[1-minute read]
The purpose of Tibetan meditation is to cultivate a perpetual mindset of compassion – toward themselves, toward others, toward suffering, toward rocks, and toward the entire universe and existence as a whole.
A few decades ago, the Dalai Lama invited
a former hippie-turned-Harvard-neuroscientist to demonstrate brain imaging technology of compassion-evoking stimuli to 200 monks seated on the floor of a temple, waiting patiently for the team of several scientists huddled around a teammate seated in a chair – so not visible to the quiet, patiently-waiting audience during this preparation.
Wires and detectors and gadgets also shielded the subject from the silent onlookers as they worked.
When ready, the curtain of teammates parted, revealing the seated subject to the whole temple.
The entire audience broke into laughter.
The neuroscientist and his team presumed it was because the subject does look silly, all wired up with harnesses and technologies the monks may have never seen before. But later, they were informed what was so funny.
“You are trying to study compassion by connecting wires to the brain,” not the heart.
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[For his own story, start ~4:23 into this podcast: “Hidden Brain: Seeking Serenity: Part 2” June 8, 2023 https://hiddenbrain.org/podcast/seeking-serenity-part-2/ ]
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Neil D. 2023-07-08
PS – Additional food for thought:
We might be tempted to think of the following expressions as figurative, metaphorical language: “A broken heart,” or, “a heavy heart,” or, a Brené Brown favorite, “wholehearted.” The efficacy of myths and metaphors depends on them being rooted in actual experience.
The heart is the bodily location where these emotions are felt. Trying to soothe or heal this location with the brain… well… The head might be the starting place, but what is in that head is intimately and, literally, physically wired to the heart. Talk and thinking may be an entry point, but not the destination.
Feel with Neil 