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Researchers Crown Buddhist Monk the World's Happiest Man
concealment writes in with a story about a man who has been crowned the world's happiest. "Tibetan monk and molecular geneticist Matthieu Ricard is the happiest man in the world according to researchers at the University of Wisconsin. The 66-year-old's brain produces a level of gamma waves — those linked to consciousness, attention, learning and memory — never before reported in neuroscience. The scans showed that when meditating on compassion, Ricard's brain produces a level of gamma waves — those linked to consciousness, attention, learning and memory — 'never reported before in the neuroscience literature,' Davidson said. The scans also showed excessive activity in his brain's left pre-frontal cortex compared to its right counterpart, giving him an abnormally large capacity for happiness and a reduced propensity towards negativity, researchers believe."
when reading this, my brain produces a level of gamma waves — those linked to consciousness, attention, learning and memory — never before reported in neuroscience!
Happy Man !!
...but the complete opposite. On a more serious note, this is the kind of story that will make me take a second look into meditation. Cant wait to enjoy massive gamma waves myself!
Tomorrow is another day...
Nobody should be overly happy, not when there are so many sad things happening in the world. Instead of being happy, why not help those who aren't. Instead of feeling compassion why not make the sacrifice to act on it? If you are happy, you are probably at least a little selfish. Of course what I have said will anger many people, but it's truth. There are many things you can do to help others in your neighborhood, in your state, country, or planet that you aren't doing.
I rather be an unhappy Socrates rather then a happy pig.
Yeah, I know some bad programmers like that. They are always happy and positive . . . but never think about error cases . . . so they never code for them. After all, the world is a bright and happy place, isn't it? Why would a user hit the delete key, when the program asked him to press 'y' or 'n' ?
They are also the folks who say that they "tested" their program, when they really mean it ran once, in a simple scenario.
So that's grand that some folks can be happy while surfing their gamma waves. Some other folks can worry and deal with the problems of the real world.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
They do say, "ignorance is bliss."
This research has practical uses. It's a shame it was filed under "idle".
Understanding how happiness in the human brain works could lead to new ways to treat depression and other mental illnesses. It could also lead to the development of a tasp like device.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
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I find pretty much all religion abhorrent. Buddhism however, while still abhorrent for believing in mystical ideas that go against the simplest (and therefore best) definitions of reality, is definitely less abhorrent than the others. I've seen a lot of quotes from the Dalai Lama that I really appreciate and can agree wholeheartedly with. This is something I can't often say for religious leaders of any other faiths.
What I'd really like to see is some good scientific research put in to this sort of thing, stripping away the associated mysticism and getting right to the core of it. Based on the rather limited article, it appears this might not be too difficult as he may already be keeping the mysticism to a minimum.
My book about LSD and Self-Discovery
Also on facebook as: DroppingAcidDaleBewan
I know when I can get Enlightenment to compile I am very happy, too.
1. US Constitution restored
2. Monetary system regulated
3. Obamacare redacted
4. TSA to protect only the 10 x 10 sq mile DC, not the States
5. All the bullshit gun restrictions crap redacted, all records destroyed, open carry, concealed carry is granted by god not man
6. Cannabis Legalized - Fuck pain
7. CAFR's audit
8. a new grass roots health care system--no trix, Grandfathered people stay in the old.
9. Chambers of Commerce and all this TAX crap and ordinances and other bullshit which stops people from creating and doing business redacted.
10. DHS De-activated.
11. The Banksters arrested, and brought to justice
12. Oath Breakers systematically arrested and brought to justice
13. No Nirvana, but no police state, fear based life either, YOU KNOW what you get when you prep.
http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=2569 ... :-)
Meditation is a poor substitute for sex.
Seriously, though, having children and seeing them grow up and have children of their own is one of life's greatest pleasures. Until you have grandchildren you don't really know what true happiness is. You can fool yourself with money or meditation or work, but you're so clueless it's pathetic.
Life is full of ups and downs, and the hard times make the happy times even better. If it never rains, can you truly appreciate a sunny day?
