Within many spiritual traditions in the world,
Especially Buddhism,
There were two practices commonly related to the mind.
One of them was meditation,
And the other practice was mind training.
In Tibetan Buddhism they called the mind training lojong.
Mind training is different to meditation in the way that it's trying to create certain neural circuits,
In other words,
Certain ways of thinking.
These ways of thinking,
Of course,
Were always designed to be positive as opposed to negative thinking,
And thinking in a way that allowed happiness and kindness to evolve and flow throughout the world.
There have been various aspects of mind training throughout the 2500 year history of Buddhism,
But one of the greatest aspects of mind training were called the four Brahma Vaharis.
They were sometimes seen as a meditation,
But in the end they are a mind training technique because they are creating certain thought patterns.
The first one of this was called metta,
Which means loving kindness.
This means that in your mind you have the attitude of loving kindness,
Which means goodwill to all sentient beings.
The second aspect of this was called karuna,
Which means compassion.
Compassion results from the mind training of loving kindness,
And what it means is that when you see suffering,
You see the suffering as your own.
The third aspect was called mudita,
Which means empathetic joy.
This is a feeling of joy because others are happy.
It is a feeling of happiness when you see other people's good fortune.
The fourth aspect was called upeka,
Which means equanimity,
And this is the even-mindedness and serenity and tranquility that you feel,
But also refers to treating everybody equally.
Traditionally speaking,
It was believed that by cultivating these four mental attitudes,
It would help the mind towards liberation.
Therefore,
All different forms of mind training,
Or neural circuits that were trying to be developed by the early buddhists,
Were based on trying to liberate the mind from negativity,
And create a mind that saw everything in the world in a beautiful way,
As a miracle,
And with loving kindness.
