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The 8th Mind
& Life Conference
Dharamsala, India
March 20-24, 2000
An edited selection of
dialogues from this conference has been published as
"Destructive Emotions: A Scientific Dialogue With
the Dalai Lama" by Daniel Goleman.
The conference explores a perennial human predicament,
the nature and destructive potential of
"negative" emotions-when, for example, jealousy
turns into murderous rage. The Buddhist tradition has
long pointed out that recognizing and transforming
negative emotions lies at the heart of spiritual
practice. From the perspective of science, these same
emotional states pose a perplexing challenge: these are
brain responses that have shaped the human mind and
presumably played a key role in human survival-but now,
in modern life, they pose grave dangers to our individual
and collective fate. We will explore from multiple
perspectives possible leverage points for transforming
negative emotions and so ameliorating their destructive
threat. In examining the nature of emotions and when they
become 'destructive,' distinctive answers come from
Buddhist and from Western philosophy. From the
perspective of affective neuroscience and evolutionary
theory, the destructive emotions are seen within the
wider context of the full human range, such as maternal
love, pleasure seeking, and defense- functions that have
shaped the neural architecture that now forms the basis
of our emotional repertoire.
Recent scientific findings from areas as diverse as the
links between emotion and cognition, the brain basis of
addiction, and the neurophysiology of
distress-depression, fear and rage-offer new insights
into what Buddhism calls the "Three Poisons":
ignorance, craving and hatred, as well as into equanimity
and empathy, a traditional antidote to these destructive
emotions. Cross-cultural evidence suggests that the
socialization practices of different human groups shape
the response repertoire of the emotional centers. At the
individual level, developmental studies show how the
individual's emotional responses are molded by childhood
experiences. Given this evidence for emotional
neuroplasticity and the human potential for change, we
explore the extent to which the propensity for
destructive emotions might be ameliorated through various
means, including educational programs and Dharma
practice. And, in reflecting on the implications of the
evidence we have reviewed, we will conclude with an open
discussion of what avenues for research might prove most
fruitful. The challenge that destructive emotions pose to
the human future make this topic of compelling importance
not just from social, spiritual and scientific
perspectives, but also in terms of the basic
responsibility and compassion that His Holiness sees as
our common human bond.
Scientific Coordinator
Daniel Goleman, Ph.D., co-chair of the Consortium for
Research on Emotional Intelligence, in the Graduate
School of Applied and Professional Psychology at Rutgers
University
Participants
Tenzin Gyatso, His Holiness, the XIVth Dalai Lama of
Tibet
Richard J. Davidson, Ph.D., William James Professor and
Vilas Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the
University of Wisconsin at Madison, and Director of the
Laboratory for Affective Neuroscience at the University
of Wisconsin-Madison
Paul Ekman, Ph.D., Professor of Psychiatry and Director
of the Human Interaction Laboratory at the University of
California at San Francisco Medical School
Owen Flanagan, Ph.D., James B. Duke Professor of
Philosophy, Chair, Department of Philosophy, Faculty
Fellow in Cognitive Neuroscience, and Allied Professor of
Experimental Psychology at Duke University
Mark Greenberg, Ph.D., Bennett Chair in Prevention
Research; Professor of Human Development and Family
Studies; Director, Prevention Research Center at the
College of Health and Human Development, Pennsylvania
State University
Matthieu Ricard, Ph.D., Author and Buddhist monk at
Shechen Monastery in Kathmandu and French interpreter
since 1989 for His Holiness the Dalai Lama
Jeanne L. Tsai, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Psychology,
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis and St. Paul
Francisco J. Varela, Ph.D., Foundation de France
Professor of Cognitive Science and Epistemology at Ecole
Polytechnique, Director of Research at the Centre
Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in Paris,
and Head of the Neurodynamics Unit at LENA (Laboratory of
Cognitive Neurosciences and Brain Imaging) at the
Salpetrière Hospital, Paris
Interpreters
Geshe Thupten Jinpa, Ph.D., President and chief editor
for The Classics of Tibet Series produced by the
Institute of Tibetan Classics in Montreal, Canada
B. Alan Wallace, Ph.D., Visiting Lecturer, Department of
Religious Studies,
University of California, Santa Barbara
Program
March 20, 2000
Introduction:
Daniel Goleman, the scientific coordinator of the
meeting, will briefly introduce the week's framework and
objectives, with a general overview of the perspectives
to be brought to bear on destructive emotions. Alan
Wallace, the philosophical coordinator, will conduct the
day's session.
