Part 1: The task, the consequences, the methodology & the illusion of injustice
Part 2: Law enforcement 101: the enforcer
Part 3: Law enforcement 201: "in kind"
Part 4: Law enforcement 301: "in proportion"
Part 5: Law enforcement 401: inner civil war
Part 6: Law enforcement 501: The neuro-science of karma
9 Law enforcement 501: The neuro-science of karma
In this section I will demonstrate how our brain has been molded by evolution to use karma as the punishment/reward system to enforce the golden rule and why no attempt to circumvent this can ever succeed.
First we’ll answer the question “why do what we do?”
Then we’ll examine how our brain makes decisions.
Finally we’ll look at what happens in our brain when we decide to (1) be in disharmony with our conscience, (2) stay in disharmony with our conscience and (3) surrender to our conscience.
9.1 Why do we do what we do?
Although we might like to believe otherwise the truth is that we are not moved by logic or reason. We are moved by our emotions.
This is because emotions came first in the evolution of the brain. The ability to reason logically is a relatively recent addition to the capabilities of our species.
Although we human beings have a wide range of emotions that we can feel, all of them boil down to two basic types:
“Everything that you and I do, we do either out of our need to avoid pain or our desire to gain pleasure.”
~Tony Robbins
Intuitively we know this to be true.
Logic and reason can be used to re-wire our pain/pleasure associations, but that does not alter the fact that what moves us is our aversion to suffering and desire for joy.
Here is a neurological explanation of why it is so ...
All of us have a structure in the center of the most evolutionarily ancient part of our brains called the “amygdala”. You can think of this structure as an alarm bell.
When we are fearful the alarm bell rings - which stimulates our sympathetic nervous system (SNS) into action and gears our body up for the fight or flight response. Conversely the stimulation of our parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) calms our amygdala. It stops the alarm bell from ringing so intensely.
You can think of this alarm bell ringing at a range of intensities in between the two extremes of (1) not at all (aka total blissful joy) and (2) extreme panic.
Picture a volume control which can be used to dial-up or dial-down the intensity of the ringing.
We are biologically driven to dial down the intensity of our alarm bell away from the state of extreme panic and towards the state of total bliss.
Every decision that we make in our lives is driven is driven by this desire.
With this understanding of the underlying neuro-science it now becomes easier to understand why “the need to avoid pain” and “the desire to gain pleasure” are really two different ways of conceptualizing the same underlying phenomenon.
“The need to avoid pain” is the desire to move away from the state of maximum alarm bell ringing.
“The desire to gain pleasure” is the desire to move towards the state of zero alarm bell ringing.
It is the same underlying craving.
Both seek to dial down the volume control.
One view does so by focusing on our aversion to maximum volume.
The other view does so by focusing on our desire for minimum volume.
The “desire for pleasure” is “fear of pain” in disguise.
This makes sense when you really think about it.
Think about something that you strongly desire.
Is there any part of you that fears not having it?
This also helps us to understand why human beings will do more to avoid pain than to achieve pleasure.
The underlying goal is to calm the amygdala. So we will always choose the course of action which we believe will better enable us to achieve that goal. Avoiding pain always trumps achieving pleasure because we believe it will lead to a greater reduction in the intensity of the ringing.
In same way as the world’s most complex computer programs ultimately break down into the simple binary machine code language of zeros and ones, the vast range of human emotions that motivate us to action ultimate break down into the simple binary brain code language of “pain” and “no pain” - the language of the of the amygdala.
9.2 Skillful and unskillful beliefs
Every decision that we make in our lives is driven is driven by the need to dial down the intensity of the alarm bell.
(Note: This is not entirely true. When we are bored, we desire excitement and this means dialing up the intensity of the alarm bell a little. What we really desire is a state of perfect balance between excitement and relaxation. But because destructive emotions tend to be a much larger problem I am ignoring this.)
The only reason there are any differences between any of us is that we all have different beliefs as to what will bring us joy and what will bring us suffering.
We often choose these beliefs unwisely. For example, Tony Robbins gives the example of how a toddler who falls off of a couch may establish a neuro-association that couches cause pain. Mistaken neuro-associations like this are not limited to toddlers.
The beliefs that we hold shape the decisions that we make, the actions that spring from these decisions and the habitual behaviors repeating these actions establish.
Some beliefs are more accurate than others and the resulting habitual behaviors they give rise to are therefore more skillful.
In Buddhist terminology the word “craving” is used to represent greed, hate and delusion.
Greed is “desire for pleasure”.
Hate is “fear of pain”.
They are both forms of “clinging”.
