muscle groups, and our lungs are primed for increased gas exchange so we can run faster and hit harder.

Cortisol suppresses the immune system to reduce inflammation in wounds and triggers stress responses in two ways.

First, it causes the brainstem to further excite the amygdala, which in turn further excites the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and axis hypothalamus - pituitary gland - adrenal glands(HPA), which releases more cortisol.

Second, cortisol suppresses the activity of the hippocampus (which normally inhibits the activity of the amygdala), and the amygdala "gets free", which eventually leads to even more cortisol entering the bloodstream.

The instinct of procreation is suppressed - are you up to sex when you rush for cover? Appetite disappears, salivation decreases, peristalsis slows down, the mouth dries up, the stomach stops working.

Your emotions are heightened, organizing and stimulating the activity of your entire brain. The activation of the SNS/HPA systems excites the amygdala, and it is ready to focus on negative information and react sharply to it. And the state of stress provokes in us a feeling of fear and anger.

In addition, when the activity of the limbic and endocrine systems increases, the relative intensity of control from the frontal cortex decreases. If you are driving with the accelerator out of control, it becomes difficult for the driver to control the car.

In addition, the prefrontal cortex (PFC) is itself exposed to the SNA/HPA systems, and this pushes judgment, intentionality, and prioritization in a negative direction: now the driver of the crazed car thinks everyone else is an idiot. Compare, for example, how you perceive a situation when you are in a bad mood with how you think about it later when you calm down.

In the brutal physical and social conditions in which our evolution took place, such activation of many body systems helped our ancestors to survive. But what does it result in today, in the conditions of constant background stress of modern life?

KEY PARTS OF OUR BRAIN

All these parts of the brain do different jobs. Their functions related to the topic of the book are described below.

Prefrontal (frontal) cortex (PFC) - sets tasks (goals), makes plans, manages actions; regulates emotions (partly through excitation or suppression of the limbic system).

Anterior (frontal) cingulate cortex (ACC) - enhances attention and follows plans; helps connect thoughts and feelings Yamasaki, LaBar, and McCarthy, 2002).

Islet - evaluates the internal state of our body, including unconscious sensations; helps us identify objects; this area is located inside the temporal lobes in both hemispheres (it is not shown in Fig. 6).

The thalamus is the main point of collection and analysis of sensory information.

Brain stem - supplies neuromodulators such as serotonin and dopamine to all parts of the brain.

The corpus callosum is responsible for the exchange of information between the two hemispheres of the brain.

The cerebellum controls movement.

The limbic system is the center of emotions and is associated with motivation. It includes the basal ganglia, the hippocampus, the amygdala, and the pituitary gland. (Some also refer to certain areas of the cerebral cortex as part of the limbic system, such as the cingulate cortex and the insula, but for simplicity we will refer to it anatomically as a subcortical structure.) Many systems other than the limbic are involved in emotion.

Basal ganglia - related to positive feedback, stimulates search and movement. A ganglion is a bundle of nerve tissue.

Hippocampus - directly related to memory function, as well as assessing the danger of the situation.

The amygdala is something like an alarm. Particularly responsive to emotional challenges and negative stimuli ( Rasia-Filho, Londero, and Achaval, 2000).

Hypothalamus - regulates primal instincts such as hunger and sexual desires; in addition, it releases oxytocin; activates the pituitary gland.

Pituitary - secretes endorphins; enhances the release of stress hormones; stores and delivers oxytocin.

Rice. 6. Key parts of our brain

Life on slow fire

To get excited about something good, such as burning with passion or enthusiasm, solving a sensitive issue, or doing a good deed, is good. But secondary darts are not a necessary reason to turn on the SNA/GGN system. And if they become a daily occurrence, they are undoubtedly capable of pushing the arrow on your own stress scale beyond the red line. Not only that, in addition to the personal situation, the whole society as a whole lives under the influence of the continuous activity of the SNA / HPA system, which, unfortunately, is completely unnatural from the point of view of the standards developed in the course of evolution.

