Indeed, the sage who's fully quenched!

Rests at ease in every way;!

No sense desire adheres to him or her!
Whose fires have cooled, deprived of fuel.!
!
All attachments have been severed,!
The heart's been led away from pain;!
Tranquil, he or she rests with utmost ease.!
The mind has found its way to peace.!
!!!
The Buddha! 1
 Equanimity:

In the Dharma and in Your Brain

Spirit Rock Meditation Center

March 30, 2014

Rick Hanson, Ph.D.

www.WiseBrain.org www.RickHanson.net
2
Topics
  Perspectives
  Self-directed neuroplasticity
  Self-compassion
  Growing inner strengths
  The 2nd and 3rd Noble Truths
  Stop throwing darts
  The Avoiding system
  The Approaching system
  The Attaching system
  Eddies in the stream
  The fruit as the path
3
Perspectives

4
What Is Equanimity?
  Balance - not reacting to the fleeting stream of experience

  Steadiness - sustained through all circumstances

  Presence - engaged with the world but not troubled by it;

guided by values and virtues, not reactive patterns

The ancient circuitry of the brain continually triggers

reactions. Equanimity is the circuit breaker that prevents
the craving (broadly defined) that leads to suffering.

Equanimity is thus at the center of Buddhist practice.

5
 Penetrative insight !
!
joined with calm abiding !
!
utterly eradicates !
!
afflicted states.!
!
Shantideva
6
Common - and Fertile - Ground

Neuroscience Psychology

Buddhism
8
Self-Directed Neuroplasticity

9
10
The Natural Mind

Apart from the hypothetical influence of a

transcendental X factor . . .

Awareness and unconsciousness, mindfulness

and delusion, and happiness and suffering
must be natural processes.

Mind is grounded in life.

11
 We ask, “What is a thought?”!
!
We don't know, !
!
yet we are thinking continually.!
!

!
Venerable Tenzin Palmo!

12
Mental activity entails
underlying neural activity.

13
Ardent, Diligent, Resolute, and Mindful

14
Repeated mental activity entails
repeated neural activity.

Repeated neural activity

builds neural structure.

15
16
Lazar, et al. 2005.
Meditation
experience is
associated
with increased
cortical thickness.
Neuroreport, 16,
1893-1897.

17
The Opportunity

We can use the mind

To change the brain

To change the mind for the better

To benefit ourselves and other beings.

18
Self-Compassion

19
 If one going down into a river, !
swollen and swiftly flowing, !
is carried away by the current -- !
how can one help others across?!
!
!
The Buddha
20
 !
The root of Buddhism is compassion,!
!
and the root of compassion is compassion for oneself. !
!
!
Pema Chodren!

21
Self-Compassion
  Compassion is the wish that someone not suffer, combined with
feelings of sympathetic concern. Self-compassion simply applies that to
oneself. It is not self-pity, complaining, or wallowing in pain.

  Self-compassion is a major area of research, with studies showing that

it buffers stress and increases resilience and self-worth.

  But self-compassion is hard for many people, due to feelings of

unworthiness, self-criticism, or “internalized oppression.” To encourage
the neural substrates of self-compassion:
  Get the sense of being cared about by someone else.
  Bring to mind someone you naturally feel compassion for
  Sink into the experience of compassion in your body

  Then shift the focus of compassion to yourself, perhaps with phrases

like: “May I not suffer. May the pain of this moment pass.” 22
“Anthem”

Ring the bells that still can ring!

Forget your perfect offering!
There is a crack in everything!
That’s how the light gets in!
That’s how the light gets in

Leonard Cohen

23
Growing Inner Strengths

24
25
 Major Buddhist Inner Strengths

Mindfulness Compassion View

Investigation Kindness Intention
Energy Altruistic joy Effort
Bliss
Tranquility Virtue Conviction
Concentration Wisdom Generosity
Equanimity Patience

26
Inner Strengths Include
  Virtues (e.g., patience, energy, generosity, restraint)

  Executive functions (e.g., meta-cognition)

  Attitudes (e.g., optimism, openness, confidence)

  Capabilities (e.g., mindfulness, emotional

intelligence, resilience)

  Positive emotions (e.g., gratitude, self-compassion)

27

  Approach orientation (e.g., curiosity, exploration)

Inner Strengths Are Built From Brain Structure
28
Growing Inner Strengths
Inner strengths are grown from positive mental states
that are turned into positive neural traits.

