Neurodharma
Brain Basics and Overviews
The Neurology of Awareness and Self
The self, a deep mystery, is central to suffering and awareness. From evolution to nonduality, this exploration unveils ways to transcend self-limiting illusions.
Interview with Rick Hanson and Richard Mendius
Rick and Richard explore the intersection of psychology, neurology, and meditation, offering practical tools for well-being. They run workshops, research, and a website.
Is the Mind-Body Problem a Problem at All?
Mind and matter co-arise, shaping each other in an interdependent flow. Information isn’t just in matter—it influences and is influenced by it, forming one unified system.
The Two Wings of Psychological Growth and Contemplative Practice
Balancing “being with” and “working with” is key to psychological growth. Presence fosters mindfulness, while effort cultivates change—together, they enable transformation.
Seven Facts About the Brain That Incline the Mind to Joy
Your mind and brain are deeply intertwined—your experiences shape your brain, and your brain shapes your experiences. By focusing on the positive, you rewire yourself for well-being.
Your Wonderful Brain
Your brain is the most complex object in the universe, shaping your mind and experience. Understanding its function helps you change it for lasting well-being.
Glossary: The Neurology of Awakening
The brain’s intricate network, from neurons to neurotransmitters, shapes cognition, emotion, and perception. Awakening aligns awareness with neurobiological processes.
Neuroscience and Contemplative Practice
Eddies in the Stream
All things—rivers, thoughts, stars—are fleeting eddies in a vast stream. Emerging, dispersing, and dependent on causes, they reveal impermanence and interconnection.
Mind Changing Brain Changing Mind
Neuroscience and Buddhism both explore the mind, but from different angles. Understanding how the brain shapes experience can deepen practice and enhance well-being.
Neuroscience Perspectives on Spiritual Practices
Neuroscience helps unpack spiritual practice by linking mental states to neural activity, fostering conviction, refining techniques, and enhancing self-awareness.
Buddha’s Brain: The New Neuroscience and the Path of Awakening – Inquiring Mind
Transforming the mind means changing the brain. Neuroscience supports Buddhist practice, showing how meditation rewires the brain for happiness, focus, and wisdom.
Well Being
The Power of Intention
Every day, remind yourself: I am alive, and my life is precious. Set clear intentions with wisdom and mindfulness to live with purpose and make a meaningful impact.
From Shame to Self-Worth
This article explores the journey from shame to self-worth, addressing emotions like inadequacy, guilt, and humiliation. It offers exercises to release shame and embrace inner value.
Peace of Mind: Emotions, the Limbic System, and Equanimity
Emotions are an evolutionary marvel, shaping human experience, social bonds, and survival. Rooted in the brain’s limbic system, they drive action, memory, and awareness.
Good Intentions: Neurological, Contemplative, and Practical Perspectives
Our intentions shape our actions and impact the world. By aligning with positive, skillful intentions like harmlessness and non-ill will, we cultivate personal growth and peace.
What Do You Mean, “Self?”
In college, two friends argued playfully about “freedom,” leading to a deeper reflection on the term “self.” Is it an entity or a process? Neuroscience and Buddhism explore this concept, questioning its true nature.
Twenty-One Ways to Feel Good about Yourself
Nurture growth through virtue, love, self-acceptance, and connection. Tend to what matters, take kind action, rest deeply, and trust the unfolding of your path.
Relaxed and Content, Part Two
Activate your parasympathetic nervous system to reduce stress, improve health, and enhance your mood. Techniques like breathing, meditation, and relaxation can help.
Relaxed and Content, Part One
You can activate your parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) to reduce stress and boost well-being. Learn simple techniques to trigger relaxation and balance your body.
Coping with Loss: Implications of Neuroscience and Contemplative Wisdom, Part Two
Discover how neuroscience-based techniques from psychology and contemplative practice can help your brain heal, cope with loss, and cultivate emotional resilience.
Coping with Loss: Implications of Neuroscience and Contemplative Wisdom, Part One
Loss is inevitable, from loved ones to fleeting moments. While grief is painful, embracing impermanence helps us grow. Science and wisdom offer ways to heal.
Gratitude
The holiday season can bring both joy and stress. Practicing gratitude helps counteract emotional challenges, offering peace amid chaos and a reminder of life’s deeper gifts.
How to Stick with Your Virtues and Good Purposes
Affirm your belief in yourself with motivating practices: reflect on the benefits of living with virtue and purpose, commit to your goals, and set reminders to stay on track.
Relationships
Intimacy and Autonomy
Balancing intimacy and autonomy is key to healthy relationships. True closeness respects individuality, while genuine independence allows for deeper connection.
Metta for the Whole World: A Meditative Reflection
Metta, or lovingkindness, expands our care beyond close circles to all beings. Flowing like breath, it embraces friends, strangers, and even those who hurt us.
The Brain in Lust and Love
Empathy evolved to foster connection, love, and cooperation, but also brings challenges like attachment and loss. Understanding it helps navigate relationships wisely.
Two Wolves in the Heart: The Evolution of Empathy and Aggression, Of “Us” and “Them”
Empathy is key to human connection, shaping relationships and society. It bridges “us” and “them,” fostering understanding. Cultivating it enriches both giver and receiver.
Balancing Joining and Separating
We all balance the need for closeness and separation. Healthy autonomy supports deep connection, just as connection nurtures a strong sense of self.
Giving Is Good: Generosity from Everyday, Buddhist, and Evolutionary Perspectives
Dana, or giving, is a path to generosity, selflessness, and connection. It fosters kindness, weakens greed, and enriches both giver and receiver, shaping a better world.
Empathy
Empathy connects us, personalizing kindness and compassion. It takes courage, fuels human evolution, and strengthens with practice. By nurturing it, we shape a better world.
21 Ways To Turn Ill Will to Good Will
We each have a wolf of love and a wolf of hate within us—it all depends on which we feed. Cultivating goodwill, mindfulness, and compassion tames ill will.
General Tools
Metta for the Whole World
Influence your brain toward clarity and peace with methods from neurology and Buddhism. Learn to cultivate steadiness, focus, and joy through mindful practices.
Selected Readings
Emotional Intelligence
by Daniel Goleman
Neurodharma
by Rick Hanson, PhD
Destructive Emotions
by Daniel Goleman
Why Zebras don't get Ulcers
by Robert M. Sapolsky
Rhythms of the Brain
by Gyorgy Buzsaki
The Feeling Of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness
by Antonio Damasio
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: And Other Clinical Tales
by Oliver Sacks
The Seven Sins of Memory: How the Mind Forgets and Remembers
by Daniel L. Schacter
Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History
by Stephen Jay Gould
The God Gene: How Faith Is Hardwired into Our Genes
by Dean H. Hamer
Nature Via Nurture: Genes, Experience, and What Makes Us Human
by Matt Ridley
Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon
by Daniel C. Dennett
A Path with Heart: A Guide Through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual Life
by Jack Kornfield
Mindfulness, Bliss, and Beyond
by Ajahn Brahm, foreword by Jack Kornfield
In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon (The Teachings of the Buddha)
by The Dalai Lama & Bhikkhu Bodhi
Majjhima Nikaya (From Sutta Pitaka): The Middle Length Discourses of Buddhism (From Bodhi Path Press)
by Bodhi Path Press
Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom
by Rick Hanson with Richard Mendius
One Blade of Grass: Finding the Old Road of the Heart, a Zen Memoir
by Henry Shukman