Presentation: What Do We Mean by 'Destructive' Emotions?
Owen Flanagan, Ph.D., Matthieu Ricard, Ph.D., and Thupten
Jinpa, Ph.D.
This philosophical dialogue between Western and Buddhist
perspectives examines when negative emotions become
'destructive'-that is, do harm. The discussion should
surface implicit cultural differences-and points of
agreements-in the most basic assumptions underlying our
exploration. The philosophical perspective will serve as
a counter-point to the scientific presentations
throughout the week. The discussion from the Western
perspective will touch on at least two traditions. First
there is Western moral philosophy, long concerned with
the destructive potential of emotions, as well as with
the betterment of these human traits. In the Christian
tradition of St. Augustine and St. Ignatius, for example,
this manifests as spiritual exercises for moral
improvement. In the later
secular tradition, ethicists have addressed the issue in
terms of ethical training based on rationality,
democracy, and education. The second Western
philosophical dimension deals with the biological
underpinnings of emotion, as studied by scientists in
fields such as psychology, neuroscience and ethology.
From these perspectives, emotions are complex, raising
issues that range from their chemical basis to their
social determinants. Recent work in philosophy has dealt
with issues such as the rationality of emotions, and the
emotionality of reasoning (in other words, seeing emotion
not as the coloring of thought, but an
inseparable unity with it). However, philosophers of mind
have dealt little with the issue at hand: the destructive
potential of emotions. The Buddhist treatment of emotions
is almost entirely phenomenological in nature, focusing
on first-hand experience rather than on the biological
underpinnings of emotions. The Buddhist term that
corresponds most closely to "destructive
emotion" is "Klesha," which is commonly
translated as "mental affliction." Kleshas are
not simply distressful
emotions, but are disturbances of the mind's equilibrium
that stem from ignorance. The fundamental mental
affliction is delusion, whereby one reifies one's own
personal identity as absolutely separate from others. The
emotions aroused on the basis of such reification are not
all afflictive, let alone destructive; some can be
positive. While Buddhist psychology includes a detailed
analysis of a wide range of primary and secondary mental
afflictions, they all stem from the "three
poisons" of delusion, craving, and hostility, which
are the source of all personal misery and interpersonal
conflict. The most obviously destructive of these three
mental impulses is hostility-but in their own way, so are
craving and delusion. Buddhism holds a remarkable
hypothesis: none of the afflictions are intrinsic to the
mind, but are obscurations that can be irreversibly
eliminated in lasting freedom, or Nirvana. Thus the
Buddhist view of destructive emotions is set within a
broader psychological and philosophical framework.
Discussion theme:
What are the significant differences in the Buddhist and
Western approach to emotions? Can they agree on when an
emotion like craving becomes "destructive," and
what the term itself means? Is there utility in negative,
even destructive, emotions-for example what might be the
positive functions of negative emotions? How do Buddhist
and Western thought differ in their approach for working
with emotions, particularly in methods for ameliorating
destructive emotions?
March 21, 2000
Presentation: The Evolution of Human Emotion
Paul Ekman, Ph.D.
In mapping the scientific landscape of emotions, we begin
with a fundamental definition of 'emotion' from the
viewpoint of contemporary psychology. There is a
consensus in affective science about the basic elements
and functions of emotion, though several issues remain.
Emotions differ from moods as well as from emotional
traits like timidity or hostility, and from emotional
disorders like phobia. Emotions have played a crucial
role in survival, defining our first response to crucial
life events and needs. The full range of human emotions
reflects the wide spectrum of the human repertoire,
ranging from sexual attraction and parental love,
playfulness, curiosity, and pleasure seeking to
vigilance, defense and attack. Our emotions can be
thought of as having evolved in part to solve specific
problems from our evolutionary past, such as facilitating
rapid problem solving and response in complex situations
where rational thinking alone would be excessively slow
and inefficient: Emotions like fear and anger can be seen
as the brain's way of making us pay urgent attention, and
priming the body with a biological readiness for action.
