The dictum, "First do no harm," from the Hippocratic Oath mimics the Buddhist tenet of "Ahimsa," which also means to do no harm. The Buddha, like a doctor, sought to heal illness and ease suffering and his teachings are therapeutic.

A Brief Synopsis of Buddhism in Simple Terms

Shakyamuni Buddha attained enlightenment and taught in India over two thousand years ago, yet his teaching remains refreshing and relevant today. No matter who we are or where we live, we all want happiness and dislike suffering. The Buddha recommended that in working to overcome suffering we should help others as much as we can. He further advised that if we cannot actually be of help, we should at least be careful not to do anyone harm.

Part of Buddhist practice involves training our minds through meditation. But if our training in calming our minds, developing qualities like love, compassion, generosity and patience, is to be effective, we must put them into practice in day-to-day life. Being more concerned for the suffering of others instead of your own is truly to follow the spirit of all the great religions including Buddhism.

The purpose of Buddhism is to serve and benefit all sentient beings, including human beings.   And therefore it is more important to think of what contribution we Buddhists can make to human society according to our own ideas rather than trying to convert other people to Buddhism.   The Buddha gave us an example of contentment and tolerance, through serving others unselfishly.

I am often asked whether the teachings and techniques of Buddhism continue to be relevant in the present day and age. Like all religions, Buddhism deals with basic human problems. So long as we continue to experience the basic human sufferings resulting from impermanence, attachment and wrong view, there is no question of its relevance. The key is inner peace. If we have that we can face difficulties with calm and reason, while keeping our inner happiness. The teachings of love, kindness and tolerance, the conduct of non-violence, and especially the Buddhist theory that all things are relative are a source of that inner peace.

-Dalai Lama, Address to the 1st International Conference on Buddhism and Literature, February 15, 2001.

Detaching from materialism has little appeal when people everywhere are pursuing materialism with every breath. Yet the genius of Buddha's teaching lies in its universality.

A basic tenet of some schools of Buddhist philosophy is that suffering in the human experience is caused by attachment to excessive and unnecessary desires.  And yet, isn’t that exactly what’s been at the core of the old good life?  Aren’t excessive and unnecessary desires exactly what modern advertising is designed to promote?

If everything we look at is generating dissatisfaction, how does that affect us as a people?  If we’re constantly being lured to buy a new cell phone, a bigger house, an upgraded computer system, or a new car, how does that affect our prospects for self-contentment and inner peace?  Do we start looking at people and and saying that if they don’t make our lives more pleasant, they are disposable?  Do we become less capable of being faithful to ourselves and one another?

The new good life requires a different set of tools and a different way of looking at things.  It doesn’t require abstinence or austerity, but it does ask each of us for a new thoughtfulness about the way we live and a sober skepticism toward the corporate agenda.  It does entail a refusal to be entranced by the messages bombarding us day and night from a culture that sometimes seems to be trapped in a hypnotic trance.

Americans now spend nearly seven times as much time shopping as they do playing with their kids.  Thirty-four  percent of Americans polled ranked shopping a their favorite activity, double the number who preferred being in nature.

Is there something infantile about a world that so excessively values immediate gratification?  Is there something impoverishing about a culture that encourages us to understand and express our identities through the brands and products we consume?  Is there something sad about a society that believes spending money is the route to feeling good about ourselves?

Indeed, there are no luggage racks on hearses.

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It is often said there are no luggage racks on hearses.  No matter what worldly possessions any of us have acquired, we leave it all behind in the end.

What then do we take with us?

There is a story about a teacher who asked his students,  “if I have five hundred dollars, and in the course of my life I give away four hundred dollars, how much do I have at the end of my life?”

The students eagerly answered, “One hundred dollars.”

"Consumption. This is the new national pastime. Forget baseball, it's consumption, the only true, lasting American value that's left . . . buying things . . . People spending money they don't have on things they don't need." -George Carlin

“That’s what you might think,” the teacher said.  “But the deeper truth is that if I have five hundred dollars here on Earth, and I give away four hundred dollars, then at my death what I will have is four hundred dollars.  Because in the end, all you have  is what you have given.”

