Compassion Meditation Research

Compassion meditation research is progressing today at a phenomenal rate.

One of the leading researchers in this field is Dr. Richie Davidson, founder of the discipline of affective neuroscience.

His involvement with the Dalai Lama and the Mind and Life Institute provide inspiration for fulfilling his life purpose.

Dr. Richie Davidson with The Dalai Lama | dialogues.jpg from Mind & Life

I am totally excited that Dr. Davidson is coming to Stanford! He is going to present to CCARE: The Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education. I will be there with friends. Click here to register.

Compassion Meditation Research

Dr. Elisha Goldstein, a psychotherapist and author of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Workbook, reviewed Dr. Davidson’s 2009 work on compassion meditation research on his blog.

Dr. Daniel Goleman in his book, Destructive Emotions, described Davidson’s 2000 research.

He spoke about how a monk was brought over from Tibet and put through a variety of tests using fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) and sophisticated brain wave equipment in Dr. Davidson’s lab. He called the monk, Lama Ozer to protect his identity.

The tests included (if my memory serves my right) calm abiding, openness, mantra, imagery, and alsoloving-kindness meditation on compassion.

In every case of brain imaging, certain areas of the brain lit up with significant activity.

When he was exposed to the sound of human pain, the area of the brain for empathy and compassion lit up.

Dr. Goldstein reported on the 2009 compassion meditation research:

Compassion has been linked to activating areas of the brain that are involved with positive emotion, self-regulation and resiliency. There is a link between compassion and altruism, and altruism has been linked to feeling good in life. But maybe two to four weeks of training in compassion isn’t enough time.

Just think, wouldn’t our lives and the world be enhanced if there was a bit more compassion and altruism?

He offers the following video to get you started with loving kindness meditation.

 This video teaches you the basic practices of compassion meditation as taught in Dr. Goldstein’s book, The Now Effect: How a Mindful Moment Can Change the Rest of Your Life.

It is very similar to the loving kindness meditation practices that I teach on my blog and in 9 Minute Meditation.

Please share your thoughts, stories and questions about loving kindness, compassion and research. Your collaboration inspires others to share their wisdom as well.

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I have not read either of these books, but I have seen raving reviews of MBSR Workbook. After watching the video, you may have a good idea about The Now Effect.

Richie Davidson Is Coming To Stanford

Richie Davidson Is Coming To Stanford

Dr. Richie Davidson is one of the most successful and brilliant researchers in the field of neuroscience of meditation.

He is especially interested in how meditation affects our brains.

Dr. Richie Davidson | Image from event flyer

He has spent much time with the Dalai Lamadiscussing his research and taking the Dalai Lama’s ideas for research into practice.

He has been a featured presenter at many of the Dalai Lama’s Mind and Life conferences.

Richie Davidson Is Coming To Stanford

Topic: The Emergence of Contemplative Neuroscience
Category: Meng-Wu Lecture Series
Event date: Tuesday, October 02nd, 2012 – 6:30pm – 8:00pm
Location: Cubberley Auditorium, School of Education
485 Lasuen Mall, Stanford, CA 94305

This talk will present an overview of the convergence of scientific and extra-scientific factors that have permitted the emergence of a new hybrid discipline—contemplative neuroscience. Included among these factors are developments in our understanding of neuroplasticity and epigenetics, the development of modern methods for interrogating human brain function, the publications of basic research on meditation in top-tier mainstream scientific journals, the active involvement of the Dalai Lama and the Mind & Life Institute in the promotion of this work, and the presence of several high profile research centers focused on this work at major research universities in the U.S. and abroad. The talk will summarize some of the key findings that have emerged and will showcase future challenges, both methodological and conceptual, that must be faced as this work matures.

Richard J. Davidson is the William James and Vilas Research Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry, Director of the Waisman Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior and the Laboratory for Affective Neuroscience, and Founder and Chair and the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds, Waisman Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in Psychology and has been at Wisconsin since 1984.

The event is being sponsored by CCARE: The Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education.

According to the CCARE web site,

The Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE) is striving to create a community of scholars and researchers, including neuroscientists, psychologists, educators and philosophical and contemplative thinkers around the study of compassion. Drawing from such varied disciplines – from etiological approaches that examine the evolutionary roots of compassion to skills training programs for strengthening compassion to neuroscientific studies of the brain mechanisms that support compassion as well as the ‘warm glow’ feelings that reinforce helping others, CCARE is working to gain a deep understanding of compassion and its associated human behaviors in all its richness. .

