It’s as if long-term meditatorsview pain as a neutral event, not an emotional ordeal. In...

[narrator] It’s as if long-term meditators
view pain as a neutral event, not an emotional ordeal. In 1963, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk
named Thich Quang Duc set himself on fire
to protest the ruling regime. A reporter wrote,
“As he burned he never moved a muscle, never uttered a sound.” When most of us see
a disturbing image like this, our amygdalas light up and tell us this
is something that we should focus on. But a study found that the more
meditation experience someone has, the less their amygdalas react
to these kinds of images. That could be because the connection between the emotional part
and the regulatory part of the brain has been strengthened
by mindfulness training. Expert meditators, like all of us, can’t fully control what happens
in their lives, but they have much better control over
how they respond. And that can be a powerful tool
when tensions are high. [woman] How can you
have something happen and