-Excerpts from The New-Good-Life- (2010) by John Robbins

“No other thing do I know, O monks, on account of which unarisen ill will does not arise and arisen ill will is abandoned so much as on account of this: the liberation of the heart by loving-kindness. For one who attends properly to the liberation of the heart by loving-kindness, unarisen ill will does not arise and arisen ill will is abandoned.” Anguttara Nikaya XI.16

Wonderfully simple, metta or loving kindness meditation removes ill will and allows the spirit of love to infuse our whole being.  How does it work?  Hard Buddhist logic shows that upon closer examination, it does not make sense to wish ill toward any living thing.  In fact, we are the ones who would benefit the most if the difficult people in our lives found serenity, health, and enlightenment.

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Further, metta meditation strengthens the compassion and happiness centers of the brain with amazing results.  It develops resilience, compassion, empathetic joy, equanimity, patience, and of course loving kindness.  Metta bring more harmony into our relationships, so that we have fewer conflicts and resolve existing ones. It deepens our connections with ourselves and those we love.  It helps us to overcome depression, anger, resentment, and hurt.  It also helps us to empathize more, and to be more considerate, kind, and forgiving.

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It helps us to appreciate others more, concentrating more on their positive qualities and less on their faults. It makes us more patient.  It eliminates bad moods and ill will. It makes us sleep, dream, and wake up happy. It even makes us loved by dogs, people, and all sentient beings!  According to texts, it  guards from evil, fire, poison, and weapons and gives a serenity that lasts even to death, itself.  And I almost forgot.  It improves your complexion.

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Scientists are in agreement.  Studies show loving kindness meditation reduces anxiety, reduces physical and emotional pain, reduces anger, reduces psychological stress, increases feelings of hope, produces more positive, and more lasting, positive emotions, and increases positive social emotions toward new people as well as loved ones.  Not bad for a simple meditation!

He who both day and night takes delight in harmlessness sharing love with all that live, finds enmity with none. -Samyutta Nikaya. I, 208

The traditional phrase for the first stage of metta or loving kindness meditation is “May I be well, may I be happy, may I be free from suffering.” You must say the phrase as if you mean it. Keep your focus on your emotions as you repeat the phrase.  Leave time between each repetition so that you have time to absorb what effect it has. I often fit the phrase in with the rhythm of my breath.

In the second stage of the practice, think of a good friend, and wish them well.  Next, call to mind someone you have no emotional connection with. Once you’ve called this person to mind, wish them well, using words or phrases, or your imagination.

Then cultivate Metta for someone you don’t get on with. It may be someone that you have long-standing difficulties with, or it may be someone that is normally a friend, but you have difficulties with right now.  Call the difficult person to mind, and be honest about what you feel. There may well be feelings of discomfort. Notice any tendency you may have to think badly of that person, or to deepen the conflict you have with them and let go of those tendencies.  Instead, wish them well. “May they be well, may they be happy, may they be free from suffering.”

Then in the last stage of the practice spread your well-wishing in wider and wider circles.  Start with yourself, your friend, the neutral person, and the difficult person. See all four of you together, and wish all four people well. Try to do this equally for all four of you, and notice any tendency to “play favorites” by wishing your friend more happiness than the others.  Then spread your well-wishing out in wider and wider circles, until you are wishing that all sentient beings are well and happy. Finally, you can imagine that you hold the world enfolded in your heart, and cherish it.

(Adapted from Wildmind Guide to Meditation.)

• Metta is an attitude of recognizing that all sentient beings  can feel good or feel bad, and that all, given the choice, will choose the former over the latter.
• Metta is a recognition of the most basic solidarity that we have with others, this sharing of a common aspiration to find fulfillment and escape suffering.
• Metta is empathy. It’s the willingness to see the world from another’s point of view: to walk a mile in another person’s shoes.
• Metta is the desire that all sentient beings be well. It’s wishing others well.
• Metta is friendliness, consideration, kindness, generosity.
• Metta is an attitude rather than just a feeling. It’s an attitude of friendliness.
• Metta is the basis for compassion. When our Metta meets another’s suffering, then our Metta transforms into compassion.
• Metta is the basis for shared joy. When our Metta meets with another’s happiness or good fortune, then it transmutes into an empathetic joyfulness.
• Metta is boundless. We can feel Metta for any sentient being, regardless of gender, race, or nationality.
• Metta is the most fulfilling emotional state that we can know. It’s the fulfillment of the emotional development of every being.
• It’s our inherent potential. To wish another well is to wish that they be in a state of experiencing Metta.
• Metta is the answer to almost every problem the world faces today. Money won’t do it. Technology won’t do it. Metta will.