When Sylvia Boorstein invited Dr. Davidson to chat with her on a conference call on August 15, 2012, I was delighted to be present. The call rekindled my interest in meeting him and now I may have a chance to do so.I felt fortunate to attend a prior lecture at CCARE. It was about two years ago when Paul Eckman was the speaker.

Paul Eckman is famous for his research on facial expressions of emotions. He is also a frequent presenter at the Mind and Life conferences.

If you know anyone who loves the neuroscience of meditation, please share this announcement with them. Be sure to encourage them to register for the event because seating is very limited.

Three Frames Of Insight From Zen Master Albert Einstein!

Three Frames Of Insight From Zen Master Albert Einstein!

I bet you didn’t know that Albert Einstein was a Zen Master!

How did I come to this conclusion?

Buddhists talk about two broad types of meditation: samatha (calming) and vipassana (insight). One develops samatha and that leads to vipassana.

The insights in these frames can be the results of insight meditation. They came naturally to Albert Einstein!

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These images were extracted as thumbnails from 2012 – A Message of Hope.

Please watch the video and add your comments!

The Better Way to Live Alone

The Better Way to Live Alone

My teacher, Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh (known affectionately by his followers as Thay – teacher) , often teaches on the better way to live alone.

Thich Nhat Hanh at the Vancouver Retreat, 2011 | Photo Jerome Freedman

His teachings are based on the words of the Buddha passed down orally until they were written down. These writings are called sutras.

In this article, we are going to review Sutra on Knowing the Better Way to Live Alone. It is based on a talk given by Thich Nhat Hanh on April 5, 1998. He probably has given these teachings many times since then.

The Better Way to Live Alone

Thay began the talk by explaining what it means to live alone:

“Knowing how to live alone” here does not mean to live in solitude, separated from other people, on a mountain in a cave. “Living alone” here means living to have sovereignty of yourself, to have freedom, not to be dragged away by the past, not to be in fear of the future, not being pulled around by the circumstances of the present. … There are many places in the sutras where the Buddha says that “being alone” does not mean to be separated from other people.

One of the Buddha’s monks, a man called Thera (or “elder”), liked to live alone. He like to do everything by himself – sitting, walking, eating, begging for food – just about everything one could do alone and still be a monk.

When the Buddha learned of his behavior, he asked Thera to come and speak with him. During the conversation, the Buddha recited one of his many poems. Thay’s translation of this poem is:

Do not pursue the past.
Do not lose yourself in the future.
The past no longer is.
The future has not yet come.

Looking deeply at life as it is
in the very here and now,
the practitioner dwells
in stability and freedom.

When Thera heard this poem, he realized that his practices afforded him only the outward experience of living alone and that there was a better way.

This is the essence of Buddha’s teachings: dwelling happily in the present moment!

Do You Know A Better Way To Live Alone?

If you are really feeling lonely, the first thing to do is to experience the truth of Buddha’s poem!

Next, you might benefit by seeing what the poet, singer, and songwriter, Tanya Davis does by watching her video at The Better Way To Be Alone!

Do you know a better way to live along? If you do, please comment below.

Mill Valley Honors Two MaryKnoll Sisters

Mill Valley Honors Two MaryKnoll Sisters

In a matter of a week or two, Paula Carvey managed to fill the Throckmorton Theater in Mill Valley, California to capacity for a fundraiser for the MaryKnoll Sisters World Wide Ministries.

Sisters Rosalie (left) and Mary

Prior to the interview with Sister Mary Reese andSister Rosalie Lacorte, comedians Mark Pitta and Dana Carvey performed for about an hour and a half.

Both of the sisters are in their eighties. They spent a combined 87 years in Tanzania.

Trained as a nurse, Sister Mary Reese worked in the maternity unit and then with AIDS patients. She started the Youth Alive Center, which is now the Community Alive Center.

She says she misses Tanzania a lot!

Sister Rosalie Lacorte was born in the Philippines and taught there until she became a MaryKnoll Sister. She joined Sister Mary in Tanzania in 1982 and collaborated on the Community Alive Center with Sister Mary Reese.

Both women have outgoing personalities and love to serve humanity. There were two very funny stories that they told during the interview.

One of the stories was about how the people they served gave back to them. Many times, they were given chickens in gratitude for their many good deeds.

