Matthieu Ricard
has been a key contributor to the increasingly fruitful dialogue between
scientists and spiritual practitioners, and a regular subject for scientific
experiments on meditation. Here he explains some of the findings, and the
implications for the future.
In 2000, a
remarkable meeting took place in Dharamsala, India. Some of the leading
specialists on human emotions—psychologists, neuroscientists and
philosophers—spent an entire week in discussion with His Holiness the Dalai
Lama in the privacy of his home in the foothills of the Himalayas.
It was the
first time that I had been able to participate in the fascinating meetings held
by the Mind
and Life Institute, which was founded in 1987 by Francisco Varela, a
renowned neuroscientist, and Adam Engle, an American businessman. The dialogues
focused on destructive emotions and how to handle them.1
One morning,
during the meeting, the Dalai Lama declared: "All of these discussions are
very interesting, but what can we really contribute to society?" During
the lunch break, the participants engaged in animated discussions that resulted
in a proposal to launch a research programme on the short- and long-term
effects of mind training, generally known as 'meditation'.
That afternoon, in
the presence of the Dalai Lama, the project was enthusiastically adopted. It
marked the start of an exciting research programme—that of 'contemplative
neuroscience'.
These studies seem to demonstrate that the
brain can be trained and physically modified in a way that few people would
have imagined
Several studies
were launched: in the laboratories of the late Francisco Varela in France; of
Richard Davidson and Antoine Lutz in Madison, Wisconsin; of Paul Ekman and
Robert Levenson in San Francisco and Berkeley; of Jonathan Cohen and Brent
Field in Princeton, Stephen Kosslyn in Harvard, and Tania Singer in Zurich. I
had the good fortune to participate in these studies from the outset.
Following an
initial exploratory phase, about twenty experienced meditators were tested:
monks and laypeople, men and women, easterners and westerners. All of them had
devoted between 10,000 and 50,000 hours to meditation—to developing compassion,
altruism, mindfulness and awareness.
These
studies led to the publication of several articles in prestigious scientific
journals,2 establishing the credibility
of research on meditation and on achieving emotional balance, an area which had
not been taken seriously until then.
In the words of
Richard Davidson: “These studies seem to demonstrate that the brain can be
trained and physically modified in a way that few people would have
imagined.”Stephen Kosslyn, Director of the Psychology Department at Harvard
University and a world specialist in mental imagery, declared during the Mind
and Life meeting held at Boston’s Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT):
“We should feel humble in the face of the amount of empirical data that the
Buddhist contemplatives have accumulated over the centuries.”
A global benefit
Experienced
meditators have the ability to generate mental states that are precise,
focused, powerful and lasting. In particular, experiments have demonstrated
that the region of the brain associated with emotions such as compassion, for
example, showed considerably higher activity in those with long-term meditative
experience. These discoveries indicate that basic human qualities can be
deliberately cultivated through mental training.
Other scientific
experiments have also shown that one does not have to be a highly trained
meditator to benefit from the effects of meditation, and that twenty minutes of
daily practice can contribute significantly to the reduction of anxiety and
stress, the tendency to become angry (the harmful effects of anger on health
are well established), and the risk of relapse in cases of severe depression.
Thirty minutes a
day of mindfulness meditation (of the MBSR type)3 over the course of eight weeks
results in a considerable strengthening of the immune system and of one’s
capacity for concentration, as well as a reduction in arterial tension in
subjects suffering from hypertension, and faster healing of psoriasis.4
When it
comes to practice, what is essential is not to meditate for long periods of
time, but to meditate regularly. If the brain is engaged regularly,
modifications in the neuronal system can be observed after about thirty days.
The study of the influence of mental states on health, once considered
fanciful, is now increasingly part of the scientific research agenda.5
Without
dramatizing, it is important to underline the degree to which meditation and
'mind training' can change our lives. We tend to underestimate the power of
transforming our own minds and the effect that this 'inner revolution', which
is profound and peaceful, can have on our quality of life.
Change can come at any age
The Dalai
Lama often describes Buddhism as being, above all, a science of the mind. That
is not surprising, because the Buddhist texts put particular emphasis on the
fact that all spiritual practices—mental, physical and oral—are directly or
indirectly intended to transform the mind.
Nevertheless,
as Mingyur
Rinpoche writes: “Unfortunately, one of the main obstacles we face
when we try to examine the mind is a deep-seated and often unconscious
conviction that 'we’re born the way we are and nothing we can do can change
that'.”6
A renowned
psychoanalyst was asked the following question about Ingrid Betancourt, a
French-Colombian politician who was kidnapped while campaigning in Colombia:
“Can six years of detention in extreme conditions alter one’s personality?” His
response was: “No. After the age of twenty-five, your personality is fixed.”
Personally,
it was around the age of twenty-five that I really began to change! This was
also the case for most of the meditators who took part in the research; they
changed from the moment they began to seriously engage in a process of training
the mind through meditation.
To what
extent can we train our mind to work in a constructive manner, to replace
obsession with contentment, agitation with calmness, hatred with kindness?
One of the great tragedies of our time is
that we significantly underestimate our capacity for change
Twenty years ago,
it was almost universally accepted by neuroscientists that the brain contained
all its neurons at birth, and that their number did not change with experience.
We now know that
new neurons are produced up until the moment of death, and we speak of
'neuroplasticity', a term which takes into account the fact that the brain
evolves continuously in relation to our experience, and that a particular
training, such as learning a musical instrument or a sport, can bring about a
profound change. Mindfulness, altruism and other basic human qualities can be
cultivated in the same way, and we can acquire the 'know-how' to enable us to
do this.