"Silence is the absolute poise or balance of body, mind and spirit. The man who preserves his selfhood is ever calm and unshaken by the storms of existence ... What are the fruits of silence? They are self-control, true courage or endurance, patience, dignity and reverence. Silence is the cornerstone of character." ~Ohiyesa, Santee Sioux

It is spoken at the right time. It is spoken in truth. It is spoken affectionately. It is spoken beneficially. It is spoken with a mind of good-will.”   -Buddha

Right speech is the first principle of ethical conduct in the eightfold path. Ethical conduct is viewed as a guideline to moral discipline, which supports the other principles of the path. The importance of speech in the context of Buddhist ethics is obvious: words can break or save lives, make enemies or friends, start wars or create peace.

Right speech, explained in negative terms, means avoiding four types of harmful speech: lies (words spoken with the intent of misrepresenting the truth); divisive speech (spoken with the intent of creating rifts between people); harsh speech (spoken with the intent of hurting another person’s feelings); and idle chatter (spoken with no purposeful intent at all).

Positively phrased, this means to tell the truth, to speak in a friendly manner, warm-heartedly, and gently and to talk only when necessary.  I guess my Grandmother set a pretty good ethical standard when she admonished me, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.”  It is the height of good manners to always put the other person first.  And what could be more Buddhist?

The Earth is not only the common heritage of all humankind but also the ultimate source of life. By over-exploiting its resources we are undermining the very basis of our own life. All around, signs abound of the destruction caused by human activity and of the degradation of nature. Therefore, the protection and conservation of the Earth is not a question of morality or ethics but a question of our survival. -Dalai Lama

The Dalai Lama, Native American culture, and the Environment

Native American spirituality, like Buddhism, upholds mindfulness, compassion, communion with nature, and reverence for life and often shows the highest level of Buddhist understanding.  The following quotes by the Dalai Lama, Chief Seattle, Brooke Medicine Eagle, and others display the Buddhist concepts of  interconnectedness, oneness with nature, mindful living, and even reincarnation.

Just as we should cultivate more gentle and peaceful relations with our fellow human beings, we should also extend that same kind of attitude towards the natural environment. Morally speaking, we should be concerned for our whole environment.  -H H Dalai Lama

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There is hope if people will begin to awaken that spiritual part of themselves, that heartfelt knowledge that we are caretakers of this planet.  ~Brooke Medicine Eagle

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Man did not weave the web of life- he is merely a strand in it.  Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.  We are part of the Earth and it is part of us.    -Chief Seattle 1854

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Destruction of nature resources results from ignorance, lack of respect for the Earth’s living things, and greed.  In the first place we must strive to overcome these states of mind by developing an awareness of the interdependent nature of all phenomena, an attitude of wishing not to harm other living creatures and an understanding of the need for compassion. Because of the interdependent nature of everything we cannot hope to solve the multifarious problems with a one-sided or self-centered attitude.    -Dalai Lama

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Humankind has not woven the web of life.  We are but one thread within it.  Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.  All things are bound together.  All things connect.  ~Chief Seattle, 1855

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The Circle has healing power. In the Circle, we are all equal. When in the Circle, no one is in front of you. No one is behind you. No one is above you. No one is below you. The Sacred Circle is designed to create unity. The Hoop of Life is also a circle. On this hoop there is a place for every species, every race, every tree and every plant. It is this completeness of Life that must be respected in order to bring about health on this planet. ~Dave Chief, Oglala Lakota

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In the case of such global issues as the conservation of the Earth, and indeed in tackling all problems, the human mind is the key factor. Whether they are problems of economics, international relations, science, technology, medicine or ecology, although these issues seem to be beyond anyone individual’s capacity, where the problem begins and where the answer must first be sought is within. In order to change the external situation we must first change within ourselves. If we want a beautiful garden we must first have a blueprint in the imagination, a vision. Then that idea can be implemented and the external garden can materialize.    -Dalai Lama

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Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realise we cannot eat money.  ~Cree Indian Proverb

There is no death, only change of worlds.   -Chief Seattle

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“The earth and myself are of one mind.”

