Of a sustained Buddhist extremism in Sri Lanka
Of a sustained Buddhist extremism in Sri Lanka |
- Of a sustained Buddhist extremism in Sri Lanka
- 10 Quick Ways to Give Yourself a Motivational Boost
- Teenager credits meditation with helping her on way to singing success
- The world’s happiest man talks about happiness
- Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 10/5/2012
- Ear Mites Case a Rarity, Report Finds
- Flu Cases Rose During 2012 Summer
- Doctors Practice Better Health Habits
- Meningitis Outbreak Grows to 35 Cases, 5 Deaths
- Why Constant Worry is Useless
- Seven steps to cultivating compassion, from Bob Thurman
- Compassion meditation may boost neural basis of empathy
- Newborn Genetic Test Catches Rare Diseases Earlier
- Haier America Recalls 42-inch LED-TVs
- Fitness Anywhere Recalls Early Model Suspension Trainer Devices
| Of a sustained Buddhist extremism in Sri Lanka Posted: 05 Oct 2012 01:00 PM PDT
The rise of extremist Buddhists in Sri Lanka is truly disturbing and does not bode well to the sense of national resilience that the government is trying to foster … Read the original article » Read More @ Source
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| 10 Quick Ways to Give Yourself a Motivational Boost Posted: 05 Oct 2012 08:00 AM PDT  Sometimes you need to get something done, but it just isn't happening. That's when you need a motivational boost. But remember, there are no quick fixes. In the end, you have to be the one to take the first step. There are things that can help, however, and today, we'll cover 10 of them.
Do you have a bucket list? Here are 101 things to do before you die. Includes a tutorial on how you can create your bucket list too!      Read More @ Source 
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| Teenager credits meditation with helping her on way to singing success Posted: 05 Oct 2012 07:00 AM PDT
Amy Wilkinson began singing while at primary school at St Michael's in Aughton. The 14-year-old, from Narrow Moss Lane, Scarisbrick [West Lancashire], entered Britain's Got Talent last year but missed out on a chance to sing for the TV judges. But, undeterred, she entered the Open Mic UK competition and, having performed a version of the Noisettes track Never Forget You, she has successfully made it through to the regional finals on October 14, where she will … Read the original article » Read More @ Source
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| The world’s happiest man talks about happiness Posted: 05 Oct 2012 06:00 AM PDT
After training in biochemistry at the Institute Pasteur, Matthieu Ricard left science behind to move to the Himalayas and become a Zen Buddhism monk — and to pursue happiness, both at a basic human level and as a subject of inquiry. Achieving happiness, he has come to believe, requires the same kind of effort and mind training that any other serious pursuit involves. Transcript: So, I guess it is a result of globalization that you can find Coca-Cola tins on top of Everest and a Zen Buddhism monk in Monterey. (Laughter) And so I just came, two days ago, from the Himalayas to your kind invitation. So I would like to invite you, also, for a while, to the Himalayas themselves. And to show the place where meditators, like me, who began with being a molecular biologist in Pasteur Institute, and found their way to the mountains. So these are a few images I was lucky to take and be there. There's the Mount Kailash in Eastern Tibet — wonderful setting. This is from Marlboro country. (Laughter) This is a turquoise lake. A meditator. This is the hottest day of the year somewhere in Eastern Tibet, on August 1. And the night before, we camped, and my Tibetan friends said, "We are going to sleep outside." And I said, "Why? We have enough space in the tent." They said, "Yes, but it's summertime." (Laughter) So now, we are going to speak of happiness. As a Frenchman, I must say that there are a lot of French intellectuals that think happiness is not at all interesting. (Laughter) I just wrote an essay on happiness, and there was a controversy. And someone wrote an article saying, "Don't impose on us the dirty work of happiness." (Laughter) "We don't care about being happy. We need to live with passion. We like the ups and downs of life. We like our suffering because it's so good when it ceases for a while." (Laughter) This is what I see from the balcony of my hermitage in the Himalayas. It's about two meters by three, and you are all welcome any time. (Laughter) Now, let's come to happiness or well-being. And first of all, you know, despite what the French intellectuals say, it seems that no one wakes up in the morning thinking, "May I suffer the whole day?" (Laughter) Which means that somehow — consciously or not, directly or indirectly, in the short or the long term, whatever we do, whatever we hope, whatever we dream — somehow, is related to a deep, profound desire for well-being or happiness. As Pascal said, even the one who hangs himself, somehow, is looking for cessation of suffering — he finds no other way. But then, if you look in the literature, East and West, you can find incredible diversity of definition of happiness. Some people say, I only believed in remembering the past, imagining the future, never the present. Some people say happiness is right now; it's the quality of the freshness of the present moment. And that led to Henri Bergson, the French philosopher, to say, "All the great thinkers of humanity have left happiness in the vague so that they could define — each of them could define their own terms." Well, that would be fine if it was just a secondary preoccupation in life. But now, if it is something that is going to determine the quality of every instant of our life, then we better know what it is, have some clearer idea. And probably, the fact that we don't know that is why, so often, although we seek happiness, it seems we turn our back to it. Although we want to avoid suffering, it seems we are running somewhat towards it. And that can also come from some kind of confusions. One of the most common ones is happiness and pleasure. But, if you look at the characteristics of those two, pleasure is contingent upon time, upon its object, upon the place. It is something that — changes of nature. Beautiful chocolate cake: first serving is delicious, second one not so much, then we feel disgust. (Laughter) That's the nature of things. We get tired. I used to be a fan of Bach. I used to play it on the guitar, you know. I can hear it two, three, five times. If I had to hear it 24 hours, non-stop, it might be very tiring. If you are feeling very cold, you come near a fire, it's so wonderful. Then, after some moments, you just go a little back, and then it starts burning. It sort of uses itself as you experience it. And also, again, it can — also, it's something that you — it is not something that is radiating outside. Like, you can feel intense pleasure and some others around you can be suffering a lot. Now, what, then, will be happiness? And happiness, of course, is such a vague word, so let's say well-being. And so, I think the best definition, according to the Zen Buddhism view, is that well-being is not just a mere pleasurable sensation. It is a deep sense of serenity and fulfillment, a state that actually pervades and underlies all emotional states, and all the joys and sorrows that can come one's way. For you, that might be surprising. Can we have this kind of well-being while being sad? In a way, why not? Because we are speaking of a different level. Look at the waves coming here to shore. When you are at the bottom of the wave, you hit the