Change in neural structure and function (learning,

memory) involves activation and installation.

We become more compassionate by repeatedly

internalizing feelings of compassion; etc.

Without installation, there is no growth, no learning,

no lasting benefit.
29
Negative Experiences In Context
  Going negative about negative --> more negative

  Some inner strengths come only from negative

experiences, e.g., knowing you’ll do the hard thing.

  But negative experiences have inherent costs, in

discomfort and stress.

  Many inner strengths could have been developed

without the costs of negative experiences.

  Many negative experiences are pain with no gain. 30

The Brain’s Negativity Bias
  As our ancestors evolved, avoiding “sticks” was
more important for survival than getting “carrots.”

  Negative stimuli:
  More attention and processing
  Greater motivational focus: loss aversion

  Preferential encoding in implicit memory:

  We learn faster from pain than pleasure.
  Negative interactions: more impactful than positive
  Easy to create learned helplessness, hard to undo
31

  Rapid sensitization to negative through cortisol

The Negativity Bias
32
HEAL by Taking in the Good

1. Have a positive experience. Notice it or create it.

2. Enrich the experience through duration, intensity,

multimodality, novelty, personal relevance

3. Absorb the experience by intending and sensing that

it is sinking into you as you sink into it.

4. Link positive and negative material.

33
Let’s Try It
  Notice the experience already present in awareness
that you are alright right now
  Have the experience
  Enrich it
  Absorb it

  Create the experience of compassion

  Have the experience - bring to mind someone you care
about . . . Feel caring . . . Wish that he or she not
suffer . . . Open to compassion
  Enrich it
  Absorb it
34
 !
!
Keep a green bough in your heart,!
and a singing bird will come.!
!
Lao Tsu

35
The Role of Cultivation
  Three fundamental ways to engage the mind:
  Be with it. Decrease negative. Increase positive.
  The garden: Observe. Pull weeds. Plant flowers.
  Let be. Let go. Let in.
  Mindfulness present in all three ways to engage mind

  While “being with” is profound, it can be isolated and

over-valued in some therapies or spiritual practices.

  Skillful means for decreasing the negative and

increasing the positive have developed over
thousands of years. Why not use them? 36
37
 !
Know the mind.!
!
Shape the mind.!
!
Free the mind.!
!

38
 Think not lightly of good, !
saying, "It will not come to me.”!
!
Drop by drop is the water pot filled.!
!
Likewise, the wise one, !
gathering it little by little, !
fills oneself with good.!
!
Dhammapada 9.122 39
The 2nd and 3rd Noble Truths

40
A Telling of the Four Noble Truths

There is suffering.

When craving arises, so does suffering.

When craving passes away, so does suffering.

There is an eight-part path that both embodies and

leads to the passing away of this craving.

41
Evolution of the Brain

42
Three Motivational and
Self-Regulatory Systems
  Avoid Harms:
  Predators, natural hazards, aggression, pain
  Primary need, tends to trump all others

  Approach Rewards:
  Food, shelter, mating, pleasure
  Mammals: rich emotions and sustained pursuit

  Attach to Others:
  Bonding, language, empathy, cooperation, love
  Taps older Avoiding and Approaching networks

43
Each system can draw on the other two for its ends.
 Craving Arising . . .
When invaded by threat, loss, or rejection [felt deficit or
disturbance of safety, satisfaction, or connection]:

The body fires up into the stress response; outputs exceed

inputs; long-term building is deferred.

The mind fires up into:

  Fear (the Avoiding system)
  Frustration (the Approaching system)
  Heartache (the Attaching system)

This is the brain in its allostatic, Reactive, craving mode.

44
 Craving Passing Away . . .
When not invaded by threat, loss, or rejection [no felt deficit
or disturbance of safety, satisfaction, and connection]

The body defaults to a sustainable equilibrium of refueling,

repairing, and pleasant abiding.
The mind defaults to a sustainable equilibrium of:
  Peace (the Avoiding system)
  Contentment (the Approaching system)
  Love (the Attaching system)

This is the brain in its homeostatic Responsive,

minimal craving mode. 45
Choices . . .

Or?

Reactive Mode Responsive Mode46

47
Coming Home, Staying Home
Positive experiences of core needs met - the
felt sense of safety, satisfaction, and
connection - activate Responsive mode.

Activated Responsive states can become

installed Responsive traits. Responsive
traits foster Responsive states.