~Chief Seattle, Nez Perce

At the age of 80, Siddhartha Gautama ate his last meal (either pork or truffles) which he had received as an offering from a blacksmith. Gautama Buddha realized that his end was fast approaching and indeed, he passed away  the following day, during a full moon in May. The Buddha’s final words were, “All things must pass away. Strive for your own salvation with diligence.”

The Buddha’s words warn us of impermanence. We must remember that all formations are impermanent and that whatever is subject to origination is subject to cessation.  Though things seemed fixed and solid, they are actually in a constant state of change.  Hence arises the  illusory nature of appearances.  You cannot step into the same river twice, as Heraclitus so famously observed. “All things must pass” also perfectly expresses the second law of thermodynamics.  Known as entropy, it is an expression of the universal principle of decay observable in nature. It seems to be the one truly infallible concept that scientists hold highly.

“The law that entropy always increases holds, I think, the supreme position among the laws of nature… If your theory is found to be against the second law of thermodynamics I can give you no hope; there is nothing for it but to collapse in deepest humiliation.” — Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington, The Nature of the Physical World (1927)

George Harrison addresses the concept of impermanence in his song, "All Things Must Pass."

All Things Must Pass by George Harrison  1969

Sunrise doesn’t last all morning
A cloudburst doesn’t last all day
Seems my love is up
And has left you with no warning
But it’s not always going
To be this grey

All things must pass
All things must pass away

Sunset doesn’t last all evening
A mind can blow those clouds away
After all this my love is up
And must be leaving
It has not always
Been this grey

All things must pass
All things must pass away

All things must pass
None of life’s strings can last

On September 30, 1859, Abraham Lincoln said. "An Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: "And this, too, shall pass away." How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!"

So I must be on my way
And face another day

Now the darkness only stays at nighttime
In the morning it will fade away
Daylight is good
At arriving at the right time
It’s not always
Going to be this grey

All things must pass
All things must pass away
All things must pass
All things must pass away

The Buddha claimed that the practices he advocated in the quest for enlightenment avoided the extremes of sensual self-indulgence on the one hand and self-mortification on the other.

“And what, monks, is the Middle Way realized by the Thus-Come-One, which gives vision and understanding, which leads to calm, penetration, enlightenment, to Nirvana?

It is just this Noble Eightfold Path, namely: Right View, Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration.” – The Buddha, Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta

The Middle Way is a central element to all forms of Buddhism.  Buddha, or the “Thus-Come-One,” delivered the above quote in his very first sermon over two and a half thousand years ago in North India.

The Buddha gave his Noble Eightfold Path the alternative name of the Middle Way. (Majjhima patipada)

Later, when the Buddha witnessed a group of temple dancers singing to a stringed instrument, he realized if the strings were too loose, they would not play and if they were too tight, they would break.  It was this realization that the Buddha would use to elucidate the wisdom of the Middle Way as an enlightened way of life that avoids extremes in favor of moderation.

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama writes,

“Moderation should be applied even to our daily meals:  our stomach would be glad if we adopted moderation, because too much food makes it ill, and too little damages it.  We should never fall into excess in either direction:  to be too conservative is not good, and to be too radical isn’t either.  The Buddhist philosophy of “the middle way” is to find the happy medium.”  -H H Dalai Lama The Little Book of Inner Peace, 2009

Highly magnified photograph of neurons firing in the brain.

Can we train ourselves to be compassionate? A new study suggests the answer is yes. Cultivating compassion and kindness through meditation affects brain regions that can make a person more empathetic to other peoples’ mental states, say researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Published March 25 in the Public Library of Science One, the study was the first to use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to indicate that positive emotions such as loving-kindness and compassion can be learned in the same way as playing a musical instrument or being proficient in a sport. The scans revealed that brain circuits used to detect emotions and feelings were dramatically changed in subjects who had extensive experience practicing compassion meditation.

