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Acceptance Of Meditation Widens
June 12, 2009 by Ray Baskerville · 1 Comment
Meditation is becoming increasingly mainstream. A 2007 survey by the government found that about 1 out of 11 Americans, that’s more than 20 million people, meditated in the past year. This widening acceptance of meditation is also reflected in a growing number of medical centers teaching meditation to patients for relief of pain and stress. More than 240 programs in clinics and hospitals teach mindfulness meditation.
This widening acceptance has much to do with the continuing research into the effects and benefits of meditation. The first scientific research on meditation began at Yale University in the 1930s. Research over the next 4 decades was sporadic and focused on experienced Yoga and Zen masters. In the 1970’s researchers really began in earnest to look into the effects of meditation in quantifiable detail.
Numerous studies have shown evidence that practicing meditation can ease pain, improve concentration and immune function, lower blood pressure, curb anxiety and insomnia, and even help prevent depression. The latest research tools, such as brain imaging scans, show how meditation can have surprising effects.
In a brain-scan study of meditators who have practiced for a long-time was compared with a control group that never meditated. Brain scanning showed the meditators had increased thickness in areas of the brain associated with attention and with sensitivity to internal sensations of the body. A consequence of this is greater awareness of the body’s responses to external stimuli. For example stressful conditions would be noticed as tension in the body and shortening of the breath.
Another UCLA study published in May found that, in comparison with a control group that didn’t meditate, meditators’ brains have larger volume in areas important for attention, focus and regulating emotion. They also have more gray matter, which could sharpen mental function, according to study leader and neuroscientist, Eileen Luders.
Scientist argue that nobody knows if these meditators brains were already different. According to Richard Davidson, a pioneering meditation researcher and neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin, while studies have improved, most still need to be bigger and have good control groups.
His research shows that even novice meditators have greater activation in a part of the brain tied to well-being. The more activation, the greater their antibody response to a flu vaccine, which makes the vaccine more protective. By changing the brain, meditation could affect many biological processes, he says.
The proof is in the pudding, as they say, and today millions of people will testify to the value and benefit of meditation in their lives, scientist will continue to explore and understand why.
Another manifestation of this widening acceptance is in schools. In scattered locations across the USA, children are learning meditation at school to tangible benefit.
Steve Reidman, a fourth-grade teacher in North Hollywood, CA, reports that teaching meditation to children has helped curb fighting and also sharpening students focus. "You can just watch them breathe deeply and settle down rather than lashing out."
Another study showed that Los Angeles preschoolers ability to pay attention and focus improved after they were taught meditation.
As research expands, scientists expect to understand more of the benefits of meditation. Meanwhile, for those who don’t need scientific proof to know they benefit… assume the position!
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Meditation Improves Insomnia & Depression
June 10, 2009 by Ray Baskerville · Leave a Comment
Meditation may be an effective remedy in treating insomnia, according to new research.
Dr. Ramadevi Gourineni, principal study investigator and director of the insomnia programme at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Illinois, says insomnia is thought to be a 24-hour problem of hyper-arousal. As such, elevated measures of arousal are seen throughout the day. By teaching people how to relax and clear their minds during the day, they sleep better at night.
"Results of the study show that teaching deep relaxation techniques during the daytime can help improve sleep at night," said Dr. Gourineni.
The study collected data from 11 healthy subjects between the ages of 25 and 45 years who suffered from chronic primary insomnia. Participants were divided into two intervention groups for two months.
The first group was taught Kriya Yoga, a form of meditation that is used to focus internalized attention and has been shown to reduce measures of arousal. The second group received health education.
Both groups received sleep hygiene education; members of the health education group also received information about health-related topics and how to improve health through exercise, nutrition, weight loss and stress management.
The results certainly suggested that participants had improvements in subjective sleep quality. The meditation group experienced improvements in sleep quality and quantity, according to their sleep diaries. They also took less time to fall asleep, slept longer, woke fewer times, over all had better sleep quality and had fewer symptoms of depression.
Findings of this study were presented at SLEEP 2009, the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies.
