The Brain of Buddha
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(consciousness redux) The Brain of Buddha An encounter with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the scientific study of meditation BY CHRISTOF KOCH ) Knowledge can be communicat- tic community living in exile in India His Holiness the Dalai Lama listens to the author talking about the brain basis of con- ed, but not wisdom. One can find with modern science. About a dozen of meeting sciousness during a six-day encounter be- ( it, live it, do wonders through it, us—physicists, psychologists, brain sci- tween Tibetan Buddhism and science. but one cannot communicate and entists and clinicians, leavened by a teach it. French philosopher—introduced quan- INSTITUTE tum mechanics, neuroscience, con- circle—such as from his translator, Ti- IFE L THIS LINE FROM Herman Hesse’s 1922 sciousness and various clinical aspects of betan Jinpa Thupten, who has a doctor- ); AND novel Siddhartha came unbidden to me meditative practices to a few thousand ate in philosophy from the University of Koch during a recent weeklong visit to Dre- Buddhist monks and nuns. As we lec- Cambridge, and from the French monk MIND pung Monastery in southern India. His tured, we were quizzed, probed and gen- Matthieu Ricard, who holds a Ph.D. in Holiness the Dalai Lama had invited the tly made fun of by His Holiness, who sat molecular biology from the Pasteur Insti- U.S.-based Mind and Life Institute to beside us [see photograph above]. We tute in Paris—as they and their brethren HRISTOF KOCH ( KOCH HRISTOF OURTESY OF familiarize the Tibetan Buddhist monas- learned as much from him and his inner from us. C C 28 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MIND July/August 2013 As we lectured, we were quizzed, probed and ( gently made fun of by His Holiness, who sat beside us.) What passed between these represen- miliarize our future doctors, soldiers, en- his legs tucked under his body, attentive- tatives of two distinct intellectual modes gineers, scientists, accountants and poli- ly following our arcane scholarly argu- of thinking about the world were facts, ticians with such techniques. Western ments. I have never experienced a single data—knowledge. That is, knowledge universities do not teach methods to en- man, and an entire community, who ap- about the more than two-millennia-old able the developing or the mature mind peared so open, so content, so happy, Eastern tradition of investigating the to become quiet and to focus its consid- constantly smiling, yet so humble, as mind from the inside, from an interior, erable powers on a single object, event or these monks who, by First World stan- subjective point of view, and the much train of thought. There is no introducto- dards, live a life of poverty, deprived of more recent insights provided by empiri- ry class on “Focusing the Mind.” And most of the things we believe are neces- cal Western ways to probe the brain and this is to our loss! sary to live a fully realized life. Their se- its behavior using a third-person, reduc- From introspection, we are all famil- cret appears to be mind control. tionist framework. What the former iar with the mental clutter, the chatter Among the more extreme cases of brings to the table are scores of medita- that makes up our daily life. It is a rapid mind control is the self-immolation of tion techniques to develop mindfulness, fire of free associations, of jumping from the Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich concentration, insight, serenity, wisdom one image, speech fragment or memory Quang Duc in 1963 to protest the repres- and, it is hoped, in the end, enlighten- to the next. Late-night lucubrations are sive regime in South Vietnam. What was ment. These revolve around a daily prac- particularly prone to such erratic zigzag- so singular about this event, captured in tice of quiet yet alert sitting and letting ging. Focusing on a single line of argu- haunting photographs that are among the mind settle before embarking on a ment or thought requires deliberate, la- the most readily recognized images of the specific program, such as “focused atten- borious and conscious effort from which 20th century, was the calm and deliber- tion” or the objectless practice of gener- we flee. We prefer to be distracted by ex- ate nature of his heroic act. While burn- ating a state of “unconditional loving- ternal stimuli, conversations, radio, tele- ing to death, Duc remained throughout kindness and compassion.” After years vision or newspapers. Desperate not to in the meditative lotus position. He never of daily contemplative exercise—nothing be left alone within our mind, to avoid moved a muscle or uttered a sound, as the comes easily in meditation—practitio- having to think, we turn to our constant flames consumed him and his corpse fi- ners can achieve considerable control electronic companions to check for in- nally toppled over. over their mind. coming messages. I am filled with utter bewilderment in AVIDSON AVIDSON D Twelve years of schooling, four years Yet here we had His Holiness, a the face of this singular event and would of college and an even longer time spent 77-year-old man, who sat during six have found it difficult to accept as real, in advanced graduate training fail to fa- days, ramrod straight for hours on end, were it not captured in the testimony of ICHARD J. J. ICHARD O. 1; JANUARY 1, 2008 R N Y Y B . 