Sister Rosalie told how they killed the chickens and then boiled them. They drained the blood out of the chickens and added it to the soup! You had to be there to see how funny the story was.

She also told a story how she helped set up a cottage industry to make coffins! The way she told it was just an entertaining as Mark Pitta or Dana Carvey. They were for all the people dying from AIDS.

The work of the MaryKnoll Sisters spans the globe. We saw a slide show with many different sisters in many different places doing many different things. For example, there are MaryKnoll sisters serving in El Salvador, Ecuador, Indonesia, South Africa, and even Chicago. After all, the US was a “foreign country” for Sister Rosalie!

The most striking feature of the event came near the very end. Sister Rosalie said

When we came to Tanzania, we were needed by not wanted.
When we left Tanzania, we were wanted by not needed.

This is the essence of the selfless service the sisters performed over the years.

They turned all of their operations over to the people and not the resident priest. They were quite aware of what goes on with the priests! This brought another burst of serious laughter from the audience.

Before for the end of the interview Dana Carvey asked for questions. I asked, “What is the nature of your spiritual practices?” The answer was, “We attend mass!”

After the interview, there was a drawing for a $3,500 watch. The person who won the watch turned out to be Sister Mary’s niece. I learned yesterday that she gave the watch back so it could be auctioned off again!

I met both ladies during the reception after the event. They are as sweet as can be.

On Sunday, I helped Paula retrieve her flowers from the venue. We completed the task just in time to say goodbye to Sister Mary and Sister Rosalie. That was when I had the opportunity to take the picture. They were headed down the peninsula for two day and then back to New York.

I see these sisters and their whole order as bodhisattvas – beings who pass on full enlightenment in order to serve all beings. You may recall a recent post in which I quoted the Buddha:

Teach this triple truth to all: A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity. —Buddha

The MaryKnoll sisters are practicing the triple truth.

Please share what you are doing to renew yourself and to “renew humanity.”

Love Is A State Of Being

Love Is A State Of Being

When I met Rajneesh many years ago, he gave me the name, Swami Deva Ninad, which means “Divine sound of the waterfall.”
Many friends still call me, “Ninad.”
Like the flowers in this quote from Osho, the water in the waterfall keeps on flowing, no matter who observes it.

Love Is A State Of Being

The highest state of Love is not a relationship at all, it is simply a state of your Being. Just as trees are green, a lover is loving. They are not green for particular persons, it is not that when you come they become green. The flower goes on spreading it’s fragrance whether anybody comes or not, whether anybody appreciates or not. The flower does not start releasing its fragrance when it sees that a great poet is coming by – ‘Now this man will appreciate, now this man will be able to understand who I am.’ And it does not close its doors when it sees that a stupid, idiotic person is passing there – insensitive, dull, a politician or something like that. It does not close itself – ‘What is the point? Why cast pearls before swine?’. No, the flower goes on spreading its fragrance. It is a state of being, not a relationship…

Osho is certainly a controversial figure in the history of spirituality.
However, I found him to be a great teacher and a wonderful speaker.
My first encounter with him was truly amazing. His presence and attention on me was inviting.
That’s why I took initiation and received my name.
Listen to his words and the calmness in his voice and you will see why he was one of my root teachers.
Please share what you think about Osho.

Doing Nothing!

Doing Nothing!

Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh hold question and answer periods at most retreats.
During one of these question and answer periods, this was asked:
Question:
I feel guilty when I’m not occupied. Is it okay to do nothing?
Answer:

In our society, we’re inclined to see doing nothing as something negative, even evil. But when we lose ourselves in activities we diminish our quality of being. We do ourselves a disservice. It’s important to preserve ourselves, to maintain our freshness and good humor, our joy and compassion. In Buddhism we cultivate “aimlessness” and in fact in Buddhist tradition the ideal person, an arhat or bodhisattva, is a businessless person- someone with nowhere to go and nothing to do. *People should learn how to just be there, doing nothing. Try to spend a day doing nothing; we call that a “lazy day”. Although for many of us who are used to running around from this to that, a lazy day is actually very hard work! It’s not easy to just be. If you can be happy, relaxed, and smiling when you’re not doing something, you’re quite strong. Doing nothing brings about quality of being, which is very important. So doing nothing is actually something. Please write that down and display it in your home: Doing nothing is something.

From Answers from the Heart (2009) by Thich Nhat Hanh.