The Mind's Own Physician: A Scientific Dialogue with the Dalai Lama on the Healing Power of Meditation by Jon Kabat-Zinn

The Mind's Own Physician: A Scientific Dialogue with the Dalai Lama on the Healing Power of Meditation Reviews

• 
  RandomAnthony

  The Mind's Own Physician is a fascinating book. The text is an edited collection of transcripts from a conference where the Dalai Lama listened and responded to various presentations (from what I can tell) on the intersection between meditation/mindfulness and empirical brain research. Moderated dialogue and questions from the audience followed each presentation. I'm not a neurologist (they're the ones who study the brain, right?) but I could follow along with the science pretty well and comprehend most of the conversations' implications (I hope). The dialogue appeared to focus mostly on how meditation and meditation-like activity impact the brain and, by extension, physical health and well-being. For example, a presenter might discuss the findings of a study on how meditation succeeded or failed to succeed in treating chronically depressed patients. Then the Dalai Lama would respond with his perspective of how the Buddhist tradition might frame these implications.
  
  This book is more interesting than I'm describing. A few of the scientists are downright giddy with meditation's potential health impact, but they're academics, so they're careful to temper their assertions with reasonable concerns about methodology. The text and conference seem to embody rarefied air; I don't think a reader could ever lose the sense that the conference speakers are a slew of rich white people fawning over the Dalai Lama, and some of the conversations about the definition of happiness, while well-intentioned, are tainted a bit as I picture these broad, theoretical dialogues taking place in a comfortable auditorium amongst pampered professors. Still, I think the participants mean well, and they seem way into what they're doing. I learned a lot about the brain and strengthened my very inconsistent meditation practice while reading The Mind's Own Physician. I imagine nearly all academic conferences would make awful books, but The Mind's Own Physician is an exception, and whoever chose to transform the conference into a book made a wise decision.
• 
  Carol

  'The Mind's Own Physician' is a dialogue in five sessions between the Dalai Lama and a set of physicians and researchers before an audience at the Mind and Life Institute. If you would like more information about the past or future sessions, here is the web address:
  
  http://www.mindandlife.org/
  
  The dialogue in this book was aimed at finding meditation and mindfulness practices that could be incorporated in medicine. There are very many ways to meditate as HH Dalai Lama states. He didn’t have an educational background in medicine, biology so he needed more information about the terms or how things worked, he asked questions. He was asked to and gave a summary of the principle themes in Buddhism. That also helped to make sure that no one was getting lost when he was using terms common in Buddhism.
  
  Since I don’t want to give too much away in the findings explored and the commonalities of Buddhist thought and modern neurobiology, I will just mention a little of what was discussed in Session One.
  
  Pain was discussed. HH Dalai Lama explained there are two parts to pain (1) the pain itself and (2) the arrows around it or the feelings around it. We ask ourselves, will this ever end? It is killing me; will it ever get any better? Buddhist meditation can do nothing about the pain but it can change the added pain of thoughts about the pain. And that can help people feel better. That part of the burden can be lifted and the person with pain can feel freer.
  
  A research study on psoriasis was given as an example of using mediation as a healing tool. Both the control group and the experimental group were given UVB or PUBA light treatments. But only the experimental group also listened to meditation tapes. But as illustrated in this book, the graphs showed that the group who listened to the tapes healed faster than those who just received the light treatment.
  
  This book does still have a lot of religious and medical terminology that you need to learn in order to understand the concepts so it is not a book that you can read quickly. I recommend reading about one session and then letting the book sit for a while. That way, you can come up with your own questions and perhaps explore something in more detail that was brought up in a chapter.
  
  I recommend this book to everyone interested in learning about the benefits and limitations of meditation to medical problems.
  
  I received this book from the GoodReads program but that in no way influenced my review.
  
  
  
• 
  Matthew

  Sadly, not much of a dialogue. More like people talking at each other. The scientists and clinicians try to champion "meditation", this apparently universal remedy, while the Buddhists keep trying to remind everyone that "meditation" isn't one thing, that each form has its own purposes and methods, and that some could even be harmful to the wrong person at the wrong time. The best parts of the books are the discussion sessions between presentations where the Monks share at length about Buddhist theories and practices. Makes me want to keep learning more.
• 
  Anthony Louis Garavito

  Los diálogos tienen un amplio contenido filosófico, ciéntifico y religioso. Toca temas tan interesantes como la psicología, medicina, neurociencia y teología. De la mano de eminentes investigadores de talla mundial como Richard Davidson, Jon-Kabat Zinn y Wolf Zinger, nos enseñan de manera fundamentada la importancia de entrenar la mente para lograr
  un bienestar y equilibrio emocional que tanto necesita la ciudadanía del siglo XXI.
  
