May 16, 2006
Destructive Emotions: How can we overcome them?
by Daniel Goleman
Reviewed by Mihaela Popa Chraif
MA degree - DAFI (Capital Markets Management and Stocks– ASE)
Student at the Faculty of Psychology, University of Bucharest
“Most of the human dramas and suffering are the effects of destructive emotions, as the hate feeds violence and the strong needs feed the dependence. One of our greatest responsibilities as human beings full of compassion for our co-habitants is to reduce the human losses caused by those destructive emotions.”
(Dalai Lama, 28 august 2002)
Abstract
The Mind and Life Institute sponsors cross-cultural dialogues bringing together Dalai Lama and other Buddhist monks with western scientists. Buddhist philosophy tells us that personal unhappiness and interpersonal conflict lie in three poisons: craving, anger and delusion. With new hi-tech devices, scientists can peer inside the brain centers that calm the inner storm of fear. They also demonstrate the meditation training strategy enhancing humans’ positive moods.
What role do destructive emotions play in human evolution? Are they universal, or does cultures determine how we feel? Throughout, these provocative ideas are brought to life by the play of personalities, by Dalai Lama’s probing questions and by his sense of humor.
About Life & Mind Institute
The Mind and Life Institute is dedicated to fostering dialogue and research at the highest level between the great living contemplative traditions and modern science. The Institute purpose is to establish a bridge between modern science and Buddhism - the world's two most powerful traditions for understanding the nature of reality and investigating the mind.
The activity provided by the institute is to promote the creation of a contemplative, and rigorous experimental and experiential science of the mind which could guide and inform neuroscience, education, psychology, medicine, and human development.
The Institute realizes its mission throw the following activities:
•Scheduling semi-private meetings between scientists, psychologists and leading figures from the contemplative traditions;
•Developing collaborative research projects and meetings focused on designing research, between laboratory scientists, scholars and practitioners of different forms of contemplative practice;
•Developing educational programs based on human emotions research;
•Organizing public conferences to stimulate interest in the scientific dialogues and research;
•Issuing publications, based on Mind and Life meetings and conferences to share the power and potential of the collaborative exchanges with the general public;
Image 1. Meditation session at the Mind and Health Institute
What is meditation?
Meditation is a technique for developing the right concentration. It can only be acquired by direct experience, not just from reading alone. It is not some special posture, and it’s not just a set of mental exercises. Meditation is the cultivation of mindfulness and the application of that mindfulness once cultivated. The first immediate effect of practicing meditation is often experienced as a release of tension. In tandem with this relaxing effect, meditation gives us a way to regain our centre and calm our mind. Meditation can also help us increase our ability to concentrate. All in all, it offers us skills we can use to build strategies for remaining centered in order to maintain a more balanced mental and physical state. But these are only the more practical benefits of integrating meditation in our life.
Many religions, mystical traditions and spiritual philosophies have had a long history of meditative practices. In the Buddhist tradition, meditation is often called the "royal road to enlightenment" – not a small claim. In more contemporary terms, methods of transpersonal psychology, which include modern dream work and meditation, also help to guide us on our own inner path of spiritual exploration and discovery.
A common misunderstanding about meditation is that learning it requires a lot of knowledge. That might be true if someone wanted to practice a specific type of meditation within a complex religious or spiritual framework. But out of any such context, meditative skills in themselves remain simple to learn and easy to practice.
Image 2: Dalai Lama in the Keck Laboratory for Functional Brain Imaging and Behavior, Photo: Jeff Miller
Image 2 and image 3 reveal scenes from the experiments realized in Keck Laboratory for Functional Brain Imaging and Behavior from Madison campus of the University of Wisconsin.
These pictures are parts from the experiments presented in the book “Destructive Emotions” and highlight the bridge raised between the two cultures: spiritual-Buddhism and western-neurosciences.
