Highly magnified photograph of neurons firing in the brain.

Can we train ourselves to be compassionate? A new study suggests the answer is yes. Cultivating compassion and kindness through meditation affects brain regions that can make a person more empathetic to other peoples’ mental states, say researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Published March 25 in the Public Library of Science One, the study was the first to use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to indicate that positive emotions such as loving-kindness and compassion can be learned in the same way as playing a musical instrument or being proficient in a sport. The scans revealed that brain circuits used to detect emotions and feelings were dramatically changed in subjects who had extensive experience practicing compassion meditation.

The research suggests that individuals — from children who may engage in bullying to people prone to recurring depression — and society in general could benefit from such meditative practices, says study director Richard Davidson, professor of psychiatry and psychology at UW-Madison and an expert on imaging the effects of meditation. Davidson and UW-Madison associate scientist Antoine Lutz were co-principal investigators on the project.

The study was part of the researchers’ ongoing investigations with a group of Tibetan monks and lay practitioners who have practiced meditation for a minimum of 10,000 hours. In this case, Lutz and Davidson worked with 16 monks who have cultivated compassion meditation practices. Sixteen age-matched controls with no previous training were taught the fundamentals of compassion meditation two weeks before the brain scanning took place.

“Many contemplative traditions speak of loving-kindness as the wish for happiness for others and of compassion as the wish to relieve others’ suffering. Loving-kindness and compassion are central to the Dalai Lama’s philosophy and mission,” says Davidson, who has worked extensively with the Tibetan Buddhist leader. “We wanted to see how this voluntary generation of compassion affects the brain systems involved in empathy.”

Various techniques are used in compassion meditation, and the training can take years of practice. The controls in this study were asked first to concentrate on loved ones, wishing them well-being and freedom from suffering. After some training, they then were asked to generate such feelings toward all beings without thinking specifically about anyone.

Each of the 32 subjects was placed in the fMRI scanner at the UW-Madison Waisman Center for Brain Imaging, which Davidson directs, and was asked to either begin compassion meditation or refrain from it. During each state, subjects were exposed to negative and positive human vocalizations designed to evoke empathic responses as well as neutral vocalizations: sounds of a distressed woman, a baby laughing and background restaurant noise.

“We used audio instead of visual challenges so that meditators could keep their eyes slightly open but not focused on any visual stimulus, as is typical of this practice,” explains Lutz.

The scans revealed significant activity in the insula — a region near the frontal portion of the brain that plays a key role in bodily representations of emotion — when the long-term meditators were generating compassion and were exposed to emotional vocalizations. The strength of insula activation was also associated with the intensity of the meditation as assessed by the participants.

“The insula is extremely important in detecting emotions in general and specifically in mapping bodily responses to emotion — such as heart rate and blood pressure — and making that information available to other parts of the brain,” says Davidson, also co-director of the HealthEmotions Research Institute.

Activity also increased in the temporal parietal juncture, particularly the right hemisphere. Studies have implicated this area as important in processing empathy, especially in perceiving the mental and emotional state of others.

“Both of these areas have been linked to emotion sharing and empathy,” Davidson says. “The combination of these two effects, which was much more noticeable in the expert meditators as opposed to the novices, was very powerful.”

The findings support Davidson and Lutz’s working assumption that through training, people can develop skills that promote happiness and compassion.

“People are not just stuck at their respective set points,” he says. “We can take advantage of our brain’s plasticity and train it to enhance these qualities.”

The capacity to cultivate compassion, which involves regulating thoughts and emotions, may also be useful for preventing depression in people who are susceptible to it, Lutz adds.

“Thinking about other people’s suffering and not just your own helps to put everything in perspective,” he says, adding that learning compassion for oneself is a critical first step in compassion meditation.

The researchers are interested in teaching compassion meditation to youngsters, particularly as they approach adolescence, as a way to prevent bullying, aggression and violence.

“I think this can be one of the tools we use to teach emotional regulation to kids who are at an age where they’re vulnerable to going seriously off track,” Davidson says.

Compassion meditation can be beneficial in promoting more harmonious relationships of all kinds, Davidson adds.

“The world certainly could use a little more kindness and compassion,” he says. “Starting at a local level, the consequences of changing in this way can be directly experienced.”

Lutz and Davidson hope to conduct additional studies to evaluate brain changes that may occur in individuals who cultivate positive emotions through the practice of loving-kindness and compassion over time.

Written by Dian Land, University of Wisconsin

A 1998 photograph by Richard Avedon of the Dalai Lama, in sharp focus, among young monks.