The monk didn't need this extra crowning, he was happy enough without. The scientists should have shown some moral responsibility, and bestow that crown to someone less happy, for whom it would have made much more difference.
I already had my Cobalt-60 gamma ray source, now I have to put it close to my left pre-frontal cortex and I will be a happy man.
This article was brought to you by the Department of Redundancy Department.
Enjoy.
My security clearance is so high I have to kill myself if I remember I have it...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism_and_sexuality#Celibacy_and_monasticism
"Those who choose to practice Buddhism as ordained monks and nuns, also choose to live in celibacy. Sex is seen as a serious monastic transgression. Within Theravada Buddhism there are four principal transgressions which entail expulsion from the monastic Sangha: sex, theft, murder, and falsely boasting of superhuman perfections, where sex is listed first. Sexual misconduct for monks and nuns includes masturbation. In the case of monasticism, abstaining completely from sex is seen as a necessity in order to reach enlightenment."
So much for dead end 'happiness'. How pathetically ignorant to even consider a monk of all abominations on Earth.
Buddhism is not about ignorance. To make a computing analogy, Buddhism is about a method of programing to allow supercomputing while never using more than 0% of the CPU.
Big apple, new Yorik, undig it, something's unrotting in Edenmark.
like they talked to every man to know who is the happiest
I am happier.
It's because he's not married :).
This is a sort of Ayn Rand-ish argument. The problem with this sort of argument is it sort of dissolves the whole concept of selfishness and altruism. Just because being altruistic can have selfish rewards, does not mean altruism does not exist and everything is selfishness.
Yes, the world is a rather selfish place and most people are rather selfish. That doesn't mean they are ENTIRELY selfish. Non-selfish acts do occur. People help others expecting nothing in return and sometimes getting nothing in return as well.
So, because this occurs, people are not entirely selfish.
Secondly, just because you get something in return for being non-selfish at points does not mean you were being secretly selfish. For example, you can give someone a present and get in return a good feeling. The good feeling is selfish, but the giving of the present was altruistic. They don't cancel each other out and leave only selfishness. Both exist.
__
Big apple, new Yorik, undig it, something's unrotting in Edenmark.
Windows 8 was just released.
Why don't we base a country's prosperity on some kind of 'happiness index' (long-term), rather than things like GDP, unemployment rate, or life expectancy?
Whatever you want to call it - 'happiness', 'wellbeing', or 'contentment', I would think this metric takes into account GDP, unemployment rate, health, and many more. It's what we all ultimately need after all, so why do we never seem to bother with it? Even if a 'level of happiness' is a scientifically vague concept, we could at least make a rough attempt to measure it (ask for a rating out of 10 would be a start).
Why OpalCalc is the best Windows calc
More gamma rays.
"I am the serenest!". Apologies for archive.org link but the page has disappeared from their website.
University professor? Of course there is no stress, go out and get a real job.
No good deed goes unpunished.
is something like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DJblHzEdLw
Attain happiness by modding this comment up.
He must be one happy dude if he's happier than this guy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnvvLM-dHSs
...as just this last weekend I was an attendee of the first internet based PSYCH-K conference in which brain mapping was a good amount of the talks. Also was mentioned of relevant articles published and yet to be published on brain mapping and PSYCH-K.
I wonder if this award could possibly make him happier?
Remember, Buddhist monks can't have sex with a woman or even touch a woman. If this is the only way to get gamma waves for him, I'll pass...I've found a better way to get the same results than just dreaming and my wife agrees.
jsut athnoer menagiensls ltitle psrhae for you to dcoede. Why do we wtsae our tmie dnoig tihs?
If you're a troll, or just incredibly stupid.
Did he sleep with a hot chick last night who was dressed as Wonder Woman? Sorry buddy, you're #2.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
This is a man who has never had to hand jam xorg.conf.
After a couple of decades of not being happy with anything, you have to start to realize that perhaps the cause of the problem... is you.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Not everyone chooses to be happy, but a mastery of the empirical neurocognitive techniques that induce it at least give you a choice in the matter. Neither wallowing in depression or being constantly euphoric is particularly desirable.
