Within a randomized, waitlist-controlled study of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) among rheumatoid arthritis patients, we evaluated treatment effect on immune parameters c-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin(IL)-6, IL-10 and transforming growth factor-beta-1 (TGF), the relation between depressive symptoms and well-being and immune parameters, and relation to meditation practice. 63 patients were randomized to 8-week MBSR or control. …
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Mindfulness meditation for reduction of smoking craving: An fMRI investigation
For quitting smokers, there are myriad threats to abstinence. Mindfulness may either diminish perceived craving or increase tolerance of craving. Each of these scenarios may be reflected in the activation of different neural systems (the former by decreased activation of areas in the mesolimbic reward system associated with craving, and the latter by increased activation …
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Mindfulness Media Hype
During the past two decades, mindfulness meditation has gone from being a fringe topic of scientific investigation to being an occasional replacement for psychotherapy, tool of corporate well-being, widely implemented educational practice, and “key to building more resilient soldiers.” Yet the mindfulness movement and empirical evidence supporting it have not gone without criticism. Misinformation and …
Evaluation and Implementation: Challenges and Opportunities for Human Flourishing
Day Five brings the Dialogue to its crescendo with a discussion about implementation and evaluation of learning in the classroom. The session begins with a presentation on the biological stress response in brains that produce stress hormones that influence memory and emotion regulation. Studies are cited to demonstrate how perceiving a situation to be threatening …
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Ethics and Compassion in Education Research
The program continues with the scientific research on education and discussion of the psychology of ethical development, including moral reasoning, compassion, moral motivation, and issues of community and culture. Moving from these theories, there will be examples of how they can be translated into educational experiences. Widening the frame, Buddhist understandings of compassion are presented …
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Meta-Awareness and Attention Training in Education Research
On Day Three, having discussed topics relevant to education practitioners, the Dialogue brings recent scientific findings into conversation with Buddhist understandings of the mind. The first presentation in this session surveys the current scientific research on meta-awareness and attention. References are made to the influence of mindfulness and compassion training in a broad range of …
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Meditation in Japanese Context
Mindfulness meditation has been in the limelight recently in Japan. Zen meditation has had a long tradition in Japan and its spirit has greatly influenced arts—“道, or dou—such as tea ceremony, flower arrangement, and the martial arts. There are times when its fragrance is felt in our daily lives. Even so, up to now, ordinary …
Healing Through Gratitude: Buddhist Theories of Mind and Self-Transformation in the Japanese Contemplative Practice of Naikan
Naikan is a Japanese contemplative practice that was derived and secularized from a Buddhist self-cultivation method. Naikan means “inner-looking” or “introspection.” The practice focuses on recalling the kindness that one has received from others, what one has given in return, and the trouble one has caused others. Unlike some other approaches, such as mainstream psychotherapies, …
Old Insights for A Hectic World: What Does Hakuin Teach Us Today?
This talk explores a well-known writing in the area of meditation in the Japanese Zen tradition entitled Yasenkanna (夜船閑話, or Idle Talk on a Night Boat), one of Hakuin’s autobiographies, written in 1757 by the Zen Master Hakuin Ekaku (1686–1769), a seminal figure who occupies a prominent place in the history of Japanese religion today. …
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Observation of the Mind in Buddhism and Mindfulness
The process of observing the mind in Buddhism is called samatha and vipassanā, and involves placing attention on a certain object (or objects) with awareness. Important facets of this type of observation, also called mindfulness, are noticing objects without using language, and accepting them as they are. According to Buddhism, suffering emerges from a state …
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