bottom. You hit the solid rock. When you are surfing on the top, you are all elated. So you go from elation to depression — there's no depth. Now, if you look at the high sea, there might be beautiful, calm ocean, like a mirror. There might be storms, but the depth of the ocean is still there, unchanged. So now, how is that? It can only be a state of being, not just a fleeting emotion, sensation. Even joy — that can be the spring of happiness. But there's also wicked joy, you can rejoice in someone's suffering. So how do we proceed in our quest for happiness? Very often, we look outside. We think that if we could gather this and that, all the conditions, something that we say, "Everything to be happy — to have everything to be happy." That very sentence already reveals the doom of destruction of happiness. To have everything. If we miss something, it collapses. And also, when things go wrong, we try to fix the outside so much, but our control of the outer world is limited, temporary, and often, illusory. So now, look at inner conditions. Aren't they stronger? Isn't it the mind that translates the outer condition into happiness and suffering? And isn't that stronger? We know, by experience, that we can be what we call "a little paradise," and yet, be completely unhappy within. The Dalai Lama was once in Portugal, and there was a lot of construction going on everywhere. So one evening, he said, "Look, you are doing all these things, but isn't it nice, also, to build something within?" And he said, "Unless that — even you get high-tech flat on the 100th floor of a super-modern and comfortable building, if you are deeply unhappy within, all you are going to look for is a window from which to jump." So now, at the opposite, we know a lot of people who, in very difficult circumstances, manage to keep serenity, inner strength, inner freedom, confidence. So now, if the inner conditions are stronger — of course, the outer conditions do influence, and it's wonderful to live longer, healthier, to have access to information, education, to be able to travel, to have freedom. It's highly desirable. However, this is not enough. Those are just auxiliary, help conditions. The experience that translates everything is within the mind. So then, when we ask oneself how to nurture the condition for happiness, the inner conditions, and which are those which will undermine happiness. So then, this just needs to have some experience. We have to know from ourselves, there are certain states of mind that are conducive to this flourishing, to this well-being, what the Greeks called eudaimonia, flourishing. There are some which are adverse to this well-being. And so, if we look from our own experience, anger, hatred, jealousy, arrogance, obsessive desire, strong grasping, they don't leave us in such a good state after we have experienced it. And also, they are detrimental to others' happiness. So we may consider that the more those are invading our mind, and, like a chain reaction, the more we feel miserable, we feel tormented. At the opposite, everyone knows deep within that an act of selfless generosity, if from the distance, without anyone knowing anything about it, we could save a child's life, make someone happy. We don't need the recognition. We don't need any gratitude. Just the mere fact of doing that fills such a sense of adequation with our deep nature. And we would like to be like that all the time. So is that possible, to change our way of being, to transform one's mind? Aren't those negative emotions, or destructive emotions, inherent to the nature of mind? Is change possible in our emotions, in our traits, in our moods? For that we have to ask, what is nature of mind? And if we look from the experiential point of view, there is a primary quality of consciousness that's just the mere fact to be cognitive, to be aware. Consciousness is like a mirror that allows all images to rise on it. You can have ugly faces, beautiful faces in the mirror. The mirror allows that, but the mirror is not tainted, is not modified, is not altered by those images. Likewise, behind every single thought there is the bare consciousness, pure awareness. This is the nature. It cannot be tainted intrinsically with hatred or jealousy because, then, if it was always there — like a dye that would permeate the whole cloth — then it would be found all the time, somewhere. We know we're not always angry, always jealous, always generous. So, because the basic fabric of consciousness is this pure cognitive quality that differentiates it from a stone, there is a possibility for change because all emotions are fleeting. That is the ground for mind training. Mind training is based on the idea that two opposite mental factors cannot happen at the same time. You could go from love to hate. But you cannot, at the same time, toward the same object, the same person, want to harm and want to do good. You cannot, in the same gesture, shake hand and give a blow. So, there are natural antidotes to emotions that are destructive to our inner well-being. So that's the way to proceed. Rejoicing compared to jealousy. A kind of sense of inner freedom as opposite to intense grasping and obsession. Benevolence, loving kindness against hatred. But, of course, each emotion then would need a particular antidote. Another way is to try to find a general antidote to all emotions, and that's by looking at the very nature. Usually, when we feel annoyed, hatred or upset with someone, or obsessed with something, the mind goes again and again to that object. Each time it goes to the object, it reinforces that obsession or that annoyance. So then, it's a self-perpetuating process. So what we need to look now is, instead of looking outward, we look inward. Look at anger itself. It looks very menacing, like a billowing monsoon cloud or thunderstorm. But we think we could sit on the cloud — but if you go there, it's just mist. Likewise, if you look at the thought of anger, it will vanish like frost under the morning sun. If you do this again and again, the propensity, the tendencies for anger to arise again will be less and less each time you dissolve it. And, at the end, although it may rise, it will just cross the mind, like a bird crossing the sky without leaving any track. So this is the principal of mind training. Now, it takes time because we — it took time for all those faults in our mind, the tendencies, to build up, so it will take time to unfold them as well. But that's the only way to go. Mind transformation — that is the very meaning of meditation. It means familiarization with a new way of being, new way of perceiving things, which is more in adequation with reality, with interdependence, with the stream and continuous transformation, which our being and our consciousness is. So, the interface with cognitive science, since we need to come to that, and it was, I suppose, the subject of — we have to deal in such a short time with brain plasticity. The brain was thought to be more or less fixed. All the nominal connections, in numbers and quantities, were thought — until the last 20 years — thought to be more or less fixed when we reached adult age. Now, recently, it has been found that it can change a lot. A violinist, as we heard, who has done 10,000 hours of violin practice, some area that controls the movements of fingers in the brain change a lot, increasing reinforcement of the synaptic connections. So can we do that with human qualities? With loving kindness, with patience, with openness? So that's what those great meditators have been doing. Some of them who came to the labs, like in Madison, Wisconsin, or in Berkeley, did 