Another new report gives further evidence to support that Meditation may reduce depression
For people struggling with severe depression, practicing meditation may offer mood-lifting benefits. In a recent pilot study, researchers randomly assigned 28 people dealing with depression (all of whom had previous depression episodes and thoughts of suicide) to two groups: One group continued their usual treatment, while the other paired standard care with mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (or MBCT, a healing approach that combines mindfulness meditation with cognitive behavior therapy). Results showed that symptoms of depression decreased from severe to mild levels in the MBCT group, but remained the same in the group of participants receiving conventional care only.
Even in the most severe cases, depression is a highly treatable disorder. While it’s critical to work with a physician in treating depression, certain self-care strategies—such as exercising regularly, practicing yoga, and using nutritional therapy—may produce mood-improving effects and ease depression symptoms.
“You are a Spiritual being having a human experience" Living Liberation is the missing manual Find out morePrayer, Meditation, And Contemplation
May 28, 2009 by Ray Baskerville · Leave a Comment
Mysticism is a wide spectrum, involving many different facets and outlets for the experiencing of the Ultimate. The most common and prevalent in Western culture are the practices of prayer, meditation, and contemplation. By examining Kenneth Leech`s ideas on prayer as a window to our true nature, Kierkegaard`s idea that God is the criterion in each person`s process of becoming, and Thomas Merton`s ideas on contemplation as the prerequisite for positive action, this paper will claim that mystical experiences such as prayer, meditation, and contemplation are essential practices for those seeking spiritual completeness and progressive action, even for contemporary college students who feel they have no time for such practices.
Before an understanding can exist of the significance of prayer, one must first understand what prayer is. Leech writes that To know God is to know one`s own true Self, the ground of one`s being. So prayer is an intensely human experience in which our eyes are opened and we begin to see more clearly our own true nature. Prayer, then, starts with the Self. One must look within him or herself and have a genuine desire to commune with the Ultimate before that person can engage in a true prayer. God resides in each person uniquely; so to open up a communication with Him is to look within oneself and understand the subject`s true nature which has been constructed by God. This true nature is the essence of the subject aside from temptation and weakness. It is the ideal that resides in each person, and this ideal, as Kierkegaard says, is God.
Read the complete article here
5 Months On Silent Retreat
May 19, 2009 by Ray Baskerville · Leave a Comment
Jay Michaelson has been a law professor, magazine editor, and the director of national nonprofit organization. A student Yale Law School, founder of a successful dot-com software company, and author of three books. Last year, he decided to spend five months on silent meditation retreat, mostly in Nepal……..
"What, my friends have asked (at least the ones who didn’t think I’d lost my mind), is it like to spend five months without talking, writing, or even updating my facebook status? Short answer: not what you’d expect, but more powerful.
First of all, not talking is the easy part. You don’t go crazy, and you don’t forget how to speak. (The silence was never absolute, either; I had a ten-minute interview with my teacher every day.) There’s just not that much to say anyway, when all you’re doing is sitting and walking, and noticing the moment-to-moment sensations of whatever is going on. Eventually, the silence becomes second nature — even for someone like me.
Much harder than not talking, though, is not thinking. In the form of Buddhist meditation I practiced, vipassana, or "insight," meditation, the objective is neither to indulge thought nor to suppress it, but simply to let it be, along with everything else. Thoughts arise, thoughts pass, and the job of the meditator is just to notice them and move on. In this way, it’s possible to gradually unlearn the habitual tendency to grab onto pleasant perceptions, thoughts, and feelings and push away bad ones. The Buddha, my teachers, and I have found that some measure of liberation eventually results.
Easier said than done, of course. In practice, it’s just about impossible to stop thinking. This, itself, is an important lesson: that the mind is not under our control. Nor does it naturally stay on lofty topics like the meaning of life, the universe and everything. I often daydreamed of utterly meaningless drivel — I must’ve rehashed the plots of the Star Wars saga a hundred times over the five months of retreat, for reasons which still escape me. (I think it had something to do with meditation training being a lot like Jedi training, but who knows.) All this without any intention from me.
It’s at this point in the story that most of my friends usually roll their eyes and say that the whole thing sounds crazy. However, having emerged from five months of silence, I can safely say that it was among the sanest things I’ve ever done. Not the easiest, to be sure, but infinitely more balanced, awake, and instructive than the chatter-filled world I live in most of the time.
