Richard Davidson, director of the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, spoke yesterday at a conference at Emory University that focused on the connection between the body and the cultivation of compassion. The conference was also attended by the XIV Dalai Lama, a benefactor of CIHM.
Davidson cited functional MRI research that showed that training in metta-style meditation changes the brain function of experienced meditators:
In compassion training at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, participants contemplated or visualized suffering and wished others freedom from such pain. . .Davidson said that during the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s studies, veteran practitioners of compassion meditation experienced elevated activity in the amygdala, a region of the brain known to respond to fear.
In contrast to novice practitioners, who experience reduced activity in the amygdala, he said, the experts had developed an increased endurance for suffering and an increased ability to exhibit compassion and behave more altruistically. But even short-term practitioners exhibited more prosocial behavior after only two weeks of compassion training, he added.
In addition to heightened activity in the amygdala, participants also experienced a quickened heart rate when exposed to sounds of human suffering. “[This neurocardiac coupling] indicates that compassion meditation facilitates connection between the heart and the mind,” Davidson said.
Another presenter at the conference, Philippe Goldin, a research scientist in Stanford’s Department of Psychology, discussed research that indicated that just eight weeks of compassion meditation training can affect social tendencies and emotions toward others. Goldin reported that the training can reduce the tendency to suppress emotion, increase an individual’s sense of care and empathy toward others and decrease social anxiety.
Comments
all religious in the world are talking about this for years. I is no accident that now it is a big issue since there is tranfomation is happening in then deeper level of the human sociaty.
In the comming future people will start carring for each other.
yuda, from:
http://www.thefreechair.com/
This isn't religious. The fact that it goes along with the fundamental morality ethics of religion is just a secondary note. This is a science, something you can believe in without faith.
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