20 to 40,000 hours of meditation. They do, like, three years' retreat, where they do meditate 12 hours a day. And then, the rest of their life, they will do that three or four hours a day. They are real Olympic champions of mind training. (Laughter) This is the place where the meditators — you can see it's kind of inspiring. Now, here with 256 electrodes. (Laughter) So what did they find? Of course, same thing. The scientific embargo — if ever has been to submitted to "Nature," hopefully, it will be accepted. It deals with the state of compassion, unconditional compassion. We asked meditators, who have been doing that for years and years and years, to put their mind in a state where there's nothing but loving kindness, total availability to sentient being. Of course, during the training, we do that with objects. We think of people suffering, we think of people we love, but at some point, it can be a state which is all pervading. Here is the preliminary result, which I can show because it's already been shown. The bell curve shows 150 controls, and what is being looked at is the difference between the right and the left frontal lobe. In very short, people who have more activity in the right side of the prefrontal cortex are more depressed, withdrawn. They don't describe a lot of positive affect. It's the opposite on the left side: more tendency to altruism, to happiness, to express, and curiosity and so forth. So there's a basic line for people. And also, it can be changed. If you see a comic movie, you go off to the left side. If you are happy about something, you'll go more to the left side. If you have a bout of depression, you'll go to the right side. Here, the -0.5 is the full standard deviation of a meditator who meditated on compassion. It's something that is totally out of the bell curve. So, I've no time to go into all the different scientific results. Hopefully, they will come. But they found that — this is after three and a half hours in an fMRI, it's like coming out of a space ship. Also, it has been shown in other labs — for instance, Paul Ekman's labs in Berkeley — that some meditators are able, also, to control their emotional response more than it could be thought. Like the startle experiments, for example. If you sit a guy on a chair with all this kind of apparatus measuring your physiology, and there's kind of a bomb that goes off, it's so instinctive response that, in 20 years, they never saw anyone who will not jump. Some meditators, without trying to stop it, but simply by being completely open, thinking that that bang is just going to be just a small event like a shooting star, they are able not to move at all. So the whole point of that is not, sort of, to make, like, a circus thing of showing exceptional beings who can jump, or whatever. It's more to say that mind training matters. That this is not just a luxury. This is not a supplementary vitamin for the soul. This is something that's going to determine the quality of every instant of our lives. We are ready to spend 15 years achieving education. We love to do jogging, fitness. We do all kinds of things to remain beautiful. Yet, we spend surprisingly little time taking care of what matters most — the way our mind functions — which, again, is the ultimate thing that determines the quality of our experience. Now, our compassion is supposed to be put in action. That's what we try to do in different places. Just this one example is worth a lot of work. This lady with bone TB, left alone in a tent, is going to die with her only daughter. One year later, how she is. Different schools and clinics we've been doing in Tibet. And just, I leave you with the beauty of those looks that tells more about happiness than I could ever say. And jumping monks of Tibet. (Laughter) Flying monks. Thank you very much. Read More @ Source
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| Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 10/5/2012 Posted: 05 Oct 2012 05:00 AM PDT  "Let the wise guard their thoughts, which are difficult to perceive, extremely subtle, and wander at will. Thought which is well guarded is the bearer of happiness." ~The Buddha       Read More @ Source 
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| Ear Mites Case a Rarity, Report Finds Posted: 05 Oct 2012 02:00 AM PDT
A man whose ear had itched for two months turned out to have mites crawling in his ear canal, a new case report says. The 70-year-old man in Taiwan also reported feeling a sense of fullness in the right ear, but had no hearing impairment, ringing in his ears or discharge. Upon looking into the man's ear canal, doctors discovered mites and mite eggs, belonging to a species identified as the house-dust mite Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus, according to a report of the man's case published Thursday (Oct. 4) in the New England Journal of Medicine. Having mites in one's ear, a condition formally called otoacariasis, is pretty rare, said Dr. Ian Storper, director of otology at the New York Head & Neck Institute at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York. The video the Taiwan doctors captured of the mites crawling in the man's ear shows the typical swelling of the ear tissue, and debris in the ear canal that is found in such infections, he said. "It's much more common to see a cockroach in the ear," Storper said, estimating that he's seen a few dozen cases of cockroaches, but only two cases involving mites. Most of the time, the cockroach is dead inside the ear canal when the patient comes in — the difficulty that insects have in walking backward may account for their inability to get out. If it's alive, the patient is likely to report hearing a buzzing sound, along with their pain, he said. Dr. Richard Nelson, vice chair of emergency medicine at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, said that he's learned — after seeing cases of mosquitos, gnats, and at least a dozen cockroaches in ears over his three decades in medicine — that sometimes it's better to tell the patient about the bug after it has been extracted. In the first cockroach-in-the-ear case he saw as a medical resident, the female patient became so agitated that he thought he might have to sedate her in order to remove the insect. "She was really freaked out," Nelson said, and he's had other patients who, upon being told about the creature lurking in their ear canals, start screaming or running around — which makes them very hard to treat. "Now, I just say, I think I see the problem, I'm going to put some stuff in your ear," and tell them about it after the cockroach is out, he said. Some patients are surprisingly calm upon hearing the news, and one patient even told him he'd had a cockroach in his ear before, he said. Nelson also said he now sometimes knows, before he looks in the ear, what he's likely to see. "Patients with cockroaches in their ear always show up at 2 a.m. — they wake up with sudden onset of ear pain," because the bug crawled in while they were sleeping, he said. Typically, treatment involves irrigating the ear canal — oil, alcohol, or an anesthetic might be used. The irrigation may flush out the bug, or tiny forceps might be used to pull out the critter. "It's very important to pull out the whole thing," Storper said. Sometimes, he said, a bug's legs may get stuck or fall apart, leaving leggy bits behind. "If you leave legs, you can get a bacterial infection. They're dirty, they've been crawling everywhere," he said. In the Taiwan case, the doctors reported treating the patient with eardrops containing an antifungal agent, an antibacterial agent, an anti-inflammatory medicine and an anti-mite medication. The typical treatment for mites in the ear is an anti-mite drug, Storper said, and the other drugs likely helped reduce the risk of other infections. Two months after treating the Taiwan man, the doctors followed up with him and reported that his symptoms had completely resolved. In most cases, pain and other symptoms go away within a few days of treatment, Storper said. Pass it on: Ear mites are relatively rare, a new report finds. FollowMyHealthNewsDaily on Twitter @MyHealth_MHND. We're also on Facebook & Google+.  Read More @ Source 
