A subtle interest "Ten people
" said Richie Davidson trying to illustrate the point with an example react differently to certain complex visual objects (For example, a neutral face that does not express any emotion) in terms of their emotional temperament. Thus, the reaction of an anxious person during the first two hundred milliseconds will be very different to the one who has a calmer temperament.
This difference immediate (type attraction versus rejection) in the patterns of neuronal activity in response to stimulation of a neutral face has been detected in the fusiform area, a brain region that deals with registration of faces.
"My real interest here," said the Dalai Lama, surprised that this difference could be due to a conceptual process is very subtle. Though be warned, in the first two hundred milliseconds, interindividual differences, I think it should be a point-perhaps the first one hundred milliseconds in which there is only visual perception (mere appearance) which then is followed, perhaps in the hundred milliseconds after a conceptual cognition. Do you have some kind of experimental evidence in this regard? My hypothesis is that amount during the first hundred milliseconds, there is no difference and interindividual variation attributable to temperament appear only after putting up the conceptual apparatus.
"The evidence we have," he began Richie seems to suggest that ...
"But perhaps the initial moment of perception and is determined by the previous mental state, Thupten Jinpa interjected with his usual polemical spirit.
"Yes," confirmed the Dalai Lama, at least in principle. The first stage of visual perception and mental state depends on this, but only in the sense that the clarity of the experience is based on the previous time and that does not adjust its pure appearance. The second phase, which already runs the trial, based on positive or negative feelings that accompany an event is completely new. But I'm still suspecting the existence a moment that may not last more than a tenth of a second in which visual perception is not affected by temperament, health, age, and so on.
"I then said Francisco we are not yet in a position to determine precisely that point, but there is some evidence that the image I see has been shaped by the previous data. It is true that the brain brings together the data based on expectations, memories and associations, but so is everything that is not in any way decisive. I agree with Jinpa that something can come from the earlier time and not think there is any evidence of pure visual appeal. Things always happen in the context of what just happened and other past events that are in working memory. I do not think we can determine, that the existence of a moment, however small it may be, in which there is only perception.
- How neuroscience can verify this? Then asked Alan.
"Very good question," said Francis, but to answer it should further refine our tools of analysis the resolution, currently only allows a discrimination of about seventy milliseconds.
A brilliant suggestion
"Everything seems to indicate that among the early seventies and a hundred milliseconds, people react very similar. Interindividual differences in brain activity begin to occur only after the first hundred milliseconds, "said Richie, surprised that the research data support the hypothesis suggested by the Dalai Lama. A method
"Richie continued using the same type of electrical measurement and that is to detect the activity of the brain stem before it spreads to the higher region of the brain, the cortex. And it is very unlikely that at that level, there are interpersonal differences. Maybe it's time that you're talking about a time when there is no difference between people and reflects not like, dislike or expectation, but it is the pure and simple sensory input.
"That's it, that is," confirmed the Dalai Lama, indicating that this was precisely the focus of interest.
-As I understand, "said Alan, delving into the same line, says Buddhist epistemology is a fleeting moment so that the individual did not even notice it.
"Happens" said Richie, among the thirty-five and forty first milliseconds.
"But that is impossible to corroborate testimony by the first party. And also difficult to imagine that neuroscience may be able to determine "said Alan.
- Why not? "Asked Francisco. All we need for this are sophisticated methods that allow us to discriminate more accurately the dynamics of appearance of a perception. And if such is not possible with the indirect techniques of today have to determine the functioning of the brain stem, we must wait until the development of more sophisticated and accurate. Little by little we are doing things better, and the resolution we have reached and the order of tens of milliseconds, which is already far more subtle but levels still remain escurriéndosenos of hands. And I note that this is one aspect of the collaboration of which we spoke ... in the event that there is someone we'll find out which, in principle, does not seem impossible.
