perspective – in more detail. We will explain their role within compassion, their subcomponents,
and how those relate to concepts and findings from psychology and neuroscience (see Table 1 for
an overview).
Presence
There is a general consensus throughout many contemplative traditions that the basis for a fulfilled
and compassionate life is the ability to attend fully to the present moment[5]. Recent findings from
modern psychology have validated this ancient notion. For instance, in a study[6] with 2250 adults
in the US, participants were frequently contacted through a smartphone app to assess what they
were doing, how they were feeling and what was on their mind. Unsurprisingly, participants were
happier when thinking about positive than about negative events. They were, however, happiest
when they were fully immersed in what they were doing, that is, not mind-wandering at all.
Thinking about something that is not present is clearly necessary and beneficial in some situations
(e.g., when planning for the future[7]). However, with regard to both our own happiness and our
availability to the outside world, it seems desirable to have the ability of adjusting the extent to
which we do so. The capacity of being aware of the current situation and bringing our mind back to
the present moment at will can be analyzed into two subcomponents,
attention
and
interoceptive
awareness.
Attention
Being fully present implies voluntarily directing our attention to the situation at hand and sustaining
it there. When attention has strayed from the object at hand, a neuro-cognitive function has to
detect and resolve the resulting conflict between the intended and the actual mind activity. This
function has been called
conflict resolution
, and critically involves the anterior cingulate cortex and
the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex[9]. When attention has to be sustained over longer periods of
time, cognitive psychologists speak of
vigilant attention
. It is supported by a predominantly right
hemispheric fronto-parietal network (particularly anterior cingulate gyrus, right dorsolateral
prefrontal cortex, inferior parietal lobule), in conjunction with brain sites such as the locus coeruleus
and the thamalus, which are critical for maintaining the alert state of the organism
. Recognizing
whether our mind is on the situation at hand or rather preoccupied with thinking requires a function
that has been dubbed
monitoring
in cognitive psychology and found to be crucially supported by
the anterior prefrontal cortex (Brodman Area 10)[8].
Interoceptive Awareness
Interoceptive awareness is the ability to perceive the internal state of the body. This can refer to
activity of the inner organs, the breath, muscle tension and so forth
. Tuning into the signals of
the body is helpful in making us present, because unlike thoughts, which can relate to the past or
the future and to distant places, body signals always occur in the here and now. In the context of
compassion, internal body awareness plays another important role: it lays the foundation for the
recognition of feelings in ourselves and others.
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