小結

僅僅瞭解同情是什麼，並不足以讓我們做出更多善舉。從體察他人痛苦到對其伸出援手，中間有一大段距離，但是慈愛冥想和同情冥想可以增加我們縮短距離的概率。同理心有三種——認知同理心、情緒同理心和同理心關懷。人們經常在情感上感受到他人的痛苦，但往往馬上停止同理心，以擺脫這種糟糕的情緒。

但是，同情冥想增強了同理心關懷，激活了我們大腦中的積極感受和愛，也讓我們能更好地感受他人的痛苦，讓人準備好去幫助遭難之人。同情冥想和慈愛冥想提高了大腦杏仁核對於痛苦的敏感度，同時將注意力放在呼吸這樣中性的事情上，降低杏仁核的活躍度。慈愛冥想見效快，只需8個小時就能初見成效，而且人們練習的時間越長，大腦和行為越傾向於同情。冥想在初期的影響有著很大的作用，使我們為行善做好生物性準備。

[1] “沙漠之父”們是早期的基督教隱士，2世紀時居住在遙遠的埃及沙漠地區。他們主要通過背誦一條基督教口頭禪——“Kyrie Eleison”（希臘語，意為“仁慈的主”）進行宗教實踐。這些隱士的習俗是後來修士和修女遵循的基督教教條的前身，如今居住在阿託斯島上的東正教修士仍然一遍遍地念著“Kyrie Eleison”。據史書記載，來自埃及的基督教修士自7世紀起就定居在阿託斯島上。Helen Waddell, The Desert Fathers (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1957).

[2] 為了對促進或阻礙利他行為的條件進行全面而系統的評估，我們設置了“好撒瑪利亞人”實驗。Daniel Batson, Altruism in Humans (New York:Oxford University Press, 2011).

[3] Sharon Salzberg, Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness (Boston:Shambhala, 2002).

[4] 研究人員發現，自我批評並非抑鬱症患者的專利，而是伴隨著種種情緒問題出現。像研究者一樣，我們也樂意看到這樣的研究成果：冥想訓練增強了一個人的自我同情，同時在他的腦回路中發生了相應的轉變。參見：Ben Shahar, “A Wait-List Randomized Controlled Trial of Loving Kindness Meditation Programme for Self-Criticism,” Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy (2014); doi: 10.1002/cpp.1893。

[5] 例如，參見：Jean Decety, “The Neurodevelopment of Empathy,”Developmental Neuroscience 32 (2010), 257-67。

[6] Olga Klimecki et al., “Functional Neural Plasticity and Associated Changes in Positive Affect after Compassion Training,” Cerebral Cortex 23:7 (July 2013):1552-61.

[7] Olga Klimecki et al., “Differential Pattern of Functional Brain Plasticity after Compassion and Empathy Training,” Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 9:6 (June 2014): 873-79; doi:10.1093/scan/nst060.

[8] Thich Nhat Hanh, “The Fullness of Emptiness,” Lion’s Roar, August 6, 2012.

[9] Gaelle Desbordes, “Effects of Mindful-Attention and Compassion Meditation Training on Amygdala Response to Emotional Stimuli in an Ordinary, Non Meditative State,” Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 6:292 (2012):1-15;doi:10.399/fnhum.2012.00292.

[10] Cendri A. Hutcherson et al., “Loving-Kindness Meditation Increases Social Connectedness,” Emotion 8:5 (2008): 720-24.

[11] Helen Y. Weng et al., “Compassion Training Alters Altruism and Neural Responses to Auffering,” Psychological Science, published online May 21,2013; http:/pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/05/20/0956797612469537.

[12] Julieta Galante, “Loving-Kindness Meditation Effects on Well-Being and Altruism: A Mixed-Methods Online RCT,” Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being (2016); doi:10.1111/aphw.12074.

[13] Antoine Lutz et al., “Regulation of the Neural Circuitry of Emotion by Compassion Meditation: Effects of Meditative Expertise,” PLoS One 3:3(2008): e1897; doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0001897.

[14] J. A. Brefczynski-Lewis et al., “Neural Correlates of Attentional Expertise in Long-Term Meditation Practitioners,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104:27 (2007): 11483-88.

[15] Clifford Saron, presentation at the Second International Conference on Contemplative Science, San Diego, November 2016.

[16] Abigail A. Marsh et al., “Neural and Cognitive Characteristics of Extraordinary Altruist,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 111:42 (2014):15036-41; doi: 10.1073/pnas.1408440111.

[17] 多種因素的共同作用促成了利他主義，其中，感同身受的能力是最重要的一個因素。當然，腎臟捐獻者的大腦結構是獨特的，冥想者的大腦變化不及腎臟捐獻者那般強烈和持久。參見：Desbordes, “Effects of Mindful-Attention and Compassion Meditation Training on Amygdala Response to Emotional Stimuli in an Ordinary, Non-Meditative State,” 2012.

[18] Tania Singer and Olga Klimecki, “Empathy and Compassion,” Current Biology 24:15 (2014): R875-R878.

[19] Weng et al., “Compassion Training Alters Altruism and Neural Responses to Suffering,” 2013.

[20] Tania Singer et al., “Empathy for Pain Involves the Affective but Not Sensory Components of Pain,” Science 303:5661 (2004): 1157-62; doi: 10.1126/science.1093535.

[21] Klimecki et al., “Funtional Neural Plasticity and Associated Changes in Positive Affect after Compassion Training.”

[22] Bethany E. Kok and Tania Singer, “Phenomenological Fingerprints of Four Meditations: Differential State Changes in Affect, Mind-Wandering, Meta Cognition, and Interoception Before and After Daily Practice Across 9 Months of Training,” Mindfulness, published online August 19, 2016; doi: 10.1007/s12671-016-0594-9.

[23] Yoni Ashar et al., “Effects of Compassion Meditation on a Psychological Model of Charitable Donation,” Emotion, published online March 28, 2016;http:///dx.doi.org/10.1037/emo0000119.

[24] Paul Condon et al., “Meditation Increases Compassionate Response to Suffering,” Psychological Science 24:10 (August 2013): 1171-80;doi:10.1177/095679761385603.

[25] 例如，參見：Derntl et al., “Multidimensional Assessment of Empathic Abilities: Neural Correlates and Gender Differences,” Psychoneuroimmunology 35 (2010): 67-82.

[26] L. Christov-Moore et al., “Empathy: Gender Effects in Brain and Behavior,”Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 4:46 (2014): 604-27; doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2014.09.001.Empathy.

[27] M. P. Espinosa and J. Kovářík, “Prosocial Behavior and Gender,” Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 9 (2015): 1-9; doi:10.3389/fnbeh.2015.00088.

[28] A. J. Greenwald and M. R. Banaji, “Implicit Social Cognition: Attitudes,Self-Esteem, and Stereotypes,” Psychology Review 102:1 (1995): 4-27;doi:10.1037/0033-295X.102.1.4.

[29] Y. Kang et al., “The Nondiscriminating Heart: Lovingkindness Meditation Training Decreases Implicit Intergroup Bias,” Journal of Experimental Psychology 143:3 (2014): 1306-13; doi:10.1037/a0034150.