Experiential factors shape the neural circuits underlying social and emotional behavior from the prenatal period to the end of life. These factors include both incidental influences such as early adversity as well as intentional influences that can be produced in humans through specific interventions designed to promote prosocial behavior and well-being. Key extant evidence in animal models and humans is reviewed. While the precise mechanisms of plasticity are still not fully understood, moderate to severe stress appears to increase growth of several sectors of the amygdala while effects in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex tend to be opposite. Structural and functional changes in the brain have been observed with cognitive therapy and certain forms of meditation and lead to the suggestion that well-being and other prosocial characteristics might be enhanced through training. (Richard J. Davidson and Bruce S. McEwen, in Social influences on neuroplasticity: Stress and interventions to promote well-being, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3491815/)
Tag Archives: edele achtvoudige pad
Advayavada Study Plan – week 10
[week 10] In week 6 we honestly reviewed and took stock of our personal situation (first step on the Noble Eightfold Path), in week 7 we took an appropriate and timely decision to adjust our course (second step), in week 8 we again put our decision and objective in writing (third step), in week 9 we further developed our very best attitude to carry out our improved objective (fourth step), and, to continue with this quarter’s 13-week Advayavada Study Plan, in week 10 we shall implement our improved way of doing things as best as possible. This task is based on the fifth step on the Noble Eightfold Path: samma-ajiva (in Pali) or samyag-ajiva (in Sanskrit); in Advayavada Buddhism’s personalized usage: our very best implementation, realization or putting into practice, bearing in mind that truly commendable deeds are only those which are in agreement with wondrous overall existence and take us forward at the fundamental level of our life; in Dutch: onze beste uitvoering (de vijfde stap op het edele achtvoudige pad). (from advayavada.org/#plan)
Advayavada Study Plan – week 9
[week 9] The purpose of the autonomous Advayavada Study Plan is that we study (and debate in a local group, the family circle or with good friends) the meaning and implications of the weekly subject, not as a formal and impersonal intellectual exercise, but in the context of whatever we ourselves are presently doing or are concerned with, or about, such as our health, relationships, work, study, our place in society, etc. To continue with this quarter’s 13-week action plan, in week 9 we shall further develop our very best attitude to carry out our improved personal objective. This task is based on the fourth step on the Noble Eightfold Path: samma-kammanta (in Pali) or samyak-karmanta (in Sanskrit); in Advayavada Buddhism’s personalized usage: our very best disposition or attitude; in Dutch: onze beste instelling (de vierde stap op het edele achtvoudige pad). To follow this ASP conscientiously is of course already proof of a serious and positive attitude. (from advayavada.org/#plan)
Advayavada Study Plan – week 8
[week 8] In weeks 1 to 5 we treated the preliminary subjects, in week 6 we again honestly reviewed and took stock of our personal situation (first step on the Noble Eightfold Path), in week 7 we took an appropriate and timely decision to adjust our course (second step), and to continue with this quarter’s 13-week Advayavada Study Plan (ASP), this week we shall again put our decision and improved objective in writing as precisely as possible; Advayavada Buddhism does not tell you what to do or believe, but invites us all to make the very best of our own lives by attuning as best as possible with wondrous overall existence advancing over time now in its manifest direction. This task is based on the third step on the Noble Eightfold Path: samma-vacha (in Pali) or samyag-vac (in Sanskrit); in Advayavada Buddhism’s fully personalized usage: our very best enunciation or definition of our intention (as Karl Popper says, putting our ideas into words, or better, writing them down, makes an important difference, for in this way they become objective and criticizable); in Dutch: onze beste uitleg (de derde stap op het edele achtvoudige pad). (from advayavada.org/#plan)
Advayavada Study Plan – week 7
[week 7] To continue with this quarter’s 13-week Advayavada Study Plan (ASP), this week we shall again take an appropriate and timely decision to adjust our course. This task is based on the 2nd step on the Noble Eightfold Path: samma-sankappa (Pali) or samyak-samkalpa (Sanskrit), in Advayavada Buddhism: our very best resolution or determination; in Dutch: onze beste beslissing (de tweede stap op het edele achtvoudige pad). In Advayavada Buddhism, the Noble Eightfold Path is fully personalized: it is firmly based on what we increasingly know about ourselves and our world, and trusting our own intentions, feelings and conscience. Adherence to the familiar five precepts (not to kill, not to steal, sexual restraint, not to lie, and refraining from alcohol and drugs) and a well-considered understanding of the three (in Advayavada Buddhism, four) signs of being and the Buddha’s four noble truths suffice to start off and proceed on the Path at any time. (from advayavada.org/#plan)