"My hypothesis," said the Dalai Lama, then outlining a concrete theory to experimentally verify that the first moment of perception conceptual and is not in it, you just have an impression. In a second step, however. It implements some form of identification. And while one hopes that this pattern is maintained suspect that when he closes his eyes and has a purely mental image, there is the same sequencing of an image followed by an identification, but both are presented simultaneously.
- True! "Said Richie. "In that case, there would be any involvement of brainstem! "This seems like a really brilliant suggestion! In the case of pure image, in the case of purely mental images, there seems to be mediating some of the brain stem (which occurs during the first forty milliseconds). When one contemplates an external image, processing activates sensory brain stem, but this would not happen, as you say, with purely mental images, since in that case, the only thing active is the cortex.
"I also wonder," said the Dalai if there was any difference between a situation where you only have a visual perception, and one in which there is a thought process (of attraction or rejection, for example) at the same While he realizes what he is seeing. Another case would be to have visual perception and then close your eyes, so that was no longer watching but experiencing related thought processes. Is there any difference in brain activity in both cases?
"In the event that the visual stimulus is present," said Richie, "is performed brainstem activation, which does not happen when the visual stimulus is absent. But certainly it seems doubtful that we can be aware of the activity of the brain stem. According to modern neuroscience, the only way of making them aware of the brainstem activity requires the activity reaches the cortex, which is certainly paradoxical.
Which, put another way, means we can not be aware of the exclusive activity of the brain stem because for this it is necessary that information reaches the cortex.
"Perhaps, then, Richie said," Advanced yogis can be aware of the activity of the brain stem before it reaches the cortex activation, but that is something that the West ignores completely.
Richie took less than a year to investigate this issue in his laboratory at Madison with the help of advanced yogis.
The science of the first person
Francisco, pressed for time, then returned to the initial theme, the importance of first-person account.
"I would now like to conclude by combining As we have seen-that is, the face recognition experiments using the first-person account as an analytical tool. We are just beginning this type of experiment, but now, instead of a slide show and ask the subject to press a button, we urge you, after each presentation, tell us your experience and state of mind in which it was before stimulation ("I was distracted," I was thinking about my girlfriend "," I was really ready. ") Thus we get a little story, but not therefore less phenomenological first person.
"The individuals with whom we worked were very intelligent, and although they were not highly trained, we soon discover the presence of several different types of bias. The first group had what we call "readiness stable" (ie, they were relaxed and attentive), the second group was characterized by a "prompt waiting" and the third group was slightly distracted, and the fourth, finally, was formed by very poorly prepared and did anything like, for example, fantasizing.
"No doubt that the reliability of the reports provided by subjects included in these four categories is very different, "said Francisco. The members of the first two groups-ie, subjects who were relatively likely (with or without expectation) - had large oscillation patterns and brain activity. Customers, however, were not prepared, that is, those who were distracted and wandering patterns showed much less consistent and synchronous. "
" But if they are distracted, there must be some brain activity, "said the Dalai Lama. Or, in other words, even if it is distracting thoughts are still brain activity. "Exactly
"Agreed Francisco.
"So there are two instances of lack of preparation" said the Dalai Lama. One is the case in which the mind is active but distracted and the other is the simple lack of concentration in which the person does not really pay attention, but falls into lassitude or, to use a Buddhist term classic in dullness.
Here, the Dalai Lama was using a traditional categories used in Buddhism to refer to the type of mental stillness achieved through meditation, excitation (in which the mind is agitated or distracted) and lassitude (in which attention "implodes" and loses its vitality and its ability to penetrate).
"The fact is that" said Francisco seems to have two different ways to tackle the same task. On the one hand we have distracted people, ie those whose standards are so different that not just a stable and coordinated by the other people who approach the task in a more concentrated and where patterns are combined in a stable way.
This "continued commenting Francisco was conducted with subjects who were not highly trained. Now we look forward to advanced meditators who can describe in greater detail a particular moment of experience. In this sense, for example, we working with monks from the Dordogne in southern France and hope to find well-trained Buddhist practitioners who are willing to go to the lab to participate in such experiments. It seems clear that if we could detect differences working with ordinary people, these differences are greater when working with people more experienced and maybe then we can also discriminate much more subtle and can take a true partnership.
