Buddhist psychology is both ancient and profound, but it can also seem quite alien to the Western mind. Having developed over the last two thousand years in many different cultures and religious context, it has spawned both practical means for transforming suffering and elegant philosophical statements -- many of which have been appropriated as contemporary psychological techniques. Using the insights and ideas developed through applied Buddhist practice, we understand the practice of neurofeedback training in a new -- and also ancient -- way. From this perspective we can understand how a very modern technology can bring to life a very ancient and well developed path to personal transformation and resolution of suffering.

Contemporary research has demonstrated that traditional meditation practices for awakening compassion can be understood in terms of shifts in time-frequency gradients in the EEG. Concurrent advances in both applied Joint Time-Frequency Analysis (JTFA) and Non-Linear, Dynamical (NLD) Control Theory have revealed that detectable turbulence precedes catastrophic phase shifts in many real-world systems. By combining these recent research findings with ancient wisdom we can come to understand the emerging technologies of neurofeedback training as direct implementation of Absolute Boddhicitta: ie, awakening to the "clear sky" of fundamental consciousness and compassion that is intrinsic to us all as conscious beings. This means that compassion and awakening are available to us all, directly; and we now have the technology available to make it more accessible than ever before. It also means that we can now come to understand the diversity or neurofeedback training processes as different "flowers" from the same root of fundamental consciousness.

Buddhist psychology can provide the key concepts and overall framework from which to understand how and why neurofeedback works.