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| Flu Cases Rose During 2012 Summer Posted: 05 Oct 2012 01:00 AM PDT
While this past year's flu season was relatively mild overall, there were more flu cases this summer than usual, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Between May and September, nearly 3,000 cases of the flu were confirmed. In contrast, during the previous six years, the average number of confirmed cases in the summer was 375, excluding the summer of 2009, when there was a flu pandemic, the report said. The main reason for the higher activity this summer is the late start to the flu season this year, said study researcher Scott Epperson, of the CDC's Epidemiology and Prevention Branch. Because flu season started later, it also peaked later, meaning increased levels of the virus were circulating in May and June, Epperson said. In addition, health officials began more intensive surveillance for flu in July after reports surfaced of a new strain of swine flu in the Midwest, Epperson said. However, flu activity this summer was still lower than during the 2011-2012 winter, and lower than they were at the peak of flu season. Doctor's visits for flu-like illness also remained low, as did deaths. About 300 people (mostly children) were infected with the new strain of swine flu. Most patients lived in Indiana or Ohio, and had direct contact with pigs. For the most part, this flu virus does not appear spread easily between people, but a few cases of person-to-person transmission were suspected, the CDC said. Because this strain of flu could develop the ability to easily spread between people, a quick and intensive investigation of every case is needed, the CDC said. Of the flu strains detected this summer, most appear to match the strains included in the latest version of the flu vaccine, which became available this fall. The best way to prevent the flu is to get a flu shot. Flu vaccination is recommended for everyone ages 6 months and older. Pass it on: Flu activity from May to September this year was higher than is typical for the summer months. Follow MyHealthNewsDaily on Twitter @MyHealth_MHND. We're also on Facebook & Google+. Read More @ Source 
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| Doctors Practice Better Health Habits Posted: 05 Oct 2012 12:00 AM PDT
Many doctors appear to be practicing what they preach. As a group, U.S. doctors have better health habits than nurses and other working adults, according to the results of a new Gallup-Healthways poll. Doctors in the survey were less likely to smoke, less likely to be obese, and more likely to say they exercised three or more days a week, compared with nurses as well as other employed adults as a whole. Doctors also scored higher on an assessment of physical health compared to nurses and adults with other jobs. The score was based on a number of factors, including how often participants took sick days and experienced health problems that disrupted their daily activities. The better health of physicians was in part explained by their education — more highly educated Americans in general have better health habits. Nevertheless, "physicians set a good example for their patients," the researchers said. The poll surveyed more than 590,000 U.S. adults between January 2011 and August 2012, including 1,984 physicians and 7,166 nurses. The obesity rate among physicians was 14 percent, compared with 25 percent among both nurses and other workers. Fifty-eight percent of physicians said they exercised at least three days a week for 30 minutes, while 55 percent of nurses and 54 percent of other workers said the same. Four percent of physicians said they smoked, compared with 15 percent of nurses and 20 percent of other workers. However, physicians were more likely to have cancer: 6 percent of physicians said they had cancer, compared with 5 percent of nurses and 4 percent of other workers. This may reflect factors unique to doctors, such as a greater awareness of cancer warning signs, or higher screening rates, according to the researchers. Pass it on: Doctors appear to have better health and health habits than other workers. Follow MyHealthNewsDaily on Twitter @MyHealth_MHND. We're also on Facebook & Google+. Read More @ Source 
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| Meningitis Outbreak Grows to 35 Cases, 5 Deaths Posted: 04 Oct 2012 11:00 PM PDT
An outbreak of rare fungal meningitis has sickened 35 people six states, including five people who died, health officials say. The source of the outbreak is still under investigation, but injections of a drug called methylprednisolone acetate have been closely associated with cases. The steroid is used to treat lower back pain; it is injected into the spine. Most of the cases occured in Tennessee, but cases have also been seen in North Carolina, Florida, Virgina and Maryland. Patients affected by the outbreak had received steroid drugs produced by the New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Mass. An investigation of the NECC facility found sealed vials of the drug that were contaminated with fungus. Foreign materials were also found in other vials produced by the company, said Ilisa Bernstein, director of the Office of Compliance at the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. Additional testing of drugs produced by the company is underway, Bernstein said. Three lots of the injectable steroid from NECC have been recalled. These lots were distributed in 23 states. Out of an abundance of caution, the FDA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are urging all healthcare practitioners not to use any products they may have that originated from NECC. NECC has voluntarily ceased distribution of its products, and shut down all operations. The type of meningitis seen in the outbreak is not transmissible from person to person, said Dr. Benjamin Park, medical officer at the CDC's National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases. Symptoms of the fungal meningitis take one to four weeks to appear, and include fever, new or worsening headache, and nausea. Some people may have received injections of the recalled drug in places other than the spine, in which case, they would experience different symptoms, such as swelling or pain at the injection site, Park said. If patients are identified soon and started on appropriate antifungal therapy, some of the unfortunate consequences of the illness may be avoided, Park said. Despite the recall and precautions taken, health officials expect to see additional cases as the investigation continues. Pass it on: An outbreak of meningitis linked to injectable steroids has sickened 35 and killed five. Follow MyHealthNewsDaily on Twitter @MyHealth_MHND. We're also on Facebook & Google+. Read More @ Source 
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| Posted: 04 Oct 2012 09:00 PM PDT 09/12 2008 I found this article at the Dumb Little Man – Tips for Life blog. Wow, if you read this on a day when you are down it puts a whole new perspective on things.