  La meditación no es una práctica exclusiva de un grupo religioso; todo lo contrario es un entrenamiento universal y secular; como Buda dijo: No hagan las cosas que os enseño porque lo dice Buddha; ponedlas en práctica vosotros mismos y sacad sus propias conclusiones.
  
  Las intervenciones que más me gustaron fueron las de Matthieu Ricard, Ajan Amaro y Alan Wallace.
  
• 
  Megan

  A scholarly read that stretched the limits of my comprehension and interpretation skills. Enlightening!
• 
  Hayley

  This was a very interesting look into a growing research interest: How meditation can affect the brain and body.
  
  The book is drawn directly from a conference among scientists and contemplatives -- people who practice or teach meditation for spirituality or therapeutic purposes.
  
  "Meditation" here mostly focuses on Buddhism or on the "mindfulness" techniques that are drawn from/similar to certain Buddhist practices.
  
  It may not be an easy read for all -- the neuroscience parts can be a little dense. Even as someone with a little scientific background, I'm sure much went over my head (or quickly in and out!).
  
  Studies presented ranged from how certain meditations seemed to speed healing in psoriasis patients to how rats are affected by stress, sometimes for the worse and sometimes for the better.
  
  Most interesting are some of the basic barriers to overcome between the conference speakers. For instance, you have predominantly Western scientists trying to draw from the knowledge of Tibetan Buddhists (the Dalai Lama being the Buddhist leader at this conference), yet the Tibetan language doesn't have a term for "stress," as Westerners define it. Huh.
  
  You also see people on both sides grappling with the essential question of what consciousness might be -- perhaps having no one center (even though Westerners tend to have a strong sense of self), but instead being spread out across the brain and beyond. Insight and clarity might come from different brain regions firing off in rhythm with each other.
  
  The participants are very curious about how much the *practices* of meditation can still work when separated from the spiritual values that gave rise to them. How much of the peace comes from the values? How much peace might be gained just by being more aware or mentally disciplined? If you can use the practices without the values, is that dangerous?
  
  The book seems to take a rosy view of the potential benefits of certain kinds of meditation -- and it's no secret that many of the speakers believe strongly that benefits occur. But it does state some of the challenges to studying meditation in a clinical setting -- for example, what kind of people to recruit as the non-meditators when comparing the two groups, or how to gauge how efficiently and often the meditators are practicing (down to bugging their meditation cushions).
  
  I don't remember if there were any studies in there that showed mindfulness or Buddhist meditation to have no effect or a negative one... there was one example where people doing (mindfulness, I think) meditation believed they could more accurately feel their own heartbeats, but they weren't really better at it than non-meditators. Still, the balance of the specific evidence presented here is positive (ie, certain meditation practices were shown to help prevent relapses of depression...I think they helped as much as medication in one case). It seemed like the challenges in proving meditation works were presented in a more general way, with less focus on specific studies that showed the challenges.
  
  I think that anyone reading this book who is really serious about the subject matter will probably just want to do a literature search for themselves, not only to read the actual studies mentioned here, but to check on what kind of studies were not mentioned.
  
  I will say that the participants came from a wide variety of well-respected research institutions and the whole thing seemed like a very carefully though-out discussion. BUT I'm a credulous layman who likes mindfulness.
  
  I try to take this book with a grain of salt and take it as a reason to stay very, very interested.
• 
  M. Jane Colette

  I love the topic, I usually enjoy Jon Kabat-Zinn's books, and -- well, it's the Dalai Lama! This should have been a fabulous book. Unfortunately, as a written collection of essays + conversations presented at the Mind & Life Institute conference, it does not work. I guess you had to be there in person? Or the editors should have reworked the material more substantially to work in the written form.
• 
  Ben Zimmerman

  The Mind's Own Physician was a unique book, in that it is a transcript of talks and ensuing dialogues between intellectuals. Imagine the pressure of knowing that your upcoming conversation was going to be turned into a book! Overall, given the format, I was surprised by how good the book was; it was a little meandering or off-topic at times, but I used to have a job writing out transcripts of focus groups, and this was way easier to follow than that.
  
  I learned a lot from this book, particularly about some Buddhist perspectives on meditation. This dialogue definitely led to a lot of "big idea" themes that I really appreciated. Even though the discussions were less focused than the presentations, I thought that they were much more interesting because of the presence of these big ideas.
  
