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Friday Favorite

by | May 16, 2014 | Blog

Nature’s beauty can be easily missed — but not through Louie Schwartzberg’s lens. His stunning time-lapse photography, accompanied by powerful words from Benedictine monk Brother David Steindl-Rast, serves as a meditation on being grateful for every day....

What is the Mind?

by | May 12, 2014 | Blog

What is the reason for the remarkable complexity, speed, activity, and evolution of the brain? It is the mind. By “mind,” I mean the flows of information within the brain; a synonymous term is “mental activity.” Much as the function of the heart is to move blood...

Friday Favorite

by | May 9, 2014 | Blog

I thought you might enjoy these murals adapted from my presentation on Positive Neuroplasticity at the Hudson Institute of Coaching earlier this month. They were illustrated by Nancy Turner, Graphic Recorder/Facilitator, phrases@fuse.net.

Creating a Field Guide to the Human Brain

by | May 5, 2014 | Blog

Guest post by Randy Roark, Producer for Sounds True. I’ve recently returned from recording a new program with Rick Hanson in Corte Madera, California. I first worked with Rick and his co-author Rick Mendius in 2009, when we recorded Meditations to Change Your Brain...

Focusing on the Positive

by | Apr 28, 2014 | Blog

Q: If you focus on the positive for long enough, does it actually make your brain more receptive to doing that? Turn it into “velcro” for happiness, to use your expression? A: Research shows that repeated practice of any positive behavior (e.g., gratitude) will...

Intention of Non-Ill Will

by | Apr 25, 2014 | Blog

Here we give up angry, punishing reactions toward others, animals, plants, and things. If such attitudes arise, we resolve not to feed them, and to cut them off as fast as we can. The Buddha placed great stress on the importance of releasing ill will. In the extreme,...
Key Points of Letting Go

Key Points of Letting Go

by | Apr 18, 2014 | Articles, Blog

“Let go a little, you’ll have a little happiness. Let go completely, you’ll be completely happy.” Letting Go of Body Sensations Ordinary breathing, focusing on exhalation, intending to let go. Diaphragm breathing. Breath of fire. Heartmath:...

Is the “Self” Real?

by | Apr 14, 2014 | Blog

Is the “Self” real? What’s the nature of the sense of being that remains when parts of the psyche fall away? The answer depends on how you define “Self.”  I use that word to refer to the central “I” that’s presumed in Western psychology and philosophy (and everyday...

The Effect of Relationships on the Evolving Human Brain

by | Apr 10, 2014 | Blog

Your brain is the product of 3.5 billion years of intense evolutionary pressure, including 2.7 million years as tool-using hominids and over 100,000 years as homo sapiens. Human DNA is about 98-99% identical to chimpanzee DNA. But that crucial 1-2% difference is...

What is the Best Time of Day to Meditate?

by | Apr 4, 2014 | Blog

What is the Best Time of Day to Meditate? In all the studies (and reviews of studies) I’ve seen on meditation, I’ve never seen anything scientific about best time of day to meditate. Maybe it exists, but I’ve never heard of it. From the standpoint of a long-time...

Brain Facts

by | Mar 31, 2014 | Blog

Did you know? Neurons typically fire 5 – 50 times a second, with millions and even billions of them pulsing in harmony with each other many times a second; the electrical currents of that pulsing are revealed as brain waves in an EEG. In the half second it takes you...

Intention of Harmlessness

by | Mar 28, 2014 | Blog

This is a broad aim of not causing pain, loss, or destruction to any living thing. At a minimum, this is a sweeping resolution to avoid any whit of harm to another human being. The implications are far-reaching, since most of us participate daily in activities whose...

Right Intention

by | Mar 21, 2014 | Blog

Of course, the first question regarding intention is, for what? All the great wisdom traditions of the world, and all the great moral philosophers, have grappled with this question. What should we want? There are many ways to approach this question. Some try to answer...

Developing a “Buddha Brain” Through Gratitude

by | Mar 19, 2014 | Blog

What role does gratitude play in developing a “buddha brain” and why? A ”buddha brain” is one that knows how to be deeply happy, loving, and wise. We develop ourselves in this way by cultivating wholesome qualities and uprooting unwholesome ones. In a sense, we plant...