Emotions are largely hard-wired, with separate neural
circuits or modules, giving each major emotion a unique
biological signature, with distinctive patterns of
autonomic discharge, and specific effects on cognition,
physiology, facial expression and social cues. An
evolutionary perspective also suggests there will be
large individual differences-partly due to genetically
based variations-in every facet of emotion. These include
the speed and strength of an emotional response, the
ability to control a response or time to recover from it,
and-a key theme for this meeting-the malleability of
emotions. We would not survive without emotions, and yet
they sometimes propel us to act in destructive ways. An
exploration of destructive emotions can usefully focus on
different components: the mental appraisals that call
them forth, the speed and strength of the response, the
failure to regulate. From an evolutionary perspective, we
respond emotionally not just in terms of what is relevant
to us today, but what was adaptive for our ancestors; the
power of emotions in mental life, and the ease with which
we give in to destructive
urges, is due in part to this legacy of our evolutionary
past.
Discussion theme:
Are there significant differences between Buddhist theory
and contemporary psychology in the basic definition of
'emotion'? Does Buddhism, like evolutionary theory,
recognize a positive function for what psychology thinks
of as "negative" emotions? Does our propensity
for falling sway to negative emotions follow from these
positive functions? Is there an optimal emotional balance
for mental and spiritual health? One issue for discussion
is the relation between emotion and awareness, and the
difference between experiencing emotions--being able to
observe the arising and passing of emotions versus being
"hijacked" by emotions.
March 22, 2000
Presentation: The Psychobiology of Destructive Emotions
Richard Davidson, Ph.D.
Emotions become destructive when normal neural systems
for essential behavior go to extremes, compelling us to
react in inappropriate, harmful ways. To understand why
this happens so easily in modern life, we examine first
the impact that the role of emotions as a survival
mechanism in evolution has had on our neural
architecture. The emotional centers developed early in
evolution-our thinking brain, the neocortex, literally
grew from the emotional centers; our thoughts and
emotions are as intimately intertwined as the latticework
of circuitry that regulates them. The design of brain
integrates multiple networks from various regions that
can play different roles at different moments. Some of
these networks allow the emotional centers to override
rationality in moments of perceived emergency, recruiting
areas of the neocortex in what seems an emotional
"hijack." With this perspective from affective
neuroscience as background, we can explore the classical
Buddhist model of the "Three
Poisons"-aggression, craving, and delusion-in terms
of the neural processes at work in fear and anger; in
ordinary pleasure and addiction; and in the role of
emotional bias in cognition. The brain mechanisms by
which negative emotions are regulated-amplified and
attenuated-help to distinguish normal expression of these
emotions from their destructive extremes. The trigger for
turning them on involves circuits running from cortical
sensory and perceptual processing zones to subcortical
limbic structures including the amygdala. Anatomical data
suggest that direct pathways exist between sensory
regions of the thalamus and the amygdala, permitting the
activation and learning of emotional responses in the
relative absence of awareness. A circuit that includes
inhibitory pathways from regions of the prefrontal cortex
to the amygdala provides a mechanism by which activation
of the amygdala, and negative affect, might be regulated.
When this process fails, emotions may spiral
out-of-control, becoming destructive. Circuits converging
on the hippocampus determine whether an emotional
reaction is appropriate; the over-generalized fearfulness
in post-traumatic stress disorder likely emerges from
trauma-induced abnormalities in the hippocampus and
amygdala. Craving appears to arise from the
pleasure-inducing dopamine system, which spurs us toward
our goals in life and makes us feel satisfied when we
attain them. But the repeated over-activation of this
system in addictions produces structural
alterations, which decreases the normal capacity to
activate pleasure. This in turn fuels addictive behavior
as people seek to re-experience the pleasure. Finally,
emotions can bias cognition through the neural
architecture connecting structures that generate the
emotions to those brain systems involved in perception
and attention. We can identify the neural mechanisms by
which sustained emotional habits (e.g. the
hyper-vigilance to threat common after trauma) result in
an enduring sensory and perceptual bias, and thus to
"delusion".
Discussion theme:
From the Buddhist perspective, and given the neurological
insights, we revisit the question of the boundary between
the utility of negative emotions and their destructive
nature. Are certain negative emotions-specifically
anger-always destructive? When might negative emotions
such as fear and sadness be useful? Is awareness a factor
that can transform negative emotion that is potentially
destructive into one that is potentially instructive, or
even utilitarian? What can Buddhism teach the science of
emotion about using awareness as a fulcrum to
keep from falling sway to destructive emotions, and as a
tool for exploring the richness of information conveyed
by emotions? How can we best distinguish between the
necessary features of positive affect such as the social
attachment between a parent and child from the
pathological varieties of attachment seen in craving?
Finally, on the positive side, are there biases in
perception associated with happiness?