One of the
great tragedies of our time is that we significantly underestimate our capacity
for change. Our character traits continue as long as we do nothing to improve
them, and as long as we tolerate and reinforce our habits and patterns, thought
after thought, day after day, year after year.
Studies asserting
that 40 to 60 per cent of our character traits are determined by genetics are
contested by neuroscientists working in the fields of neuroplasticity and by
specialists in epigenetics, the study of gene expression, an area of research
which is growing rapidly.
Genes are a bit
like a blueprint that may or may not be put into action—there is nothing
absolute about it. Even in adulthood, our environment can have a considerable
influence on the expression of genes.
Unlocking our true
potential
We do not consider
it strange to devote years to learning to walk, read and write, or to training
for a profession. We spend hours exercising to stay in good physical shape,
pedalling away on exercise bikes that go nowhere. In order to embark on any
task, we need to have at least a small level of interest or enthusiasm, and
that comes from being aware of the benefits.
So why on earth
should the mind be exempt from the same logic? Why should it be able to
transform itself without the slightest effort, simply because we want it to?
Such an assumption makes about as much sense as hoping to be able to play a
Mozart concerto simply by tapping on the piano keys from time to time.
We are all a
mixture of light and shadow, strengths and weaknesses. Our mind can be our best
friend, and our worst enemy. But this state of affairs is neither optimal nor
inevitable. We all have the potential to free ourselves from mental states that
cause suffering for ourselves and others, to find inner peace and to contribute
to the well-being of others. But just wishing for this is not enough. We need
to train our minds.7
These methods, when secularized and
scientifically validated, could be integrated into children’s education
programmes, for example, as a kind of mental equivalent of physical education
We devote a lot of
effort to improving the material conditions of our existence, but in the end it
is always our mind that experiences the world and translates this experience
into well-being or suffering. By transforming the way we perceive things, we
transform the quality of our lives; and such a change can come from training
the mind through meditation.
In Buddhism, 'to
meditate' means 'to get used to' or 'to cultivate'. Meditation consists of
getting used to a new way of being, of perceiving the world and mastering our
thoughts.
We often hear that
Buddhism aims to eliminate the emotions. That all depends on what we mean by
'emotion'. If we mean those that disturb our mind, such as hatred, anxiety and
jealousy, why not get rid of them? If, on the other hand, we mean feelings of
altruistic love and compassion towards those who are suffering, why not develop
them? In any case, this is the purpose of meditation.
To accomplish this
purpose, Buddhist meditation uses two methods: one analytical, the other
contemplative. Analysis consists of examining the nature of reality, which is
essentially interdependent and impermanent, and honestly evaluating the causes
and results of our own sufferings, and those that we inflict on others.
The contemplative
approach consists of turning our mind inward and observing, behind the veil of
thoughts and concepts, the nature of 'pure awareness' which underlies all
thoughts and allows them to arise. This fundamental 'knowing' exists even in
the absence of thoughts and concepts.
Practical
implications of this research
These methods of
meditation, when secularized and scientifically validated, could be integrated
into children’s education programmes, for example, as a kind of mental
equivalent of physical education. They could also be brought into therapy for
adults with emotional problems.
For the past three
years, the neuroscientists, sociologists, educators, psychologists and
contemplatives who regularly take part in Mind and Life meetings have held
several smaller workshops in addition to their discussions with the Dalai Lama.
They have discussed in particular how programmes could be introduced in education,
in a completely secular way, to develop altruism, emotional balance and
mindfulness, and to reduce stress.
A fully-fledged
Mind and Life meeting on this subject will take place in Washington DC in
October 2009. A programme will then be introduced in several schools in the
United States, and the results will be compared with those from a control
group.
These recent
scientific discoveries have changed our understanding of the way in which the
brain evolves during the course of a lifetime. There is a growing recognition
that this is not mere fantasy, and that it takes us to the heart of
neuroscience and neuroplasticity, areas which are themselves relatively new.
At the same time,
the increasingly powerful Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) techniques and
increasingly sophisticated electroencephalograms (EEG), combined with the
participation of experienced contemplatives, have led us towards a golden age
of 'contemplative neuroscience'. It is a fascinating prospect, and there is so
much more to discover.
Translated into
English by Helen Depret
Photograph
courtesy of Matthieu Ricard
First published in
View, August 2009
References
2 See in particular: A Lutz, LL Greischar,
NB Rawlings, M Ricard and RJ Davidson, Long-term Meditators Self-induce
High-amplitude Gamma Synchrony During Mental Practice, Proceedings of the
National Academy of Science, November 16, 2004, volume 101, number 46.
3 MBSR (Mindfulness-Based Stress
Reduction) is a secular training in meditation and awareness based on Buddhist
meditation, which has been developed in the US hospital system for over twenty
years by Jon Kabat-Zinn. It is now used successfully in over two hundred
hospitals to diminish post-operative pain and pain associated with cancer and
other serious illnesses. See J Kabat-Zinn et al: The Clinical Use of
Mindfulness Meditation for the Selfregulation of Chronic Pain, Journal of
Behavioral Medicine volume 8, 1985, pages 163–190.
4 The most important references
concerning these studies, especially those of Linda Carlson at Calgary
University, and of John Teasdale (Cambridge) and Zindal Segal (Toronto
University), are quoted in Matthieu Ricard’s book The Art of Meditation, to be
published in 2010 by Atlantic Books in the UK and by Hay Publishing in the USA.
5 A Lutz, JD Dunne and RJ Davidson,
Meditation and the Neuroscience of Consciousness: An Introduction, in The
Cambridge Handbook of Consciousness, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2007, chapter 19, pages 497-549.
7 Matthieu Ricard writes in more detail
about Buddhist methods for training the mind in The Art of Meditation, Atlantic
Books, 2010.
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