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