Buddha’s Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom.

In Buddha’s Brain, Drs. Rick Hanson and Richard Mendius offer you a beautifully clear and practical connection to the essential wisdom teachings of the Buddha. Using the contemporary language of scientific research, they invite the reader to open to the mysteries of the mind, bringing a modern understanding to the ancient and profound teachings of inner meditation practice. Buddha’s Brain skillfully weaves these classical teachings with the revolutionary findings of neuroscience, which has begun to confirm the human capacities for mindfulness, compassion, and self-regulation that are central to contemplative training. In reading this book, you will learn both brain science and practical inner ways to enhance well-being, develop ease and compassion, and reduce suffering. You will be introduced to wise new perspectives on life and the biological bases for fostering the development of this wisdom. These chapters will help you better understand the workings of the mind and the neurological roots of happiness, empathy, and interdependence. The teachings that underlie each chapter—the noble truths, the foundations of mindfulness, and the development of virtue, lovingkindness, forgiveness, and inner peace—are straightforward and immediate, presented with the Buddha’s openhanded invitation for each person to understand individually. The practices that follow these teachings are equally clear and authentic. They offer fundamentally the same trainings you would receive in a meditation temple. 

Bibliography:

Hanson, Rick with Richard Mendius. Buddha’s Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom. Oakland: New Harbinger Publications, Inc. 2009.