Dr. Richard Davidson

They told us, well, I need to meditate, but many others are just born or they just naturally have these qualities.

They don't need to meditate as much as me.

I'm just a simple poor monk who really needs to do this because I'm inferior to those people, if you will.

And it's kind of modesty but also there may be some truth to that.

And so I think that that is real but I also think that the qualities like for example kindness, I believe and this is the subject of this new book that I wrote with my colleague Cortland Dahl, Born to Flourish, qualities like kindness are innate.

They are part of our innate repertoire.

But in order for them to be expressed, they require nurturing.

And it's very similar to the way scientists talk about language.

Language is innate.

I think most scientists would agree with that.

But we know that there have been case studies, for example, of feral children who were raised in the wild and they don't develop normal language.

So in order for the language to develop normally, it requires nurturing of some kind.

And kindness is the same thing, it requires nurturing in order for it to be expressed.

And similarly for other qualities that we're cultivating when we meditate, I think those qualities are innate, but they require nurturing.

And in certain cases I think that in order for those qualities to really be expressed at high levels, if you will, intentional nurturing may be required.

for at least the vast majority of people.

There may be statistically very rare people who emerge who are like this from the start for whatever reason.

But for most of us, I think this kind of nurturing is important.

So I do have a theory about it, which I'll share.

But before I do that, let me just say that I often use the analogy of brushing our teeth.