I am sometimes asked whether I will be the last Dalai Lama.  That is very possible, for two reasons. The first is above all  political.  One day, if Tibet regains its indpendence, or at least its autonomy- and I hope this happens with all my heart- this will only be able to take place on a democratic basis.  Will Tibetans want the institution of the Dalai Lama to continue?  They will decide.  If a majority decides against, I will withdraw.  And in this case I will effectively be the last Dalai Lama.

Chinese officials have falsely suggested The Dalai Lama seeks a monarchy in Tibet.

The second reason is historical.  Many people think that the institution of the Dalai Lama is intrinsic to Tibet.  That is wrong.  Until the 14th century, Tibet actually existed without any Dalai Lama.  The same could happen in the future.  So I solemnly state, the next government of Tibet must be democratically elected. -H H Dalai Lama 2009 Dalai Lama’s Little Book of Inner Peace

"The glaciers are melting at a faster rate in the Himalayan region and deep inside Tibet. So it is very essential that we address it fast.” -Dalai Lama

From His Holiness The 14th Dalai Lama:

I have been deeply saddened by the loss of many lives and the destruction of property caused by the floods in Pakistan and India. I have offered my condolences and prayers as well as token donations towards relief and rescue work.

I am also very sad that there has been a massive landslide in Drugchu (Chinese: Zhouqu) in the south-east of Kanlho (Chinese: Gannan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Gansu province in which many people have lost their lives. It is reported that this is one of the deadliest incidents in decades. I understand that Premier Wen Jiabao visited Zhouqu to oversee relief and rescue work.

I pray for all those who have lost their lives and offer my sympathy and heart-felt condolences to the bereaved and all those who have been affected by this natural calamity.

According to experts these very unusual floods and the devastating fires in Russia are symptoms of a deeper malaise occurring due to unprecedented Global warming and other environmental causes. Therefore, a concerted international effort is needed to think about measures to preserve our common and delicate ecology.

Special public prayer services have been conducted. This morning I joined another prayer service here at the main Temple (Tsuglakhang) in McLeod Ganj to pray for those who have died and been affected in these tragedies.

Dharamsala

August 14, 2010

The selfish should be wise selfish rather than foolish selfish. That means taking care more of others. Then you get the maximum benefit. Taking care of oneself and forgetting others, you lose. That is the foolish selfish. Taking care of others is first to benefit yourself. That is true. That is fact. -His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama

“His Holiness said that a self-centered attitude is associated with an unhealthy mind. A focus on others is at the heart of compassion, he added. He advised people to be a “wise selfish” rather than a foolish one. His Holiness said that people get more benefit from taking care of other people than merely thinking of themselves.

Complementing this view, Dr. Davidson described a study with two sets of college students where members of one group were given $50 to spend on themselves and come back and report how happy it made them while members of another group was given $50 to spend on gifts for other people. He said the study found that those who used the money to buy gifts for others were happier than those who bought things for themselves.” -Excerpts from the May 16th public dialogue with His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama and Richard J. Davidson May-16-2010

This Tableau from "Missing Peace" by artist Jenny Holzer features a truism inspired by the Dalai Lama.

The Missing Peace: Artists Consider the Dalai Lama is a multi-media art exhibition that brings together 88 respected artists representing 30 countries. The exhibition has been shown in Los Angeles and New York and will travel to Tokyo, Japan and other venues around the world for several years.  Artists with work in the exhibition include Bill Viola, El Anatsui, Richard Avedon, Christo, Guy Buffet, Chuck Close, Marina Abramovic, Herb Ritts, and Anish Kapoor.

"Tenzin Gyatso, Ocean of Wisdom," 2005, by Losang Gyatso features His Holiness' penchant for flip flops.

The artist, Sylvie Fleury asked for a personal item from the Dalai Lama so she could create an artwork to include his aura by way of a Kirlian photograph. These shoes covered many miles marking the spiritual footsteps of His Holiness, as he traveled the world spreading his message of Peace. During the course of his journeys, the Dalai Lama took great comfort from the shoes as he had them resoled several times. As Ms Fleury’s photograph of them depicts, they seem to radiate the energy field of his Holiness.

Celebrated artist, Chuck Close, painted this ultra-realistic portrait of His Holiness.

The Missing Peace is a collaboration between the Committee of 100 for Tibet and the Dalai Lama Foundation. The artists, both established and emerging, were selected because their work addresses themes that are embodied by the Dalai Lama: compassion, peace, unity of all things, impermanence, spirituality, belief systems, community, and people in exile, non-violence, happiness, and tolerance.  With the full life of the Dalai Lama as inspiration, the intention for this project is to shift the world’s attention towards peace.  To see more of “Missing Peace,” the art exhibit inspired by the Dalai Lama, view the video here.