Most of us, for all the reasons listed above, feel for ourselves what the activation of the SNS / HPA system means. Even if our cauldron does not boil over, the prolonged boiling caused by the secondary dart is not useful. It constantly takes resources away from long-term projects (like maintaining a strong immune system or maintaining a good mood) for the sake of short-term crises. And this has long-term consequences.

Physical Consequences

In our evolutionary past, when most people died at the age of forty, the short-term benefit of activating the SNA/HPA system outweighed the long-term cost of it. But today man wants to live much longer than 40 years, and the cumulative harmful effects of living too hot are becoming a real problem here. Thus, the constant stimulation of the SNS / HPA system causes its imbalance and increases the risk of diseases ( Licinio, Gold, and Wong 1995; Sapolsky 1998; wolf 1995). These are primarily such diseases:

Gastrointestinal tract - ulcers, colitis, spontaneous indigestion, diarrhea or constipation;

Immune system - frequent colds and flu, slow healing of wounds, greater risk of serious infectious diseases;

Cardiovascular - loss of vascular plasticity, hypertension, heart attacks;

Endocrine - type 2 diabetes, premenstrual syndrome, erection problems, decreased sexual function.

Mental Consequences

Secondary darts do a lot of damage to our physical health, but the damage they do to our psyche is far greater. Let's discuss the mechanism of their effect on the brain, how they cause anxiety and worsen the mood.

Anxiety

Repeated activation of the SNS/HPA system sharpens the reaction of the amygdala to potential threats, the amygdala makes the SNS/HPA system work even more intensively and, as a result, becomes even more sensitive. The psychological perception of this situation consists in the rapid intensification feelings of anxiety projected on some specific circumstances. In addition, the amygdala contributes to the manifestation latent memories(traces of past troubles that are stored somewhere in the subconscious); due to the growing sensitivity, the amygdala imparts frightening properties to these traces, thus reinforcing general state of anxiety(regardless of any particular situation).

In addition, frequent activation of the SNS / HPA system suppresses the hippocampus, and it plays a vital role in the formation conscious memories- clear traces of real events. Cortisol and its associated glucocorticoid hormones weaken existing synaptic connections and inhibit the formation of new ones. Among other things, the hippocampus is one of the few formations in our brain that can generate new neurons, but glucocorticoids suppress the synthesis of neurons in the hippocampus, destroying its ability to consolidate new memories (memorize new things, learn).

A hypersensitive amygdala and a suppressed hippocampus is a very bad combination. Painful events may remain in the subconscious memory, with all the distortions and unpredictable perturbations that a disturbed amygdala can bring, but they will not be stored in the conscious memory. This situation will sometimes be expressed in the following feeling: nothing seems to have happened, but I have a feeling that something has happened, and I'm terribly upset. Here, an explanation for the following fact may be hidden: people who have received psychological trauma sometimes do not remember what kind of misfortune happened to them, but they react sharply to everything that reminds them of what happened, although they do not realize it. In less acute situations, a few strokes of an overly active amygdala with a weakened hippocampus can lead to the fact that you often feel sad, depressed, without knowing why.

Depressed state

Routine activation of the SNS/HPA system suppresses the biochemical basis of even a calm state of mind (not to mention a good one) in several ways.

Norepinephrine makes you feel mentally energized, ready to act, but glucocorticoid hormones suppress these sensations. Lack of norepinephrine can make a person dull, even apathetic, distracted; These are all classic symptoms of depression.

Gradually, glucocorticoids lower the release of dopamine. As a result, you stop enjoying activities you used to enjoy—another classic sign of depression.

Stress lowers levels of serotonin, probably the most important neurotransmitter for keeping you in good spirits. When the content of serotonin in the body falls, the level of norepinephrine, already reduced by glucocorticoids, also falls. In short, a lack of serotonin means that a person is prone to bouts of bad mood and is less affected by what is happening around.

internal process

Of course, our knowledge of psychological processes is very intimate. When I'm upset about something, I naturally don't think about all these biochemical details. However, having a general theoretical understanding of them, I can rather appreciate the purely physical nature of the flow of secondary darts, their impersonal nature, connection with previous events and fragility.