"Back to the things themselves"
I wanted to focus the debate in the scientific attempt to understand what happens when the perception or experience and careful analysis about Buddhism. Because I believe that science can use it to establish very specific hypothesis.
- What are the conditions to be met by the subjects, both normal and properly trained to use the methodology of first person? I asked.
"first-person methods (ie, the person who has the experience), second person (the interviewer expert) and third person (objective methods)-responded Francisco are different ways of validating data that can end part of intersubjective knowledge, ie knowledge valid for the entire world.
"The meditator who have an immediate experience, may keep it for himself, in which case others could not use them. We can only share their knowledge if, somehow, express what makes us partakers of it. There are two alternatives in the case of the second person. One is the expert, as the teacher skillfully lead the meditator knows the right track by asking, for example: "Have you noticed that?". In the West there are other techniques that use the second person, as interview, for example, where someone directs another person to relive certain experiences. There is also another interview technique, not as policy, aimed at obtaining information that would otherwise be difficult to achieve.
"Each of these methods has its advantages and disadvantages. There are also more mundane versions of the method of second person, as when you ask someone to fill in a questionnaire. It is, in fact, the technique that most commonly have used psychology and cognitive science. But, who is more in place, is the case of a very limited, because the interviewer usually not an expert and not properly routed to the report submitted by the first party. In addition, of course, we also have the third-person methods, objective methods.
"Let me introduce what I call" lineages "different from the first party. Buddhism, of course, is a very important lineage, a lineage that includes both the method of first person (the self-report) as the second person by an expert. In this case, the relationship between teacher and student is much more than just "fill in this questionnaire." "In the West we also have the phenomenological lineage, a tradition that considers the first-person account as the foundation of how we think about the mind and the world. It is a tradition, illustrated by William James and, more particularly, by the German Edmund Husserl and very different from other American philosophical traditions (such as the empirical tradition and philosophy of mind) - which has developed several methods related to the second and first person. "
- Can you give me a concrete definition of phenomenology? Asked the Dalai Lama. Is it just described?
"My colleagues will correct me if I wrong, "said Francis, but I think we could sum up the fundamental view of Husserl saying that one can not think of himself and the world without carrying out what he called" return to things themselves "or, in other words , to the way things appear to us. And that involves what Husserl called the phenomenological reduction, that is, cleansed of all prior belief about what should be the world God's existence, matter, of this or that and just to observe and engage all grounded in the how the world is presented.
is a very thoughtful approach. From this perspective, the first thing to do when you want to analyze something is put on hold all your previous ideas about it, leaving aside all prejudices and habitual patterns, see what you see and just base it all there. That was the great contribution of Husserl, with whom he developed a philosophy, a secular tradition that has continued until today.
- Am I right, "again asked the Dalai Lama saying that the starting point of this vision is to set aside or bracketing, any metaphysical and religious view and just start from your experience? Do not you think it implies the profound arrogance of believing that one has the capacity to know everything?
"Not so much to know everything," said Francisco as knowing the foundation. It is true that a certain arrogance, as there is in the meditator's statement says: "I'm going to watch my mind and see it for what it is."
- But perhaps, "said the Dalai Lama, the knowledge should not be, ultimately, tested by experience? Nothing therefore, how sophisticated and complex a philosophical system because ultimately, the only validation comes from personal experience.
"And that is precisely what it purports to Husserl, settle any validation on the experience, "said Francisco.
"This is also a key point of Buddhism," said the Dalai Lama. In some Buddhist scriptures, the Buddha made it a number of issues and, finally, just relating them to the experience.
Francisco said, then, that the school has conducted Husserlian descriptions elaborate on the time and space. But even though you have made great discoveries, how to implement the method, and teaching it to students is still somewhat vague and obscure. There is a tradition that has clearly developed his method. At this point, precisely is where I think the contribution of Buddhism can be very positive, regardless of your use of science. Transcending
naivety:
as an expert yogi phenomenologist
He saidFrancisco, working with Richie had allowed him to discover the best way to combine the different lineages and first-person methods. The first person is a dimension that we should distinguish different degrees of ability ranging from beginner to master. And something similar happens to also in the case of the second person, which distinguishes the naive Francisco coach expert.
