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This Is Your Brain On Meditation: Mingyur Rinpoche Describes The Science Of Happiness
DaltheJigsaw
Mountain View Veteran
A hush fell over the room as Youngey Mingyur Rinpoche took the stage to begin his teaching. Rinpoche, the revered Tibetan Buddhist lama, teacher, and so-called "happiest man in the world" was commencing an Introduction to Awareness Meditation event, hosted by the New York Open Center. Nearly every seat in the large auditorium was occupied.
"How many of you have learned meditation before?" he asked the crowd, solemnly. Many of the audience members raised their hands. "Oh, great. Then I don't have to teach you!" he quipped, tilting his head back to chuckle. Though Rinpoche's joking demeanor makes him a popular teacher, he is serious when it comes to meditation practices.
Rinpoche's teaching is informed by contemporary scientific research. He considers himself to be, as he put it, "a short red guinea pig" -- a test subject for some of the most cutting edge neurological theories, and a firm supporter of the ongoing dialogue between science and Buddhism.
Like the Dalai Lama, Mingyur Rinpoche had an early interest in scientific inquiry, and worked with Richard Davidson's University of Wisconsin laboratory to explore the impact of meditation on the brain. Rinpoche's interest started at the age of ten, when he met the scientist Francisco Varella in Nepal. "I was very curious" he told the The Huffington Post. "First I started with cosmology, and then learned a lot about neurology." He came to believe that contemporary scientific theory and his meditation practices were aligned. "Science and meditation teachings are exactly parallel" he explained "but they don't speak the same language."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/28/this-is-your-brain-on-med_n_628268.html?ref=buddhism
"How many of you have learned meditation before?" he asked the crowd, solemnly. Many of the audience members raised their hands. "Oh, great. Then I don't have to teach you!" he quipped, tilting his head back to chuckle. Though Rinpoche's joking demeanor makes him a popular teacher, he is serious when it comes to meditation practices.
Rinpoche's teaching is informed by contemporary scientific research. He considers himself to be, as he put it, "a short red guinea pig" -- a test subject for some of the most cutting edge neurological theories, and a firm supporter of the ongoing dialogue between science and Buddhism.
Like the Dalai Lama, Mingyur Rinpoche had an early interest in scientific inquiry, and worked with Richard Davidson's University of Wisconsin laboratory to explore the impact of meditation on the brain. Rinpoche's interest started at the age of ten, when he met the scientist Francisco Varella in Nepal. "I was very curious" he told the The Huffington Post. "First I started with cosmology, and then learned a lot about neurology." He came to believe that contemporary scientific theory and his meditation practices were aligned. "Science and meditation teachings are exactly parallel" he explained "but they don't speak the same language."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/28/this-is-your-brain-on-med_n_628268.html?ref=buddhism
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