Compassion - Bridging Practice and Science - page 336

A second step in promoting compassion could involve directly increasing the motive to reduce the
suffering of others. A number of Buddhist meditation techniques, such as loving-kindness
meditation and compassion meditation, are taught with the intent of increasing desire to reduce the
suffering of others and promoting positive, prosocial states of mind. A third step would involve
changing actual behavior, decreasing “destructive” emotional behavior and increasing prosocial
behavior, particularly in difficult and trying contexts.
There is initial evidence demonstrating that meditation techniques can support these three goals:
that is, greater self-awareness[42],[43],increased motivation to reduce suffering[21]and changes
in social behavior consistent with a more prosocial stance[21],[44]. Moreover, there is evidence
suggesting that greater emotional balance may be a key mechanism explaining the effects of
meditation on the cultivation of compassion. Along these lines, meditation has been associated
with shifts in how much people value emotional balance. In one study, participants in an 8-week
meditation intervention reported shifts towards valuing low arousal emotional states such as calm
and contentment, and shifts away from valuing high arousal positive states such as pride relative to
the control condition[45]. Results from theCultivating Emotional Balance Project[21]showed that
an intervention combining such techniques with others drawn from the science of emotion reduced
emotional and physiological reactivity to stress tasks, increased recognition of facial expressions of
emotion and enhanced prosocial responding (see Figures 2 and 3).
Figure 2.
Scatter plots of (A) meditation minutes and diastolic blood pressure (DBP; mmHg) during speech task at post-test, r(31)
= -.51, p < .01; (B) meditation minutes and systolic blood pressure (SBP; mmHg) during speech task at post-test, r(31)
= -.43, p < .05; (C) meditation minutes and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA; log power) during math task at 5-month
follow-up, r(34) = -58, p < .01; and (D) meditation minutes and diastolic blood pressure (DBP; mmHg) during math task
336