In his opinion, the third dimension was time to explore:
"In this sense, it is possible to speak of the immediate situation or go back in time and remember, for example, which experienced a couple of days or a couple of months. Cognitive psychology and experimental psychology today have many new techniques for both the immediate and self-report to gather information from the past, but both cases are fraught with problems. All we want is to note the existence of several types of first-person. In classical studies of hypnosis, for example, requires a skilled coach to induce hypnosis and a person to submit to it, which probably a rookie reporter is doing a report immediately.
'own verbal report of experimental psychology, for example, uses both beginners and the immediate or intermediate time, and the ability of the second person is grossly naive. "
"So that laboratory research would benefit positively from the experience of advanced meditators" I said.
Francisco agreed with me mentioning that, in this way, it would be possible to explore the full spectrum of experience.
"So far, he added, science is limited to explore the narrow scope of naive subjects talking to second inexperienced.
"And it has an extraordinary relevance" said Richie then for emotion research. Keep in mind that most of the experiments conducted in this regard, has relied on reports that people are forced to answer a simple questionnaire such as "How satisfied are you with your life? Very satisfied, fairly satisfied, moderately satisfied or dissatisfied, and the only participation of the subject is reduced to place a cross in one of the four boxes.
In this kind of data-continued has settled the scientific research done on what has become calling "subjective well-being." Not surprisingly, therefore, that, based on an introspective examination rather abrupt and disruptive experience, has shown little interest. Thus, the idea of \u200b\u200bhaving skilled observers who can perform a richer description of inner experience is very important for progress in this area. I think only then will we be able to perform more subtle distinctions between the different attributes of the same emotion.
That idea had been suggested long ago by Francis his book The Embodied Mind and in your most recent. "In the writings of Alan Wallace, meanwhile, also contains a similar proposal in the field of philosophy of mind. In fact, this part of the meeting was for him a small revelation to highlight the rich taxonomy of mental states that have Buddhism and the use of trained observers to encourage brain science.
But where advanced practitioners can be found to contribute positively to the research of Francis? According to the Dalai Lama should be sought among the practitioners of Mahamudra and Dzogchen-two advanced meditation techniques they can be aware of those moments of experience (especially those seasoned in the quality of consciousness to which, the first day, Matthieu called "clarity"). But even so, he doubted his ability to articulate that experience, because this would depend partly on their knowledge of technical terms known to the states of mind.
The Dalai Lama said that these monks, and to some extent, the schoolchildren Tibetan refugee settlements that are scattered throughout India studying the rudiments of Buddhist psychology but there are also, of course, further study deeply Buddhist psychology and epistemology. But, according to the Dalai Lama, "would be much more interesting that these issues were not only taught in isolation and without practical application, but also in relation to modern cognitive neuroscience." Thus, the monks learn to put their experience with contemplative practice within a theoretical framework, an idea that was very interested in Francis.
A new type of partner
Such studies have the advantage of allowing us to establish more clearly the relationship between experience, the phenomenology of a mental state and brain activity.
"said Richie reliability of the accounts provided by the advanced practitioners allow us to determine more precisely their relation to specific changes that occur in the brain. No doubt that this will be for us an important strategy for future research.
expert practitioners who can generate internal states and talk about them with unusual accuracy represent a new generation of contributors to brain science. This deep inner consciousness was also the elusive goal of a group American psychologists of the early twentieth century, to which is called "introspection" - who sought to study the mind through internal observations of his subjects. In one case, for example, volunteers (often students) should be transcribed as quickly and literally could the course of his meandering thoughts and all tours by the flow of their mental states.