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
then we must find out how this guy makes these gamma waves — those linked to consciousness, attention, learning and memory — never before reported in neuroscience, and all that left pre-frontal cortex activity and force everyone to do that. And somebody needs to change Wikipedia's definition to "Utilitarianism is a theory in normative ethics holding that the proper course of action is the one that maximizes overall left pre-frontal cortex activity."
Quite simply, he must not be on the Internet and sitting around reading negative people's posts all day long.
Oh, and getting laid like there's no tomorrow.
Buddhism's great, you just need to kill the Buddha (lose the hero-worship and the mysticism).
Scientists at the University of Lubbock, TX, reported that Richard Small, a Microsoft sales engineer, to be the world's angriest man. When he was shown Nate Silver's projections of Romney's chances for victory, while thinking about his name and how it matches his employers name his brain emitted Delta waves at levels never reported in neuroscience before. The delta waves are said to measure the level of anger.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
I am not :) these days. :(
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
I think I see where you're coming from, but I think most of the reaction to your post revolves around the word "entirely". I think you may be exaggerating a bit. Perhaps you meant is "selfish behavior is always a factor in decisions". There is a subtle difference between that and "entirely".
I use the concepts of primary and secondary motivators to describe how people make decisions. A primary motivator is one that, in and of itself, provides sufficient justification for a decision. In contrast, a secondary motivator is not quite sufficient to make a decision. However, secondary motivators can help improve the justifications of primary motivators by being so called "icing on the cake". In the absence of a primary motivator, multiple secondary motivators can combine to create sufficient justification. (potential "tertiary motivators", while positive, could not create sufficient justification in the absence of primary/secondary motivators)
Now, if you're an "ends justify the means" type of guy, all this primary/secondary motivator stuff is just a rant. But I like to look at what a person's primary and secondary motivations are, because I think it reveals something about someone's character.
Therein lies the subtle difference between "entirely" and "always a factor". "Entirely" implies that every decision is provided sufficient justification by a primary motivator composed of selfishness, and there are no secondary motivators. However, "always a factor" implies that selfishness may be either a primary or secondary motivator, depending on the person, and that other motivators may be present and may even be stronger than selfishness.
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If you just want to feel happy, you can take drugs. I don't see how meditation is any better, other than that it doesn't damage your health as much and is self-limiting.
However, society is functioning on Alternating Current, not Direct Current. We need negativity. Dialectic, argument, karma, resistance to oppression, corrective action, all work a little better when you can harness a little negativity.
Gently reply
Thanks, will have a look at this when I'm off work...
I don't buy into the a most of the dogma and spirituality of meditation, but IMHO, transcendental meditation does seem a lot like overclocking your brain... a systems maintenance task I think most Slashdotters would enjoy.
For the most part, MRI scans have shown that we barely use more than 10-20% of our brains at a time based on blood flow. And we typically don't use more than 20% of our lung capacity while at rest either. Through this "mindful" deep, slow breathing, we can maximize the utilization of our lung capacity, increasing the oxygen flow in our circulatory system, and give our brains more energy than it knows what to do with. Simultaneously, you try to clear out all of your TSR processes that clog up your thoughts, and kind of let your neural network grow unconstrained, focused yet without thinking about anything in particular. A lot of people have trouble with not thinking in particular... I think most of the practices have you focus on your breathing or repeating a keyword, but I think that's kind of a crutch.
The other part is learning how to relax _all_ of your muscles, zero-ing out all of your neural outputs, which is actually much harder to do than you would imagine, but this helps you recalibrate and reduce oxygen consumption by the rest of your body, leaving more for your brain (the brain typically uses up 20% of your oxygen supply, even though it only accounts for about 10% of the body weight by mass). I typically go through all of my muscle pairs in multiple passes, and am usually able to bring them to a slightly lower 'zero' in each pass.
Finally, and perhaps the most difficult task... you kind of have to open up all of your 6 senses -- all of the inputs to your neural network -- and simultaneously acknowledge all of them, yet basically ignore/dismiss them (at least consciously). Unblock all of your filters and allow your subconscious neural network process everything.
