Buddhist Brains: Meditation and Science (video)

Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly; Dr. Anne Harrington (hosted by the Center for the Study of Religion and Psychology at Boston University's Danielsen Institute)

(BU) Eastern Brains: Probing the Partnership Between Buddhism and and Brain Science

  

MRI brain scan of meditating monk (BBC)

Harvard University's Professor Anne Harrington (Ph.D., Oxford University) discusses the relationship between Tibetan Buddhism (Vajrayana) and the brain. The presentation was hosted by the Center for the Study of Religion and Psychology at Boston University's Danielsen Institute.
 

Want me to concentrate or bliss out? (MR)

She refers to the research of the University of Wisconsin's Dr. Richard Davidson on the brain functions of Buddhist monastics during long periods of meditation as well as American fascination with the Eastern-style of meditation of the human 1960s and 1970s counterculture.
 
She covers Transcendental Meditation (TM) and the Dalai Lama's first visit to the U.S. as well as why he was so important to the West's academic and scientific investigation of mystical meditative states.
  

Los Angeles to join Wisconsin protests

Wisdom Quarterly

We are well aware of the growing protest movement around the country and around the world.

The University of California has joined in to protest cuts. The powers that be do not seem to want an educated electorate after all. (It didn't help Hussein in Iraq, so why would it help Hussein in America?)

But democracy depends on it. So we have to demand it and not expect Republicans to support schools, unions, local police, teachers, or even firefighters. But there's plenty of money for military, spying, and all sorts of secret agents for the paramilitary police state apparatus.

What started due to higher food prices has gone viral. It was brought on by bankers speculating with all the free money (no interest loans) the government is handing out as they sink this economy and draw others into a game where all that matters are weapons and strategic advantage. Why are they speculating? One invests one's own or the institution's money very carefully. But with free money, you just go for broke.

You don't really have to pay back anyway. Taxpayers will bail you out, and we'll call that bail out "austerity." Scholars on Pacifica Radio explain it so well. "Inside Job" spells it out: The best way to rob a bank is to own one.

What started in Tunisia (due to food prices rising so unfairly because gambling-investors started to bet on commodities they have no vested interest in but are only trying to capitalize on rising prices, which they cause by betting, war, disrupting supply lines, weather anomalies, "natural" disasters, and what not), went to Egypt, Yemen, Libya, Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, Northern California (with the capital Sacramento's "Staying Alive" danceathon), and is finally making its way to the world stage that is Los Angeles. (It's not the only world stage, but we do have the best cameras).

War. What is it good for? We have to be peaceful. Gandhi, King, Issa, and others weren't killed for naught. We have to be firm on that. Or war will win.

The Wisconsin Revolution (UPDATE)

(RT, Feb. 22, 2011) The turbulence in the Arab world has drawn the full attention of the American media. Riots and demonstrations in Libya and Bahrain are dominating the news channels' at primetime and newspaper headlines. As Lauren Lyster reports, while US leaders fly the flag for popular uprisings thousands of miles away, it's a very different story at home.

"Non-lethal" weapons turn out to be quite lethal!

John Titor (speak.ca/forum)
There were biological and chemical weapons used. No mind control weapons but there are new "non-lethal" weapon systems that turn out to be quite lethal. Sometimes I watch television programs that show SWAT teams using new non-lethal weapons. They usually start out with, "In the future, the army and police will fight its enemies with new weapons systems." When they use the word "enemy," they're talking about YOU! You don't really think the Marines are going to jump out of helicopters overseas with sticky goop, pepper spray, and seizure lights, do you?

• Neither side budging in Wisconsin union fight
• Strong quake hits New Zealand, causing injuries - PHOTOS
• Oil prices soar as unrest in Libya spreads - Huge protests
• Experts predict 50 mil "environmental refugees" by 2020

Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain... WISCONSIN!

Ground-Zero in US uprising against corporations

Miles Mogulescu, Esq. (Huffington Post) [Animation from monsters.net]

MADISON, Wisconsin - Libya, Tunisia, parts unknown, the protests continue! ...The product of struggle, organization, mass protests, and sometimes jail and beatings. I believed then, and I still believe now, that organized labor is the middle class's best defense against an organized corporate oligarchy that has waged a one-sided 30-year long class war.

That's why I'm not surprised that the first stirrings of American resistance to the corporate oligarchy since Wall Street greed and malfeasance brought the American and world economy to its knees in 2008 are coming from the organized labor, centered today in the capital of Wisconsin, a state with one of the longest progressive traditions in America.

