Just wanted to get in with this before nest0r did. Or bodhisamaya. Or ファブリス.

Brains of Buddhist monks scanned in meditation study.

"He says his research, which will soon be published, will for the moment continue to concentrate on explaining the neurological implications of oneness and tranquillity - though improving understanding of autism or Alzheimer's along the way would certainly be quite a bonus."

There was a similar study reported maybe five years ago in Discovery magazine (I think) that showed Tibetan Buddhist monks were off the charts when measuring activity in the part of the brain associated with happiness. No other segment of the population was even close.

bodhisamaya Wrote:There was a similar study reported maybe five years ago in Discovery magazine (I think) that showed Tibetan Buddhist monks were off the charts when measuring activity in the part of the brain associated with happiness. No other segment of the population was even close.

Yeah, Matthieu Ricard.

That's not the one I was thinking of, but it came to a similar conclusion. There was a magazine cover with an older Tibetan monk in his traditional robes sitting with his head covered in wires. I read it at the library. I wish I would have purchased it though. Can't seem to Google it.

It was Ricard and a group of others: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/thi...33063.html

Ricard had this to say on the topic: http://www.matthieuricard.org/en/index.p...the_world/

Bonus: http://science.nationalgeographic.com/sc...n/#page=14 (“SPIRITUAL STATE”)

http://shutterbug.com/techniques/pro_tec...7concepts/

Connections:

“The journalist had based his story on the fact that I had been participating for several years in some research in neuroscience labs in the USA, in particular that of Richard Davidson at the University of Madison, Wisconsin. It was found that when long-term meditators engaged in meditation on compassion, the activity in some areas of the brain increased to a magnitude that had never before been described in neuroscience. Some of these activated brain areas were known to be related to positive emotions. More than fifteen experienced meditators showed similar results, but I happened to be one of the first to participate in the experiment. That’s all.

When the story was published in various newspapers, I tried to make disclaimers, but quite in vain. I could only apologized to my scientist friends.”

“For the past several years Richard Davidson and his colleagues at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have been studying brain activity in Tibetan monks, both in meditative and non-meditative states... ”



“University of Wisconsin-Madison. Portrait of Dru-gu Choegyal Rinpoche, a Buddhist teacher, wearing an array of sensors used for making electroencephalographs. Rinpoche is a subject in a study of the health effects of meditation which is being carried out by Antoine Lutz at the W.M. Keck Laboratory for Functional Brain Imaging and Behavior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison under the direction of Richard J. Davidson Ph.D. and with the support of the Dalai Lama.”

Previously:

http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=6641
http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?p...#pid126435
http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=5456
http://books.google.com/books?id=XK5-jml...&q&f=false

No wonder I couldn't find it; I was Googling for the wrong magazine

Interesting read. I sort of agree with what he had to say.

One thing people who start a meditation practice should realize is there will be few short-term improvements towards whatever goal one has. In fact, you will probably become more miserable for a period. Most people have never sat quietly and actually gotten familiar with their own mind. It can be uncomfortable getting to know this strange "thinker" in ones own body. Over time, it will also reveal the suppressed causes to whatever emotional suffering you have; be it depression, anger, desire, jealousy, worry...

I truly do think meditation is the best long-term path to happiness, but be prepared to get your ass kicked for a while. Find a good tutor to explain the process or you will not stick with it.

Its funny how we need tons of provable research to explain how something that doesn't cost any money on your part to practice, actually works.

Sum up, go meditate now people.

mudbum Wrote:Its funny how we need tons of provable research to explain how something that doesn't cost any money on your part to practice, actually works.

Sum up, go meditate now people.

It's a way to validate/make a lot of ppl feel better about spending all that money on schooling to get jobs and it also makes the system seem like it is making "progress".