The Neurophysiology Of Compassion
Valdeane W. Brown, Ph.D.
Zengar Institute
Using CARE® to Return to the Core of Compassion
Five Main Things To Present An Overall “Buddhist” Perspective On
Transforming Suffering Into Compassion
Compassion As Simply Being Present
The Elegant Non-Linear, Dynamical Control
Structures of Our Neurophysiology
The Elegant Power Of NeuroCARE Pro® To
Being You Back to the Present
How These Work Together To Support Your
Transforming Suffering Into Compassion
Let’s Start With The “Buddhist” Transformational Perspective
It’s Odd To Talk About “Buddhism”The Root Concept Is To Wake Up!So We Are Talking About “Wake-ism”But Most Of Us Are Asleep At The
Wheel – Or Should Be, But In Bed!
Non-Sustainable, Consumer Culture Based On:
Sleep DeprivationChronic HyperventilationPoor NutritionDeprivation MotivationFear-Based Control Of “Threats”Spiritual Materialism & Acquisitive Envy
So We Put Ourselves To Sleep
Pursuing Our AddictionsTelling The Story Of Our IdentityWhich Is The Story Of Our SufferingAnd We Want To “Get Away From It All” “Calgon, Take Me Away”
Our Culture Orients Us To Look For Some “Thing”…
I’m DissatisfiedOthers Appear To Be Happy – At Least
In The Ads And Movies I Need What They Have To Be HappyUntil I Have That – Whatever It Is – I
Will Not Be HappyThis Sets Up The Cycle Of Suffering
The Cycle Of Suffering
I Feel Dissatisfied I Believe Some “Thing” Is Causing My
Dissatisfaction I Believe That Either Having Some
Other “Good Thing” Or Less Of The “Bad Thing” Will Relieve My Dissatisfaction
I “Get” What I Believe I Need And Feel “Less Bad” – At Least For A While…
And I Do This Day After Day, Hour Upon Hour, Moment By Moment…
Hoping Against Hope That The Rat Race Of My Suffering Will End Some Day
And, Of Course, It Does…Ultimately
The Suffering of “Trying to Be” Compassionate
I Feel Dissatisfied With Not Being Compassionate Because I Believe I Should Be Compassionate
I Believe That Doing Some Particular “Thing” Would Be Compassionate – And I lose My Connection to Myself, the Others & Life
I Do “It” – Or Not – And “It” Doesn’t Work – I’m Still Dissatisfied With Myself, Others & Life
Compassion Isn’t Some Special “Thing” to Be Done – It’s As Simple As Breathing In & Out
Now Let’s Look at This From a Physiological Perspective
The “Suffering” of Our Psychophsiology & Neurophysiology
Turbulence Precedes A Descent Into Chaos & “Lower” Energy Configurations
Think About How Muscles Fatigue
Constrained to Maintain a Configuration
That Can NOT Be Supported by Them
They Exhibit Turbulence at Some Point
And then “Catastrophically” Collapse
Into a Now-Sustainable Configuration
Attempting to Maintain a Static “Desired State” Co-Creates The Turbulence & “Collapse” That We Experience As Suffering
Simply Being Present to the Onset of the Turbulence Allows One to Make Even Subtle Modifications – Perhaps Sustaining the Overall Situation – Because of Your Connection to “What is”
Davidson’s Work With Meditation
Read All of the Articles – and the Books Re: the Mind & Life Series
40 Hz Activation Connected to Long Term Practice of Tibetan Monks
Localized as Well – This is What Most Focus on
The CNS Does That All on Its Own…
The Heart is “Localized” on the Left Side of the Body, But…
That Doesn’t Mean That Aerobic Exercise Should Be Done While “Leaning to the Left” Because That’s WHERE the Activity “Lives & Breathes”
Nor That It Should Be Done While “Leaning to the Right” to Balance Out That Asymmetry
Spring Comes & The Grass Grows By Itself – The CNS Self-Organizes
Lehman’s Companion Work
Shows the Same Lateralized/Localized 40 Hz Activity as Does Davidson
And it Shows a Compensatory Lateralization/Localization Involving a Compensatory Time-Frequency Event
21 Hz Activation That Effectively “Counterbalances” the 40 Hz Activation That Has Drawn Such Attention
Both Patterns Emerge Auto-Poetically – On Their Own
Without Site Specific TargetingAs an Outgrowth of Traditional
PracticesThat are Seen as “Nothing Special”Just Manifestations of Absolute
Bodhicitta – The Clear, Open Sky of Unconditioned Consciousness
And This Is Compassion Itself
