In 1890, William James introduced the word “plasticity” with respect to nervous tissue. Begley, the former science columnist for the Wall Street Journal and former science writer at Newsweek, attended that meeting, reports on it in her book, and, in the process, provides a strong introduction to the science of neuroplasticity.īegley describes how neuroplasticity began with early brain mapping in the second half of the 19th century. A year after the MIT encounter, Mind & Life XII convened in Dharamsala, India, the residence of the Dalai Lama, to focus on a revolutionary science called “neuroplasticity,” which studies the brain’s ability to modify its shape. This view lies at the heart of Sharon Begley’s Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain, the second recent chronicle of a Mind & Life conference. Thus it suggests we are not slavishly dependent on genetics for our joy and serenity but, rather, are capable of controlling our thoughts and emotions. The Buddhist point of view doesn’t reduce human psychology to neurons, neurotransmitters, and protein receptors instead, it sees our emotional states as the products of ethical choices we make. The MIT exchange reveals an important distinction between Buddhism and Western science. According to a theory first advanced by the early American psychologist and philosopher William James, the body plays a central role in our understanding of emotion: Emotion results from the brain’s interpretation of bodily signals from our organs and muscles. Rather, as Richard Davidson, director of the Laboratory for Affective Neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, describes in his presentation, emotion is considered a mental state with three aspects: a valenced quality (it may be positive or negative), a bodily reaction, and outward expressive signs.

This ethical dimension is absent from the perspective of Western biobehavioral science. Restraint from the conditions that lead to suffering is ethics.” Indeed, this perspective helps to explain why many types of meditation are intended to relieve practitioners of afflictive states. “We don’t desire suffering, and we always aspire to be free of suffering. “thics have to be tied to the basic fact of our experience of pain and happiness,” says the Dalai Lama. In his presentation, he points out that there are numerous mental states in the Buddhist typology that are identifiable as emotions, including “anger, pride, jealousy, loving-kindness, and compassion.” However, all mental states, whether they’re emotions or not, are grouped together and considered on ethical grounds: Are they afflictive, leading to suffering-or are they wholesome/virtuous, leading to enduring peace and happiness? “There is no term in the traditional Buddhist vocabulary that resembles our notion of emotion,” says Georges Dreyfus, professor of religion at Williams College and the first Westerner to obtain the title of Geshe Lharampa, the highest degree conferred within the traditional Tibetan monastic system.

Edited by Anne Harrington, professor of the history of science at Harvard University, and Arthur Zajonc, professor of physics at Amherst College, The Dalai Lama at MIT does an excellent job of introducing readers to Buddhist and scientific approaches to understanding human consciousness. The first, The Dalai Lama at MIT, is a “broadcast” of an historic 2003 meeting between the Dalai Lama and 22 world-renowned scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They both document recent dialogues in the Mind & Life series.

Two new books suggest provocative answers to this question. Organized since 1987 by the Mind & Life Institute, a nonprofit that fosters collaboration between eminent researchers and leading figures in Buddhism, these dialogues point to the possibility of a new kind of relationship, one in which both partners contribute vital answers to one of life’s big questions: How can we overcome negative emotions and cultivate positive ones? But the two camps have recently found some common ground, thanks to an unusual series of dialogues between Western scientists and the Dalai Lama, recipient of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize. Historically, the relationship between science and religion has resembled a divorce made in hell rather than a match made in heaven.

Dalai lama buddhism change