This position is helpful. She encourages action. Suffering is based on processes in the brain and body that can be understood. Change these processes and you will feel better. And you you can change them. And now we will discuss how this is done.

parasympathetic nervous system

So far, we've talked about how reactions based on greed and hate (especially hate) are propagated through the brain and body via the sympathetic nervous system. But the SNA is only one of the three branches autonomic nervous system(ANS), which operates mainly at an unconscious level and controls many body systems and their automatic reactions to changing conditions. The other two branches of the ANS are parasympathetic nervous system(PNS) and enteric nervous system(she knows your digestive system). We will talk about the PNS and SNS, because they play a key role in suffering - and its cessation.

The PNS stores the energy of your body and is responsible for your momentary activities. She is also responsible for the state of relaxation, often accompanied by a sense of peace. Therefore, it is called the system of "rest and assimilation of energy" - as opposed to the beloved principle of the SNA "fight or flight." These two branches of the ANS are related like the ends of a board lying on a log: when one goes up, the other end goes down.

The activity of the parasympathetic system is a normal state of relaxation of the body, brain and psyche. If our SNS were artificially turned off, we would still be alive, although we were unlikely to have survived in emergency situations. If we turn off the PNS, we will stop breathing, restore resources and die. Sympathetic activity is change the initial level of equilibrium of the PNS in response to the threat or the possibility of obtaining a "carrot". The cooling, balancing action of the PNS helps us think clearly and not act in haste (which would harm us and others). PNS pacifies the soul, communicates a sense of peace, which is important for contemplative practice.

Big Picture

The PNS and SNS have evolved hand in hand so that animals, including humans, can survive in the harshest environments. We need both of these systems.

For example, take five slightly deeper inhales and exhales. This will both invigorate and calm you, activating first the sympathetic and then the parasympathetic system - a kind of calm, rhythmic swaying. Then analyze your feelings. The combination of excitement and calmness - the quintessence of the peak of activity, familiar to athletes, businessmen, artists, lovers and those who practice meditation, is the result of the coordinated activity of the accelerator and brake - SNS and PNS.

Happiness, love, wisdom are obtained not by turning off the SNS, but by maintaining the entire autonomic nervous system in a state of optimal balance.

You need to activate mainly the parasympathetic system to maintain calm and peace.

Moderate activation of the SNS is desirable to maintain enthusiasm, liveliness and healthy enthusiasm.

A sharp activation of the SNS is required for urgent measures and decisions, when you have to act quickly, for example, not to miss amazing opportunities that have suddenly opened up at work or to respond to a late call from a teenager who asks to be taken home from a failed party.

These are the general recipes for a long, productive, happy life. But it takes practice to apply them in real life.

Way of practice

As they say, pain is inevitable, but this is not the case with suffering. If a person simply calmly accepts (observes) what is now emerging in his mind - a primary dart or a secondary one - allows this to be "present" as given, without his own reaction, he thereby immediately breaks the chain of suffering. Over time, through training, brain tuning and psyche, he will even be able to change what is manifesting - strengthening the positive and weakening the negative. This allows a person to relax and enjoy an ever-increasing sense of peace and purity of their true self.

Three processes - Adoption what appears in the mind working on trends their psyche and their change, as well as finding refuge in the foundations of being - and there are the foundations of practice on the path to awakening. In many ways they correspond to concentration, virtue and wisdom; and the three fundamental functions of the nervous system—learning, regulation, and selection.

End of introductory segment.

Another common variant of the Russian transliteration of the name Ajahn is Achaan. - Note. ed.

The cortex of the frontal lobes of the cerebral hemispheres. - Note. ed.

Theodosius Grigoryevich Dobzhansky (Dobzhansky) (1900–1975) was an American zoologist, geneticist, entomologist, and theistic evolutionist of Ukrainian origin.

The nuclear structures of the brain, as well as the hippocampus, amygdala, etc., although located in the “subcortex” (i.e., deep in the brain, under the cerebral cortex), also contain gray matter, like the superficial cortex. This is the oldest bark that arose from reptiles. - Note. ed.

