Threaded Mode | Linear Mode

Enigma · 11-01-2012 08:52 PM

The monk, molecular geneticist and confidant of the Dalai Lama, is passionately setting out why meditation can alter the brain and improve people's happiness in the same way that lifting weights puts on muscle.

"It's a wonderful area of research because it shows that meditation is not just blissing out under a mango tree but it completely changes your brain and therefore changes what you are," the Frenchman told AFP.

Ricard, a globe-trotting polymath who left everything behind to become a Tibetan Buddhist in a Himalayan hermitage, says anyone can be happy if they only train their brain.

Neuroscientist Richard Davidson wired up Ricard's skull with 256 sensors at the University of Wisconsin four years ago as part of research on hundreds of advanced practitioners of meditation.

The scans showed that when meditating on compassion, Ricard's brain produces a level of gamma waves -- those linked to consciousness, attention, learning and memory -- "never reported before in the neuroscience literature", Davidson said.

The scans also showed excessive activity in his brain's left prefrontal cortex compared to its right counterpart, giving him an abnormally large capacity for happiness and a reduced propensity towards negativity, researchers believe.

Research into the phenomenon, known as "neuroplasticity," is in its infancy and Ricard has been at the forefront of ground-breaking experiments along with other leading scientists across the world.

"We have been looking for 12 years at the effect of short and long-term mind-training through meditation on attention, on compassion, on emotional balance," he said.

"We've found remarkable results with long-term practitioners who did 50,000 rounds of meditation, but also with three weeks of 20 minutes a day, which of course is more applicable to our modern times."

Read more: http://india.nydailynews.com/newsarticle...z2B1f7quSK

Anon-A-Moose · 11-01-2012 11:05 PM

Makes sense. Neuroplasticity is an amazing field. And if you can be "trained" to be depressed, upset, etc., why not happy?

~~megatron~~ · 11-01-2012 11:58 PM

(11-01-2012 11:05 PM)Anon-A-Moose Wrote: Makes sense. Neuroplasticity is an amazing field. And if you can be "trained" to be depressed, upset, etc., why not happy?

Do you know anything about Transcendental Buddhism?

Possibly Related Threads...
Thread:		Author	Replies:	Views:	Last Post
	Women that stay at home happiest finds study	Crackshot	11	5,123	10-10-2018 12:01 PM Last Post: MrLemon
	When was the happiest period of your adult life?	Not a Second Hander	39	4,250	09-27-2018 04:25 PM Last Post: MikeInRealLife
	Rich men with extreme politics have the happiest marriages	SlickyBoy	2	3,813	10-03-2017 01:47 PM Last Post: SlickyBoy

Threaded Mode \| Linear Mode Buddhist monk is the "world's happiest man"
Author	Message