Advayavada Study Plan – week 6
[week 6] When the Noble Eightfold Path is followed conscientiously, it becomes nothing less than the main karmic factor in one’s life, i.e. in one’s passing share in the universal interdependent origination process (madhyamaka-pratityasamutpada). The 13-week Advayavada Study Plan (ASP) is repeated four times a year for this lofty purpose. In weeks 1 to 5 we again treated the preliminary subjects and, to continue with the current first quarter of 2016, in week 6 we shall again honestly review and take stock of our personal situation. This task is based on the 1st step on the Noble Eightfold Path: samma-ditthi (Pali) or samyag-dristi (Sanskrit), in Advayavada Buddhism: our very best comprehension or insight; in Dutch: ons beste inzicht (de eerste stap op het edele achtvoudige pad). (from advayavada.org/#plan)
Advayavada Study Plan – week 5
[week 5] In Secular Buddhism generally, firmly bearing in mind the impermanence and the selflessness and, therefore, transitoriness, of all things without exception, the focus is on the correct interpretation and realization of the historical Buddha’s so-called ‘four noble truths’: 1) that of the ubiquity of existential suffering in the world, 2) that ignorant craving and attachment are the actual and immediate causes of such suffering, 3) that this suffering shall cease altogether when we deal with and overcome its causes, and 4) that the sure way to achieve this is by following the Noble Eightfold Path, which, in Advayavada Buddhism, is understood as an ongoing and fully autonomous, non-prescriptive, investigative and creative process of progressive insight, reflecting in human terms wondrous overall existence becoming over time in its manifest direction. (from advayavada.org/#plan)
Advayavada Study Plan – week 39
Dear friends,
The purpose of Advayavada Buddhism is to become a true part of the whole.
In Advayavada Buddhism, the Path is understood as an ongoing and fully autonomous, non-prescriptive, investigative and creative process of progressive insight, reflecting in human terms wondrous overall existence becoming over time in its manifest direction. When followed conscientiously, it becomes nothing less than the main karmic factor in one’s share in the universal interdependent origination process (madhyamaka-pratityasamutpada). It is composed stepwise of (1) our very best (samma in Pali and samyak in Sanskrit) comprehension or insight, followed by (2) our very best resolution or determination, (3) our very best enunciation or definition (of our intention), (4) our very best disposition or attitude, (5) our very best implementation or realization, (6) our very best effort or commitment, (7) our very best observation, reflection or evaluation and self-correction, and (8) our very best meditation or concentration towards an increasingly real experience of oneness with the universe, which brings us to (1) a yet better comprehension or insight, and so forth.
The Advayavada Study Plan (ASP) is repeated four times a year. In weeks 27 to 31 we treated the preliminary subjects, in week 32 we honestly reviewed and took stock of our personal situation (first step), in week 33 we took an appropriate and timely decision to adjust our course (second step), in week 34 we put our decision and purpose in writing (third step), in week 35 we further developed our very best attitude (fourth step), in week 36 we implemented our improved modus operandi (fifth step), in week 37 we concentrated on mustering our very best effort and commitment (sixth step), in week 38 we made our best possible evaluation of our efforts to date (seventh step), and, to conclude the current third quarter, in week 39 we shall continue to develop and deepen our very best meditation towards the realization of samadhi*.
This task is based on the eighth step on the Noble Eightfold Path: samma-samadhi (in Pali) or samyak-samadhi (in Sanskrit); in Advayavada Buddhism’s usage: our very best meditation or concentration towards samadhi; in Dutch: onze beste bezinning (de achtste stap op het edele achtvoudige pad).
*Samadhi (Pali and Sanskrit): total or perfect concentration (of the mind, cf. enstasy); non-dualistic state of consciousness in which the experiencing subject becomes one with the experienced object; total absorption in the object of meditation; transcendence of the relationship between mind and object; merging of subject and object; to contemplate the world without any perception of objects; suspension of judgement; turiyatita; satori; bodhi; rigpa; realization of the sameness of the part and the whole, of the identity of form and emptiness, of samsara and nirvana, of the immediate and the ultimate; mystic oneness; perfect dynamic attunement with wondrous overall existence; oceanic feeling; wonder, awe, rapture; essential purity; deep love and compassion; awareness of our common ground and the innocence of sex.
This is the last weekly reminder for the time being – a survey of the study plan is available on a.o. Facebook at Advayavada Study Plan – ASP.
