Salon offers up an interesting article this morning questioning the way Madoff’s mind works.

I suspect we all wonder what, if anything, Madoff feels when directly confronted by those he has utterly destroyed. He cooked the books and perpetually lied to his investors. He pulled off the ongoing deception with an utter insensitivity to others. If shown videos of interviews of his victims, would he wince, laugh or simply shrug dismissively and say, “There’s a sucker born every minute.”

I’ve wondered about this myself. Aside from “what was he thinking?” I’ve been equally interested in “how was he thinking?”

If there’s any single attribute that separates Madoff from the average Wall Street thief, I’d suggest that it’s his extraordinary ability to read what others think and desire, and especially to know what will give them the greatest satisfaction.

And then:

From a neurological perspective, a prime candidate for how we learn how others think is the mirror neuron system. In turn, it’s been proposed that this ability to read the mind of another makes it possible for us to experience empathy toward others. We know what they’re thinking and feeling and this triggers a similar response in us.

So where is the Buddhist flavor in any of this?

Behavioral neurologist V.S. Ramachandran has referred to mirror neurons as “empathy neurons” or “Dalai Lama neurons.” He believes this system, by allowing us to understand the intentions and desires of others, is the principal driving force behind “the great leap forward” in human evolution. As a result of such claims, the mirror neuron system has risen to the level of accepted folk psychology. According to U.C. Berkeley psychologist Alison Gopnik, “Mirror neurons have become the ‘left brain/right brain’ of the 21st century.”

Bows, Salon.

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In this podcast, Michael shares his view of what it means to no longer oppose anything. Rather than letting this guide us into a bland state of dormancy and avoidance, non-opposition helps us engage more constructively in life.

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Digital Dharma offers us a cool link to a discussion on merging Buddhist practice with economics.

Chances are, your college economics course didn’t involve much meditation. But after completing a fellowship at the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society, Amherst College economics professor Daniel Barbezat decided to introduce meditation, along with other Buddhist practices, into his course on “consumption and the pursuit of happiness.” More here.

via Economics 101 Meets Buddhism – Alpha Consumer (usnews.com).

I guess I timed my last podcast well…

New Haven Register: A Yale psychiatrist is bringing together neuroscience and Buddhist practices to help people overcome their addictions. Dr. Judson A. Brewer has conducted studies with alcoholics and cocaine addicts and now is beginning research to help people quit smoking.

The article goes on:

Addicts use their drug or substance of choice to relieve stress and tension, Brewer said, and that behavior becomes habitual. “Everybody forms habits based on their prior experiences,” Brewer said. “Those habits inform how we approach each new situation.”

This begs the question: what about being addicted to the primacy of a separate sense of self? Or to a particular viewpoint?

[Brewer] practices the Theravadan school that focuses solely on the Buddha’s teachings, rejecting traditions and beliefs added on by later branches.

Bows,  Wildmind Buddhist Meditation.

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In this podcast, Michael discusses the most primal of all addictions. The addiction to our sense of being a separate self defines what Buddhists call delusion. Our tendency to depend on our self-created stories about what is true and what is not true generates our suffering, according to Michael. But it is our ability to see through these stories that lets us uproot them at their source, thus allowing for us to be free of them. Freedom from our addictions to these various stories lets us source our behavior and activity from a place of depth and openness.

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Click HERE, or on the player below, in order to listen to Michael’s talk.
Get the new iTunes software and subscribe to this podcast from the Buddhist and/or Philosophy sections of the Religion & Spirituality list.
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In this podcast, Michael discusses the practice with a group of beginners. Issues concerning the simplicity of bowing, the wonder of his baby daughters vomiting, and the reminder of how short our time together actually is.

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According to the Denver Post, the Agile Group, headed by longtime Dharma supporter Neal Greenberg, has been rocked by Bernard Madoff’s swindle. This could have dire implications for Shambhala.

Another potential victim of Agile’s collapse is Shambhala International, which is listed as an under-5-percent owner in the Agile Group, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

[Neal] Greenberg taught a course on wealth, meditation and livelihood at the Shambhala Center in Boulder and has close ties to the local Buddhist community, according to the center’s website.

Bows, Denver Post and elephantjournal.

Here’s an interesting post. Dr. Susan Corso offers some advice that sounds like something that could come from The Secret:

It’s time to BLESS THE ECONOMY, and quit winging and moaning about how bad it all is. Now don’t misunderstand me. I’m not in denial. It’s bad, that’s a fact, but it is not made so much as a smidgeon better by continuing to moan about it.

I agree. Let go of the story of some future doom and stay present with what is, then engage. But she takes her readers into an interesting bit of terrain where the ego usually takes over:

I look at blessing as an investment in our world. What I bless increases. Bless the economy. Withdraw your projections of fear on our world fiscal system. Bless the economy. Stop resisting our resistant elected representatives. Bless the economy.

Again, nice points, all of them… as long as the ego (or the “I”) isn’t doing the blessing. Otherwise we have yet another case of a limited view seeing itself as Absolute.

This may sound odd, but the small self loves to bless things and then think that positive outcomes are somehow correlated to its inherent Divinity. Of course the ego is inherently Divine, just like all other things, but when it clings to this recognition it defiles an otherwise non-egoic offering. Instead of, for example, the non-egoic “Blessing all things,” Dr. Corso seems to recommend that we offer the egoic version of “I bless this” or “I bless that” or, by extension, “I won’t bless that.” The latter version of blessing is divided, and as such can’t help but give rise to an ego that thinks it’s wearing the Robe of Awakening.

Bows, Intent.com.