Eventually, you see, the noise really did subside, and the mind started to relax. This is the trick: that in meditation, every goal is achieved by giving up on it. The more force one applies, the more resistance arises in response. On the other hand, the more letting-go, the more letting-be — the more peacefulness, clarity, and awareness.
Once again, this is easier said than done, because for several billion years, we’ve evolved the basic instinct to hold onto the pleasant and push away the unpleasant. If we didn’t do this, we wouldn’t eat, run away from predators, fight when necessary, or reproduce. Natural selection does not favor Buddhism. So while "letting go" may sound pleasant and relaxing, it runs against aeons of biological conditioning."
“You are a Spiritual being having a human experience" Living Liberation is the missing manual Find out moreMay Is Meditation Month
May 17, 2009 by Ray Baskerville · 1 Comment
I just read somewhere that May is meditation month - who knew? I have no idea who decided or why, but why not. So to celebrate I thought I’d post the top ten most popular articles on meditation on LifeDivine. Leave a comment to let me know which is your favourite, and if there is a meditation issue you’d like me to write on?
1: Benefits Of Meditation - Physical Health
2: 20 Meditation Tips For Beginners
5: Meditation Benefits - Psychological
6: Meditation Fun & Fantastic Facts
8: Overcoming Objections To Meditation
9: Meditation Is Training For Life
10: Meditation - As Good As Sleep?
“You are a Spiritual being having a human experience" Living Liberation is the missing manual Find out more
Meditation Of A Spiritual Warrior
May 16, 2009 by Ray Baskerville · Leave a Comment
This is a wonderful 14th Century Samurai Warrior meditation. The author is unknown, but it is a timeless jewel of wisdom that can inspire you to discover the Spiritual Warrior inside of you.
I have no parents:
I make the heaven and earth my parents.
I have no home:
I make awareness my home.
I have no life and death:
I make the tides of breathing my life and death.
I have no divine powers:
I make honesty my divine power.
I have no means:
I make understanding my means.
I have no secrets:
I make character my secret.
I have no body:
I make endurance my body.
I have no strategy:
I make "unshadowed by thought" my strategy.
I have no design:
I make "seizing opportunity by the forelock" my design.
I have no miracles:
I make right action my miracle.
I have no principles:
I make adaptability to all circumstances my principle.
I have no tactics:
I make emptiness and fullness my tactics.
I have no talent:
I make ready wit my talent.
I have no friends:
I make my mind my friend.
I have no enemy:
I make carelessness my enemy.
I have no armor:
I make benevolence and righteousness my armor.
I have no castle:
I make immovable mind my castle.
I have no sword:
I make absence of self my sword.
The idea of the spiritual warrior is one much prone to misunderstanding, especially for those who like shaolin monk kung fu movies!It is though a principle that I feel quite strongly, because my own experience of spiritual evolution is that it takes a great deal of courage.
When we choose meditation, not as a form of stress management, emotional management manifesting technique, or any one of the numerous other applications that use the term these days, but as a means to sit with the darkness, fear and rage within in us, it takes a warriors courage to keep returning to that place and meditate as a means of transforming these illusions of separation.
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Meditate For A Bigger Brain
May 12, 2009 by Ray Baskerville · 2 Comments
A group of researchers at UCLA using high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to scan the brains of people who meditate have found that meditation builds a bigger brain. In a study published in the journal NeuroImage and currently available online (by subscription), the researchers show that certain areas in the brains of long-term meditators were larger than in a similar control group.
Specifically, meditators showed significantly larger size oat the hippocampus and areas within the orbito-frontal cortex, the thalamus and the inferior temporal gyrus — all regions known for regulating emotions.
"We know that people who consistently meditate have a singular ability to cultivate positive emotions, retain emotional stability and engage in mindful behavior," said Eileen Luders, lead author and a postdoctoral research fellow at the UCLA Laboratory of Neuro Imaging. "The observed differences in brain anatomy might give us a clue why meditators have these exceptional abilities."
Research has confirmed the benefits of meditation. As well as having better focus and control over their emotions, many who meditate regularly have distinctly lower levels of stress and stronger immune systems. Research on the link between meditation and brain structure is a newer field of discovery.
The study consisted of 44 people — 22 control subjects and 22 who had practiced various forms of meditation, including Zazen, Samatha and Vipassana, among others. The amount of time they had practiced ranged from five to 46 years, with an average of 24 years.