Unfortunately, however, the results of this method was not anything interesting, perhaps because the subjects involved were inexperienced in the task, and the movement ended scientific introspection cornered at a dead end. (Although we should also note that one of the unexpected benefits was more literary than psychological, since it taught the writer Gertrude Stein, a student of William James at Radcliffe, the method of free writing eventually became his distinctive literary hallmark.)
Today, nearly a century later, we are at a point where it seems that we can resume the target, but not the means of introspectionists. Instruments such as MRI and computerized EEG allows us to observe the functioning of the brain with unprecedented accuracy. Advanced practitioners of meditation, for its part, also represent a promising source of collaboration that has already been outlined over a decade ago by Francisco Varela when he said that. To achieve a complete picture of what happens, we establish the relationship between the biological record of a particular state and the internal experience of the subject who experiences it.
Surprisingly, the Dalai Lama is also regarded as very promising this cooperative approach to the scientific study of human consciousness. As I said then, one of the reasons why it has insisted on introducing science education in the curriculum of the monasteries is not simply to update the monks on the various scientific theories, but to prepare a select group of monks so they can reach the highest peaks.
His hope, as he said, "is that one day soon, we may be able to create scientists who are also practicing Buddhists." Perhaps the monks have also advanced the proper training can, at a future time, conduct scientific research ... themselves.
But from the perspective of someone who not only thinks in terms of years, but centuries, the Dalai Lama also recognizes that this goal be time consuming and, with his characteristic mischievous smile, he added: "I do not think we who collect the fruits of the collaboration that we are now just beginning to plant."
The beginnings of a partnership
At this time I paved the morning break for tea, but the Dalai Lama and Francisco were so immersed in conversation that kept talking throughout the pause.
"There are two very different ways of not being prepared," said the Dalai Lama, reverting to a previous point. Using the terminology shine (quiet meditation), a way of not being prepared is bound to mental inactivity that leads him to fall into lassitude. The other way has to do with excitement, agitation and distraction, in which case the mind is stuck remembering the past or anticipating the future, and one is concentrated but something else. And, although both fall under the heading of "not ready", presumably having vastly different brain correlates. Might be appropriate to separate them.
"I think an excellent suggestion," agreed Francisco, but for that, we have experts in these conflicts. People tend to say that he is distracted or waiting, but maybe the coaches know people discriminate more precisely the type of distraction.
At the time of ending the tea break he finished his conversation, but decided to follow later. Francisco seemed very satisfied because, although could not cover all the topics planned, felt he had accomplished his goal of mobilizing the interest of the Dalai Lama.
But, beyond the euphoria caused by the interest of His Holiness, was also somewhat frustrated by not being able to better explain its advantages to investigate the fact of having the assistance of expert meditators, a possibility that seemed really exciting. A few months later, however, Francis started in his laboratory in Paris, a collaboration with Oser Lama trying to determine the neurological impact of meditation that had been pointed in Dharamsala, an investigation that eventually became one of his last exits the stage of science.
14. BRAIN PROTEIN
One facet of science that most interests the Dalai Lama is that their search for truth is not so much on the theories as facts. There is no theory, law and even principle can not be superseded by the results tomorrow an investigation that reveals its inaccuracy. And research is self-correcting mechanism that serves as a compass to the scientific search for truth.
the subject addressed by Richard Davidson that last morning is a perfect example in this regard. For decades, brain science has maintained that the central nervous system does not generate new neurons, a truth known to students of neuroscience and that, until now, was not considered a theory but a pure fact. But research conducted in the late nineties in the field of molecular cell biology has finished demonstrating the falsity of what, until now, apparently regarded as a dogma irrevocable. '
The discovery that the brain and nervous system generate new cells in the light of experience and learning has been put back on the agenda of the notion of plasticity neuroscience neuronal.2 why Richie believes that the notion of finish remodeling neuronal plasticity also the psychology of the coming years. His own research has already begun to enter the field of psychology, new discoveries of neuroscience.
Before Richie sit in the seat of the presenter, I suggested that since Francis had focused on what happens in a moment of experience, he could do on the lasting effects training of the mind and how learning affects the brain.
