Neuroscience and Psychology of Meditation in Everyday Life

by Dusana Dorjee

  What is compassion? A Western scientific perspective

  In the Western psychological context, compassion arises as a response to empathy, which is the capacity to share other people’s feelings (Singer and Klimecki, 2014). Empathy is based on our ability to take on other people’s perspectives and resonate with how they feel. Based on one scientific theory, we can respond to this initial sharing of thoughts and emotions in two ways – either by empathic distress or by compassion. Empathic distress is a negative aversive response to empathic sharing; it is a response characterized by more self-focus, stress and a wish to withdraw as a result of negative experience arising from empathic sharing. In contrast, compassion is a response to empathic sharing which has a stronger focus on the other rather than the self and is associated with positive emotions such as sympathetic concern. Compassion is an approach-oriented response linked to pro-social behaviour and willingness to help.

  The pro-social aspect of compassion was investigated in a study that examined the impact of compassion training on the willingness to help. This was assessed in a computer game which measured the rates of helping and the results showed an increase in responses of help after the compassion training in comparison to memory training (Leiberg, Klimecki and Singer, 2011). Importantly, the researchers dissociated effects of helping behaviour motivated by abiding to social norms from genuine altruistic helping behaviour by introducing non-reciprocity trials in the study (no reward for helping). They found that the more time participants spent in compassion training, the higher the rates of genuinely altruistic (non-reciprocal) helping they showed. This suggests that long-term compassion training may particularly encourage development of unconditional helping behaviour.

  The role of compassion in supporting the development of positive emotions in response to witnessing difficulty has also been investigated in more detail. In a study which evaluated the impact of compassion training on perceptions of others’ distress (Klimecki et al., 2012), participants were asked to watch videos which showed other people in distress. Before compassion training these videos induced negative emotions in participants. However, after compassion training, the experience of negative emotions significantly reduced and participants reported more positive emotions. This could be attributed to the approach, rather than withdrawal, orientation towards others’ distress which is associated with compassion.

  The shift towards positive emotions and approach-oriented behaviour suggests that compassion could be considered an adaptive emotion regulation strategy – a way of managing our emotions which is conducive to our well-being. Previous research showed that reappraisal could be considered the primary adaptive emotion regulation strategy; reappraisal involves a change in thinking about a distressing experience. For example, somebody who loses a job may initially perceive this in a negative way, but after a while start considering the situation as an opportunity to set up their own exciting business. Reappraisal describes this shift in thinking, which has been shown to reduce stress and has a positive impact on health. Both compassion and reappraisal could be considered adaptive emotion regulation strategies, but it is not clear whether the mechanisms by which they produce beneficial effects are similar or quite different.

  One study investigated the mechanisms of compassion and reappraisal by directly comparing the impact of these two strategies on ratings of positive and negative emotions in experienced Tibetan Buddhist meditators (in the Nyigma school, which emphasizes compassion training) who viewed distressing videos of others (Engen and Singer, 2015). The meditators were asked to modulate their emotions either by compassion or by reappraisal while viewing the videos. The findings revealed differential mechanisms of compassion and reappraisal: based on participants’ ratings compassion resulted in an increase of positive emotions while reappraisal led to a decrease in negative emotions. The added benefit of compassionate emotion regulation which is linked to approach-oriented behaviour may suggest that it can be a particularly useful strategy in helping professions. However, the findings of this study need to be interpreted with caution given that the participants were very experienced meditators with extensive training in compassion meditation and this may have impacted on their readiness to use compassion in regulating their emotions.

  Similar findings of increases in positive mood have also been found after secular loving kindness training (Hofmann, Grossman and Hinton, 2011). For example, one study employed a brief loving kindness practice (7 minutes long) and investigated whether this short meditation could have impact on a sense of connection and positivity towards strangers (Hutcherson, Seppala and Gross, 2008). The brief loving kindness practice involved participants connecting with the love of loved ones and then sending love and compassion to strangers. Participants evaluated how connected and positive they felt towards people depicted in pictures they were viewing. The findings indicated increases in ratings of connectedness and positivity towards strangers after the brief loving kindness practice. Some participants in the study had meditation experience, but not extensive, and findings showed the same pattern when meditators practicing loving kindness and compassion were excluded.

  Another study on loving kindness investigated the impact of more extensive secular loving kindness training on positive emotions, personal resources and life satisfaction (Fredrickson et al., 2008). The loving kindness programme consisted of six 1-hour-long sessions delivered over seven weeks. In addition, participants were asked to practice guided loving kindness meditations at home for 10–30 minutes at least five times a week. The findings indicated improvements in positive emotions after the loving kindness programme as well as increases in self-reported purpose in life and mindfulness and a decrease in illness symptoms (together considered as personal resources). Interestingly, amongst the outcomes was also a reduction in anger after the programme. These changes in personal resources were predictive of life satisfaction and reductions in depression symptoms in participants. This study particularly highlighted how loving kindness practice could be one of the approaches to increase non-hedonic (not short-term pleasure-based) positive emotions which are associated with better well-being outcomes. Cumulatively, a recent meta-analytic review of findings from this and other studies suggested that loving kindness meditation seems to have moderate impact on reduction in depression symptoms, increases in mindfulness and in compassion (Galante et al., 2014). The review highlighted both the potential for loving kindness meditation in mental health treatment and the need for better designed studies.

