Does the practice of meditation foster one’s capacity for compassion and empathy? The Venerable Ajahn Chah believed so, and now, scientific evidence appears to confirm it. In an article published in the Public Library of Science, scientists used an MRI to examine the brain circuitry engaged when in a state of compassion for meditators and non-meditators alike. The scientists observed their response to emotional stimuli, both positive and negative. The results*?

From their findings, it appears that indeed the capacity to cultivate compassion and empathy are fostered through the practice of meditation. For those engaged in meditation, the sectors of the brain associated with compassion showed much more activity than when not engaged. Furthermore, experts in meditation experienced greater brain activity in the so called “compassion sectors” of the brain while engaged and disengaged in meditation than novices. So let us foster our best qualities, and get to it!

*Areas showing a negative ( dark blue, p<0.01, blue, p<0.005) or positive (orange, p<0.01, yellow, p<0.005) impulse response on average across 10 seconds in responses to all emotional sounds for the 15 novices and 15 experts at z = 31 compared to baseline (figs. A–D) and z = 13 (figs. E–H) (voxel-by-voxel paired t test compared to 0, corrected at p<0.01).

Top image used for once not found on Flickr, but taken and edited by me. Bottom image taken from PLoS.