"A meditative sense of the Dalai Lama, his reincarnation, and his evolutionary journey... a feeling of his enduring evolution... his inner strength, his peace... an occasion of oneness with the wonderful and paradoxical sentient presence of infinite compassion.” -Chase Bailey

Thich Nhat Hanh combines traditional Zen teachings, methods from Theravada Buddhism, insights from Mahayana Buddhism, and ideas from Western psychology.

If in our daily life we can smile,
if we can be peaceful and happy,
not only we, but everyone
will profit from it. This
is the most basic kind
of peace work.    -Thich Nhat Hanh

27 Feb 2005 - Hue, Vietnam - Venerable Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh visits the Thien Mu Pagoda. Hanh, 79, returns to Vietnam after a 40 year ban (placed in 1966) was lifted. Hanh is a respected poet, scholar, and peace & human rights activist.

A Talk by the Buddhist Teacher Thich Nhat Hanh on Mindful Consumption

All things need food to be alive and to grow, including our love or our hate. Love is a living thing, hate is a living thing. If you do not nourish your love, it will die. If you cut the source of nutriment for your violence, your violence will also die. That is why the path shown by the Buddha is the path of mindful consumption.

The Buddha told the following story. There was a couple who wanted to cross the desert to go to another country in order to seek freedom. They brought with them their little boy and a quantity of food and water. But they did not calculate well, and that is why halfway through the desert they ran out of food, and they knew that they were going to die. So after a lot of anguish, they decided to eat the little boy so that they could survive and go to the other country, and that’s what they did. And every time they ate a piece of flesh from their son, they cried.

The Buddha asked his monks, “My dear friends: Do you think that the couple enjoyed eating the flesh of their son?” The Buddha said, “It is impossible to enjoy eating the flesh of our son. If you do not eat mindfully, you are eating the flesh of your son and daughter, you are eating the flesh of your parent.”

If we look deeply, we will see that eating can be extremely violent. UNESCO tells us that every day, forty thousand children in the world die because of a lack of nutrition, of food. Every day, forty thousand children. And the amount of grain that we grow in the West is mostly used to feed our cattle. Eighty percent of the corn grown in this country is to feed the cattle to make meat. Ninety-five percent of the oats produced in this country is not for us to eat, but for the animals raised for food. According to this recent report that we received of all the agricultural land in the US, eighty-seven percent is used to raise animals for food. That is forty-five percent of the total land mass in the US.

More than half of all the water consumed in the US whole purpose is to raise animals for food. It takes 2500 gallons of water to produce a pound of meat, but only 25 gallons to produce a pound of wheat. A totally vegetarian diet requires 300 gallons of water per day, while a meat-eating diet requires more than 4000 gallons of water per day.

Raising animals for food causes more water pollution than any other industry in the US because animals raised for food produce one hundred thirty times the excrement of the entire human population. It means 87,000 pounds per second. Much of the waste from factory farms and slaughter houses flows into streams and rivers, contaminating water sources.

Each vegetarian can save one acre of trees per year. More than 260 million acres of US forests have been cleared to grow crops to feed animals raised for meat. And another acre of trees disappears every eight seconds. The tropical rain forests are also being destroyed to create grazing land for cattle.

In the US, animals raised for food are fed more than eighty percent of the corn we grow and more than ninety-five percent of the oats. We are eating our country, we are eating our earth, we are eating our children. And I have learned that more than half the people in this country overeat.

Mindful eating can help maintain compassion within our heart. A person without compassion cannot be happy, cannot relate to other human beings and to other living beings. And eating the flesh of our own son is what is going on in the world, because we do not practice mindful eating.

The Buddha spoke about the second kind of food that we consume every day — sense impressions — the kind of food that we take in by the way of the eyes, the ears, the tongue, the body, and the mind. When we read a magazine, we consume. When you watch television, you consume. When you listen to a conversation, you consume. And these items can be highly toxic. There may be a lot of poisons, like craving, like violence, like anger, and despair. We allow ourselves to be intoxicated by what we consume in terms of sense impressions. We allow our children to intoxicate themselves because of these products. That is why it is very important to look deeply into our ill-being, into the nature of our ill-being, in order to recognize the sources of nutriment we have used to bring it into us and into our society.

The Buddha had this to say: “What has come to be – if you know how to look deeply into its nature and identify its source of nutriment, you are already on the path of emancipation.” What has come to be is our illness, our ill-being, our suffering, our violence, our despair. And if you practice looking
deeply, meditation, you’ll be able to identify the sources of nutriments, of food, that has brought it into us.