Don’t Forget: You Must Be Present To Play
Most Of Us Don’t Even Show Up, Let Alone Play – And We, thereby, Get Captured by Our Own “Terminal Seriosity”
But Compassion is the “Play” of Being Present All The Time…
Simply Being Present – In the “Dance of Life – Is The Core of Compassion & The Core of Connection
A “Buddhist” Solution Orientation
We Create Our Own SufferingBy Attaching To Unuseful PerspectivesThat Create The Problems (ie What We
Do NOT Want)That Drive Us To Do What We Do NOT
Want To Do And Does Not Sustain UsAnd So It Goes, Unless
We Can Step Off Of That “Cycle Of Living And Dying” And Just Return To The Present
Stopping, Calming, Resting, Healing – a la Thich Nhat Hanh
The Four Foundations
Liberation Is At Hand (Fourth Noble Truth) Everything Changes (First Noble Truth) Trying To Keep Things The Same (ie Make
Them How They Are NOT) Creates Suffering (Second Noble Truth)
Stop Doing That And (Continue To) Return To What Is Present And Do What You Want To Do Here And Now (Third Noble Truth)
Do What I Want?Yes, Because Your Belief In Needs Is
An IllusionThat Creates The SufferingThat Drives You To Do What You Do
NOT Want To Do – To NOT SufferAnd This Precludes Your Doing What
You Actually WANT To Do, Like: “When Hungry Eat, When Tired Sleep”
Three Central Ideas
Non-SelfNon-PermanenceNon-Creating Of Dissatisfaction
Two Critical Actions
Breathing In – the Suffering of OthersBreathing Out – The Joy, Peace,
Security, Wholeness You Experience
Two Critical Actions Becomes One Process
Tonglen – Giving & Taking
Tonlgen Rides the Breath
Take in the Suffering (ie Accept that it is Present) & Give What You Have
The Tibetans Are Tough!
It’s “Buddhism With An Attitude” as Alan Wallace Calls it
But They Know Something Fundamental
Take in the Suffering – in Compassion for All Beings (Including Yourself) – And There Is No Separation
Give Your Breath Away Fully & the Universe Will Fill You…
The Present Is Complete, Full & Perfect Just As It Is – esp When You’re Suffering
Realizing This Leads To One Thing
Dristah dharma sukha viharin – Or “Remaining Happy In Things As They Are” – Right Here, Right Now
Otherwise Compassion Can Become Enmeshed in Spiritual Materialism
Trying to Achieve or Acquire Spiritual Experience As Though That Were Another Thing To Win Or Own
“One Day I’ll Be Compassionate” Is A Very Clear Way to NOT Be Compassionate to Yourself, Right Here, Right Now
It’s Not About Achieving What You Don’t Have
It’s Simply Being Who And What You Are…The Rest Flows From That And The Ease Of Being With What Is
When You Are Fully Aware And Wholly Involved With What Is Present There Is No Need To Do Something Compassionate – You Can’t NOT Be Compassionate
As The Zen Story Says: Having Your Self Stuck Nowhere (Else), Let Go Of Your Stories And Get On With It...
Shift the Focus Of The Process
From The Pursuit Of Rarified States Of Exceptional Achievement For A Few
To The Existential Enjoyment Of A Discernible and Learnable Process With Benefits “For The Rest Of Us”
Which Means Doing Neurofeedback In a Way That Directly Brings You Back to the Present
Regardless Of “Why” You Come For Neurofeedback Training
Neurofeedback Exercises The CNS So It Nonlinearly Reestablishes Its Own Optimal Flow And Function
Disorders Are All Particular Ways That The CNS Is Operating Ineffectively And Inefficiently
Which Brings Us To Using NeuroCARE Pro® For Neurofeedback
NeuroCARE Pro Is A Maximally Comprehensive Environment For Neurofeedback
What Makes NeuroCARE Pro® So Comprehensive?
It Allows For Training All Useful Targets Concurrently By Simply Targeting the Emergence of Turbulence…
What Makes NeuroCARE Pro® So Comprehensive?
It’s Nothng Special for Accessing a “Preferred State” or Special Configuration – It Just Returns You to the Present
And The Present Is Always A Gift
How You Dance With That Gift Is Up To You
As Patanjali Said: Yoga Niroddah Citta Vritti
Coming Back to Wholeness Happens – on its own – When You Release the Rippling in Your Consciousness
And That’s About As Compassionate As It Gets
May All Beings Be Released From Suffering And The Causes And Conditions Of Suffering