"I began now, Richie, return to the topic of destructive emotions and focus on their antidotes and their possible neuroscientific approach, particularly in the lasting effects of meditation on brain function and other bodily activities. In other words, we will focus our attention on the lasting brain changes may cause a change in temperament.
"A possible antidote to the destructive emotions would be to promote the activation of frontal lobe regions that inhibit or modulate the activity of the amygdala. It has clearly demonstrated the importance of the amygdala on certain negative emotions, and we also know that certain areas of the frontal lobes inhibit its activity. This is a mechanism that can be used to transform and reduce brain function and negative emotional reactions, while increasing the positive. "
- Are you perhaps suggesting then asked the Dalai Lama the opportunity to develop drugs that can help reduce negative emotions, ie modify the functioning of the brain to change and emotional functioning?
"Very good question," said Richie. But the drugs have the problem that when you give a person a pill, its impact affects the entire brain chemistry.
Or, in other words, the low precision current-effect of drugs affecting the operating performance of the entire brain chemical (and the rest of the body) - will inevitably cause many undesirable side effects, which the modern medicine, of course, is forced to accept as the necessary price we must pay to have a remedy.
- Would it be possible to achieve the same effect, 'said the Dalai Lama again using any electrical work or some other type of medical intervention? Are you investigating in this regard?
"My current research revolves around the use of meditation to transform the functioning of the brain - said Richie.
Before focusing on meditation, however, Richie replied to the question of other possible interventions, describing one that involves stimulating the brain with a special high-powered magnet, as several studies have found that magnetic stimulation left frontal lobe reduces symptoms of patients deprimidos.1 But it is a method that also has its limitations and drawbacks, as, for example, causing severe headaches for an hour or two after each session. And I must say that its effectiveness requires two to three weekly sessions spread over two months.
- Does it have any side effects on intelligence, the ability to reason or any other mental faculty? Asked the Dalai Lama.
"At the moment we ignore it," said Richie, because you do not have long-term studies to determine this. For my part, I prefer to use internal methods, ie methods that are under the control of the person, like meditation, for example.
"Yes ... methods seem much safer, "agreed the Dalai Lama.
Change
temperament "On several occasions we went Richie said some people react to negative events temperamentally an automatic mode, intense and immediate. Paul Ekman used the term "refractory period" to refer to the lack of receptivity to new information on who is caught in an emotion and very difficult to stop once it has started.
"It is possible that the crop certain skills may facilitate the interruption of automatic negative emotions. Thus, the person would have the ability to pause, thus reducing the duration of the refractory period, and may also be more aware of when the emotion that emerges to address it before the triggering of its negative effects.
"His Holiness has provided us with information from the scientific point of view very valuable. I found very interesting, for example, the idea pointed out by His Holiness the deliberate thought that causes the emergence of positive emotions, while negative emotions tend to sprout more spontaneous.
"Cognitive therapy is a popular Western therapy that teaches people to think differently in the problematic events of his life. This approach allows one to quit growing the automatic habit of issuing a negative emotional response and think what disturbs us and then be able to respond more positively. Finally, there is also the opportunity to cultivate positive affect, in my opinion, could be the best antidote to certain negative emotions.
"I now focus our attention on the brain mechanisms implemented by this type of antidotes and the possible validity of using meditation.
"This plot," continued Richie, after projecting first slide shows the key areas of the frontal lobe. The medial, located deep in the lobe, the prefrontal region is richest in neural connections with the amygdala. "
medial area of \u200b\u200bthe frontal cortex (shaded) is the prefrontal region more rich neural connections with the amygdala.
- Was not the amygdala is closely linked to the negative qualities of experiences such as depression? Asked the Dalai Lama.
"Yes," replied Richie. The amygdala is active in depressed people, in people with posttraumatic stress disorder and anxious people. In this regard, activation of the medial area of \u200b\u200bthe frontal cortex inhibits the activation of the amygdala. Not surprisingly, therefore, that activation of the prefrontal cortex and the corresponding reduction in the functioning of the amygdala are accompanied by a change in temperament.
