What is Reddit's opinion of Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom?

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That's the trick though isn't it? Meditation isn't concentration on nothing. It is simply being present in the current moment, and not letting your mind wander forward into the future(anxiety) or dwell on the past(depression). As thoughts wander by, acknowledge that you them and let them go. Do not dwell.

Something that helps me, specifically with the breathing, is focusing on one body part for each breath, and how it feels to inhale upwards, and exhale downwards. For example, I meditate on my back, so I breath in my upper chest, and out my shoulderblades. Then I breath in my abs, and out my lower back. In my forehead, out the back of my skull. Really feel the breath move your body.

In m humble opinion, anyone interested in meditation should read Buddha's Brain by Rick Hanson. It's a fascinating look in to how your brain actually reacts to meditation, how inhaling and exhaling release different neurochemicals, and looks into the science of buddhist meditation.

Not specifically related to yoga, but if you'd like to increase your understanding and control of the physiology of emotional responses, I'd highly recommend this book. (It did a lot to help me get a handle on my anxiety responses.) http://www.amazon.com/Buddhas-Brain-Practical-Neuroscience-Happiness/dp/1572246952/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1458750718&sr=8-1&keywords=buddha%27s+brain

Check out The Buddha's Brain. It gets into the weeds a bit about the neoroscience of meditation.

Buddha’s Brain is pretty helpful:

https://www.amazon.com/Buddhas-Brain-Practical-Neuroscience-Happiness/dp/1572246952/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=buddha’s+brain&qid=1603507959&sr=8-3

> If I do relaxations like that everyday could I recondition it to calmness?

While no one can say, "for sure," with respect to "every single person who would try that," we can say, "very likely." Neurons that fire together, wire together and become default mode networks over time as receptor sites at synaptic junctions for "agitation DMNs" "die off" (actually, more like "molecularly de-compose"). One can see that occurring with fMRI and other types of brain scanning. I recollect it being discussed as far back as when this best seller came out and somewhat before.

Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom this is a good read. Not really what you're looking for, but it's a very interesting book.

I highly, highly recommend this book for that:

http://www.amazon.com/Buddhas-Brain-Practical-Neuroscience-Happiness/dp/1572246952/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1458157786&sr=8-1&keywords=buddha%27s+brain

Let me give you three books that have been helpful to me.

Buddha's Brain -- NOT a book on Buddhism. It's a book about how your brain functions and how depression/anxiety affects it and can be overcome. Buddha's only in there due to meditation and the kind of calmness embodied by the Buddha. The name is kind of like, "Hey, don't you want to be like this guy? He didn't worry about shit."

Undoing Depression -- This is great if you want just a good scientific explanation of what's going on with you, what your diagnoses mean, and how to fix it without even a little bit looking like you might be considering Buddhism.

I really like both of these for their scientific explanations of what your brain is like and how that can be changed. I saw that you can't go to therapy, which would be great, so I'm going to recommend another book for you to help you do it yourself.

Mind Over Mood -- This is cognitive behavioral therapy at home. The advantage to having a therapist is that with this book, you don't have any should to cry on and you can't ask for clarification. The good news is that it's pretty simple, so you probably won't need clarification, and that if you work through this book, you probably won't need a shoulder to cry on too often.

If you could only choose one book, I'd go with Mind Over Mood. Maybe the other books' explanations would be helpful to you, but I didn't get as much step-by-step "This is how you fix yourself" help from them.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1572246952/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_ovABvb1C4E30H

I think you want neuroscience books, not cogsci. If you are looking for pop books I would recommend this. Another good one is The synaptic self.

I think people have a lot of misunderstanding about Buddhism. I suspect that this thread is perhaps not focused on developing a better understanding of Buddhism, but I will try.

1. Karma is not so much a Buddhist concept but more the intellectual backdrop on which Buddha developed his understanding. There are many ways to understand it. The best explanation I have read is here :Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom.

2. Please notice that Buddhism denies the existence of the soul, reincineration is many ways is like the law of conservation of energy.

3. Buddha spoke specifically against Nihilism. Buddhism does not focus on suffering , it focuses on eliminating suffering.

4. Buddha was very specific about women being equal to man in Buddhism. However many cultures in which Buddhism was practiced were (/are )misogynistic. This is no fault of Buddhism.

I understand that a Buddhist posting here is not so welcomed but I hope this post will contribute to better understanding .

This book totally changed my life.