Responsive states and traits enable us to

stay Responsive with challenges.
48
Pet the Lizard

49
Feed the Mouse

50
Hug the Monkey

51
 Peace

Contentment

Love
52
Some Types of Resource Experiences
Avoiding Harms
  Feeling basically alright right now
  Feeling protected, strong, safe, at peace
  The sense that awareness itself is untroubled

Approaching Rewards
  Feeling basically full, the enoughness in this moment as it is
  Feeling pleasured, glad, grateful, satisfied
  Therapeutic, spiritual, or existential realizations

Attaching to Others
  Feeling basically connected
  Feeling included, seen, liked, appreciated, loved
53
  Feeling compassionate, kind, generous, loving
Stop Throwing Darts

54
The First and Second Dart

  The Buddha called unavoidable discomfort the “first dart.”

  Then we add our reactions to it, e.g., fear of pain, anger at hurt.

  Sometimes we react with suffering when there is no first dart at

all, simply a condition there’s no need to get upset about.

  And sometimes we react with suffering to positive events, such

as a compliment or an opportunity.

  The Buddha called these reactions “second darts” - the ones

we throw ourselves.
55
Liking and Wanting
  Distinct neural systems for liking and wanting

  In the brain: feeling/hedonic tone --> enjoying (liking)

--> wanting --> pursuing
  Wanting without liking is hell.
  Liking without wanting is heaven.

  The distinction between chandha (wholesome wishes

and aspirations) and tanha (craving)

  But beware: the brain usually wants (craves) and

pursues (clings to) what it likes. 56
Practicing with Wanting

  Help chandha replace tanha; flowers crowd out weeds.

  Surround pleasant or unpleasant feeling tones with spacious

awareness - the “shock absorber” - without tipping into craving.

  Regard wants as just more mental content. Investigate them.

Watch them come and go. No compulsion, no “must.”

  Be skeptical of predicted rewards - simplistic and inflated, from

primitive subcortical regions. Explore healthy disenchantment.

  Pick a key want and explore what it is like not to do it for a

second, a minute, or longer. 57
!
!
!
I make myself rich by making my wants few.!
!
!
Henry David Thoreau!

58
!
!
If you let go a little, you will have a little happiness.!
!
If you let go a lot, you will have a lot of happiness.!
!
If you let go completely, you will be completely happy.!
!
!
Ajahn Chah!
59
 In the deepest forms of insight, !
we see that things change so quickly !
that we can't hold onto anything, !
and eventually the mind lets go of clinging. !
!
Letting go brings equanimity. !
The greater the letting go, the deeper the equanimity.!
In Buddhist practice, we work to expand !
the range of life experiences in which we are free. !
!
U Pandita!
60
The Avoiding System

61
Cooling the Fires

  Regard stressful activation as an affliction.

  To stimulate PNS to calm SNS:

  Big exhalation
  Relaxing the body
  Yawning
  Fiddling the lips
  Train in tranquility

  Regard bodily activation as another compounded,

“meaningless,” and impermanent phenomenon;
don’t react to it. 62
Not Harming

  Basis of morality in Buddhism and other traditions

  Applies to oneself as well as to others

  Precepts; Right Speech, Action, Livelihood

  The emphasis on abandoning ill will

  The distinction between moral action in the world and

succumbing to anger and ill will

  The reframing of not-doing in active, doing terms

63
Feeling Alright Right Now

  Tuning into bodily signals that you’re OK

  Recognizing protections

  Not afraid of paper tigers

  Feeling strong

64
The Approaching System

65
Feeling Already Full

  Sensing enoughness for the body

  Feeling buoyed and nurtured by the natural world

  Awareness of phenomena filling the mind

  Feeling filled by each moment’s arisings even as

they pass away.

66
Good Facts for Gladness and Gratitude

  The small pleasures of ordinary life

  The satisfaction of attaining goals or recognizing

accomplishments - especially small, everyday ones

  Feeling grateful, contented, and fulfilled

  Recognizing your positive character traits

  Spiritual or existential realizations

67
The Attaching System

68
69
Feeling Cared About

  As we evolved, we increasingly turned to and relied

on others to feel safer and less threatened.
  Exile from the band was a death sentence in the Serengeti.
  Attachment: relying on the secure base
  The well-documented power of social support to buffer
stress and aid recovery from painful experiences

  Methods:
  Recognize it’s kind to others to feel cared about yourself.
  Look for occasions to feel cared about and take them in.
  Deliberately bring to mind the experience of being cared
about in challenging situations.
70
Understanding Inter-Being

  Nothing arises on its own; everything is connected to

everything else.