"The mood swings caused by prefrontal activation sheds new light on data so far unclear. Some research on sense of well being, for example, highlighted the presence of small differences in satisfaction with life of paraplegics, normal people and lottery winners. And I must say that the data are particularly paraplegics surprising because, although the loss of limbs is a devastating event, many paraplegics, just weeks after the incident that maimed them, seem to experience a strange mood positive. After a year, however, almost everyone comes back to feeling so optimistic (or pessimistic) as they were before the incident. For his part, who lost a loved one takes approximately a year to regain his normal mood. Finally, there is hardly any difference between the effect of winning the lottery on the daily mood of the rich and wicked people who enjoy very modest incomes. It seems, in short, there is a strong relationship between life circumstances and the prevailing mood.
"On the other hand, studies of identical twins raised separately show the presence of very similar rates of positive mood or negative, so that if one of them tends to be optimistic and enthusiastic, the other also is and, conversely, if one is moody and melancholy, so is the other. All these findings have led researchers to conclude that every human being has a biologically determined ratio in a good mood / bad mood (a kind of happiness rate). And, being a biological constant, the effect of the successes and failures is temporary and soon recover the usual level.
seems, then, as if we could not do much to change that biological fact as it is not, after all, biology, something as immutable as some suppose that is the target? But there seem to be those conclusions from the findings of research conducted by Richie.
Next slide showed a picture of the brain with small bright spots (indicating an increase in activity) that accompany the emergence of positive emotions. Then Richie said
"The results of this investigation determined that the area of \u200b\u200bthe brain most associated to the reports made by the person about positive emotions of daily life (such as zeal, vigor, enthusiasm and optimism) is the left frontal cortex.
"You see, this is the same brain region associated with inhibition of amygdala activity. What interests us, then, is to find ways to strengthen this region (which inhibits the functioning of the amygdala) to increase the positive emotions of the person, while decreasing the destructive. That's when, inspired by many of the teachings of His Holiness, we began to investigate the long-term effects of meditation on the brain area and its importance to decrease negative emotions and increase positive ones. "
- Could he asked Alan compassion, in which one empathizes with the suffering of another person to the point of reaching even to mourn, to be connected to the left frontal region?
"For now we ignore it, and that is part of collaborative research we would like to perform, "said Richie. All we know is that those who score high on measures of positive emotions also tend to engage in more altruistic actions, but since these results are based on self-reports, we still must determine whether its actions match its words.
In fact, compassion was one of the conditions evaluated in the investigation that Richie was quick to take in Madison.
geshe The case of happy
"I would like to draw your attention to the results of a pair of experiments we've done. One of them is based on data from a single person, but very interesting and revealing. The other is a formal experiment we conducted with Jon Kabat-Zinn, who spoke of him as one of the previous meetings of the Mind and Life Institute. "As you know, Jon Kabat-Zinn has long been investigated on teaching mindfulness meditation to a wide variety of groups, from patients to workers in their jobs, prisoners and residents of disadvantaged neighborhoods in several U.S. cities.
"In a project run jointly by Francis I and others had the opportunity to study a monk who came to our lab in Madison. Then put electrodes on your head and recorded the electrical activity of your brain to determine if, in its daily, had a higher activity of the frontal region associated with positive emotions and the inhibition of the amygdala. "
- But if the abbot of this monastery in India! Said the Dalai Lama, when he recognized the monk who was being connected to the EEG lab Davidson showed the photo to be projected then.
"In this research," continued Davidson, compared the brain activity log the geshe with that of another hundred seventy-five people who had participated in the same experiment over the past two years. "
Then Davidson projected a slide that highlighted the activation ratio of right / left geshe and said
"" The investigation revealed that the ratio of geshe was the most positive of all concerned! ".