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| Seven steps to cultivating compassion, from Bob Thurman Posted: 04 Oct 2012 06:00 PM PDT It's hard to always show compassion — even to the people we love, but Robert Thurman asks that we develop compassion for our enemies. He prescribes a seven-step meditation exercise to extend compassion beyond our inner circle. Transcript: I want to open by quoting Einstein's wonderful statement, just so people will feel at ease that the great scientist of the 20th century also agrees with us, and also calls us to this action. He said, "A human being is a part of the whole, called by us, the 'universe,' — a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion, to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty." This insight of Einstein's is uncannily close to that of Meditation psychology, wherein compassion — "karuna," it is called — is defined as, "the sensitivity to another's suffering and the corresponding will to free the other from that suffering." It pairs closely with love, which is the will for the other to be happy, which requires, of course, that one feels some happiness oneself and wishes to share it. This is perfect in that it clearly opposes self-centeredness and selfishness to compassion, the concern for others, and, further, it indicates that those caught in the cycle of self-concern suffer helplessly, while the compassionate are more free and, implicitly, more happy. The Dalai Lama often states that compassion is his best friend. It helps him when he is overwhelmed with grief and despair. Compassion helps him turn away from the feeling of his suffering as the most absolute, most terrible suffering anyone has ever had and broadens his awareness of the sufferings of others, even of the perpetrators of his misery and the whole mass of beings. In fact, suffering is so huge and enormous, his own becomes less and less monumental. And he begins to move beyond his self-concern into the broader concern for others. And this immediately cheers him up, as his courage is stimulated to rise to the occasion. Thus, he uses his own suffering as a doorway to widening his circle of compassion. He is a very good colleague of Einstein's, we must say. Now, I want to tell a story, which is a very famous story in the Indian and Meditation tradition, of the great Saint Asanga who was a contemporary of Augustine in the West and was sort of like the Meditation Augustine. And Asanga lived 800 years after the Buddha's time. And he was discontented with the state of people's practice of the Meditation religion in India at that time.  Check out Good Medicine: How to Turn Pain Into Compassion with Tonglen Meditation, by Pema Chodron So he went on this retreat. And he meditated for three years and he did not see the future Buddha Maitreya. And he left in disgust. And as he was leaving, he saw a man — a funny little man sitting sort of part way down the mountain. And he had a lump of iron. And he was rubbing it with a cloth. And he became interested in that. He said, "Well what are you doing?" And the man said, "I'm making a needle." And he said, "That's ridiculous. You can't make a needle by rubbing a lump of iron with a cloth." And the man said, "Really?" And he showed him a dish full of needles. So he said, "Okay, I get the point." He went back to his cave. He meditated again. Another three years, no vision. He leaves again. This time, he comes down. And as he's leaving, he sees a bird making a nest on a cliff ledge. And where it's landing to bring the twigs to the cliff, its feathers brushes the rock — and it had cut the rock six to eight inches in. There was a cleft in the rock by the brushing of the feathers of generations of the birds. So he said, "All right. I get the point." He went back. Another three years. Again, no vision of Maitreya after nine years. And he again leaves, and this time: water dripping, making a giant bowl in the rock where it drips in a stream. And so, again, he goes back. And after 12 years there is still no vision. And he's freaked out. And he won't even look left or right to see any encouraging vision. And he comes to the town. He's a broken person. And there, in the town, he's approached by a dog who comes like this — one of these terrible dogs you can see in some poor countries, even in America, I think, in some areas — and he's looking just terrible. And he becomes interested in this dog because it's so pathetic, and it's trying to attract his attention. And he sits down looking at the dog. And the dog's whole hindquarters are a complete open sore. Some of it is like gangrenous, and there are maggots in the flesh. And it's terrible. He thinks, "What can I do to fix up this dog? Well, at least I can clean this wound and wash it." So, he takes it to some water. He's about to clean, but then his awareness focuses on the maggots. And he sees the maggots, and the maggots are kind of looking a little cute. And they're maggoting happily in the dog's hindquarters there. "Well, if I clean the dog, I'll kill the maggots. So how can that be? That's it. I'm a useless person and there's no Buddha, no Maitreya, and everything is all hopeless. And now I'm going to kill the maggots?" So, he had a brilliant idea. And he took a shard of something, and cut a piece of flesh from his thigh, and he placed it on ground. He was not really thinking too carefully about the ASPCA. He was just immediately caught with the situation. So he thought, "I will take the maggots and put them on this piece of flesh, then clean the dog's wounds, and then I'll figure out what to do with the maggots." So he starts to do that. He can't grab the maggots. Apparently they wriggle around. They're kind of hard to grab, these maggots. So he says, "Well, I'll put my tongue on the dog's flesh. And then the maggots will jump on my warmer tongue" — the dog is kind of used up — "and then I'll spit them one by one down on the thing." So he goes down, and he's sticking his tongue out like this. And he had to close his eyes, it's so disgusting, and the smell and everything. And then, suddenly, there's a pfft, a noise like that. He jumps back and there, of course, is the future Buddha Maitreya in a beautiful vision — rainbow lights, golden, jeweled, a plasma body, an exquisite mystic vision — that he sees. And he says, "Oh." He bows. But, being human, he's immediately thinking of his next complaint. So as he comes up from his first bow he says, "My Lord, I'm so happy to see you, but where have you been for 12 years? What is this?" And Maitreya says, "I was with you. Who do you think was making needles and making nests and dripping on rocks for you, mister dense?" (Laughter) "Looking for the Buddha in person," he said. And he said, "You didn't have, until this moment, real compassion. And, until you have real compassion, you cannot recognize love." "Maitreya" means love, "the loving one," in Sanskrit.  Check out The Heart's Wisdom: Cultivating Compassion (MP3 download), a guided meditation by Bodhipaksa And so he looked very dubious, Asanga did. And he said, "If you don't believe me, just take me with you." And so he took the Maitreya — it shrunk into a globe, a ball — took him on his shoulder. And he ran into town in the marketplace, and he said, "Rejoice! Rejoice! The future Buddha has come ahead of all predictions. Here he is." And then pretty soon they started throwing rocks and stones at him — it wasn't Chautauqua, it was some other town — because they saw a demented looking, scrawny looking yogi man, like some kind of hippie, with a bleeding leg and a rotten dog on his shoulder, shouting that the future Buddha had come. So, naturally, they chased him out of town. But on the edge of town, one elderly lady, a charwoman in the charnel ground, saw a jeweled foot on a jeweled lotus on his shoulder and then the dog, but she saw the jewel foot of the Maitreya, and she offered a flower. So that encouraged him, and he went with Maitreya. Maitreya then took him to a certain heaven, which is the typical way a Meditation myth unfolds. And Maitreya then kept him in heaven for five years, dictating to him five complicated tomes of the methodology of how you cultivate compassion. And then I thought I would share with you what that method is, or one of them. A famous one, it's called the "Sevenfold Causal Method of Developing Compassion." And it begins first by one meditating and visualizing that all beings are with one — even animals too, but everyone is in human form. The animals are in one of their human lives. The humans are human. And then, among them, you think of your friends and loved ones, the circle at the table. And you think of your enemies, and you think of the neutral ones. And then you try to say, "Well, the loved ones I love. But, you know, after all, they're nice to me. I had fights with them. Sometimes they were unfriendly. I