25, L O V * Control group Practitioners , Controls Practitioners E 100%100% 100%100% * N I * EDITATION,” EDITATION,” * M 45%45% 45%45% * * * * * * MAGAZ 1%1% 1%1% ess 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 ASTICITY AND L 80%80% GNAL PROC I 40% * EUROP 40% ControlControls group N Practitioners IEEE S 1%1% IIntialnitial OOngoingngoing MMeditationeditation baselineBaseline baselineBaseline Statestate Experienced meditators produce synchronized high-frequency gamma eight long-term meditators in gamma-band activity (relative to more NTOINE LUTZ, IN waves in the brain, detected by EEG. At the left, as a monk starts to slowly changing brain waves). This increase in synchronized high-fre- A meditate, gamma-band activity (between 25 and 42 cycles a second) quency electrical activity is also present when the monks are quietly ROM “BUDDHA’S BRAIN: BRAIN: “BUDDHA’S ROM AND F initiates. Right panels illustrate the difference between 10 novice and resting and reflects a pronounced change in their brain architecture. Mind.ScientificAmerican.com SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MIND 29 (consciousness redux) hundreds of onlookers, including jaun- pleasantness of the noxious stimulus. East meets West in this group shot of the diced journalists with their cameras. Predictably, the hot probe triggered in- two communities present at the gathering organized by the Mind and Life Institute. creased hemodynamic activity in struc- Brain Basis of Mind Control tures that are known to be involved in A step toward a brain-based explana- pain processing, such as the primary and pictures and memories as they arise from tion of this extraordinary phenomenon secondary somatosensory cortices that their inner source, but without any emo- comes from a recent scanning experi- represent the leg, as well as more frontal tional engagement. This exercise frees her ment by Fadel Zeidan, Robert C. Coghill structures, the anterior cingulate cortex to quickly disengage from them to return and their colleagues at the Wake Forest and the insula. Subsequently, the volun- attention to monitoring her breathing. School of Medicine. Fifteen volunteers teers underwent four days of 20 minutes’ Practicing mindfulness during the were recruited to lie in a scanner while a daily practice of mindfulness meditation noxious stimulation reduced the un- small metal plate was attached to their involving focused attention or the Bud- pleasantness of the pain by a whopping right calf. As its temperature varied from dhist mind-calming practice called sha- 57 percent and its intensity by 40 per- U pleasant (near body temperature) to matha. In the latter, the practitioner fo- cent. And this after only minimal train- gl painful (49 degrees Celsius), subjects had cuses attention on the changing sensa- ing (four times the 20 minutes). Of MAMO I to rate both pain intensity and pain un- tions of her breath, noting thoughts, course, it is a far cry from attenuating ATMA ATMA F Mindfulness reduced the unpleasantness of pain OURTESY OF OF OURTESY (by a whopping 57 percent and its intensity by 40 percent.) C 30 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MIND July/August 2013 the unthinkable agony of burning to coincided with an increase in high- Pain Intensity death, but still. Mindfulness exerts frequency EEG electrical activity in Anterior cingulate Anterior insula its effect by promoting a sense of de- cortex the so-called gamma band (spanning tachment and by reducing the sub- 25 to 42 oscillations a second), which jectively experienced saliency of the was synchronized across the frontal heated metal plate. Yet how does it and parietal cortices. Such activity is work in the brain? thought to be the hallmark of highly Pain-related activity in the prima- active and spatially dispersed groups ry and secondary somatosensory cor- of neurons, typically associated with tices was reduced by the meditation. focusing attention. Indeed, gamma Those subjects who experienced the activity in these monks is the largest greatest reduction in the intensity of seen in nonpathological conditions their pain had the largest increase of and 30 times greater than in the nov- activity in their right insula and both ices. The more years the monks had sides of their anterior cingulate corti- Pain Unpleasantness been practicing meditation, the stron- ces.