  Some themes that particularly interested me:
  
  1) Differences in language and perspective between cultures (like the absence of the word "stress" in Tibet). Why did East and West cultures diverge so much? Scientists tend to talk about the brain in terms of process, and contemplatives tended to talk about the brain in terms of nouns (e.g. "where is the process of self-identification executed in the brain" vs. "where is the self in the brain").
  2) Different contexts of meditation: Buddhists do not use meditation in healthcare, whereas in the West, this is one of the main functions of mindfulness meditation practices.
  3) Why does deep meditative practice lead to a blissful state?
  4) Are there negatives to meditation? Do we need to be careful with it?
  5) Is our neuroscientific approach useful for integrating with the knowledge of contemplatives? Should we explore using a introspective approach in psychology again, except with trained meditators?
  6) Is science necessarily reductive? Is reduction synonymous with the scientific method, or is it a strategy that is part of the scientific method?
  
  For the actual presentations, my feeling was that they differed tremendously in their quality, especially for turning into a book. Some scholars, like Robert Sapolsky or Wolf Singer, have been super interested in teaching and engaging with the public. They are excellent science communicators. Others are weak science communicators. On top of that, some of them brought very limited data or talked about projects that were going to happen in the future.
  
  To me, this gave the sense that it was really meant to appeal to academics instead of to everyone. It had a kind of exclusive tone, where we're supposed to be satisfied with big names rather than scientific content. If you don't happen to know the name already, and the context of all the work that some of these fantastically successful researchers have accomplished, then you might not "get it."
  
• 
  Payel Kundu

  I read this book for my neuroscience book club and thought it was pretty unique and interesting. I have never read a book that was based on the transcript of a conference before, and while parts of it seemed a bit fluffy to me, it was fairly concise. Moreover, for anyone interested in feeling as though they attended this historical conference, those details might have served an immersive purpose.
  I'm pretty unfamiliar with Buddhist philosophy and teaching, so a lot of those portions of the book were new to me. I was surprised to learn that Buddhism isn't really a prescriptive religion. The book states that Buddhist teachings are presented in the spirit of consideration and reflection, rather than dogma. In this system, the ultimate arbiter of truth for the individual is that individual. I'm not sure if that's shared across Buddhist traditions, but it made Buddhism seem like a much looser system of teaching than I had previously imagined. I was interested to learn that lately, "dukkha" is being translated as stress rather than as suffering, which made the teachings of Buddhism (aimed at reducing dukkha) seem much more relevant and practical for me personally.
  I enjoyed the section on adventitious suffering, which is what the mind adds to a negative experience. "Even pleasurable experiences contain within them the seed of dissatisfaction if we relate to them unwisely." Even with physical pain, we can learn to relate to it differently. You can recognize you're experiencing pain, and be at peace with it, and the hope is we can learn to transfer that recognition to emotional pain as well. Note that to do this, you have to actively engage with the experience, whether physical or emotional, although our instinct is often to hold back.
  Of the scientific portions, Wolf Singer and Robert Sapolsky presented excellent material in this book. Their inter-session dialogue with each other and with the Dalai Lama was really interesting also and presented many ideas I had never considered before, such as whether we can use biofeedback to improve meditative practice.
  Overall, pretty interesting and accessible book, cool format. I would totally read a more recent version of this if another conference takes place, as this one is getting pretty ancient now in terms of scientific progress.
  
• 
  Brian Marshall

  This book is a written record of a conference which took place with the Dalai Lama present. It is slightly misleading as it looks as though it's a book written by the mindfulness specialist Jon Kabat-Zinn.
  That said it contains some really fascinating material - chiefly around the medical and scientifically-supported effects of mindfulness and meditation. The Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) programme has spawned a number of other programmes studying mindfulness as a way of treating stress related illness and other mental health conditions such as chronic depression. And the evidence is compelling - the ability to realise that our thoughts are not us, and to better develop the skill of slowing down and paying attention to the now has significant long term mental and physical benefits.
  But the best chapters for me were not from scientists but from practitioners - especially from Ajahn Amaro, the abbot at the Amaravati monastery in Great Gaddesden in the UK. His simple yet powerful explanations of Buddhism and its highly pragmatic approach to well being were absolutely compelling.
• 
  Jalpa S.

  How do meditative practices influence paid and human suffering? What role does the brain play in emotional well-being and health? To what extent can our mind influence, physical disease?
  