got mad. Brothers can fight. Parents and children can fight. So, in a way, I like them so much because they're nice to me. While the neutral ones I don't know. They could all be just fine. And then the enemies I don't like because they're mean to me. But they are nice to somebody. I could be them." And then the Meditations, of course, think that, because we've all had infinite previous lives, we've all been each other's relatives, actually. Therefore all of you, in the Meditation view, in some previous life, although you don't remember it and neither do I, have been my mother — for which I do apologize for the trouble I caused you. And also, actually, I've been your mother. I've been female, and I've been every single one of yours' mother in a previous life, the way the Meditations reflect. So, my mother in this life is really great. But all of you in a way are part of the eternal mother. You gave me that expression; "the eternal mama," you said. That's wonderful. So, that's the way the Meditations do it. A theist Christian can think that all beings, even my enemies, are God's children. So, in that sense, we're related. So, they first create this foundation of equality. So, we sort of reduce a little of the clinging to the ones we love — just in the meditation — and we open our mind to those we don't know. And we definitely reduce the hostility and the "I don't want to be compassionate to them" to the ones we think of as the bad guys, the ones we hate and we don't like. And we don't hate anyone, therefore. So we equalize. That's very important. And then the next thing we do is what is called "mother recognition." And that is, we think of every being as familiar, as family. We expand. We take the feeling about remembering a mama, and we defuse that to all beings in this meditation. And we see the mother in every being. We see that look that the mother has on her face, looking at this child that is a miracle that she has produced from her own body, being a mammal, where she has true compassion, truly is the other, and identifies completely. Often the life of that other will be more important to her than her own life. And that's why it's the most powerful form of altruism. The mother is the model of all altruism for human beings, in spiritual traditions. And so, we reflect until we can sort of see that motherly expression in all beings. People laugh at me because, you know, I used to say that I used to meditate on mama Cheney as my mom, when, of course, I was annoyed with him about all of his evil doings in Iraq. I used to meditate on George Bush. He's quite a cute mom in a female form. He has his little ears and he smiles and he rocks you in his arms. And you think of him as nursing you. And then Saddam Hussein's serious mustache is a problem, but you think of him as a mom. And this is the way you do it. You take any being who looks weird to you, and you see how they could be familiar to you. And you do that for a while, until you really feel that. You can feel the familiarity of all beings. Nobody seems alien. They're not "other." You reduce the feeling of otherness about beings. Then you move from there to remembering the kindness of mothers in general, if you can remember the kindness of your own mother, if you can remember the kindness of your spouse, or, if you are a mother yourself, how you were with your children. And you begin to get very sentimental; you cultivate sentimentality intensely. You will even weep, perhaps, with gratitude and kindness. And then you connect that with your feeling that everyone has that motherly possibility. Every being, even the most mean looking ones, can be motherly. And then, third, you step from there to what is called "a feeling of gratitude." You want to repay that kindness that all beings have shown to you. And then the fourth step, you go to what is called "lovely love." In each one of these you can take some weeks, or months, or days depending on how you do it, or you can do them in a run, this meditation. And then you think of how lovely beings are when they are happy, when they are satisfied. And every being looks beautiful when they are internally feeling a happiness. Their face doesn't look like this. When they're angry, they look ugly, every being, but when they're happy they look beautiful. And so you see beings in their potential happiness. And you feel a love toward them and you want them to be happy, even the enemy. We think Jesus is being unrealistic when he says, "Love thine enemy." He does say that, and we think he's being unrealistic and sort of spiritual and highfalutin. "Nice for him to say it, but I can't do that." But, actually, that's practical. If you love your enemy that means you want your enemy to be happy. If your enemy was really happy, why would they bother to be your enemy? How boring to run around chasing you. They would be relaxing somewhere having a good time. So it makes sense to want your enemy to be happy, because they'll stop being your enemy because that's too much trouble. But anyway, that's the "lovely love. " And then finally, the fifth step is compassion, "universal compassion." And that is where you then look at the reality of all the beings you can think of. And you look at them, and you see how they are. And you realize how unhappy they are actually, mostly, most of the time. You see that furrowed brow in people. And then you realize they don't even have compassion on themselves. They're driven by this duty and this obligation. "I have to get that. I need more. I'm not worthy. And I should do something." And they're rushing around all stressed out. And they think of it as somehow macho, hard discipline on themselves. But actually they are cruel to themselves. And, of course, they are cruel and ruthless toward others. And they, then, never get any positive feedback. And the more they succeed and the more power they have, the more unhappy they are. And this is where you feel real compassion for them. And you then feel you must act. And the choice of the action, of course, hopefully will be more practical than poor Asanga, who was fixing the maggots on the dog because he had that motivation, and whoever was in front of him, he wanted to help. But, of course, that is impractical. He should have founded the ASPCA in the town and gotten some scientific help for dogs and maggots. And I'm sure he did that later. (Laughter) But that just indicates the state of mind, you know. And so the next step — the sixth step beyond "universal compassion" — is this thing where you're linked with the needs of others in a true way, and you have compassion for yourself also, and it isn't sentimental only. You might be in fear of something. Some bad guy is making himself more and more unhappy being more and more mean to other people and getting punished in the future for it in various ways. And in Buddhism, they catch it in the future life. Of course in theistic religion they're punished by God or whatever. And materialism, they think they get out of it just by not existing, by dying, but they don't. And so they get reborn as whatever, you know. Never mind. I won't get into that. But the next step is called "universal responsibility." And that is very important — the Charter of Compassion must lead us to develop through true compassion, what is called "universal responsibility." In the great teaching of his Holiness the Dalai Lama that he always teaches everywhere, he says that that is the common religion of humanity: kindness. But "kindness" means "universal responsibility." And that means whatever happens to other beings is happening to us: we are responsible for that, and we should take it and do whatever we can at whatever little level and small level that we can do it. We absolutely must do that. There is no way not to do it. And then, finally, that leads to a new orientation in life where we live equally for ourselves and for others and we are joyful and happy. One thing we mustn't think is that compassion makes you miserable. Compassion makes you happy. The first person who is happy when you get great compassion is yourself, even if you haven't done anything yet for anybody else. Although, the change in your mind already does something for other beings: they can sense this new quality in yourself, and it helps them already, and gives them an example. And that uncompassionate clock has just showed me that it's all over. So, practice compassion, read the charter, disseminate it and develop it within yourself. Don't just think, "Well, I'm compassionate," or "I'm not compassionate," and sort of think you're stuck there. You can develop this. You can diminish the non-compassion, the cruelty, the callousness, the neglect of others, and take universal responsibility for them. And then, not only will God smile and the eternal mama will smile, but Karen Armstrong will smile. Thank you very much.
