Happiness: Eastern Spirituality Meets Western Science

For centuries, the human mind has mystified scientists and psychologists. Scientists often study the effects of negative emotions such as depression, anxiety and fear. The results of these studies often lead to a new prescription medication that promises to take your worries and pains away. Instead of finding the source of our pain we suppress the symptoms, bury the pain deep inside, and go about our day completely numb to what is really going on. Don’t get me wrong, studying mental health is no easy task, and I appreciate all of the hard work and dedication made by scientists to explore the subject further. However, I am still left with one question, “Why isn’t there more emphasis on the study of positive human emotions like happiness and compassion?”


Last Sunday, the university officially opened the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds with the Dalai Lama in attendance. The brand new mental health facility will house more than a dozen researchers who will study the science behind positive qualities of the mind. Inspired by the Dalai Lama’s commitment to build connections between Buddhism and western science, the center will be the first in the world with a meditation room next to a brain-imaging laboratory.

Located within the Waisman Center at the university, the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds is at the forefront of developing contemplative neuroscience; a hybrid discipline that studies how meditation and other contemplative activities affect the brain and nervous system. The goal of the center is to identify the most effective contemplative practices and pave the way towards making them more widely accepted at the individual, community and global levels.

Davidson is no stranger to studying enlightened minds. His previous research has included using brain-imaging technology on Buddhists monks and veteran meditation practitioners to learn how their disciplines affect mental health. So far, the results of his team’s findings show that meditation and other contemplative practices improve an individual’s capacity for compassion, empathy, kindness and attention. In addition, the results show that even adult brains can adapt and change through experience and learning.

As I previously wrote in a recent article titled Science vs. Religion: Is There Room For Both?, science and spirituality can do more than simply coexist. Neither science nor spirituality has all of the answers. Rather, they are both one piece of the puzzle. If the science world and the spiritual world agree that they are both after the same goal, anything is possible. We have so much to learn from each other, the only question left is, “Are we ready to listen?”

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