Wildmind Meditation News
May 21, 2010
Investigating the Buddhist mindset
Does the Dalai Lama’s support for a ‘centre for investigating healthy minds’ compromise its scientific respectability?
At a time when the relationship between science and spirit seems characterised by mutual suspicion, common ground for enquiry is all the more refreshing. Like at last Sunday’s opening of the University of Wisconsin’s centre for investigating healthy minds, where the Dalai Lama shared a platform with the new centre’s director, Professor Richard Davidson.
The department is a hub of expertise in what is being called “contemplative neuroscience”, and a natural extension of Davidson’s ongoing quest to discover how various forms of meditation impact the brain. Among his discoveries so far: learning mindfulness skills is associated with greater, sustained activation in parts of the brain linked to happiness and resilience, practising loving-kindness contemplation increases production of gamma waves and affects areas related to empathy, and concentration meditation increases activity in regions linked to control of attention and decision-making. He has also found that the effects of these practices tend to be more marked in people who have been doing them for many years, suggesting that we can train our minds towards wellbeing in the same way as physical exercise can help us develop a healthier body.
Davidson’s association with the Dalai Lama stretches back to 1992, when, having heard of his research, the Tibetan leader encouraged him to make a scientific study of traditional Buddhist practices. As well as making regular visits to the University of Wisconsin’s laboratory he also sent groups of his most accomplished monks to have their brains wired up and measured. Meanwhile, Davidson, who isn’t a Buddhist, has received flak from colleagues who say he shouldn’t be muddying the scientific waters by collaborating with a “religious” figure – his invitation to the Dalai Lama to speak at a 2005 neuroscience conference drew protests from some contemporaries.
The complaints are misplaced: Davidson is committed to hard-nosed research methods, while the Dalai Lama has simply encouraged the empirical testing of practices that Buddhists have for centuries found helpful in developing contentment and compassion. However, the controversy does highlight one of the main problems that Buddhism faces in the 21st century west – perceived as a religion (rightly or wrongly – and the debate rages, even among Buddhists) at a time when this is unfashionable, many people are put off trying practices which seem to be highly conducive to happiness.
This is why the work of researchers like Davidson is so important. While some buddhists might shrug and say “meditation makes you happier – what’s the big news?”, the dominant language in our culture is a scientific one, and demonstrating the value of meditative disciplines in this context may well turn out to be the most effective way of helping more of us reap their benefit. Proof of this lies in some of the Centre For Investigating Healthy Minds’ outreach work – one plan is to take contemplative practices into schools and see whether they can help reduce bullying and improve students’ attention spans. In a secular framework, this is considered laudable – as a Buddhist intervention it could be construed as religious assault (and in the US, it would be illegal).
There is a grand history of Buddhist practices reaching new lands and sparking creatively with the indigenous culture, as well as a recognition that different times require different means of presenting the tradition’s core insights. The Dalai Lama’s assertion that buddhist practices must be scientifically evaluated is a brilliant example of this kind of creative flexibility – if Buddhist teachings are correct, then science will not contradict them, and if they prove to be wrong, then what use would following them be? Either way, through this kind of dialogue we are gradually learning a little more about the nature of reality, and that helps us become a little more like buddhas – which simply means awakened beings. As we go forward, the substance of that project is much more important than whether it gets called Buddhism, science or anything else for that matter.
[Ed Halliwell: The Guardian]
Ed Halliwell is a journalist and author who writes about health, psychology and Buddhism. His book, The Mindful Manifesto, co-authored with Dr Jonty Heaversedge, will be published by Hay House in September 2010 www.themindfulmanifesto.com