Thurman's focus is on the balance between inner insight and cultural harmony. In interpreting the teachings of Buddha, he argues that happiness can be reliable and satisfying in an enduring way without depriving others. He has translated many Meditation Sutras, or teachings, and written many books, recently taking on the topic of Anger for the recent Oxford series on the seven deadly sins. He maintains a podcast on Meditation topics. And yes, he is Uma's dad. Read More @ Source
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| Compassion meditation may boost neural basis of empathy Posted: 04 Oct 2012 05:00 PM PDT
"It's an intriguing result, suggesting that a behavioral intervention could enhance a key aspect of empathy," says lead author Jennifer Mascaro, a post-doctoral fellow in anthropology at Emory University. "Previous research has shown that both children and adults who are better at reading the emotional expressions of others have better relationships." The meditation protocol, known as Cognitively-Based Compassion Training, or CBCT, was developed at Emory by study co-author Lobsang Tenzin Negi, director of the Emory-Tibet Partnership. Although derived from ancient Tibetan Stress Reduction practices, the CBCT program is secular in content and presentation. The research team also included senior author Charles Raison, formerly a psychiatrist at Emory's School of Medicine and currently at the University of Arizona, and Emory anthropologist James Rilling. When most people think of meditation, they think of a style known as "mindfulness," in which practitioners seek to improve their ability to concentrate and to be non-judgmentally aware of their thoughts and feelings. While CBCT includes these mindfulness elements, the practice focuses more specifically on training people to analyze and reinterpret their relationships with others. Check out Good Medicine: How to Turn Pain Into Compassion with Tonglen Meditation, by Pema Chodron Study participants were healthy adults without prior meditation experience. Thirteen participants randomized to CBCT meditation completed regular weekly training sessions and at-home practice for eight weeks. Eight randomized control subjects did not meditate, but instead completed health discussion classes that covered mind-body subjects like the effects of exercise and stress on well-being. To test empathic accuracy before and following CBCT, all participants received fMRI brain scans while completing a modified version of the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET). The RMET consists of black-and-white photographs that show just the eye region of people making various expressions. Those being tested must judge what the person in the photograph is thinking or feeling. Eight out of the 13 participants in the CBCT meditation group improved their RMET scores by an average of 4.6 percent, while the control participants showed no increase, and in the majority of cases, a decrease in correct answers for the RMET. The meditators, in comparison to those in the control group, also had significant increases in neural activity in areas of the brain important for empathy, including the inferior frontal gyrus and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex. These changes in brain activity accounted for changes in the empathic accuracy scores of the participants. "These findings raise the intriguing possibility that CBCT may have enhanced empathic abilities by increasing activity in parts of the brain that are of central importance for our ability to recognize the emotional states of others," Raison says. "An important next step will be to evaluate the effects of CBCT on diverse populations that may particularly benefit from enhanced empathic accuracy, such as those suffering from high-functioning autism or severe depression." Findings from the current study add to a growing database indicating that the CBCT style of meditation may have physical and emotional effects relevant to health and well-being. For example, previous research at Emory found that practicing CBCT reduced emotional distress and enhanced physical resilience in response to stress in both healthy young adults and in high-risk adolescents in foster care. Read More @ Source
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| Newborn Genetic Test Catches Rare Diseases Earlier Posted: 04 Oct 2012 04:00 PM PDT
A new technology can diagnose rare genetic disorders in critically ill newborns within a few days, rather than the weeks that are needed with current methods, researchers say. The technology involves sequencing the infant's genome, and then using new software to hone in on the genes most likely to be disease culprits. In a new study, researchers identified the genetic cause of a newborn's illness in three out of four babies tested. The whole process takes about 50 hours, they said. The speed of the new test is what could make it useful for sick babies in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs), the researchers said. Currently, it can take weeks for doctors to diagnose a genetic disorder in an ill infant, and many babies die before their test results are available, said study researcher Stephen Kingsmore, director of the Center for Pediatric Genomic Medicine at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City. A faster diagnosis for genetic conditions would allow doctors to provide earlier treatments — if there are any — or to give parents an earlier warning, and potentially more time together with their child, if the condition is untreatable and fatal, the researchers say. Doctors already routinely screen newborns for a few genetic disorders that have effective treatments. But these tests look for single genes, rather than at the entire genome. There about 3,500 diseases known to be caused by mutations in a single gene, and 500 of these have some type of treatment available, Kingsmore said. "By obtaining an interpreted genome in about two days, physicians can make practical use of diagnostic results to tailor treatments to individual infants and children," Kingsmore said. However, critics point out that the diseases identified by new technology are rare, and extra genetic information is not always helpful. In fact, some are worried the genetic testing could deliver more information than researchers know what to do with. Diagnosing genetic diseases To begin a diagnosis with the new technology, the researchers take a drop of the baby's blood so that his or her genome can be sequenced. Next, a physician enters the patient's symptoms into a software program. The program scans the newborn's genome looking for genes that are likely to cause such symptoms. The program identifies only diseases that are caused by a single genetic mutation. The researchers tested their program on 500 cases of children who had already been diagnosed, and found it was more than 99 percent accurate in finding the correct gene mutation that was causing the patient's symptoms. The researchers also tested the technology on four NICU babies who had not yet been diagnosed with a condition. In one case, the researchers quickly identified a gene that causes epilepsy. Because the gene has been reported in only a few people in the world, "it would never have been on any physician's radar," said Carol Saunders, director of the molecular genetics laboratory at Children's Mercy. No treatments were available to help the child, and the condition was fatal. However, the parents can now undergo genetic testing to determine how likely it is they will have another child with the disease. In a second newborn, the researchers found a new gene they believe causes heterotaxy, a condition in which some of the internal organs are on the