A Buddha mindbrain

BOOK - Rick Hanson (2009) “The Buddha’s Brain – the practical neuroscience of happiness, love and wisdom”.

My first and lasting impression is that the book is down to earth and very well written. But, from the jacket blurb, there are warning lights – “You’ll learn how to activate the brain states of calm, joy, and compassion instead of worry, sorrow and anger.”

I feel that Hanson is too optimistic about the power of ‘nurture’ to massively overpower ‘nature’. He puts a lot of faith in the potential inherent in neural plasticity. He suggests that the mindbrain can close down some neural pathways and open up others. But this begs the questions of agency and scale.

AGENCY - Who or what is the ‘I’ that judges? The goal seems to be a robust and happy self (living a typical middle class existence) rather than the non-action (wu-wei) of the no-self (anatta).

SCALE – Nature’s hard wiring is plastic to some extent. By taking thought the mindbrain can, to some extent, change itself so as to better fit the particular physical and cultural environment that it inhabits. Individuals can change themselves but this can be tough going. A therapist/ teacher/ guru can help to steer and support - as can a group of like minded souls (Sangha). There are also the options of social engagement and of evangelism for the new way of thinking.

It is the old nature v nurture debate. There are nine possible viewpoints  – see here

Hanson openly and prominently acknowledges many leading, American meditation teachers. I know most of them as students of the Goldstein, Kornfield and Salzberg triumvirate working mainly out of the Insight Meditation and the Spirit Rock Meditation Centre. Vast numbers of audio talks of many of my favorite spiritual teachers are freely available from here. I used to listen to at least one dharma talk a day. They were excellent mood changers. But I grew out of them.

My impression was that many of the retreats serve psychotherapeutic rather than spiritual ends. The original retreat centres were obviously meeting a need and there are now many more of them. The worried well will pay lots of dosh for the experience of being with like minded and supportive people.

BUT – I have a ‘thing’ about ‘changing minds’. This blog is evidence of the fact.  The mindbrain is an ongoing process of reacting and responding to changes in the world as recorded and reported by the sense organs and associated mindbrain modules. The modules are self sustaining but plastic enough to make radical changes. Change your mind and change the world. Action reflection cycles are the way to go if there is to be a flourishing of Buddha mindbrains.