  In the Western therapeutic context, the orienting approach and positive affect qualities of compassion and loving kindness are applied as part of compassion-focused therapy and self-compassion therapy. Compassion-focused therapy (CFT; Gilbert, 2009) highlights the importance of compassion in supporting clients with high levels of self-criticism and shame which are often associated with early sensitization to experiences of threat. CFT builds on Buddhist psychology, attachment theory and Western neuroscientific understanding of affective systems. With regard to neurobiology, CFT particularly emphasizes the need for balance between the threat-focused system, resource-seeking system and soothing/safeness system. Imbalance between the three systems in favour of the threat-focused and resource-seeking system combined with early experiences sensitizing these systems can lead to psychopathology. In addition, the theory of CFT suggests that Western society in general encourages over-stimulation of the resource-seeking and threat-focused systems. The goal of compassion practices is to stimulate the soothing/safeness system associated with feelings of contentment and kindness, which can support more adaptive affective functioning.

  In CFT, compassion is defined as a set of attributes and skills. The compassion attributes include a caring attitude towards lessening distress, sensitivity to distress, being emotionally moved by distress, being able to tolerate and stay with (rather than avoid) distressing experiences, being able to understand others’ point of view or own feelings and thoughts and non-judgment. The compassion skills in
clude compassionate attention (to positive qualities in others and oneself), compassionate reasoning (thinking which is kind and supportive), compassionate behaviour (exposure to frightening thoughts and feelings with kindness and in a gentle way), compassionate imagery (of ideal compassion, compassionate self), compassionate feeling and compassionate sensations (in the body). In CFT the therapist works with the client using practices to cultivate the compassionate attributes and skills in order to activate the safeness/soothing system and rebalance the over-activated threat-focus and resource-seeking systems. In this way, the primary focus of compassion in CFT is on compassion towards the self and the focus isn’t on pro-social behaviour as in the conceptions of compassion discussed above (Singer and Klimecki, 2014).

  Another approach to therapeutic applications of compassion focuses on the construct of self-compassion, which consists of the three facets of self-kindness, common humanity and mindfulness (Neff, 2003). Self-kindness is the opposite of harsh criticism and means being understanding and kind to ourselves when faced with difficulty. Common humanity refers to the perception of our experience as part of the human condition, just like others’, rather than from an isolationist perspective. Finally, mindfulness describes the ability to hold and stay with painful experiences without over identifying with them. As the term ‘self-compassion’ suggests, the focus of this construct is on developing compassion towards oneself which differs from some Western conceptions of compassion (Singer and Klimecki, 2014) and from the Buddhist understanding of compassion. However, the facet of common humanity has an element of connectedness with others and recognition of the shared nature of human suffering. The third facet of self-compassion, mindfulness, seems to be closer in its meaning to the construct of decentring as the ability to step back from our experience and perceive it in a less self-focused way.

  There seem to be several points of difference between the Western and Buddhist conceptions of compassion, even though each of the Western accounts builds on Buddhist psychology. The first point of departure is the scope of compassion – whilst in the Buddhist context compassion has broad focus on all sentient beings, in the Western context the focus of compassion is more immediate and concrete, on the suffering we are experiencing or those around us are experiencing. There also seems to be a difference with regard to the recognition of different degrees of compassion – the Buddhist tradition recognizes a basic focus on the obvious forms of suffering, as well as a deeper focus on the roots of suffering and the deepest unconditional continuous compassion as a non-conceptual stance towards all sentient beings. In contrast, the Western conceptions focus on the basic forms of suffering without the more encompassing focus beyond the observable. Finally, compassion in the Buddhist tradition is cultivated as part of the progression on the spiritual path towards freedom from suffering, and accordingly, compassion practice closely connects to motivation/intention for the practice and more advanced insight practices investigating the nature of self, mind and reality. Compassion in the Western context has been conceptualized in a narrower sense without a clear connection to existential well-being.

  Developing compassion and related qualities in the Buddhist context

  In the Buddhist context, there are many different forms of practices which cultivate compassion and related qualities. Here we will focus on the three most common approaches to developing and working with compassion. The first approach we will discuss involves the foundational training in the four immeasurables which is a sequence of practices starting with loving kindness, progressing into compassion and then rejoicing and equanimity (Wallace, 1999). Then we will discuss two other meditation practices which build on the core training in the four immeasurables. These are, for example, practices which work with the four immeasurables as antidotes to common afflictive emotions such as anger or attachment, and the practice of Tonglen, which is often also called the practice of giving and taking.

