Cognitive balance
6 teachings in the library are about this.
- Has Worrying Ever Stopped the Disaster? David Oromith · 10 minutes · recorded November 24, 2025
David talks about anxiety as the mind trying to predict and control an uncertain future, generating countless what-ifs. He asks, did our anxiety ever actually prevent the disaster? He names patterns to watch, such as catastrophising and personalisation, and suggests being with uncertainty, so we find an uncomfortable feeling is not the end of the world.
- D2S1 - Unawareness and Delusion, the Real and the Imaginary Lama Alan · 83 minutes
Cognitive intelligence is telling what reality is presenting from what we project upon it. Lama Alan begins with unawareness and delusion, the twofold root of suffering, then a reflection a camera focuses two metres behind the mirror, a Big Dipper only mental consciousness can see, and a face on Mars. He closes on three points: taking the impermanent for permanent, what is not a true source of happiness for one, and what is not I or mine for I and mine. Teaching only, no practice in this part.
- D1S1 - Conative Intelligence, and Two Kinds of Happiness Lama Alan · 69 minutes
Conation, the faculty of desire and intention, opens Lama Alan's four intelligences, each of which can run to deficit, excess or dysfunction, a grid from Tibetan and Ayurvedic medicine. He sets Einstein, who compared happiness as an absolute aim to the ambitions of a pig, against the Dalai Lama's refrain that the very purpose of our life is to seek happiness, and turns to the wisdom traditions' hedonia, what we get from the world, and eudaimonia, what we bring to it. Teaching only, no practice.
- Cognitive & Emotional Balance Glen Svensson · 90 minutes
The last two balances: cognitive balance, which is vipashyana seeing experience without projecting onto it, illustrated by the coiled rope mistaken for a snake, and emotional balance, which the compassion practices serve. Glen Svensson guides a nature of mind practice in which we search for where awareness is located, and then a tonglen. He then lays out how to integrate all four into daily life, and a review of one good act, one harmful act and one thing received before sleep.
- Motivational Balance Glen Svensson · 74 minutes
The final module opens with the fourfold model of wellbeing from Lama Alan Wallace and Shauna Shapiro's article on mental balance, and the first of its four: motivational balance, which corresponds to the preliminary practices. Glen Svensson works through its imbalances of deficit, hyperactivity and dysfunction. One guided practice is on settling body, speech and mind, a second on whether trying to manipulate the things around us is an effective strategy. Mindfulness alone, he warns, can make matters worse.
- Stillness in Motion Glen Svensson · 91 minutes
Resting in stillness while watching the movements of the mind, a practice Glen Svensson draws from Dudjom Lingpa, combines the two objects used earlier in the course. He reviews all four modules, sets shamatha inside Lama Alan Wallace and Shauna Shapiro's fourfold model of mental balance, and advises on when and how long to practise, on triggers for daily mindfulness, and reviewing the day before sleep. A guided open awareness practice follows. The course closes with the Shantideva dedication.
More by subject
- Anger and aversion 143
- Attachment and craving 123
- The nature of mind 92
- Emptiness 84
- The bodhisattva path 81
- Anxiety and fear 79
- Death and dying 77
- Distraction and attention 72
- Sleep and rest 66
- Buddhist psychology 59
- Illness and pain 57
- Karma 57
- Teacher and student 56
- Genuine happiness and wellbeing 52
- Habits and change 52
- Patience, forbearance and acceptance 50
- Impermanence 46
- Relaxation 43
- Gratitude and appreciation 42
- Relationships and family 38
- Motivation and intention 37
- Tantra and Vajrayana 37
- Depression and low mood 32
- Dream yoga 32
- Comparison and self-cherishing 31
- Dreams and sleep 31
- Guilt and regret 28
- Self-criticism and shame 28
- Work and daily life 28
- Rebirth and continuity 26
- Lineage and tradition 23
- Buddha nature 22
- The four noble truths 22
- Ethics and precepts 21
- Stress and burnout 21
- Emotional balance 19
- Generosity and dana 18
- Forgiveness 17
- Consciousness and science 15
- The six perfections (paramitas) 15
- Enthusiastic effort (virya) 14
- Sangha and community 14
- The eight worldly concerns 14
- The four thoughts that turn the mind 14
- Grief and loss 13
- Perception and projection 13
- Dependent origination 12
- Refuge 11
- Not-self (anatta) 10
- Attentional balance 9
- Ecology and the climate 7
- Nature and the outdoors 6
- The eightfold path 5
- Peace and conflict 4
- The sixfold matrix of mental balance 4
- Secular mindfulness 3
- Self-compassion 3
- Symbolism and iconography 3
- Introspection and self-monitoring 2
- Spiritual materialism and bypassing 1
- The three marks of existence 1