The research suggests that individuals — from children who may engage in bullying to people prone to recurring depression — and society in general could benefit from such meditative practices, says study director Richard Davidson, professor of psychiatry and psychology at UW-Madison and an expert on imaging the effects of meditation. Davidson and UW-Madison associate scientist Antoine Lutz were co-principal investigators on the project.

The study was part of the researchers’ ongoing investigations with a group of Tibetan monks and lay practitioners who have practiced meditation for a minimum of 10,000 hours. In this case, Lutz and Davidson worked with 16 monks who have cultivated compassion meditation practices. Sixteen age-matched controls with no previous training were taught the fundamentals of compassion meditation two weeks before the brain scanning took place.

“Many contemplative traditions speak of loving-kindness as the wish for happiness for others and of compassion as the wish to relieve others’ suffering. Loving-kindness and compassion are central to the Dalai Lama’s philosophy and mission,” says Davidson, who has worked extensively with the Tibetan Buddhist leader. “We wanted to see how this voluntary generation of compassion affects the brain systems involved in empathy.”

Various techniques are used in compassion meditation, and the training can take years of practice. The controls in this study were asked first to concentrate on loved ones, wishing them well-being and freedom from suffering. After some training, they then were asked to generate such feelings toward all beings without thinking specifically about anyone.

Each of the 32 subjects was placed in the fMRI scanner at the UW-Madison Waisman Center for Brain Imaging, which Davidson directs, and was asked to either begin compassion meditation or refrain from it. During each state, subjects were exposed to negative and positive human vocalizations designed to evoke empathic responses as well as neutral vocalizations: sounds of a distressed woman, a baby laughing and background restaurant noise.

“We used audio instead of visual challenges so that meditators could keep their eyes slightly open but not focused on any visual stimulus, as is typical of this practice,” explains Lutz.

The scans revealed significant activity in the insula — a region near the frontal portion of the brain that plays a key role in bodily representations of emotion — when the long-term meditators were generating compassion and were exposed to emotional vocalizations. The strength of insula activation was also associated with the intensity of the meditation as assessed by the participants.

“The insula is extremely important in detecting emotions in general and specifically in mapping bodily responses to emotion — such as heart rate and blood pressure — and making that information available to other parts of the brain,” says Davidson, also co-director of the HealthEmotions Research Institute.

Activity also increased in the temporal parietal juncture, particularly the right hemisphere. Studies have implicated this area as important in processing empathy, especially in perceiving the mental and emotional state of others.

“Both of these areas have been linked to emotion sharing and empathy,” Davidson says. “The combination of these two effects, which was much more noticeable in the expert meditators as opposed to the novices, was very powerful.”

The findings support Davidson and Lutz’s working assumption that through training, people can develop skills that promote happiness and compassion.

“People are not just stuck at their respective set points,” he says. “We can take advantage of our brain’s plasticity and train it to enhance these qualities.”

The capacity to cultivate compassion, which involves regulating thoughts and emotions, may also be useful for preventing depression in people who are susceptible to it, Lutz adds.

“Thinking about other people’s suffering and not just your own helps to put everything in perspective,” he says, adding that learning compassion for oneself is a critical first step in compassion meditation.

The researchers are interested in teaching compassion meditation to youngsters, particularly as they approach adolescence, as a way to prevent bullying, aggression and violence.

“I think this can be one of the tools we use to teach emotional regulation to kids who are at an age where they’re vulnerable to going seriously off track,” Davidson says.

Compassion meditation can be beneficial in promoting more harmonious relationships of all kinds, Davidson adds.

“The world certainly could use a little more kindness and compassion,” he says. “Starting at a local level, the consequences of changing in this way can be directly experienced.”

Lutz and Davidson hope to conduct additional studies to evaluate brain changes that may occur in individuals who cultivate positive emotions through the practice of loving-kindness and compassion over time.

Written by Dian Land, University of Wisconsin