Practical Wisdom with Dr. Rick Hanson
Aug 19, 2026 · 45 min · 12 segments
So much of the mind is leaning into the future—anticipating what will happen, planning what we’ll do, worrying about what could go wrong, and getting attached to how we or other people are supposed to…
Rick HansonHost
Not just that the next thing is happening, but there's a kind of leaning into the future, a kind of reaching for the next moment.
That's the normal biologically based machinery of the brain that's leaning into becoming.
You know, it's not so much that we're like a candle flame, you know, perfectly upright.
No. [chuckles] We're more like a candle flame being continually pulled forward, like by a kind of suction, you know, always tipping toward what's next.
And in the Buddha's very first apparent, as best we gather from the historical record that we can infer, in his first sermon, his first major formal teaching at Sarnath, the Buddha doesn't say per se or just vaguely, "Craving causes suffering." He breaks it down, and he breaks craving into three specific currents or modes of clinging.
And by the way, the root of the word tanha, I like this part, neuropsychologically inclined, is thirst.
And a very ancient part of your brain, the hypothalamus, manages thirst and also manages things like feeling too hot or too cold.
You know, we want things to feel good, or if they feel bad, we want them to stop feeling bad.
Craving for sense pleasures broadly, including the pleasure in impressing other people.
Not just that the next thing is happening, but there's a kind of leaning into the future, a kind of reaching for the next moment.
That's the normal biologically based machinery of the brain that's leaning into becoming.
You know, it's not so much that we're like a candle flame, you know, perfectly upright.
No. [chuckles] We're more like a candle flame being continually pulled forward, like by a kind of suction, you know, always tipping toward what's next.
And in the Buddha's very first apparent, as best we gather from the historical record that we can infer, in his first sermon, his first major formal teaching at Sarnath, the Buddha doesn't say per se or just vaguely, "Craving causes suffering." He breaks it down, and he breaks craving into three specific currents or modes of clinging.
And by the way, the root of the word tanha, I like this part, neuropsychologically inclined, is thirst.
And a very ancient part of your brain, the hypothalamus, manages thirst and also manages things like feeling too hot or too cold.
You know, we want things to feel good, or if they feel bad, we want them to stop feeling bad.
Craving for sense pleasures broadly, including the pleasure in impressing other people.
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