Therefore the whole nation has to practice looking deeply into the nature of what we consume every day. And consuming mindfully is the only way to protect our nation, ourselves, and our society. We have to learn how to consume mindfully as a family, as a city, as a nation. We have to learn what to produce and what not to produce in order to provide our people with only the items that are nourishing and healing. We have to refrain from producing the kinds of items that bring war and despair into our body, into our consciousness, and into the collective body and consciousness of our nation, our society. And Congress has to practice that. We have elected members of the Congress. We expect them to practice deeply, listening to the suffering of the people, to the real causes of that suffering, and to make the kind of laws that can protect us from self-destruction. And America is great. I have the conviction that you can do it and help the world. You can offer the world wisdom, mindfulness, and compassion.

Nowadays I enjoy places where people do not smoke. There are nonsmoking flights that you can enjoy. Ten years ago they did not exist, nonsmoking flights. And in America on every box of cigarettes there is the message: “Beware: Smoking can be hazardous to your health.” That is a bell of mindfulness. That is the practice of mindful consumption. You do not say that you are practicing mindfulness, but you are really practicing mindfulness. Mindfulness of smoking is what allowed you to see that smoking is not healthy.

In America, people are very aware of the food they eat. They want every package of food to be labeled so that they can know what is in it. They don’t want to eat the kind of food that will bring toxins and poisons into their bodies. This is the practice of mindful eating.

But we can go further. We can do better, as parents, as teachers, as artists and as politicians. If you are a teacher, you can contribute a lot in awakening people of the need for mindful consumption, because that is the way to real emancipation. If you are a journalist, you have the means to educate people, to wake people up to the nature of our situation. Every one of us can transform himself or herself into a bodhisattva doing the work of awakening. Because only awakening can help us to stop the course we are taking, the course of destruction. Then we will know in which direction we should go to make the earth a safe place for us, for our children, and for their children.

Reprinted from ‘Healthy at 100‘

This wild polar bear shocked everyone when he spontaneously hugged the photographers chained husky.

Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.    -Buddha

Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.    -Jesus ( Luke 17.21)

The Kingdom of God is inside of you, and it is outside of you. When you come to know yourselves, then you will become known, and you will realize that it is you who are the sons of the living Father. But if you will not know yourselves, you dwell in poverty, and it is you who are that poverty.    -Jesus (Thomas, Saying 3)

Brian Wilson, like the Buddha, achieved his pivotal enlightenment at sunrise.

I was sittin' in a crummy movie
With my hands on my chin
all the violence that occurs
Seems like we never win

Love and mercy that's what you need tonight
Love and mercy to you and your friends tonight

I was lying in my room
And the news came on TV
A lotta people out there hurtin'
And it really scares me

Love and mercy that's what you need tonight
Love and mercy to you and your friends tonight

I was standing in a bar
And watching all the people there
Oh the loneliness in this world
Well it's just not fair

Love and mercy that's what we need tonight
Love and mercy to you and your friends tonight

The back cover of Pet Sounds features photos of the Beach Boys as Zen embracing samurai warriors.

"Really Zen, Right?"   -Brian Wilson 1967

"The eternal now, right?" ~Brian Wilson
Surfing Saints Cheetah Oct. '67


View Libera perform a moving rendition of this song for honoree, Brian
Wilson.


Brian's Label artwork featured this uniquely American symbol of enlightenment.

Scientists have deciphered the three-dimensional structure of the human genome, paving the way for new insights into genomic function and expanding our understanding of how cellular DNA folds at scales that dwarf the double helix.

Scientists have long disputed the genetic basis of altruism.  The concept of kin selection suggests altruistic behaviors favor the survival of close relatives of the affected individual, and thus survival of many of the same genes.  Thus familial altruism is actually genetic self interest.  In the 1930’s J.B.S. Haldane said that, “I would lay down my life for two brothers or eight cousins.” According to this logic, your life is worth one identical twin, two siblings, four nieces or nephews, or eight cousins in terms of genetic code (assuming siblings are on average 50% identical by descent, nephews 25%, and cousins 12.5%.)

But this is a severe miscalculation.   We are actually much more closely related.  Now

Brothers actually share on average approximately 50% of the DNA which varies between human beings plus the 99.9% shared by all human beings.

that the human genome has been decoded, it turns out that all human beings share 99.9% of the same DNA.  This fact makes true altruism less of a puzzle.  Acts of brotherhood make sense since all mankind are brothers.

All mankind are related since all men trace their ‘Y’ chromosome to a common male ancestor or genetic “Adam.”  Similarly all women trace their mitochondrial DNA to a single female ancestor or genetic “Eve.”

It is very powerful evidence of how alike we really are.  Perhaps this positive realization could be promoted to reinforce our already existing societal beliefs in equality and help overcome racism and prejudice.