The concepts of mindfulness and meditation are becoming more and more mainstream thanks to fMRI machines. These functional MRI machines allow scientists to see the parts of the brain that are being used when one is meditating and in a deep state of concentration, when time and place fall away and we no longer define ourselves as “I” and when we are cultivating loving-kindness. But research on loving-kindness is also being done on a less technical level.
In the Buddhist tradition, we cultivate loving-kindness in preparation for wisdom. The ancients knew that one does not occur without the other and now there is research that may support that.
Recent work by Brian Hare suggests that dogs may have more intelligence then chimps even though chimps are considered more sophisticated animals.
But chimps can’t understand even basic human gesturing, like pointing, but dogs can. If you have two cups with food underneath one and you point to the cup with food, the dog will go and get that treat. But to understand this requires cognitive abilities; that there is an animal that has something I don’t and that that animal is trying to communicate to me.
In 1959, Dmitry Belyaev gathered wild foxes in Russia and kept a group as a control and bred the other group for kindness. Only the foxes that were nicest to the humans – those that would approach without fear or aggression – got a chance to mate. Over many generations of breeding for kindness, he found that only the group of foxes who were bred for “niceness” understood pointing. The control group did not.
Wolves did this breeding naturally over many generations. Those that approached human settlements looking for scraps and were less fearful and aggressive were rewarded with food from the humans. Over time, those wolves became our dogs.
In both these situations, intelligence followed naturally in those animals that were ” nice”. Even though chimps are smarter than dogs in many ways, Brian Hare, the Duke scientist that proposes this theory, says that the chimps are also more emotionally volatile. This interferes with cooperation, even when it’s in the chimp’s own interest.
Hare suggests that our species first learned to tolerate each other, to be kind and patient enough to cooperate and that this is what led to language, tools and civilization.
Imagine what our world might look like if we all were kind – cooperation and wisdom would abound!
Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries.
Without them, humanity cannot survive.
– His Holiness the Dalai Lama