And it's why I'm not surprised that some of the first acts of newly minted right-wing Republican governors [like Gov. Walker who is eager to call out the National Guard to start shooting people] are to try to destroy organized labor. More>>

Wisconsin Protests: State Police pursue Democratic lawmakers boycotting vote

• Buddhism in Wisconsin: MadCitySangha.com
• Wisconsin Democrats could stay away for weeks
• Protesters stay overnight at Wisconsin State Capitol
• Bahrain security forces fire on defiant protesters
  (AP) Police opened fire Friday on Bahraini protesters for a second straight day, wounding at least 50 people as thousands defied the government and marched toward Pearl Square in an uprising that sought to break the political grip of the Gulf nation's leaders.
• Curb regulations along with spending, House votes
• US vetoes UN resolution on Israeli settlements
• Pa. judge guilty of racketeering in kickback case
• Obama says companies can help bottom line, nation
• Pelosi Aide predicts government shutdown likely
• Sparks fly over government shutdown threat
• GOP, Democrats team up on anti-union measure
• Haley Barbour dogged by criticism of Civil Rights Era remarks

The World Revolts (UPDATE)

EU ministers call for end to Libya bloodshed
Libya launches harshest crackdown yet on rebels
Pirates: Warship shadowing hijacked American yacht
Bahrain opposition plots strategy before talks
Tunisia asks Saudi Arabia: Is Ben Ali dead?
Thousands march in Morocco to seek reform
NATO disputes claims it killed 64 Afghan civilians

Blocking a frown keeps bad feelings at bay

Psychologists say if bodily sensitivity corresponded to size, a human would look like this.

(Times of India) Facial expressions not only reveal our thoughts but also affect our ability to comprehend written language related to emotions, according to a new study. According to study's first author, David Havas, a psychology Ph.D. candidate from University of Wisconsin-Madison, the interactions of facial expression, thoughts, and emotions has always intrigued researchers. During the study, researchers recruited 40 people who were treated with Botox (botulinum toxin). Tiny applications of this powerful nerve poison were used to deactivate muscles in the forehead that cause frowning. More>>

Happiness: Sitting Quietly, Doing Something

Text: Daniel Goleman (New York Times, July 16, 2009)

I recently spent an evening with Yongey Mingyur Rimpoche, the Tibetan lama who has been dubbed “the happiest man in the world.” True, that title has been bestowed upon at least a few extremely upbeat individuals in recent times [the title was scientifically validated for the Buddhist monk and scientist Ven. Matthieu Ricard]. But it is no exaggeration to say that Rimpoche is a master of the art of well-being.

Courtesy of Crown Publishers Yongey Mingyur Rimpoche

So how did he get that way? Apparently, the same way you get to Carnegie Hall. Practice. I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Rimpoche a bit over the years and always found him in good cheer. This meeting was no different.

When I called him at his Manhattan hotel to arrange to get together before we were to discuss his new book, Joyful Wisdom, at the 92nd St. Y, he told me he was in the middle of a shower – but not in the usual sense.

The shower, he told me, had run out of hot water midway. When he called the front desk, he was told to wait several minutes and there would be more hot water. In this situation, I probably would have been peeved. But as Rimpoche told me this, he was laughing and laughing.

The only momentary glitch I’ve witnessed — a few years back — was slapstick: He sat down in an office chair with a faulty seat that suddenly plunged several inches with a thump. Once when this chair had done the same to me, I cursed and groused about it for a while. But Rimpoche just frowned for a second — and the next moment he was his upbeat self again. Quickness of recovery time from upsets is one way science takes the measure of a happy temperament.

While annoyances like these are hardly life’s greatest tests, handling them gracefully takes a composure that few of us seem to have at our disposal. Mingyur Rimpoche was not born into wealth and comfort. He spent his earliest years in a remote Himalayan village lacking even the most basic amenities. Nor was he a lucky winner in the genetic lottery for moods. In his book he recounts being extremely anxious as a child in Nepal, having had what a Manhattan psychiatrist would likely diagnose as panic attacks, and how he cured himself of this chronic anxiety by making his fears the focus of his meditation. He has had to earn his good cheer.

Rimpoche seems eclectic in studying paths to well-being, including Western recipes. A few years ago, he attended a five-day meeting at the Mind & Life Institute that brought together a group of neuroscientists and the Dalai Lama to discuss ways to overcome destructive emotions. He found that the Western scientific findings on emotions had much in common with his own approach to cultivating well-being.

But when it comes to his own pursuit of happiness, Buddhist theory and practice are Rimpoche’s chosen tools. He has done several years-long meditation retreats, under the tutelage of some of the most renowned Tibetan masters. Of course, what we mean by “happiness” can be elusive, what with the myriad varieties of good feeling running from ecstasy to equanimity. One flavor of happiness at which Rimpoche seems to excel has been well-studied by scientists specializing in how emotions operate in our brains.

Richard Davidson, who heads the Laboratory for Affective Neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin, has found one distinct brain profile for happiness. As Davidson’s laboratory has reported, when... More>>

LINK: Prof. Richard Davidson - Be Happy Like a Monk (28:58)
Prof. Davidson of the University of Wisconsin Psychology Department has met with the Dalai Lama to discuss the scientific aspects of meditation. He has mapped the brains of Buddhist monks to identify areas of the brain that change with meditation. More»