  By inviting the Dalai Lama and leading researchers in medicine, psychology and neuroscience to join in conversation, the Mind and Life Institute set the stage for exploration of the healing potential of the human mind. This book is download of 5 days conference on the subject. Few key points to summarise which I personally found intriguing:
  
  1. Ancient Tibetan and Indian origin of meditation disciples emphasises on "Self-lessness" as basic and ultimate outcome of practice. Science is doing everything to find where "I" resides in our mind, which we all are so sticken to in everyday life - but not able to find it. There is no part of brain or body - on gettting damaged -losses person's "I" awareness - so in effect raising doubt if it exists in our mind? But if not
• 
  Matt Kelland

  Superb book. It's a transcript of a conference, in which the Dalai Lama plays only a small part, but which examines the way that meditation and mindfulness affects healing. This isn't wishy-washy New Age woo, it's solid research presented by scientists who have plenty of data to back up their case. It's no longer open to question: mindfulness helps us heal faster, and we are gradually beginning to understand how it works. We can see the changes in brain chemistry and hormone production, and how those affect our body. The important thing is that this doesn't have to be religious: even the DL talks about the need for secular ethics and a non-religious approach to meditation.
• 
  Jen

  challenging read because it really read as a transcript. very little flow, connection of topics. lots of name-dropping of 'famous' meditation teachers and mindfulness researchers. detailed accounts of research that was inconclusive. perhaps good for those that really want the science history play-by-play of the origins of meditation. but i went in hoping to learn more about the takeaways from the research, rather than the research process itself.
• 
  MollyD

  I love anything done by the Mind & Life Institute. So much is being discovered about healing benefits of meditation currently, and it's completely fascinating to me. Plus I adore the Dalai Lama, and I love to read his views, always so very insightful.
• 
  yamiyoghurt

  I didn't finish the book. It's a little too dry for my liking.
• 
  Louise

  This is a great book for anyone interested in the benefits of meditation. However, be prepared with some medical jargon.
• 
  D

  First read 24 Jun 2014
  
  Sangha (community) is the whole of the practice
  This emphasizes that we are not practicing in isolation. It is extremely important to cultivate environments, in terms of both human communities and harmonious relationship with one’s general environment.
  
  Read again 5 Jun 2017
  
  One of my least favorites of Jon Kabat Zinn and Richard J Davidson's works. I was mainly interested in His Holiness Dalai Lama's words, of which there are few in this book.
  
  HH Dalai Lama: As for my participation here, I have nothing to offer. I am always eager just to listen and learn from these great, experienced scientists. Although there is a language problem, and also my memory problem, it sometimes seems that I learn from the session -- but after the session there is nothing left in my head. So there's the problem! Anyway, it may leave some imprints in my brain.
  
  Richard Davidson on Meditation: When love and compassion permeate the whole mind, with no other consideration, reasoning or discursive thoughts. That is sometimes called pure compassion, or nonreferential compassion (in the sense that it does not focus on particular objects to arouse love or compassion), or all-pervading compassion.
  
  The area of the brain associated with the self is deactivated when people are generating compassion, which is very much a selfless state.
  
  Albert Einstein: A human being is part of the whole, called by us 'Universe'; a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest -- a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.
  
  This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and affection for a few persons nearest us.
  
  Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
  
  Nobody is able to achieve this completely but striving for such achievement is, in itself, a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security.
  
  HH Dalai Lama: We are trying to promote universal spiritual values. Part of what we are doing here is finding ways in which we can reinforce the values that have been taught by the great spiritual traditions over thousands of years. There are common human values.
  
  HH Dalai Lama: The objective of spiritual practice is based on three trainings: 1) Ethical discipline, 2) Cultivating concentration, which is the meditation practice, and based upon that, 3) Cultivating insight. We need to find a way to restrain ourselves from engaging in impulsive, destructive actions. The first stage of training is where we deliberately adopt a set of precepts or a code of life, which is the training in ethical discipline.
  
  Impulsive, destructive behaviors really stem from a restless, undisciplined state of mind, so we need to find a way of dealing with them directly. But our normal state of mind is so dissipated and unfocused that the mind cannot deal with mental problems immediately. Therefore one must first cultivate a degree of mental stability, an ability to focus. This is where the second training in concentration or meditation comes in.
  
  On that basis, once we have a degree of stability, then we are able to use our mind, empowered with a focused attention, to deal with destructive emotions and habitual thought patterns. The antidote that overcomes the negative and destructive tendencies of the mind is insight.
• 
  Lara

  This book is an edited transcription of a 2005 conference with the Dalai Lama about meditation, the brain, and both physical and metal health. It included both spiritual and scientific experts and has an epilogue that summarizes achievements in the next 5 years, through 2011.
  
