The Mind's Own Physician: A Scientific Dialogue with the Dalai Lama on the Healing Power of Meditation
Language: English
Pages: 288
ISBN: 1608829928
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
By inviting the Dalai Lama and leading researchers in medicine, psychology, and neuroscience to join in conversation, the Mind & Life Institute set the stage for a fascinating exploration of the healing potential of the human mind. The Mind’s Own Physician presents in its entirety the thirteenth Mind and Life dialogue, a discussion addressing a range of vital questions concerning the science and clinical applications of meditation: How do meditative practices influence pain and human suffering? What role does the brain play in emotional well-being and health? To what extent can our minds actually influence physical disease? Are there important synergies here for transforming health care, and for understanding our own evolutionary limitations as a species?
Edited by world-renowned researchers Jon Kabat-Zinn and Richard J. Davidson, this book presents this remarkably dynamic interchange along with intriguing research findings that shed light on the nature of the mind, its capacity to refine itself through training, and its role in physical and emotional health.
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD),” Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 6 (June 16, 2010): CD006507; A. Chiesa and A. Serretti, “A Systematic Review of Neurobiological and Clinical Features of Mindfulness Meditations,” Psychological Medicine 40, no. 8 (2010): 1239–1252; A. Zgierska, D. Rabago, N. Chawla, et al., “Mindfulness Meditation for Substance Use Disorders: A Systematic Review,” Substance Abuse 30, no. 4 (2009): 266–294; D. S. Black, J. Milam, and S. Sussman,
preventive system in place. Once you have already experienced the trauma, it is very difficult to correct it. So I always stress the importance of proper education from early childhood. Then, when people pass through difficulties in life later, a certain kind of inner strength may prevent external difficulties from disturbing them too much. This is something we can do. This is doable. Sometimes I encounter people, even among those I know, who tell me they have a sense of great anxiety. They seek
view, rather than trying to find an absolute location. Esther Sternberg: I’m so glad you said that, because one of the goals we now have in academic medicine is to try to find a comprehensive, integrative approach—not only an integration between different disciplines, such as we’ve talked about between neuroscience, psychiatry, psychology, immunology, and cardiology, but an integration of the whole self, of the individual within the larger world. The individual and the larger world are not
The application of such meditative approaches to the trajectory of chronic disease is now a matter of intense interest and an important area of discussion. The path I have taken as a physician has shown me that pure science and technology can lead in a direction that is to some degree a dead end. By itself, science doesn’t solve all clinical problems, and in some ways it can create even more problems. The practice of medicine in the Western world has evolved dramatically over the last one
helplessness. That type of compassion may be primarily a form of empathy, with the wish that other persons be free of suffering, but it can be more powerful when it’s not simply a wish to see others free from suffering, but also has the added dimension of willingness to help others be free of suffering. Here, it is wisdom or intelligence that plays the pivotal role in allowing a compassionate wish to translate into altruistic action, and it is a more powerful type of compassion. The texts also