Image 3 Dalai Lama fascinated by RNM experiment
About Daniel Goleman
Daniel Goleman was born in Stockton, California. The San Joaquin Delta College, Stockton (California) was named the Goleman Library after Goleman's family. He began graduate school at Harvard where he was a Ford Fellow, and he received his M.A. and Ph.D. in clinical psychology and personality development. At Harvard he met professor of psychology David McClelland who was his friend and inspired him to write about emotional quota or EQ.
Image 4 Daniel Goleman
During his years at Harvard, he went to India where he was initiated in Buddhist meditation. He was nominated twice for the Pulitzer Prize, but unfortunately for him, he never won. Daniel Goleman's bestselling Emotional Intelligence revolutionized the way we think about personal excellence.
In Working with Emotional Intelligence, Doctor Goleman reveals the skills that distinguish star performers in every field, from entry-level jobs to top executive positions. He shows that the single most important factor is not IQ, advanced degrees, or technical expertise, but the quality Goleman calls emotional intelligence. Self-awareness, self-confidence, and self-control; commitment and integrity; the ability to communicate and influence, to initiate and accept change- all these competencies are at a premium in today's job market.
About Dalai Lama
Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso, is the head of state and spiritual leader of the people from Tibet region. His birth name Lhamo Dhondrub on 6 July 1935, in a small village called Taktser in northeastern Tibet. His Holiness was recognized at the age of two, in accordance with Tibetan tradition, as the reincarnation of his predecessor the 13th Dalai Lama, and thus an incarnation Avalokitesvara, the Buddha of Compassion. With the newly constituted Tibetan Government-in-exile, His Holiness saw that his immediate and urgent task was to save the both the Tibetan exiles and their culture alike. Since his first visit to the west (early 1973), a number of western universities and institutions have conferred Peace Awards and honorary Doctorate Degrees in recognition of His Holiness' distinguished writings in Buddhist philosophy and for his leadership in the solution of international conflicts, human rights issues and global environmental problems. Living in a small cottage in Dharamsala, follows the life of Buddhist monk, he rises at 4 A.M. to meditate, pursues an ongoing schedule of administrative meetings, private audiences and religious teachings and ceremonies.
About Paul Ekman
Paul Ekman, is Professor of Psychology at the University of California at San Francisco. He is a world-renowned expert in emotional research and nonverbal communication, particularly for his studies on emotional expression and the corresponding physiological activity of the face. His research has been supported by the National Institute of Mental Health for 46 years. Mr. Ekman has also received support from the National Science Foundation, and he has organized an NSF workshop, "Understanding the Face." Among his distinguished lectures is a 1992 keynote address to the Japanese Congress of Psychology.
Destructive Emotions: How can we overcome them?
The book has been released from Life and Mind Institute in 2003 by Bantam Books Publishing. On the Romanian books’ market it was translated and issued in 2005 by Curtea Veche Publishing. Daniel Goleman presents dialogues between Dalai Lama and a small group of eminent psychologist, neuroscientist and philosophers that probe the challenging questions: Can the worlds of science and philosophy work together to recognize destructive emotions such as anger, craving and delusion? As Dalai Lama answers: “With the ever-growing impact of science on our lives, religion and spirituality have a greater role to play in reminding us of our humanity”.
Humans often exhibit anger behaviors empathically. For example, we are watching TV news about hostility, crimes and war. Anger is usually magnified and extended in time when a cognitive decision is made about the intent of the individual/organization attributed to causing the pain. In other words, if we decide the pain/deprivation was intentional, "deliberate," the emotion is usually more intense. Finally, we might fell angry and nervous, desiring to harm and cause pain without an existing reason.
In a rare convergence of spirituality and science, the Dalai Lama and a handful of Western neuroscientists met this week at the university to discuss ways in which they can collaborate to conduct research on meditation.
