A short piece on the value of meditation, too shrift of good research discussion, earns a letter.
To the Editor;
In his fascinating study on the value of meditation ("The morality of meditation" July 6, 2013), David Desteno misses, for this educator, a more encouraging reason why his participants exhibited compassion: simply participating in the study made them more attuned to those around them.
Their compassion might not "... stem directly from meditation’s ability to dissolve the artificial social distinctions — ethnicity, religion, ideology and the like — that divide us," Rather, being part of a specific group - as members of in a study on meditation - may have induced the participants to engage with the world around, regardless of any consequence from their mindfulness work.
I try to encourage my students to embrace more fully in their social world as part of their training to become teachers. It is hopeful to learn that simply by doing so, they may become more empathetic, and thus better serve their students.
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