Quote of the day:
“Since altruistic love acts as a direct antidote to hatred, the more we develop it, the more the desire to harm will wither and finally disappear. It is not a question of suppressing hatred but of turning the mind to something diametrically opposed to it: love and compassion. Following a traditional Buddhist practice, you begin by recognizing your own aspiration to happiness, then extend that aspiration to those you love, and ultimately to all people — friends, strangers, enemies. Little by little, altruism and benevolence will saturate your mind until it becomes second nature.” — Mattieu Ricard, Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill
Buddha’s Brain and the Science of Meditation
Last night I attended an event called “Buddha’s Brain and the Science of Meditation.” It was a conversation between Dr. Richard Davidson and Mattieu Ricard on what science is learning about meditation and the mind. Krista Tippett, host of American Public Media’s On Being, moderated the conversation.
Dr. Richard Davidson is one of the world’s foremost brain scientists, and for the past 20 years he has devoted much of his research to understanding the brain and positive emotions, particularly, the impact of meditation on positive emotions. You can see a YouTube video of Dr. Davidson on “Mind, meditation, and science – The benefits of meditation” HERE.
Mattieu Ricard is a Buddhist monk, author, and translator. You can see his Ted talk on the Habits of Happiness HERE.
While I didn’t learn new information about meditation and the mind, I came away re-energized in my meditation practice, and inspired by the joy and humor of Mattieu Ricard and the intelligence and passion of Dr. Richard Davidson for the research he is leading.
Teaching Compassion to Pre-schoolers
One study that Dr. Davidson described, was new to me. The study is being done in Madison, Wisconsin, with pre-school children. An 8-week curriculum on compassion and kindness is being presented to 4-year-olds. Before the material on compassion is presented, each child is interviewed to learn who their favorite and least favorite friends in pre-school are.
The same exercise is then performed with the children before and after the children take part in the kindness curriculum. It is quite simple and ingenious.
Each child is given 4 envelopes. On one envelope is a picture of the child’s favorite friend; on a second envelope is a picture of the child’s least favorite friend; on a third envelope is a picture of a child they do no know, and on the fourth envelope is a picture of a child who is obviously sick.
The children are given 8 stickers and asked to distribute the stickers any way they want among the 4 envelopes. Before they learn about and practice kindness, almost all the children put all the stickers in the envelope of the child’s favorite friend. After they have completed the kindness learning program, the children distribute stickers evenly among the 4 envelopes.
I found this fascinating. We now know that babies and young animals display remarkable traits of cooperation and altruism. (See BBC News Altruism ‘Built-in in humans.) But we do not tend to emphasize growing or developing these traits in our education or our culture.
Imagine training and growing our innate impulses of altruism and love, rather than focusing on competition and separation. How would our children’s experiences change? How would the world change?
How Passion Informs Their Work
At the end of the conversation last night, during a question and answer segment of the presentation, an audience member asked about passion and how it informs their work. Dr. Davidson said (paraphrase), “I am passionate about the work I do because each day I am certain that I am doing what I was put here on earth to do.”
What a great way to live! What a great contribution he is making. What if we all found something that made us feel like we are doing what we were put here on earth to do?
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