There are three adjustments in the Mahayana Buddhism Sector called the Body, Breath and Mind. This practice is also known as the Samatha-Vipasyana. The first adjustment is the Body by sitting upright with legs crossed and hands on the knees. Furthermore comes closing the eyes keeping the back straight and the head upright.
The second adjustment is the Breath and the third is the Mind. Breathing is one of the most important steps in meditation by concentrating on the spot where the air enters the nostrils.
The questions raised by the book in order to highlight the bridge between neurosciences and Buddhist traditional culture make the starting points in the research laboratories from Life and Mind Institute.
•Can meditation be used to change brain circuits associated with emotions?
•Do different kinds of meditation practice produce distinct brain effects?
•Does the development of certain brain areas through meditation impact physiological factors that may prevent illness?
•Which areas of the brain are developed in long-time practitioners of meditation?
•How long does it take before meditation produces significant brain changes?
The book is divided in five parts representing the five days-experimental journey in the research world of the Keck Laboratory for Functional Brain Imaging and Behavior from Madison campus of the University of Wisconsin.
Part one (Day one): “What are destructive emotions?”- introduce us in both western and Buddhist perspective about emotions. It was at the invitation of Richard Davidson that Lama Oser had come to the Keck Laboratory to be studied intensively with state-of-the-art brain measures. The first experiment engaged Oser in meditation while having his brain scanned by brain imaging devices. The objective of the experimental research was to “assess meditation as mind training, a practical answer to the perennial human conundrum of how we can better handle our destructive emotions”.
In order to handle destructive emotions, the modern science has focused on formulating chemical compounds to help overcome toxically emotions. Buddhism offers a different route: methods for training the mind throw meditation practice. The meditation is the antidote to the mind’s vulnerability toxic emotions.
The three methods involved in the experiment were suggested to Lama Oser by the research team: a visualization, one-pointed concentration and generating compassion during a MRI session. With Oser’s consultation, the research team agreed on a protocol where he would rotate on a resting, everyday state of mind through a sequence of several specific meditative states.
Part two (Day two): “Feelings in everyday life” is introducing the Universality of emotions by Paul Ekman- expert in human emotions and non verbal language. In his researches about culture and emotions he demonstrated the existence of common patterns in expressing the emotions (happiness, surprise, anger) for different cultures. He also reveals the existence of 18 types of smiles and 7000 combinations of the face muscles. The dialog between Dalai Lama and Ekman represent a part of the experimental program developed at the Keck Laboratory-Wisconsin.
The following three parts: “Windows into the brain”, “Mastering emotional skills” and “Reasons for optimism” continue the dialog from another point of view: the brain neurology, the neuroscience of emotions, the influence of culture, Compassion and Consciousness.
From a Buddhist point of view, Dalai Lama underlines the central role of the Compassion in minimizing the anger by using positive emotions reinforcement as way to educate the spirit.
The dialog with Dalai Lama is lively and fascinating as these leading minds (Ekman, Goleman, Davidson, Francisco Varela, Allan Wallace and Owen Flanagan) grapple with questions of compelling contemporary urgency.
In a sense, the many extraordinary insights and findings that arise from the presentation and subsequent discussions are embodied by Dalai Lama himself as he appears in this article.
Covering the nature of destructive emotions, the neuroscience of emotions, the scientific study of consciousness and more, this essential volume offers a fascinating account of what ca emerge when two profound systems for studying the mind and emotions, West and Buddhism, join force.
Biographical note
Mihaela Popa Chraif is financial analyst and accountant at a whole sale and retail company in Bucharest, Romania. The author is also student at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Science, University of Bucharest, Romania. She was born in Bucharest and achieved her degree in finance, accounting and banking. The author also graduated the master’s program DAFI (Capital Markets Management and Stocks – ASE) in Bucharest, Romania. Her research interests include behavioral finance, international accounting systems, marketing policies, feasibility studies, stocks, capital markets, banking management and organizational psychology. She can be reached by e-mail at mihaelapopa14@yahoo.com.