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Re: Buddhist practice: benefits

Posted by lil' jimi on May 21, 2003, at 20:08:02

In reply to Buddhist practice, posted by lil' jimi on May 18, 2003, at 2:56:19

The Dharma comes as good news
and our good news today comes from ..... Reuters!
A friend sent me this article:

Meditation Shown to Light Up Brains of Buddhists
[]
Wed May 21, 2003 02:03 PM ET
[]
LONDON (Reuters) - Buddhists really are happy, calm and serene people -- at least according to their brain scans.

Using new scanning techniques, neuroscientists have discovered that certain areas of the brain light up constantly in Buddhists, and not just when they are meditating, which indicates positive emotions and good mood.

"We can now hypothesize with some confidence that those apparently happy, calm Buddhist souls one regularly comes across in places such as Dharamsala, India, really are happy," Professor Owen Flanagan, of Duke University in North Carolina, said Wednesday.

Dharamsala is the home base of exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama.

The scanning studies by scientists at the University of Wisconsin at Madison showed activity in the left prefrontal lobes of experienced Buddhist practitioners. The area is linked to positive emotions, self-control and temperament.

Other research by Paul Ekman, of the University of California San Francisco Medical Center, suggests that meditation and mindfulness can tame the amygdala, an area of the brain which is the hub of fear memory.

Ekman discovered that experienced Buddhists were less likely to be shocked, flustered, surprised or as angry as other people.

Flanagan believes that if the findings of the studies can be confirmed they could be of major importance.

"The most reasonable hypothesis is that there is something about conscientious Buddhist practice that results in the kind of happiness we all seek," Flanagan said in a report in New Scientist magazine.

=====(end of article)======

I am grateful to my close friend Norma for providing me this article which is so pertinent here at Psycho-Babble Faith.

peace,
~ jim


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poster:lil' jimi thread:227349
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/faith/20021227/msgs/228197.html