Including the hippocampus "manages" emotional memory, especially more long-term complexes of emotions - feelings (feeling of love, for example). - Note. ed.

Richard Mendius, Rick Hanson

Brain and happiness. Mysteries of modern neuropsychology

Rick Hanson, Richard Mendius

Buddha's Brain

The Practical Neuroscience

Of Happiness, Love and Wisdom

Translation from English Vera Shtaerman

Scientific editing Marina Shirokova

Decoration Petra Petrova

...

Excellent book, comprehensive presentation of the topic. The authors in an accessible form told us how our brain works and how you can change it to make your life happier and fuller.

...

Philip David Zelazo, Ph.D., Nancy M. and John E. Lindal, Professor, Child Development Institute, University of Minnesota

...

Richard A. Heckler, Ph.D. John F Kennedy in Pasadena Hills, California

...

John Prenderhurst, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology at the California Institute for Integral Studies, editor-in-chief of The Sacred Mirror and Listening to the Heart of Silence

...

Richard K. Miller, PhD, Founding President, Integrative Recovery Institute

...

Introductory remarks

Rick Hanson

Brain and happiness. Mysteries of modern neuropsychology

I am here because a Serbian nationalist assassinated Archduke Ferdinand and provoked the First World War, which led to the unlikely, generally speaking, meeting of my parents at an army holiday in 1944. Each of us is at the moment where he is, as a result of a confluence of a thousand circumstances. How far back in time can we trace them? My son, who was born with an umbilical cord wrapped around his neck, is here thanks to hundreds of years of medical technology.

You can go much further. Most of the atoms that make up your body, including the oxygen atoms in your lungs and the iron atoms in your blood, were formed inside stars. In the early universe, there was virtually nothing but hydrogen. Stars are gigantic nuclear reactors where hydrogen atoms combine to form heavier elements and release colossal energy in the process. Stars that exploded as supernovae ejected the contents of their interiors into space.

Suffering due to alienation

Since we are all closely connected with the outside world and are interdependent, our attempts to separate ourselves from the world, to stop depending on it, usually fail, which leads to painful feelings of anxiety and anxiety. Moreover, even if such attempts temporarily succeed, it still leads to suffering. Thinking the world is “not me at all” is potentially dangerous. This attitude leads to fears and struggle with them. As soon as you say to yourself, "I am in this body and it separates me from the world," the imperfections of your flesh become your imperfections. If you think that you have gained excess weight or look somehow wrong, you are suffering. And because your body (like any other) is subject to disease, aging, death, you suffer.

inconstancy

We are dynamic systems

When a neuron emits an impulse, the palps at the ends of its axon throw a portion of molecules into the synapses (through the synapses, the neuron communicates with other neurons). Each palp contains about 200 small vesicles (so-called vesicles) filled with the neurotransmitter serotonin (Robinson, 2007). Whenever a neuron fires, 5–10 vesicles open. Because a typical neuron fires about 10 times per second, the vesicles in each palp are emptied every few seconds.

TYPICAL NEURON

On the body of the cell there are processes - the so-called dendrites. They receive neurotransmitters (neurotransmitters) from neighboring neurons. (Some neurons communicate directly with each other using electrical impulses.)

To put it simply, this is how it works. The sum of the signals coming to the neuron, millisecond by millisecond, determines whether it will fire or not.

Nerve signals are accelerated by myelin, the fatty substance that makes up the sheath of the neuron.

Rice. 3. Neuron (simplified diagram)

Rice. 4. Synapse (enlarged image shown in box)

It's hard to keep balance

For us to be healthy, all systems of our body and brain must maintain a balance between two conflicting needs. On the one hand, they must be open to exchange with the environment (Thompson, 2007), because only a dead system can be closed. On the other hand, each system must maintain considerable stability and proper orientation and remain within reasonable limits, not too "cold" and not too "hot". For example, inhibition from the prefrontal (frontal) cortex and excitation from the limbic system must balance each other. With too much inhibition, we can do nothing, and with too much excitement, we will be overloaded.