  Training in the four immeasurables typically starts with the practice of loving kindness in which the meditator gradually develops a vision of genuine happiness for oneself, others and then all sentient beings. The vision of genuine happiness is grounded in the Buddhist understanding of happiness as explained earlier in this chapter. The actual practice may start with a contemplation on what we could consider to be genuine happiness for ourselves: we could imagine what it would feel like to achieve the state of complete existential balance. Alternatively, the meditation on loving kindness can start by considering happiness for others; for some people this might be easier since many of us, particularly in the Western cultures, get caught up in a cycle of self-criticism which may make it more difficult to start the practice of loving kindness with ourselves. Whether the development of loving kindness towards others is the first or the second step in our practice, it will involve contemplation on the genuine happiness of those who are close to us, our family and friends. We can simply think of them, bring them to our mind, and develop a strong wish for genuine happiness for them. We connect fully with this feeling and extend it to all those who are close to us.

  In the next step of the loving kindness practice we expand the scope of our contemplation to those people who are neutral to us, those whom we don’t have a close relationship with, whom we don’t like or dislike. We can think of strangers in a supermarket or people we see while walking down the street whom we don’t have any particular connection to. In this step of the meditation we try to extend the feeling of loving kindness to them as well, wishing them to reach a state of genuine happiness. We can then explore the differences in the quality of loving kindness we develop to those who are close to us and those we do not know and consider what the source of the differences is. We may find the quality of loving kindness is very similar or the same in both cases. The differences might be associated with the extra affection and attachment we have towards those who are close to us. However, this affection and attachment has a different quality from genuine loving kindness.

  The following step in the loving kindness practice can be particularly challenging because it involves development of loving kindness towards those who are doing us and others harm. This may at first seem illogical, but again, coming back to the understanding of loving kindness as a wish to achieve a state of freedom from afflictions, the attitude of loving kindness towards people who are engaging in harmful behaviour will become more obvious. It means that by wishing loving kindness to them we wish their minds to be free from the afflictions from which their harmful behaviour arose. If their mind is free from afflictions, they will no longer harm others.

  In the last step of the practice we further expand the wish for genuine happiness to all beings in their all forms, depending on our beliefs. With practice, we can at this stage generate a state where we feel unconditional loving kindness in the broadest sense without having to think specifically of different life forms of beings. We can rest in that state which has elements of joy and happiness, but also even-mindedness and contentment. If we become ungrounded in our practice, and instead of genuine happiness slip into a frivolous state without clarity or balance, compassion practice can help us find grounding again and refocus our practice on the fundamental qualities of lasting happiness.

  Practices of loving kindness and compassion are sometimes described as two sides of the same coin. While loving kindness focuses on the vision, on the wish for genuine happiness, compassion focuses on the reality of suffering and the wish for freedom from suffering. In the practice of compassion we can progress in the same way as in the practice of loving kindness. We first develop compassion for ourselves or for those who are close to us, whichever is the easier step for us to start with. We zoom in onto the different forms of suffering we and others experience, from physical suffering through emotional suffering and mental suffering. We can also try to look deeper at the sources of these different forms of suffering and contemplate their roots. While connecting with the suffering, we also develop the courage, hope and sincere wish to help in whatever way we
can to reduce this suffering. In this way we don’t slip into sadness and grief when seeing the suffering, but transform it into positive qualities and a wish for change.

  In the next steps of the meditation we develop compassion for those who are neutral to us and then to those who are doing or have done harm to us or others. Similarly to the practice of loving kindness, we work on the principle that they are suffering when engaging in afflictive states and they are also creating sources of their further suffering. This reasoning leads to development of compassion for them. In the following step of the meditation we try to extend the compassion to other beings, in their different forms. We can think of the suffering of animals, for example, and cultivate compassion towards them. Finally, often with further practice we try to expand the perspective of our compassion to all beings in all their forms and abide in a non-conceptual state of compassion. The aim of long-term practice of compassion is for this state to become the undertone of all our activity, in and outside of meditation.

  The practice of compassion is followed by meditations on rejoicing. In the practice of rejoicing we bring to our mind wholesome activities we have done and also wholesome activities of others. While recalling these events, the feelings of loving kindness and compassion which were inherent to these wholesome events arise in our mind in the moment of remembering and fill us with sympathetic joy. This practice is particularly helpful in countering feelings of sadness which can arise if we overemphasize the exposure to suffering and don’t engage enough in the stages of compassion associated with hope and other positive emotions. The practice of rejoicing can also support long-term practitioners in avoiding slipping into dullness in their practice which can happen with repetition of the same meditation routine and result in stagnation of progression on the path. Rejoicing can bring clarity and freshness to the practice, and also remind the meditator of the intentions and broader view of the path.