Buddhist Radio: Anger, Emotions, the Brain

Karla McLaren (Language of Emotions), Dr. Rick Hanson (Enlightened Brain), Roy Tuckman ("Something's Happening," KPFK) and SoundsTrue.com; Wisdom Quarterly

Dharma over the airwaves of LA (Ben Ashmole/flickr.com)

   

Loving is easier than taking a pill (weheartit.com)

Los Angeles is fortunate to have Buddhism on the radio at 90.7 FM. The connected world is fortunate, too, because it streams worldwide.
  
Unfortunately, much of the Buddhist programming occurs overnight. It is radio for night people with Roy of Hollywood on "Something's Happening." Thankfully, it's temporarily available in the audio archives to listen to FREE from Pacifica.  

In an extraordinarily lucid and enlightening segment, Karla McLaren (12:00-1:30 am, Sept. 11, 2012) redefines the usefulness of "negative" emotions. What is anger for? How about sadness, depression, guilt, and worry?
 

Emotions are as integral to our existence as consciousness (kyleweber.com)

   
They all serve us and have something they are trying to tell us. But they speak in a special way. In The Language of Emotions: What Your Feelings Are Trying to Tell You, McLaren reveals that society tells us something different: We shouldn't feel them at all, and if we do, we should feel bad about it! Society shoulds all over us, and emotions linger for years unheard and unprocessed. McLaren points out that there's a better way.

• Part 4 of 6: "The Gift of Anger - Healthy Boundaries." Preparing for emotional channeling. Sadness and anger.  Contentment, guilt, and happiness.  Worry and joy.  Heading into deeper water.  Channeling anger.  Fury and rage.  Hatred: Part One.  Hatred: Part Two. 
• PLAY NOW

Does the brain know what the heart is saying?

Not content to deal with the heart, Roy follows up with a brilliant assessment of the brain (1:30-3:30 am). Neuroscientist Rick Hanson, Ph.D., author of The Enlightened Brain: The Neuroscience of Awakening, gets to the root of brain structures and their activity in relation to Session 5 of 6: "Equanimity." What is an equanimous mind? Better still, What is equanimity?
  
Hanson tackles bigger Buddhist questions: The cause of suffering.  How our reactions create unnecessary suffering.  How the brain creates suffering.  The four components of equanimity.  Guided Practice: Focusing on Change.  Interdependence.  Guided reflection on the causes of a present difficulty.  Not being alarmed about being alarmed.  
  
Guided Practice: You're Alright Right Now.  The eight worldly winds.  Guided Practice: Tracking the Feeling Tone of Experiences and Their Reactions.  Calm, contentment, and virtue.  Guided Practice: Opening to a Growing Sense of Contentment.  Serenity. 

• PLAY NOW
• Coming soon: FREE LIVE STREAMING VIDEO EVENT: RICK HANSON "The Compassionate Brain"  October 8, 2012.
• Both authors presented courtesy of Sounds True, (800) 333-9185, soundstrue.com

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The Three Buddhist Personality Types

Dhr. Seven, Amber Dorrian, Maya, Wisdom Quarterly; Wisdom-Books.com

The Couch, originally used for psychotherapy, Freud's office, England. Note Buddhist statuary.

  

Buddhist Character Analysis (Aukana)

Drawing from ancient Theravada Buddhist teachings, authors Robert Mann and Rose Youd present the three main human character types and their three counterparts.

 

This Abhidharmic "Buddhist Psychology" is preserved in The Path of Purification (Visuddhi Magga) by Buddhaghosa, All individuals possess each of the three traits and their flipside, but some personality types may be dominant in one or two.

 

These roots of character condition everything we do:

1. greed (craving) vs. confidence (faith)
2. hatred (ill will) vs. wisdom
3. delusion (confusion) vs. speculation (clarity).

Joyful novices (wellhappypeaceful.com)

Buddhist Character Analysis is the study of these psychological or "personality types." It gives greater insight into human behavior patterns, karmic habits, rebirth, and the nature of reality.

Observing how these roots permeate all aspects of our behavior -- mental, verbal, and physical -- we can begin to appreciate the depth and subtlety of the Buddha's insight and formulation of the Teachings.
   

The cause of and cure for suffering: ignorance vs. wisdom (balancedexistence.com)

  
Attraction, aversion, and delusion (lobha, dosa, and moha) are personality features we are all born with. They linger in our hearts manifesting to greater or lesser degrees.
  
Enlightenment is the result of attenuating them long enough for wisdom to uproot them. They are harmful tendencies, in an ultimate sense, although conventionally we may assume we are unable to do without them.
  
They have conditioned our karma for countless aeons leading to all manner of upset -- craving, resentment, wrong views, culminating again and again in disappointment and distress (suffering). So have their direct opposite categories: non-greed, non-hate, non-delusion. The positive personality types -- faith, wisdom, speculation -- are the other side of the coin. They are not ultimately good in and of themselves but lead to that ultimate good: nirvana as non-clinging because things are seen as they are really are and always have been.
 
We will not magically see things just as they are. We have carried the burden of delusion and ignorance for inconceivable lengths of time (uncountable maha kalpas). The Dharma, or what may really be called "Buddhism" is not ultimately a set of beliefs; it is a set of instructions on how to see the liberating Truth for ourselves. That knowledge-and-vision liberates. Faith, belief, allegiance, words, and books do not.

• Which Buddhist Personality Type Are You? 
• Transforming the Three Poisons (of the heart/mind)

(Khanh Hmoong/flickr.com)

Our understanding of human nature is considerably enhanced and much of the distress entailed in relating with people is smoothed out of our lives when we understand the types.

   

If we follow the "path of purification" laid out by the Buddha and gathered from wise scholar-monks by Buddhism's most famous commentator -- author not only of The Path of Purification but also the parallel work preserved in Chinese, The Path of Freedom (Vimutti Magga) -- we can utilize this increased sense of calm and ease as an essential step on the road to the beyond-beyond.

 

We can restrain craving, anger, and confusion; we can cultivate confidence (faith), wisdom (intelligent discernment), and speculation (clarity, non-confusion). And by developing understanding of the true nature of reality, we can finally transcend them all. Long before that, we can rein them in. And by doing so we reduce our suffering and increase the happiness and security of any realm we are in.

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