Alarms

Everything flows, everything is constantly changing

This nervous instability underlies all brain states. For example, any thought involves the instantaneous emergence of an appropriately organized ensemble of synapses in the neural pathways, which immediately disappears into a fruitful chaos to open the way for new thoughts (Atmanspracher and Graben, 2007). Follow a simple breath and you will notice how the sensations caused by it change, dissipate and soon disappear.

Everything changes. Such is the universal law of the external and internal world. Therefore, while a person is alive, the balance in him is continuously disturbed. But the brain, in order to help the organism survive, always seeks to stop the flow, to keep dynamic systems in place, to single out stable structures in this unstable world, to build unchanging plans in changing conditions. And as a result, he constantly catches the moment that has just passed, tries to understand it and take control of it.

It's like we're living by a waterfall. Every moment falls upon us (we perceive it always and only as now) and immediately disappears. But the brain always grasps what has just passed by.

Not so pleasant or even painful

Sensual tone of the event

How does the brain decide whether to approach something or not? Imagine that you are walking through a forest. The path turns sharply, and you see a curved object in front of you. Further events can be simply described as follows. The light reflected by a curved object for the first few fractions of a second enters the occipital cortex (it processes visual information) to be converted into a meaningful image (see Fig. 5). From the occipital cortex, the image is sent in two directions. In the hippocampus - for a quick assessment of the degree of danger or usefulness of an object, as well as in the frontal cortex and other higher parts of the brain - for a longer and more detailed analysis of information.

Just in case, the hippocampus quickly compares the image it receives with what is stored in its small list of “bounce, then think” objects, quickly finds objects writhing in the sand and sends an urgent impulse to the amygdala (it is also simply called the amygdala): “Beware.” The amygdala works like a tocsin. It immediately sends a general warning throughout the brain and a specific, quick "fight or fight" signal to your nervous and hormonal systems (Rasia-Filho, Londero, and Achaval, 2000). We will talk more about the flight-or-fight cascade in the next chapter. Here we only note that a second or two after you notice a strange object, you bounce off it in fright.

Rice. 5. You see a possible danger or a chance for pleasure.

Whatever you experience, pleasant, unpleasant, or indifferent, is called in Buddhism a feeling tone (or, in the language of Western psychology, a hedonistic tone). Feeling tone is generated primarily by the amygdala (LeDoux, 1995) and spreads very widely from there. This is a simple but powerful way to tell the brain as a whole what to do: approach a nice gingerbread or run away from an unpleasant whip, or something else.

KEY NEUROCHEMICAL AGENTS

Let us name the main neurochemical agents influencing nervous activity that are relevant to the content of our book.

Primary neurotransmitters

Glutamate - excites the receiving neurons.

Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) - inhibits receiving neurons.

neuromodulators

These substances (sometimes also called neurotransmitters) affect the work of the above-mentioned main neurotransmitters. When acting, they cover the brain as a whole and, therefore, have a strong effect.

Serotonin - regulates mood, sleep, digestion; Most antidepressants are designed to enhance its effect.

Rick Hanson, Richard Mendius

Buddha's Brain

The Practical Neuroscience

of Happiness, Love and Wisdom

Translation from English Vera Shtaerman

Scientific editing Marina Shirokova

Decoration Petra Petrova

Excellent book, comprehensive presentation of the topic. The authors in an accessible form told us how our brain works and how you can change it to make your life happier and fuller.

Its fundamentality is based on the latest achievements of neuroscience and reinforced by a deep understanding of contemplative practice. This accessible, exciting and profound book is the epitome of practical wisdom.

Philip David Zelazo, Ph.D., Nancy M. and John E. Lindal, Professor, Child Development Institute, University of Minnesota

Fascinating, easy to read and very useful book. She skillfully answers the main question in the life of each of us - how to become happy? - presenting us with the basic rules of Buddhism, combined with a story about how our brain works. This book will be useful to anyone who wants to understand the time-tested methods of wise living, tested by the most modern science.