  The world emerges from stardust.

  The body emerges from the world (sunlight lifts the

cup) and from nature, joined with all life.

  The mind emerges in the body, culture, and family.

71
The Buddha’s Words on Lovingkindness

Wishing: In gladness and in safety, may all beings be at ease. !

!
Omitting none, whether they are weak or strong, the great or the
mighty, medium, short, or small, the seen and the unseen, those
living near and far away, those born and to-be-born: May all
beings be at ease.!
!
Let none through anger or ill-will wish harm upon another. Even
as a mother protects with her life her child, her only child, so
with a boundless heart should one cherish all living beings;
radiating kindness over the entire world: spreading upwards to
the skies, and downwards to the depths, outwards and
unbounded, freed from hatred and ill-will. !
!
One should sustain this recollection. !
! 72

This is said to be the sublime abiding.

A Serenity Prayer

May I find the serenity to accept the things that cannot be changed,
the courage to change the things which should be changed,
and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.

Living one day at a time,

Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,
Taking this imperfect world as it is,
Not as I would have it,
Trusting in my refuges,
May I be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy forever some day.

Adapted from the Serenity Prayer, by Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971)! 73

Eddies in the Stream

74
 !
Blissful is passionlessness in the world,!
The overcoming of sensual desires;!
But the abolition of the conceit I am --!
That is truly the supreme bliss.!
!
The Buddha, Udāna 2.11

75
To study the Way is to study the self.!
!
To study the self is to forget the self.!
!
To forget the self is !
To be enlightened by all things.

Dogen

76
For one who clings motion exists, but for one who does not
cling there is no motion.
Where no motion is, there is stillness.
Where stillness is, there is no craving.
Where no craving is, there is neither coming nor going.
Where no coming or going is there is neither arising nor
passing away.
Where neither arising nor passing away is, there is neither
this world, nor a world beyond nor a state between.
This verily, is the end of suffering.

The Buddha, Udana 8:3 77

“Bahiya, you should train yourself thus.”

In reference to the seen, there will be only the seen. To

the heard, only the heard. To the sensed, only the
sensed. To the cognized, only the cognized.

When for you there will be only the seen in reference to

the seen, only the heard in the heard, only the
sensed in the sensed, only the cognized in the
cognized, then, Bahiya, there’s no you in that.

When there’s no you in that, there’s no you there.

When there’s no you there, you are neither here nor
yonder nor between the two.
78
This, just this, is the end of all suffering.
The Fruit as the Path

79
Cultivation Undoes Craving

  All life has goals. The brain continually seeks to avoid harms,
approach rewards, and attach to others - even that of a Buddha.

  It is wholesome to wish for the happiness, welfare, and

awakening of all beings - including the one with your nametag.

  We rest the mind upon positive states so that the brain may
gradually take their shape. This disentangles us from craving as
we increasingly rest in a peace, happiness, and love that is
independent of external conditions.

  With time, even the practice of cultivation falls away - like a raft
that is no longer needed once we reach the farther shore.
80
“Taking the Fruit as the Path”

Peace

Happiness

Love
81
 Whose mind is like rock, steady, unmoved,!
dispassionate for things that spark passion,!
unangered by things that spark anger:!
!
When one's mind is developed like this,!
from where can there come suffering & stress?!
!
The Buddha, Udāna 4.34
82
Suggested Books
See www.RickHanson.net for other great books.

  Austin, J. 2009. Selfless Insight: Zen and the Meditative Transformations of

Consciousness. MIT Press.
  Begley. S. 2007. Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain: How a New Science
Reveals Our Extraordinary Potential to Transform Ourselves. Ballantine.
  Hanson, R. 2009 (with R. Mendius). Buddha’s Brain: The Practical
Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom. New Harbinger.
  Johnson, S. 2005. Mind Wide Open: Your Brain and the Neuroscience of
Everyday Life. Scribner.
  Kornfield, J. 2009. The Wise Heart: A Guide to the Uiniversal Teachings of
Buddhist Psychology. Bantam.
  LeDoux, J. 2003. Synaptic Self: How Our Brains Become Who We Are. Penguin
  Sapolsky, R. 2004. Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers. Holt.
  Siegel, D. 2007. The Mindful Brain: Reflection and Attunement in the Cultivation
of Well-Being. W. W. Norton & Co.
  Thompson, E. 2007. Mind in Life: Biology, Phenomenology, and the Sciences of
Mind. Belknap Press. 83
Key Papers - 1
See www.RickHanson.net for other scientific papers.