Delusion is the misconception that the enduring happiness we seek can be achieved by obtaining or holding onto the object of our desire.
The fundamental delusion that characterizes our species in the age of barbarism is the belief that enduring happiness can be attained and sustained by bringing unhappiness to others.
If our craving for the object of our desire is stronger than the craving to act in harmony with our conscience we will act unskillfully and cause ourselves pain.
The Buddha taught that craving is the cause of suffering.
Suffering is dialing up the volume control to increase the rate of intensity of alarm bell ringing.
But some forms of craving are more skillful than others.
The craving to bring happiness to others is one such craving.
Beliefs that happiness can be attained by taking joy from others are unskillful.
Beliefs that happiness can be attained by giving joy to others are skillful.
Why is this so?
Because our empathy will force us to feel the feelings that we intended to bring to others.
9.3 How do we make decisions?
It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped.
~Tony Robbins
Our brain has been beautifully designed by evolution.
The architecture is such that each decision we make, we make twice.
We have the ability to make very quick impulsive non-thinking decisions when we need to.
We also have the ability to re-think our initial impulsive decision when we need to as well.
These decisions are made in two different places in the brain.
They are (1) the amygdala hub and (2) the anterior cingulate cortex hub.
Author Susan Jeffers refers to these respectively as the “lower self” and the “higher self”.
The lower self is that part of us that is driven by fear.
The higher self is that part of us that may choose to face and overcome the fears that hold us back from living the life of our dreams.
9.3.1 the first decision: our lower-self
The fear-driven amygdala hub is the most ancient part of the brain.
Here is where our first impulsive decision is made.
There is no thinking involved in this decision.
This decision is reflexive and very quick
This decision can save our lives.
It is purely instinctual.
More often than not it is an over-reaction.
If we see a stick in a tree we are about to walk under, this part of the brain may warn us that the stick might be a snake and ring the alarm bell which stimulates our SNS into action and gears us up for the fight or flight response.
9.3.2 the second decision: our higher-self
Connected to the amygdala hub is the anterior cingulate cortex hub.
This is where all non-impulsive deliberate decisions are made.
It is where thinking takes place.
This is also where impulse control takes place.
It is where we have the opportunity to self-regulate the impulsive decisions of the amygdala when appropriate.
We can use logical reasoning to determine whether the stick is indeed a stick or whether it is a snake.
As you may have guessed, the neural circuitry for empathy is contained here as well.
Our empathy enables us to reach out with our feelings, our senses and our full attention to ascertain the true intentions of a potential predator and to either over-ride or approve the impulse fear-driven decision made in the amygdala hub.
9.3.3 Who wins?
This architecture works well much of the time.
It enables us both to react quickly to save our lives when we need to and also to take calculated risks to seize opportunities as well.
However, when the initial impulse is very strong our higher-self can become “hijacked” by our more primitive brain such that the ability to regulate our primal fear-driven impulses is impaired.
This happens when our state of anxiety is very high.
The higher our anxiety the less able our higher-self is to function.
When our anxiety reaches the point where the “fight or flight” response is triggered, our higher self is rendered completely impotent and our lower self assumes complete control.
The lower our baseline state of anxiety the greater the ability of our higher self to self-regulate our primal impulses and limit our self-destructive behavior.
The higher our baseline state of anxiety the lesser the ability of our higher self to self-regulate our primal impulses and the more out of control that we feel.
9.4 The decision to be in disharmony
When we have a belief that achieving happiness for ourselves requires us to cause suffering to others and we act on that belief we create suffering for ourselves.
The empathic abilities within our anterior cingulate cortex hub trigger the alarm bell within our amygdala hub.
This increases our anxiety by causing the alarm bell to ring at a higher intensity.
It will continue to do so until we can somehow re-direct our attention away from the person who we’ve harmed so that the anterior cingulated cortex hub will stop sending us waves of pain.
9.5 The decision to stay in disharmony
The decision to stay in disharmony is a decision to permanently increase our baseline state of anxiety.
As I’ve illustrated, all of the techniques that we use to war with our conscience require us to switch off our empathy for our victim.
But our subconscious mind knows that enduring happiness is indelibly linked to caring about others and it will fight us tooth and nail.
The more we fight it, the more it will resist.
The more often we cause harm to others and the greater the harm that we cause the deeper into hell that we sink.
The reason why self-destructive behaviors are so hard to change is because they actually achieve the objective of reducing the intensity of the ringing of the alarm bell in the short term. The problem is that the means by which they do so leads to an increase the baseline intensity of ringing in the long-term.
