Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom - Paperback

by Rick Hanson (Author), Richard Mendius (With), Daniel J. Siegel (Foreword by)

Change your brain, change your life with this essential classic from New York Times bestselling author, Rick Hanson--now celebrating 15 years in print with more than 500,000 copies sold!

Great teachers like the Buddha, Jesus, Moses, Mohammed, and Gandhi were all born with brains built essentially like anyone else's--and then they changed their brains in ways that changed the world. Neuroscience now reveals how the flow of thoughts actually sculpt the brain, and more and more, we are learning that it's possible to strengthen positive brain states. By combining breakthroughs in science with insights from thousands of years of mindfulness practice, you too can shape your own "Buddha's Brain" for greater happiness, love, and wisdom.

Buddha's Brain draws on evidence-based neuroscience to show you how to stimulate your brain for more fulfilling relationships, a deeper spiritual life, and a greater sense of inner confidence and self-worth. Using guided meditations and mindfulness exercises, you'll learn how to activate the brain states of calm, joy, and compassion instead of worry, sorrow, and anger. Most importantly, you will foster positive psychological growth that will literally change the way you live in your day-to-day life.

This book provides an essential intersection of psychology, neurology, and contemplative practice, and is filled with practical tools and skills that you can use every day to tap into the unused potential of your brain and rewire it over time for greater well-being.

Author Biography

Rick Hanson, PhD, is a psychologist, senior fellow at the University of California, Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center, and New York Times bestselling author. His books have been published in thirty-three languages, and include Making Great Relationships, Neurodharma, Resilient, Hardwiring Happiness, Buddha's Brain, Just One Thing, and Mother Nurture--with more than a million copies printed in English alone. His free newsletters have 250,000 subscribers, and his online programs have scholarships available for those with financial need. He's lectured at NASA, Google, Oxford, and Harvard, and taught in meditation centers worldwide. An expert on positive neuroplasticity, his work has been featured on BBC, CBS, NPR, and other major media; and he's the cohost of the Being Well podcast, downloaded over fifteen million times. He began meditating in 1974, and is founder of the Global Compassion Coalition as well as the Wellspring Institute for Neuroscience and Contemplative Wisdom. He and his wife live in northern California and have two adult children. He loves the wilderness and taking a break from emails.

Richard Mendius, MD, is a neurologist, and cofounder of the Wellspring Institute for Neuroscience and Contemplative Wisdom. He taught medicine at University of California, Los Angeles and Stanford University in Palo Alto, CA. He also teaches weekly meditation classes at San Quentin State Prison. He and his wife have three children.

Foreword writer Daniel J. Siegel, MD, is executive director of the Mindsight Institute and associate clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine. He is author of The Developing Mind, The Mindful Brain, and other books, and founding editor of the Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology.

Preface writer Jack Kornfield, PhD, is cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA, and a founding teacher of Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, CA. He is author of many books, including A Path with Heart and The Wise Heart