Becoming Buddha, The One Most Remarkable Trait Of Long-Term Meditators’ Brain, was written by Laura Vismara for Medium | Change Your Mind, Change Your Life, 5 February 2019.
Experienced and high-level meditators share some common traits. They are generally more compassionate and mindful. They are normally more resilient and resourceful. They appear to be well grounded and at peace with life.Moreover, according to science, their brain looks and works differently than most people’s brain.
They seem to operate at a different level of awareness, at a higher level of consciousness, we might say, from where they experience life, interact with the outside world and with the inner world, and make sense out of both. It doesn’t only show in their actions and in their words. It also shows in their brain.
Gamma Waves_An EEG (electroencephalograph) 1 second sample
As revealed by groundbreaking research led by neuroscientist Richard J. Davidson on long-term meditators and the impact of a steady practice, their brain might be functioning in a gamma wave state— the fastest and strongest type of brain waves — all the time.
All the time.
Definitely, something unique and rare to witness.
Ordinarily, you tend to display a mix of up to five brain waves, rising and falling in different areas of the brain at the same time, depending on what you are doing and on what specific functions you are activating at a particular point in time.
This means you may show alpha in one isolated location and beta in another one. Simultaneously.
A coherent pattern of gamma waves rhythmically oscillating in synchrony across the whole brain and independent of what you might be doing, is certainly remarkable.
Read more: Becoming Buddha
Dalai Lama Has the Antidote to Destructive Emotions … The Atlas of Emotions — an interactive map of feelings, was written by Gustavo Razzetti (https://liberationist.org) for Medium | Personal Growth, 15 February 2019.
Emotions are deceiving — some can even pollute our mind. In a groundbreaking move, the Dalai Lama joined forces with top Western psychologists with a lofty mission. He purposefully wanted to put religion aside.
The ultimate goal? He wants to help turn people into more self-aware, compassionate humans. If we can learn to navigate our (destructive) emotions, we will be able to achieve calmness and inner-peace.
The Dalai Lama imagined “a map of our emotions to develop a calm mind.” He asked renowned emotion scientist, Dr. Paul Ekman, to realize his idea but to keep religion out of it.
The first step Ekman took was finding some common ground among scientists — his survey provided a shared foundation to how emotions work. The majority of experts agree that:
- Emotions are universal — facial signals to emotions are similar across cultures too
- We all experience five fundamental emotions: anger, fear, disgust, sadness, and enjoyment
- There are universal triggers to emotion
Thoughts are private; emotions are public.
According to Dr. Paul Ekman, Professor of Psychology at UCSF we can know someone’s emotion, but not the thought that provoked it. Emotions are an instant brain response — they happen to us, we don’t choose them.
But, when do emotions become destructive?
Science says all emotions are natural and okay, and that emotions become destructive only when they are expressed inappropriately.
Buddhism, on the other hand, believes that destructive emotions are obstacles — we must overcome them to achieve happiness. Constructive emotions help improve a situation; destructive emotions make it worse.
The antidote to a destructive emotion is a constructive emotion.
Read more: Dalai Lama Has the Antidote to Destructive Emotions
I’m the author of the piece you mentioned/ quote above. I appreciate you link it to my website https://liberationist.org
thank you,
Gustavo Razzetti
Done, thank you.