It’s as if they succeed in dialing down the volume control a notch but in so doing prevent us from returning the volume control to zero. Over time the range of motion of the volume control becomes more and more limited and we are less able to return to the low volume settings.
But because we are focused only on the short term pleasure that we get from engaging in these behaviors, the belief that behavior leads to pleasure is strengthened each time we take action. We don’t see the larger picture. We don’t see the cause and effect. When we become unhappy we don’t realize that our unhappiness is caused by our behavior.
9.6 The decision to surrender
We all know from experience how good it feels to finally admit our wrong-doing and to ask for forgiveness.
Despite the shame of having to do so, the persistent state of high anxiety that we’ve been living within suddenly dissipates permanently.
The reason for this is because we have stopped fighting our conscience.
We no longer have to struggle to control our thoughts to prevent ourselves from being reminded about what we’ve done.
We no longer have to tell ourselves lies.
We no longer have to fear truth.
We no longer have to fear thinking.
We no longer feel compelled to turn to self-pity to alleviate the persistent anxiety.
We not longer feel compelled to get angry or to run and hide from our shame.
The tension that we’ve created in the amygdala cingulated cortex by seeking to constrain our thoughts is relieved and it is now free to function at full capacity.
Our baseline state of anxiety returns to a much lower level and we are more at ease more of the time.
We can now allow ourselves to feel empathy again without fear of pain.
We can now allow ourselves to feel love.
We now have the ability to experience the enduring joy that we seek above all else.
9.7 Conclusions
Every decision that we make has consequences - not only in the world at large, but within our own minds.
When we make decisions that violate our conscience we introduce a physiological change in our brain in the form of the emotion of guilt.
The greater our disharmony with our conscience, the stronger the guilt that we feel, the greater the influence it has on our choice of thoughts and the greater the suffering it produces.
Our strongest primal drive is to move away from suffering.
All strategies for ending the suffering of guilt break down into two types.
1: We can choose to surrender to our conscience and seek to atone for our misdeeds.
2: We can choose to go to war with our conscience by switching off our empathy for those we have harmed.
Biologically, no other choice is possible because our empathy is the source of the suffering.
All of the tactics that we use for warring with our conscience are really variations on a common approach: they all attempt to achieve a measure of inner peace by switching off our empathy for our victim.
fight: overpowering empathy with anger
flight: choosing not to think thoughts which would trigger empathy by re-focusing our attention
depression: choosing not to think thoughts which would trigger empathy by becoming self-absorbed
self-deception: choosing not to think thoughts which would trigger empathy lying to ourselves about what we did
Any other strategy that might be tried would have to do the same.
No other choice is possible.
But natural selection favored the evolution of those with empathy over those without for a reason.
Our empathy is what enables us to detect the true intentions of those around us.
This is why empathy is essential to our ability to self-regulate our destructive emotions.
The less empathy we have, the less ability we have to self-regulate our destructive emotions.
The less ability we have to self-regulate our destructive emotions, the more we are ruled by them.
The more we are ruled by our destructive emotions, the more frequently we engage in self-destructive behaviors.
The more frequently we engage in self-destructive behaviors, the greater our probability to self-destruct.
Self-regulation is essential to achieving the enduring states of joy that we desire and minimizing the inevitable suffering that life will bring to us. The more we seek to switch off our empathy for others, the more we distance ourselves from the very thing we are biologically programmed to seek – enduring joy - and the deeper we fall into that which we a biologically programmed to avoid – enduring suffering.
This is built into the very physiology of our brain.
This is the physiological reason why our happiness/unhappiness varies in direct proportion to our harmony/disharmony with our conscience.
It is physiologically impossible to violate the law of karma because our brain has been hard-wired by evolution to prevent us from doing so.
I believe that this is something that you already knew in your subconscious mind.
Our life experiences teach us that “what goes around comes around”.
The purpose of this paper has been to simply raise that unconscious belief to the level of full consciousness with a clear and accurate explanation of why it is true.
The rest is up to you.
10 A summary of the proof
Karma is the punishment/reward system that we all subconsciously use on ourselves to persuade ourselves to follow the golden rule.
Karma is inviolable because the very biology of our brain is designed to ensure that the happiness/unhappiness that we experience varies in direct proportion to our harmony/disharmony with our conscience.
The delusion that happiness can be achieved for ourselves by bringing unhappiness to others is the root cause of our unhappiness. This belief gives birth to disharmony within which, in turn, gives birth to barbarism without. To the extent to which we change such beliefs we will bring greater peace and happiness to both ourselves and our world.
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