Kind regards,
John Willemsens,
Advayavada Foundation.
advayavada.org/#plan
Advayavada Study Plan – week 38
Dear friends,
The purpose of Advayavada Buddhism is to become a true part of the whole.
In Advayavada Buddhism, the Path is understood as an ongoing and fully autonomous, non-prescriptive, investigative and creative process of progressive insight, reflecting in human terms wondrous overall existence becoming over time in its manifest direction. When followed conscientiously, it becomes nothing less than the main karmic factor in one’s share in the universal interdependent origination process (madhyamaka-pratityasamutpada). It is composed stepwise of (1) our very best (samma in Pali and samyak in Sanskrit) comprehension or insight, followed by (2) our very best resolution or determination, (3) our very best enunciation or definition (of our intention), (4) our very best disposition or attitude, (5) our very best implementation or realization, (6) our very best effort or commitment, (7) our very best observation, reflection or evaluation and self-correction, and (8) our very best meditation or concentration towards an increasingly real experience of oneness with the universe, which brings us to (1) a yet better comprehension or insight, and so forth.
The Advayavada Study Plan (ASP) is repeated four times a year. In weeks 27 to 31 we treated the preliminary subjects, in week 32 we honestly reviewed and took stock of our personal situation (first step), in week 33 we took an appropriate and timely decision to adjust our course (second step), in week 34 we put our decision and purpose in writing (third step), in week 35 we further developed our very best attitude (fourth step), in week 36 we implemented our improved modus operandi (fifth step), in week 37 we concentrated on mustering our very best effort and commitment (sixth step), and, to continue with the current third quarter, in week 38 we shall again make our best possible evaluation of our efforts to date.
This task is based on the 7th step on the Noble Eightfold Path: samma-sati (in Pali) or samyak-smriti (in Sanskrit); in Advayavada Buddhism’s usage: our very best observation or reflection and self-correction; in Dutch, onze beste aandacht (de zevende stap op het edele achtvoudige pad). At the same time, we make sure that the five Buddhist precepts which are applicable under all circumstances (not to kill, not to steal, sexual restraint, not to lie, and refraining from alcohol and drugs) are fully respected.
Kind regards,
John Willemsens,
Advayavada Foundation.
advayavada.org/#plan
Advayavada Study Plan – week 37
Dear friends,
The purpose of Advayavada Buddhism is to become a true part of the whole.
In Advayavada Buddhism, the Path is understood as an ongoing and fully autonomous, non-prescriptive, investigative and creative process of progressive insight, reflecting in human terms wondrous overall existence becoming over time in its manifest direction. When followed conscientiously, it becomes nothing less than the main karmic factor in one’s share in the universal interdependent origination process (madhyamaka-pratityasamutpada). It is composed stepwise of (1) our very best (samma in Pali and samyak in Sanskrit) comprehension or insight, followed by (2) our very best resolution or determination, (3) our very best enunciation or definition (of our intention), (4) our very best disposition or attitude, (5) our very best implementation or realization, (6) our very best effort or commitment, (7) our very best observation, reflection or evaluation and self-correction, and (8) our very best meditation or concentration towards an increasingly real experience of oneness with the universe, which brings us to (1) a yet better comprehension or insight, and so forth.
The Advayavada Study Plan (ASP) is repeated four times a year. In weeks 27 to 31 we treated the preliminary subjects, in week 32 we honestly reviewed and took stock of our personal situation (first step), in week 33 we took an appropriate and timely decision to adjust our course (second step), in week 34 we put our decision and purpose in writing (third step), in week 35 we further developed our very best attitude (fourth step), in week 36 we implemented our improved modus operandi (fifth step), and, to continue with the current third quarter, in week 37 we shall concentrate on mustering our very best effort and commitment to fulfil our improved objective.
This task is based on the sixth step on the Noble Eightfold Path: samma-vayama (in Pali) or samyag-vyayama (in Sanskrit); in Advayavada Buddhism’s usage: our very best effort and commitment; in Dutch: onze beste inspanning (de zesde stap op het edele achtvoudige pad).
Importantly, as we advance properly along the Buddha’s Middle Way responding to his promise of Nirvana, we shall rid ourselves of the so-called ten fetters (dasa-samyojana) that restrict us to samsaric life: 1) belief in the self, 2) scepticism regarding the Path, 3) attachment to rituals, 4) partiality for certain things, 5) prejudice against certain things, 6) clinging to physical life, 7) hope of a hereafter, 8) conceit and pride, 9) intolerance and irritability, and 10) the last remnants of our fundamental ignorance (avidya, avijja).
Kind regards,
John Willemsens,
Advayavada Foundation.
advayavada.org/#plan