Practice Library

Cognitive balance

5 teachings in the library are about this.

• 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 140
• Attachment and craving 116
• The nature of mind 92
• Emptiness 84
• The bodhisattva path 80
• Anxiety and fear 78
• Death and dying 76
• Distraction and attention 70
• Sleep and rest 66
• Buddhist psychology 59
• Illness and pain 57
• Karma 56
• Teacher and student 56
• Habits and change 50
• Genuine happiness and wellbeing 48
• Patience, forbearance and acceptance 46
• Relaxation 41
• Impermanence 40
• Gratitude and appreciation 38
• Tantra and Vajrayana 37
• Relationships and family 35
• Depression and low mood 32
• Dream yoga 32
• Motivation and intention 32
• Dreams and sleep 31
• Comparison and self-cherishing 27
• Guilt and regret 27
• Work and daily life 26
• Rebirth and continuity 25
• Self-criticism and shame 24
• Lineage and tradition 23
• The four noble truths 22
• Stress and burnout 21
• Buddha nature 20
• Ethics and precepts 20
• Emotional balance 19
• Forgiveness 17
• Generosity and dana 16
• Consciousness and science 15
• Sangha and community 14
• Enthusiastic effort (virya) 13
• Dependent origination 12
• Grief and loss 11
• Perception and projection 11
• Refuge 11
• The four thoughts that turn the mind 11
• The eight worldly concerns 10
• Attentional balance 8
• Not-self (anatta) 8
• The six perfections (paramitas) 8
• 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
• Symbolism and iconography 3
• Introspection and self-monitoring 1
• Spiritual materialism and bypassing 1
• The three marks of existence 1