Anyway, fun times, but let me know if there are other good reads about the physiology of meditation... I think relatively simple, straightforward body-hacks like this are somewhat underappreciated these days because of all of the spiritual hype (which I kinda just see as clever marketing... there's no way I could convince my 10-year-old or anyone for that matter to sit still long enough to try all of this unless he believed it would help him levitate eventually).
I would agree about the selfishness thing is insanity if you define insanity as 'outside the norm' (which I believe is the actual definition). But I would ask why should this be the norm, and if that is the case why would you want to be normal. If the majority of people were psychopaths wouldn't you prefer to be the insane person and go against the grain? I agree with you whole heartedly in your proposition that if there was no personal benefit then no one would be altruism. Now that may seem counterintuitive, but I'm pretty sure people would not donate money to causes if it on some level did not make the donator feel good about themselves, or at least less shitty about themselves (which is still an overall net gain in the 'feel good' equation). But just because this is true doesn't necessarily mean people can not also be 'selfless' when it comes to giving because I believe giving is not a zero sum equation. Ie. you may lose physical possessions someone else gains when u donate, but you do get something in return, a feel good factor or goodwill (of the accounting kind) or a better economy or what have you.
But getting back to the topic I find this article that alludes that humans are predisposed to cooperation and generosity, and only become selfish when they take time to think about the situation. interesting. How I would interpret the article is that a person would normally be cooperative but rationally acting in light of social pressures and realities we tend to arrive at a 'we got ours screw everyone else' attitude. (I personally find this a very predominate theme in most social structures such as politics for example).
Now my question to you is why should this be so. Why should we cultivate our society in a way that everyone is only looking out for themselves and not care about their neighbors. How I would describe the current societal system is that it's similar to an endothermic chemical reaction. Everyone grabs whatever they need and the reaction stops. How I would idealize society to be would be similar to an exothermic reaction. Everyone looks out for everyone else, I produce something they need they can have it, because I know in turn someone else will have my back when I need something, everyone is more productive and produces more, those who can't produce as much will still be taken care off.
Now people will start to think about problems such as if such a system is even logistically viable etcetera and I wont pretend I even have an ounce of knowledge in relation to answering that question, but my thoughts will turn to robotics and automation. When you introduce robots into the work force, people will be up in arms because they are out of the job and can no longer 'get theirs'. Why is this the case? If a small human work force can maintain a large robotic work force sufficient to produce the societies needs in terms of goods and similar services why do we need to be up in arms about losing our jobs. It's because of what I feel is an endothermic society where 'I got mine' is the norm and there is no other way to survive hence cultivating selfishness. Not because people a selfish per se, but because in order to survive the current structure of society demands it.
I guess what I am getting at is the idea is I acknowledge humans being selfish for whatever reasons is because of reality. However I question does reality need to be this way. I would guess people are going to bring up communist and socialist arguments etcetera and I do think those arguments will be valid (though what I'm suggestion doesn't really have to land exactly on either or both, I'm just acknowledging it has similar themes). However I would also suggest clarifying to yourself if you truly understand the concepts (I wont pretend I do) and if what you're arguing is whether it wont work because the system suggested is flawed, or if it won't work because while the system fundamentally sound, but humans are shitty a
Gamma wave scanner. Apply directly to the forehead. Gamma wave scanner. Apply directly to the forehead.
Was his midi-chlorians level off the chart as well?
oldhack: "Security is a waste of money until shit hits the fan. 5 minutes later, it becomes waste of money again. "
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xkmw6r_saturday-night-live-kevin-nealon-with-no-attention-span-news_fun
You've been on my foe list for years. Mostly that happens to people who are religious kooks of one sort or another.
I respect here both what you've said and how you've said it, and this is not an isolated instance. Whether or not we still have areas of disagreement, you have demonstrated a high level of rationality and compassion.
I have in some way, small perhaps, wronged you, and now apologize, and thank you for the lesson.
Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
Not the kind of bliss discussed here. Ignorance will not attain that.
Suppose *I'm* the happiest man in the world?! I deserve to win!
*I* want to be tested for happiness, too, dammit!!!!! :-(
This is soooo unfair! And that monk guy is a total loser!