"The truth is that it is a very, very good," said the Dalai Lama is always in excellent spirits and is very quiet, apart from a great scholar.
knew he was a monk Geshe practitioner and a scholar, but did not know it was a yogi in Tibetan meaning of the term as someone who spends long periods in large meditation retreats. Tibetan Buddhist texts are peppered with the achievements of the great yogis of the past, and the Dalai Lama knows that today there are many yogis who spend years and years in meditation retreats. I remember on one occasion, went to his office for religious affairs in search of advanced practitioners of meditation, not only Tibetan monks, "but also Indian yogis and practitioners of Theravada traditions, vipassana meditation and other forms of Buddhist could cooperate with investigators. But the Dalai
Laraa considered important to make clear to scientists that the fact of being a yogi either Tibetan Buddhist tradition or otherwise, does not guarantee that the person has fully relieved of negative emotions, and this only depends in his view, of the practices involved. Do not forget that the ancient Vedas of India are full of stories of yogis very violent and jealous.
But according to the Dalai Lama, Geshe was a spiritually advanced person who lived like a monk (though not, therefore, should stop worrying about integrating their practice in their daily lives). Perhaps for this reason the results of research conducted by Davidson were so clear.
The happy marginalized
Statistically speaking, the happy geshe is an outcast in the sense that their activity ratio left / right is in a range well above average normal statistical distribution of positive emotions. We have no very clear why the results were extraordinarily positive. It is true that, as a Tibetan Buddhist monk, he would have done many meditation practices that may have contributed to determine the brain response. In fact, Richie told us carrying more than thirty years practicing, among other things, a technique-oriented culture of compassion.
For me, geshe data constituted a kind of revelation and had no doubt that the cause was due to the effect of sustained practice. Since my first trip to India in the early seventies as a graduate interested in systems of meditation, I've been intrigued by a palpable quality to be "a kind of lightness that seemed to distinguish many of the people who had been practicing meditation for years , either as part of the routine of a monk, as geshe, or as Yogi immersed in longer intensive retreats.
Now, finally, knew that what attracted me so much of the fruits of spiritual practice was due to a tilt to the left of emotional balance. Two thousand years ago the authors of the Abhidharma, the classical Buddhist psychology, had proposed that the rate of healthy emotions and destructive emotions that presents a particular individual is the best sign of their progress on the spiritual path ... and modern brain science had confirmed.
Our emotions change continuously depending on the ups and downs that life holds for us, but practitioners of meditation appear to be gradually developed an internal locus makes them fairer and less vulnerable to circumstances. According to the Abhidharma states, the meditator's mood is increasingly focused on inner reality and stop turning around to external developments. Sukha is the Sanskrit term used to refer to this feeling of fullness, satisfaction and inner joy serene, unlike ordinary happiness or pleasure is not dependent on external circumstances. Sukha Perhaps reflecting this positive tilt to the left prefrontal.
provocatively The Buddha said that "every human being is disturbed" in the sense that everyone is vulnerable to distortions and biases of perception caused by destructive emotions. In the ultimate state of being, however, does not appear any destructive emotion and the mind is dominated by positive states such as compassion, love and equanimity.
When I started studying the mental health model of Abhidharma while still a student of clinical psychology at Harvard, I found this idea fascinating, because it opens the door to positive psychology and gives us a model of human development that goes far beyond the limits of the prevalent theories in the West. But, however admirable it was, it also seemed very unlikely. Today, however, the outcome of the investigation with geshe turned that possibility into something palpable.
In fact, I met many people who have a positive emotional tone and optimistic evidence this bias to the left. In fact, the same Richie is one of the most optimistic people I know. When I asked where he stood on the scale right / left said that definitely was leaning to the left though not, of course, three standard deviations above the mean, as in the case of geshe.
But there were still some important questions to be answered to explain the results geshe astonishingly positive. Is it just geshe a singularity, a genetic accident, so to speak? Or does your brain measures show a possibility to which we can all be accessed through the practice of meditation? "
That was the point I continued to explore Richie in his presentation.
CONTINUED ... ..
0 comments:
Post a Comment