  Atmanspacher, H. & Graben, P. 2007. Contextual emergence of mental states

from neurodynamics. Chaos & Complexity Letters, 2:151-168.

  Baumeister, R., Bratlavsky, E., Finkenauer, C. & Vohs, K. 2001. Bad is stronger
than good. Review of General Psychology, 5:323-370.

  Braver, T. & Cohen, J. 2000. On the control of control: The role of dopamine in
regulating prefrontal function and working memory; in Control of Cognitive
Processes: Attention and Performance XVIII. Monsel, S. & Driver, J. (eds.). MIT
Press.

  Carter, O.L., Callistemon, C., Ungerer, Y., Liu, G.B., & Pettigrew, J.D. 2005.
Meditation skills of Buddhist monks yield clues to brain's regulation of attention.
Current Biology. 15:412-413.

84
Key Papers - 2
  Davidson, R.J. 2004. Well-being and affective style: neural substrates and
biobehavioural correlates. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.
359:1395-1411.

  Farb, N.A.S., Segal, Z.V., Mayberg, H., Bean, J., McKeon, D., Fatima, Z., and
Anderson, A.K. 2007. Attending to the present: Mindfulness meditation reveals
distinct neural modes of self-reflection. SCAN, 2, 313-322.

  Gillihan, S.J. & Farah, M.J. 2005. Is self special? A critical review of evidence
from experimental psychology and cognitive neuroscience. Psychological
Bulletin, 131:76-97.

  Hagmann, P., Cammoun, L., Gigandet, X., Meuli, R., Honey, C.J., Wedeen, V.J.,
& Sporns, O. 2008. Mapping the structural core of human cerebral cortex. PLoS
Biology. 6:1479-1493.

  Hanson, R. 2008. Seven facts about the brain that incline the mind to joy. In
Measuring the immeasurable: The scientific case for spirituality. Sounds True. 85
Key Papers - 3
  Lazar, S., Kerr, C., Wasserman, R., Gray, J., Greve, D., Treadway, M.,
McGarvey, M., Quinn, B., Dusek, J., Benson, H., Rauch, S., Moore, C., & Fischl,
B. 2005. Meditation experience is associated with increased cortical thickness.
Neuroreport. 16:1893-1897.

  Lewis, M.D. & Todd, R.M. 2007. The self-regulating brain: Cortical-subcortical
feedback and the development of intelligent action. Cognitive Development,
22:406-430.

  Lieberman, M.D. & Eisenberger, N.I. 2009. Pains and pleasures of social life.
Science. 323:890-891.

  Lutz, A., Greischar, L., Rawlings, N., Ricard, M. and Davidson, R. 2004. Long-
term meditators self-induce high-amplitude gamma synchrony during mental
practice. PNAS. 101:16369-16373.

  Lutz, A., Slager, H.A., Dunne, J.D., & Davidson, R. J. 2008. Attention regulation
and monitoring in meditation. Trends in Cognitive Sciences. 12:163-169. 86
Key Papers - 4

  Takahashi, H., Kato, M., Matsuura, M., Mobbs, D., Suhara, T., & Okubo, Y.
2009. When your gain is my pain and your pain is my gain: Neural correlates of
envy and schadenfreude. Science. 323:937-939.

  Tang, Y.-Y., Ma, Y., Wang, J., Fan, Y., Feng, S., Lu, Q., Yu, Q., Sui, D.,
Rothbart, M.K., Fan, M., & Posner, M. 2007. Short-term meditation training
improves attention and self-regulation. PNAS. 104:17152-17156.

  Thompson, E. & Varela F.J. 2001. Radical embodiment: Neural dynamics and
consciousness. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 5:418-425.

  Walsh, R. & Shapiro, S. L. 2006. The meeting of meditative disciplines and

Western psychology: A mutually enriching dialogue. American Psychologist,
61:227-239.

87
 Where to Find Rick Hanson Online

Hardwiring Happiness: The New

Brain Science of Contentment,
Calm, and Confidence
www.rickhanson.net/hardwiringhappiness

Personal website: www.rickhanson.net

Wellspring Institute: www.wisebrain.org
88

youtube.com/drrhanson facebook.com/rickhansonphd