The science behind how mindfulness meditation can heal the human mind.
Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD, is internationally known for his work as a scientist, writer, and meditation teacher engaged in bringing mindfulness into the mainstream of medicine and society. He is professor of medicine emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and author of numerous books, including Full Catastrophe Living, Arriving at Your Own Door, and Coming to Our Senses. Richard J. Davidson, PhD, is director of the Laboratory for Affective Neuroscience, the Waisman Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior, and the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He has coauthored or edited over thirteen books, including Visions of Compassion and The Handbook of Affective Science.
"The Mind's Own Physician brings you straight into the heart of a
remarkable interchange between His Holiness the Dalai Lama,
renowned contemplative teachers from Buddhist and Christian
traditions, and world leaders in neuroscience, psychiatry, stress
physiology, and clinical medicine. Jon Kabat-Zinn and Richard
Davidson guide the reader through an authentic chronicle of a
landmark meeting of extraordinary minds as it unfolds through a
series of crystalline presentations and probing dialogues about the
nature of mind, meditation, and brain function. These dialogues
provide the foundation for discussion on the biological effects of
chronic stress, treatment and relapse prevention in depression, and
the historical and evolutionary roots of Western medicine's
struggle to understand and care for the whole person. The highly
accessible and rich treatment of each of these areas is fascinating
to read. The constant presence of His Holiness the Dalai Lama's
deeply engaged attention, teaching, and critical ear reverberates
throughout. The participants' common commitment to fostering the
conditions necessary for human flourishing through intercultural
and interdisciplinary inquiry is truly inspiring. In capturing this
arc of information and intent, The Mind's Own Physician becomes an
essential treatment of one of the most hopeful directions in
thought alive today: the human capacity to ease our suffering
through introspective insight and our growing scientific
investigation into how this may occur."
--Clifford Saron, PhD, Associate Research Scientist, University of
California, Davis Center for Mind and Brain
"The Mind's Own Physician is a journey of understanding, in which
an integrative dialogue unfolds between the spiritual leaders of
contemplative meditation and scientists at the forefront of
mind-body medicine. This transformative conversation provides
valuable insight into how meditative practices can balance the mind
with effects on the body, as well as, potential benefits for human
health. This blending of contemplative traditions with Western
science opens a mindful awareness that has the empowering capacity
to fully engage people in their health, and more broadly, in the
well-being of our societies."
--Michael R. Irwin, MD, Cousins Professor of Psychiatry and
Biobehavioral Sciences, David Geffen School of Medicine, University
of California, Los Angeles
"The Mind's Own Physician offers us a precious portal into the
seminal conversations that gave birth to the nascent field of
contemplative neuroscience. The issues digested, debated, and
ignited in its pages will serve as a road map and inspiration for
my students and their students over the coming decades."
--Amishi P. Jha, PhD, contemplative neuroscientist, Associate
Professor of Psychology, University of Miami
"Can meditation improve your health? This question is just the
starting point for a series of innovative exchanges across
different ways of knowing among first-ranked clinicians,
scientists, Buddhist teachers, and the Dalai Lama. Thoughtful,
rigorous, and surprising by turns, this dialogue reminds all of us
who care about the effects of the mind on health just how much more
thinking remains to be done."
--Anne Harrington, PhD, Professor of the History of Science,
Harvard University, author of The Cure Within
"Our thoughts can seem too real, giving our imaginings about
tomorrow the power to create chronic stress and unhealthy changes
in our bodies. Our sense of self can seem too fixed, creating a
cage where our habitual worries can run in depressing circles. In
the moment that we recognize our thoughts as thoughts and our
habits as habits, new and liberating possibilities emerge for the
way we live our lives. Contemplative traditions such as Buddhism
have long seen the transformative power of that simple moment of
recognition, and more recently, clinicians in various domains have
discovered the potential that this contemplative insight offers for
the treatment of chronic stress, depression, and other especially
modern maladies. Yet the potential of interventions based on
contemplative approaches has only begun to emerge. The full
realization of that potential requires a careful, critical, and
honest dialogue among contemplatives and scientists so as to allow
research and clinical practices to develop effectively. This
remarkable book provides a fresh and clear record of such a
dialogue. Informative and highly accessible, The Mind's Own
Physician is a groundbreaking moment in the development of
contemplative science."
--John D. Dunne, Associate Professor of Religion, Emory
University
"A must-read for anyone interested in understanding how Buddhist
contemplative traditions and Western scientific traditions can work
together to uncover the complexities of the human mind. Mind and
Life has done it again: engaged a group of distinguished
contemplative scholars, clinicians, and scientists in a lively,
productive, and inspiring dialogue with His Holiness the Dalai Lama
that furthers our understanding of meditation and its potential to
heal."
--Jeanne Tsai, Associate Professor of Psychology, Stanford
University, Director, Stanford Culture and Emotion Laboratory
"If you want to see how to build bridges between the deepest wisdom
of the heart and the highest standards of contemporary
neuroscience, look no further. This series of meetings between His
Holiness the Dalai Lama and Western scientists and meditation
teachers will prove to be epoch-changing, and this book shows why.
Here, you will find interior and exterior empiricism in exquisite
dialogue. Drink it all in. The brilliance of the participants
shines through on every page."
--Mark Williams, PhD, Professor of Clinical Psychology, University
of Oxford, Director, Oxford Mindfulness Centre
"It is most befitting that this wonderful book, composed from Mind
and Life dialogues with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, would appear
after the tenth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 tragedy.
Accompanied by greatly increasing psychophysiological stress,
anxiety, and depression, the post-9/11 decade has yielded an
auspicious upsurge of rigorous scientific and clinical research on
mindfulness meditation and other systematic methods of mental
training that may help transcend the pain and suffering caused by
such harmful afflictions. The Mind's Own Physician highlights these
exciting advances through a series of insightful discussions
between His Holiness and a diverse group of stellar contemplative
scholars, scientists, and physicians who are leaders in the field
of integrative mind-body-brain medicine. Everyone who wishes to
cultivate a sound body and sane, healthy mind in these turbulent
times will welcome the publication of these inspiring
conversations."
--David E. Meyer, PhD, Clyde H. Coombs, and J. E. Keith Smith
Professor of Mathematical Psychology and Cognitive Science,
University of Michigan
"Jon Kabat-Zinn and Richard Davidson bring together an
internationally acclaimed cast of neuroscientists and scholars for
a stimulating dialogue with the Dalai Lama. They weave a rich
tapestry of information on how meditation can be useful for a wide
variety of conditions, ranging from depression and stress to
anxiety and psoriasis. In easy-to-understand, conversational style,
the experts lay out how the mind's powerful healing effects can be
harnessed in ways that are becoming increasingly illuminated by
scientific discoveries."
--Stuart J. Eisendrath, MD, Professor of Psychiatry, University of
California, San Francisco, Director of the UCSF Depression
Center
"This book marks a milestone in the emerging field of contemplative
sciences. Within its pages, you can relive a seminal 2005 Mind and
Life conference that brought together world-famous neuroscientists,
clinicians, and contemplative scholars in a dialogue with His
Holiness the Dalai Lama. This groundbreaking work explores the
development of scientifically based tools and programs aimed at
creating more balanced and healthy lives. How does stress evolve?
What does it do to our minds and bodies? How can we use ancient
mindfulness and meditative practices in our everyday, modern lives
and also in clinical settings to reduce stress and cultivate
healthier minds? This book is a must for everyone who is interested
in making this world a more human place."
--Tania Singer, PhD, Director, Department of Social Neuroscience,
Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences,
Leipzig, Germany
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