Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Friday, August 10, 2007
The Brain in Love
Science is just beginning to parse the inner workings of the brain in love, examining the blissful or ruinous fall from a medley of perspectives; neural systems, chemical messengers and the biology of reward.
It was only in 200 that two London scientists selected 70 people, all in the early sizzle of love, and rolled them into the giant cylinder of a functional magnetic resonance imaging scanner, or fMRI. The images they got are thought to be science's first pictures of the brain in love.
The pictures were a revelation, and others have followed, showing that romantic love is a lot like addiction to alcohol or drugs.
Human brains are complicated, with additional neural systems that seek romance, others that want comfort and companionship, and others that are just out for a roll in the hay.
Yet the chemistry between two people is not just a matter of molecules careening around the brain, dictating feelings like some game of neuro-billiards. Attraction also involves personal history. "Our parents have an effect on us," says Helen Fisher, evolutionary anthropologist at Rutgers University who studies human attraction. "So does the school system, television, timing, mystery."
Every book ever read, and every movie ever wept through, starts changing a course toward the chosen one.
(Excerpt from 'The New Indian Express', Madurai, dated August 10, 2007)
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Little Nuggets-9: Develop Understanding and Increase Compassion
TO ESCAPE FROM SUFFERING
The Buddha tells us that if we wish to escape from suffering, we should develop understanding and increase compassion: PRAJNA and KARUNA. Prajna is the deepening of one’s awareness, making oneself into a spiritual being. Karuna is the quality in which prajna manifests itself. It is compassion for the whole of humanity.
The Buddha tells us that if we wish to escape from suffering, we should develop understanding and increase compassion: PRAJNA and KARUNA. Prajna is the deepening of one’s awareness, making oneself into a spiritual being. Karuna is the quality in which prajna manifests itself. It is compassion for the whole of humanity.
Excerpted from "Our Heritage" by Dr.S.Radhakrishnan - Orient Paperbacks, New Delhi
Saturday, August 4, 2007
Little Nuggets-8: Ingersoll on Love
"Love is the magician, the enchanter, that changes worthless things to joy, and makes right royal kings and queens of common clay. It is the perfume of that wondrous flower, the heart, and without that sacred passion, that divine swoon, we are less than beasts; but with it, earth is heaven, and we are gods." - Robert Ingersoll
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Little Nuggets-7:
If there is a child in your life, love him.
If you know an elderly person, be understanding with him or her.
If you encounter someone sick, comfort him or
If he is lonely, keep him company.
And if one who is weak crosses your path, give him strength.
Childhood, old age, sickness, loneliness and weakness, all have or will one day come your way, and it is you who will then need love, understanding, comforting, company and strength. Offer them whenever they are required of you and you will receive them when they are required of you. - Armando Fuentes Aguirre, Reforma, Mexico City (Courtesy: Reader's Digest, June 2004)(Grateful thanks to Reader's Digest)
If you know an elderly person, be understanding with him or her.
If you encounter someone sick, comfort him or
If he is lonely, keep him company.
And if one who is weak crosses your path, give him strength.
Childhood, old age, sickness, loneliness and weakness, all have or will one day come your way, and it is you who will then need love, understanding, comforting, company and strength. Offer them whenever they are required of you and you will receive them when they are required of you. - Armando Fuentes Aguirre, Reforma, Mexico City (Courtesy: Reader's Digest, June 2004)(Grateful thanks to Reader's Digest)
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