Frederic Luskin, PhD, author of Forgive Once and For All and director of the Stanford Forgiveness Project

I wish I had a science teacher like Rick Hanson when I was in school. This book is funny, engaging, and deep at the same time. It not only shows us the right paths to true happiness, but also gives us a psychological explanation for them. This book teaches us to enjoy positive experiences. Take for granted the good information it contains and savor it.

Rick Hanson is a man with a scientific mind, a psychologist's approach, a father's wise heart, and at the same time a sincere adherent of meditation. He has created a guide for those who wish to explore and embrace ingenious new research that combines neuroscience, psychology and true spiritual aspirations. The latest discoveries, combined with modern training techniques, make reading this book very rewarding.

Richard A. Heckler, Ph.D. John F Kennedy in Pasadena Hills, California

This highly informative book creates a synthesis of state-of-the-art neuropsychology and ancient Buddhist wisdom, full of practical methods for gradually changing your brain towards a happier life. The book is bright, accessible, with good humor.

John Prenderhurst, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology at the California Institute for Integral Studies, editor-in-chief of The Sacred Mirror and Listening to the Heart of Silence

The book will show you mind exercises based on the contemplative tradition that will help you live a peaceful and happy life. This book provides a scientific understanding of such techniques and guides the pursuits that cultivate a wise and free heart.

This book allows you to understand how the human operating system works, and through this, act smarter, live a fuller life, treat yourself and others with compassion, kindness and care. I especially liked Rick Hanson's ability to clearly identify the causes of suffering and outline acceptable ways to change the situation and lasting change at all levels - in our psyche, in the body and in relationships with people. His informative, calm, easy-to-read style motivated me to take this book in my hands again and again and each time delve deeper into the complexity of the human device.

Richard K. Miller, PhD, Founding President, Integrative Recovery Institute

This book is a significant contribution to the ongoing dynamic dialogue between neuroscientists and psychologists and practitioners of Buddhist brain improvement. The authors, based on their own experience gained in the course of meditation, and on scientific methods, again and again point out the possibility of a deep restructuring of our psyche and life.

Recent advances in psychology and neuroscience have resulted in fruitful insights into how our brains work. They are largely consistent with the wisdom of a thousand-year tradition of contemplative practice. The authors have provided us with a practical guide to using these two learning methods to teach ourselves and others wisdom, compassion, and focus.

Robert Truogh, M.D., Professor at Harvard Medical School, Executive Director of the Institute for Professionalism and Ethical Practice, Senior Critical Medicine Consultant at Boston Children's Hospital

Introductory remarks

Daniel Siegel, MD

the Science of Personal Transformation” and “Attentive Brain:

reflections on achieving and cultivating well-being”.

Consciousness Alteration Institute and Research Center

UCLA Mindfulness, Los Angeles, CA

Portal for the student. Self-training

Introductory remarks

Foreword

Thanks

Introduction

How to use this book

Unprecedented opportunities

Awakening brain

Causes of suffering

Virtue, Concentration and Wisdom

Regulation, training and selection

Guide your psyche

Believe in yourself

The world is on the edge of a knife

Chapter 1: Key Thoughts

Three Survival Strategies

Not so isolated

Not so separated

Not so independent

Suffering due to alienation

inconstancy

We are dynamic systems

It's hard to keep balance

Alarms

Everything flows, everything is constantly changing

Not so pleasant or even painful

Sensual tone of the event

In pursuit of gingerbread

Desire brings suffering

The whip is stronger than the gingerbread

Vigilance and vigilance

Susceptibility to negative information

long-term traces

Malicious cycles

Avoidance is also associated with suffering.

Trapped in a reality simulator

A virtual reality

Imaginary models bring us misery

Self sympathy

Chapter 2: Key Thoughts

The darts we throw at ourselves

warm up

Alert

Ready for action

Life on slow fire

Physical Consequences

Mental Consequences

Anxiety

Depressed state

internal process

parasympathetic nervous system

Big Picture

Way of practice

Introductory remarks

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