wrong side of the body. The testing is not always perfect. In the case of a newborn who died, the researchers were not able to identify the cause of death. They hope their testing will improve as they gather more information to add to the program. Criticism While the new technology gives physicians another diagnostic tool, current newborn screening tests reveal most of the cases in which children would benefit from early treatment, said Dr. Jennifer Kwon, an associate professor of neurology and pediatrics at the University of Rochester Medical Center. "I don't know that we're going to find as many cases where the rapid diagnoses lead to changes in management and treatment as the authors suggest." Kwon said. "In addition, some of these diseases are so rare that we still do not understand the effects of a particular mutation or combination of mutations. A certain mutation may be seen in a very sick child and the same mutation may be seen in a child who is doing relatively well," Kwon said. Kwon pointed to a genetic condition called Krabbe disease, for which all newborns born in New York are routinely screened. Although fatal in some, the disease can be treated with a bone marrow transplant. In the six years that the testing has been done, the state has seen five cases of children who would benefit from the bone marrow transplant, and 30 children who have the mutation and don't appear to be ill. Kwon said she does not know whether these children will become ill at some point, and cannot tell parents what to expect. The new technology could create a large-scale version of this anxious situation, Kwon said. The study is published today (Oct. 3) in the journal Science Translational Medicine. Pass it on: A new technology can quickly identify rare genetic diseases in critically ill newborns. Follow Rachael Rettner on Twitter @RachaelRettner, or MyHealthNewsDaily @MyHealth_MHND. We're also on Facebook & Google+. Read More @ Source 
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| Haier America Recalls 42-inch LED-TVs Posted: 04 Oct 2012 03:00 PM PDT
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with Haier America Trading L.L.C., of New York, N.Y., announced a voluntary recall of about 5,000 Haier® 42-inch LED TVs. Hazard: The TV stand's neck support can break and cause the TV to tip over, posing a risk of injury to the consumer. Incidents/Injuries: Haier America and CPSC have received 184 reports of the TV stand's neck cracking or breaking. No injuries have been reported. Description: This recall involves Haier 42-inch LED TVs with model number LE42B1380. "Haier" is printed on the front of the TV and the model number is printed on a label on the back of the unit.  Sold at: Fry's Electronics and other retail stores nationwide and online at Amazon.com and other online retailers from September 2011 through March 2012 for about $ 450. Manufactured in: China Remedy: Consumers should immediately stop using and detach the TV from the stand and keep both the TV and the base in a safe location. Consumers should contact Haier America to request a free replacement stand neck to be used with the original base. Consumers with a wall-mounted TV may continue to use it but should request a free replacement stand neck in case the TV is used with the stand in the future. Consumer Contact: For more information, contact Haier America toll-free at (877) 813-8516 between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. ET Monday through Friday, between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. ET Saturday and between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. ET Sundays. Consumers can visit the firm's website at www.haieramerica.com and click on Product Recalls. Read More @ Source 
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| Fitness Anywhere Recalls Early Model Suspension Trainer Devices Posted: 04 Oct 2012 02:00 PM PDT
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with Fitness Anywhere LLC, of San Francisco, Calif., announced a voluntary recall of about 40,000 Suspension Trainer Devices. Hazard: The strap length-adjustment buckles can break, posing a fall hazard. Incidents/Injuries: Fitness Anywhere has received 570 reports of the strap length-adjustment buckles breaking with 82 reports of the user falling, including 13 reports of head, face, shoulder and hip injuries. Description: This recall involves older model "Professional" (P1) and "Tactical" (T1) TRX Suspension Trainer devices manufactured between January 2006 and July 2007. The recalled products' anchor straps are yellow or khaki nylon with a carabiner at the top end and a black nylon loop on the bottom end. A black and yellow or black and khaki nylon strap is threaded through the black nylon loop on the anchor strap to form a "Y." On each side of the "Y," the strap has a cam buckle, which is used to adjust the length of the straps. Each end of the "Y" strap has a foam-covered hand grip and a foot cradle. The recalled devices have hand grips with no end bumpers, which are black plastic caps covering the ends and preventing the plastic under the foam from being exposed. They do not have an extra nylon loop, called a locking loop, attached at the point where the anchor strap and the "Y" straps are joined and designed to limit the slippage of the straps. The recalled products also have badges on the straps with the TRX logo and the word "Professional" (for P1 devices) or "Tactical" (for T1 devices) on them. The words and logo are surrounded by raised dots or have double lines through them.  Sold at: Health and fitness stores and studios nationwide and online at www.FitnessAnywhere.com from January 2006 through December 2009 for about $ 150 to $ 200.  Manufactured in: China Remedy: Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled product and contact Fitness Anywhere to arrange to return the recalled product for a replacement TRX Suspension Trainer device. Return authorization is required prior to returning the units. Consumer Contact: For additional information, contact Fitness Anywhere toll-free at (888)-221-7417 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. PT or CustomerCare@trxtraining.com, or visit the company's website at www.trxtraining.com. Read More @ Source 
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Raashid Riza, Sri Lanka Guardian: The last few months have seen a rapid increase in anti-Muslim sentiment amongst sections of the political class in Sri Lankan society. The situation has yet to deteriorate to the extent that the default image of a Sri Lankan Muslim is one represented by an anti- Sri Lankan or anti-Buddhist element. But the trend that is developing is truly alarming and surely points towards such an inaccurate mental image.
Rob Pattinson, Ormskirk Advertiser: A talented teenager has made it through to the regional finals of a national singing contest – with a little help from meditation.
Sometimes called the "happiest man in the world," Matthieu Ricard is a Zen Buddhism monk, author and photographer.
Tenzin Robert Thurman became a Tibetan monk at age 24. He's a professor of Indo-Tibetan Meditation studies at Columbia University, and co-founder of Tibet House US, a nonprofit dedicated to the preservation and promotion of Tibetan civilization.
A compassion-based meditation program can significantly improve a person's ability to read the facial expressions of others, finds a study published by Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience. This boost in empathic accuracy was detected through both behavioral testing of the study participants and through functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans of their brain activity.
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