March 23, 2000
Presentation: Cultural and Developmental Neuroplasticity
Jeanne Tsai, Ph.D., and Mark Greenberg, Ph.D.
The neural circuitry that governs emotional life is among
the last part of the brain to become anatomically mature,
and repeated experiences are among the stronger forces
that sculpt the developing brain-as evidence from in
cross-cultural and child development studies shows.
Culture gets under the skin: socialization into a given
culture is an active agent in emotional neuroplasticity,
resulting in systematic differences in patterns of
autonomic reactivity, subjective experience of emotion,
and emotional expressivity from culture to culture. For
instance, a cultural prohibition against extreme
emotional expression may alter conceptions of emotion,
the occurrence of specific types of emotion, their
underlying neural circuitry, and their intrapersonal and
interpersonal functions. The case in point comes from
comparative studies done with Chinese and American
subjects within and outside the United States. Similarly,
the unique developmental events of a given child's life
have a major role in shaping emotional circuitry. Much of
the data here focuses on prefrontal-limbic circuitry that
regulates emotional awareness, regulation, and
reactivity. Trauma or neglect can lead to sub-clinical
prefrontal deficits that manifest as poor impulse or
anger control. More generally, how a child learns-or
fails to learn-basic skills like emotional
self-regulation or empathy has a lasting influence on the
neural circuitry that underlie these abilities. Childhood
represents a singular window of opportunity for
intervening positively in the behavioral and neural
repertoire that can counter the destructive emotions.
Curricula on social and emotional learning can help
children master lifelong abilities like self-awareness,
anger management, impulse control and empathy-roots of
individual responsibility and compassion. Data from
studies of such educational programs suggests the active
ingredients in effective emotional learning, and what the
practical benefits are for a child's development.
Discussion theme:
Given the plasticity of the developing brain, how do we
teach children to master their negative emotions-for
example, to learn from them but not get hijacked by them.
What would a curriculum in emotional instruction entail?
From a cultural perspective, what factors play a role in
the apparent positive emotional predisposition of people
raised in traditional Tibetan culture? What factors in
the socialization and training of Tibetan Buddhist monks
or Dharma practice seem to enhance such a positive
disposition?
March 24, 2000
Presentation: Neuroplasticity and a Possible Agenda for
an Experiential
Neuroscience
Francisco J. Varela, Ph.D., and Richard Davidson, Ph.D.
This meeting underscores the plasticity in brain and
mental function that exists throughout life, and the
potential role of practices designed for change in
actually producing beneficial changes. As a case in
point, studies on how negative emotions operate at the
level of brain function offer an opportunity to develop
an entirely new understanding of equanimity as a classic
antidote to this range of emotions. Further, a
neural-experiential complementary framework can be
developed to actively guide new research, using modern
brain methods (such as neuroimaging) to provide an
independent window on the trait changes induced by
refined ongoing learning, embodied in practices such as
quiescence (shamatha). However the topic of
neuroplasticity introduces a number of delicate issues
around this new kind of research that mixes, on equal
footing, data from third person or scientific
perspective, and on first person or experiential access.
On the one hand, there is little idea yet how to validate
collectively data coming from first-person access. On the
other hand, the mere identification of neural correlates
of consciousness is only in its beginnings, and it
typically leaves untouched how experiential, first person
methods can play a role. We will outline a three-pronged
program of research. The first element will consist of a
detailed and thorough examination of the conceptual and
methodological conundrums encountered in the study of
self-report and an outline of a program of research to
examine the possible impact of dharma practice on
accuracy and biases in self-reports of subjective
experience. The second element concerns the boundary
between automatic and controlled processing and the
extent to which this boundary is subject to plastic
changes induced by meditation and other similar forms of
training. Again, a series of experiments will be proposed
to examine these questions. Finally, the third element
consists of examining the neurobiological correlates and
substrates of these processes.
Discussion theme:
We will review proposals made earlier for a major
research agenda and will seek the counsel and
collaboration of His Holiness and his Tibetan colleagues
regarding these proposals. We shall outline concrete
steps where the agenda for an experiential neuroscience
is put into action in collaborative research programs
between neuroscience laboratories and trained observers
of their experience. More particularly, what might a more
detailed research program on the neurological impact of
Dharma practice reveal, and what would such a project
entail? How can we best deploy research techniques,
unavailable even five years ago, that can now be brought
to bear on the understanding of neural changes that are
produced by Dharma practice as an essential first-person
capacity? Our goal is to have an agreed upon general
strategy for research on this topic by the end of the
day.
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