The Temperance Card, Dopamine, and Buddhist Philosophy

I recently listened to a series of talks about the neurotransmitter dopamine and the concept of dopamine fasting. Dopamine plays a role in pleasure and pain, motivation and apathy, attention and indifference. The brain seeks equilibrium which is why we humans can come to crave dopamine almost like an addiction. High dopamine is followed by low dopamine and our brains become trapped in this cycle—and start craving more and more dopamine. This plays a role in screen addiction, food cravings, and various other struggles of modern life in societies that have moved beyond the survival mode where dopamine craving caused us to seek basic necessities like food or shelter.

In a modern society with all too many dopamine producing products and behaviors—screens, chocolate, caffeine, to name a few—dopamine fasting is recommended to help us get our brains off the cycle of constant craving for more scrolling, more sugary foods, more caffeine, etc.

The dopamine fast intentionally limits these dopamine factors. We avoid media, certain foods, recreational drugs, and intense emotions to allow our brains to return to a baseline of balanced dopamine. This struck me as similar to Buddhist philosophy. Buddhism teaches not to rejoice in pleasure or despair in suffering, but rather to accept all experiences from a place of equilibrium. Perhaps a similar equilibrium is achieved through dopamine fasting.

The principles of balance and equilibrium are elegantly illustrated in Tarot’s Temperance card. In some decks, the card shows an angel with one foot in water and one foot on dry land. This symbolizes a balance between spiritual [water] and material [land]. In other decks, the Angel mixes opposing elements, Fire and Water. An allegory for fusing the opposites of masculine and feminine energies.

Tarot’s Major Arcana contain universal spiritual lessons which align with a broad range of philosophies—from Buddhism to Neoplatonism. These ancient philosophies, in turn, often relate to modern science in ways that we’re only now discovering. Like the role of dopamine and equilibrium in the human experience.