  I found it quite interesting, and learned a great deal about how the brain functions and saw some very convincing evidence on how the use of certain types of meditation can reduce our experience of pain, prevent the relapse of depression, and improve chronic disease outcomes. While I've known about meditation for many years, and believed it to be beneficial, this book made me reevaluate many of my own experiences and how meditation might greatly enhance my life.
  
  The book does have quite a bit of Buddhist meditation and clinical jargon, especially neuroscience. However, there is always a great deal of discussion about the meaning of the scientific results and plenty of stories told that use real people as examples.
  
  I received this book through the Good reads First Reads program.
• 
  Rachel

  Title: The Mind's Own Physician:
  by Jon Kabat-Zinn
  A Scientific Dialogue With the Dalai Lama on the Healing Power of Meditation....
  
  I won this book on Goodreads Giveaway!
  Edited by world-renowned researchers Jon Kabat-Zinn and Richard J. Davidson, this book presents this remarkably dynamic interchange along with intriguing research findings that shed light on the nature of the mind, its capacity to refine itself through training, and its role in physical and emotional health.
  
  If you are looking for a current overview of the science behind meditation and mindfulness, and how these may impact humanity on many levels, this is a great read.
  
  How amazing the Brain! being a brain tumor survivor, I found meditation techniques interesting. I didn't find book to be an easy read and the more technical brain discussions did get a bit over my head. However, in most cases the question and answer sessions brought things back down to a practical level that I could understand.
  Overall I gave the book 4 stars.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Kim Heimbuch

  This was a surprisingly good book, but I only give it three stars because I felt it could have done more to press the need for natural medicine in our overly medicated Western society.
  Bringing together the worlds of Eastern medicine and Western medicine together, including the Dalai Lama and leading Western medicine scientists many questions were asked and brought to the attention of a wide audience and given the opportunity to share, learn, and change the way we think in the modern world. Only through change can we start fixing a world so dependent for an immediate cure for everything instead of realizing that often time is all that is needed to heal.
  This is definitely a book I think everyone in the medical field and everyone who is prone to a lot of medical conditions should read as they find insight to easing patients symptoms in a more natural way and retraining our brains to not think they require all of these harmful drugs to thrive.
  
  First Reads book.
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  Superstella

  Really enjoyed this, as I do most things that are written by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. I have nothing but the utmost respect for him, and am constantly taken aback not only by his unwavering devotion to his spiritual ideals, but also his impressive intellect and curiosity about the world we live in. I only wish that every religious leader could approach the real world with the openness and willingness to learn and accept change that the Dalai Lama has shown. In other words, dude is wicked smart, and I am seriously impressed with his ability to understand complex scientific theories and models while still managing to smile through it all.
• 
  GONZA

  This is a wonderful book, so interesting that's amazing, I will keep on reading again and again. Based in a conference held in 2005 in which HH Dalai Lama spoke with scientist and neurologist about the healing power of meditation, and has a full update on the state of the art at the end.
  Starting form the possible biological substrates of meditation and its relation with healing either the body and the mind we have a full review about last research in this field.
  THANKS TO NEW HARBINGER PUBBLICATIONS AND NETGALLEY FOR THE PREVIEW
• 
  Kevin

  "The Mind's Own Physician" had a lot of really interesting perspectives. The science of meditation is still in its early stages, and only time will tell whether it is truly as powerful and positive as many of this conference's participants believe. But for anyone who is interested in this intersection of eastern and western intellectual traditions, I would highly recommend reading this book.
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  Cierra

  This was one that took a while to read just because some discussions were less interesting than others for me. With that aside, this is an excellent and informative book. It offers well-developed studies and thought-out explanations. Truly interesting for anyone who is curious about mindfulness/meditation and the benefits of the two.
• 
  Joyce

  Interesting for me in that I somehow can't resist when scientists try to explain things that aren't really explainable by them. But the interview has plenty of things I would like to ask the Dalai Lama and his answers are quotable and great food for thought. I just might refer to this one often for inspiration.
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  Jen Bojkov

  Wonderful book recording one of the conferences on meditation and mindfulness with the Dalai Lama and other experts in the fields of contemplation and various medical specialties. Discussing the affect of meditation on health- both physical and mental. Bottom line- I will continue my attempts at adding meditation into my daily routine.
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  Jim Parker

  For centuries those of us in the west have treated the mind/brain and body and two separate entities. Most modern research shows this to be folly. This book while not providing the answers does provide a fertile ground for exploring how to resolve that divide.
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  Michelle Mason

  Fascinating to hear from these learned people from various walks of life about the potential and possibilities of healing through the power of the mind. Both science and medicine as well as contemplatives have much to offer in this arena. This is only the beginning....