Over fifty percent of the meditators said that deep concentration was an integral part of their practice, and most meditated between 10 and 90 minutes every day.
Two different approaches were used to measure differences in brain structure. One automatically divides the brain into several regions of interest, allowing researchers to compare the size of certain brain structures. The other divides the brain into different tissue types, allowing researchers to compare the amount of actual tissue within specific regions of the brain.
They found significantly larger cerebral measurements in meditators compared with controls. There were no regions where controls had significantly larger volumes or more gray matter than meditators.
Because these areas of the brain are closely linked to emotion, a researcher said, "these might be the neuronal underpinnings that give meditators’ the outstanding ability to regulate their emotions and allow for well-adjusted responses to whatever life throws their way."
What’s not known, she said, and will require further study, are what the specific correlates are on a microscopic level — that is, whether it’s an increased number of neurons, the larger size of the neurons or a particular "wiring" pattern meditators may develop that other people don’t.
Because this was not a longitudinal study — which would have tracked meditators from the time they began meditating onward — it’s possible that the meditators already had more regional gray matter and volume in specific areas; that may have attracted them to meditation in the first place, Luders said.
However, she also noted that numerous previous studies have pointed to the brain’s remarkable plasticity and how environmental enrichment has been shown to change brain structure.
Adapted from material on http://www.ucla.edu/
“You are a Spiritual being having a human experience" Living Liberation is the missing manual Find out more
Mindfullness Meditation - Jon Kabat-Zinn
May 8, 2009 by Ray Baskerville · 1 Comment
Jon Kabat-Zinn is a man who speaks my language. I’ve never read anything by him, but he has crossed my radar a few times recently so I explored a bit and found this short talk. He says in the talk that he never says anything different, and in many ways anyone talking about mind and meditation are mostly saying the same thing. It doesn’t really matter how many times you hear that the mind is pretty much always in the past or projecting from the past into the future and very rarely present in this moment. Until you start to use a practice like meditation to discover the nature of mindfullness of the now, it will remain just another idea.
The idea of mindfullness can also be taken to the point of narcissistic self indulgance, just as any spiritual practice can, thats why it’s a practice.
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8 Major Meditation Misunderstandings
May 5, 2009 by Ray Baskerville · 8 Comments
Misunderstanding #1 Meditation is stopping thinking and having a blank mind.
This is probably the number one misunderstanding about meditation - that meditation is to “stop thinking.” Certainly, a benefit of long term meditation is a reduction in the the amount of thinking that goes on, and that is great. The inane, repetitive and usually negative chatter of thoughts that jump one to another in their minds is one of the first things people new to meditation are confronted by.
But what would a blank mind mean? The confusion arises because we are most of the time identify with our mental thoughts (our inner monologue) and we believe it is reporting the truth of our experience. So a blank mind is assumed to be the absence of thought. But the vastness of mind encompasses so much more that thought.
In meditation we aim to develop mindfulness, that’s the
“You are a Spiritual being having a human experience" Living Liberation is the missing manual Find out moreTibetan Buddhist Meditation - Treatment For Memory Loss?
April 29, 2009 by Ray Baskerville · Leave a Comment
Normally when we see something, it is kept in our visual short-term memory for only a brief amount of time (images will begin to fade in a matter of seconds). However, there have been reports of Buddhist monks who have exceptional imagery skills and are able to maintain complex images in their visual short-term memory for minutes, and sometimes even hours. Led by psychologist Maria Kozhevnikov of George Mason University, a team of researchers investigated the effects of different styles of Buddhist meditation on visuospatial skills.
The researchers focused on two styles of meditation: Deity Yoga (DY) and Open Presence (OP). During DY meditation, the practitioner focuses intently on an image of deity and his or her entourage. This requires coming up with an immensely detailed, three-dimensional image of the deity, and also focusing on the deity’s emotions and environment. In contrast, practitioners of OP meditation believe that pure awareness cannot be achieved by focusing on a specific image and therefore, they attempt to evenly distribute their attention while meditating, without dwelling on or analyzing any experiences, images, or thoughts that may arise.
Read the complete article here
Or take a look at the same story in the New Scientist and find out what the Dalai Lamas role was in how the experiment came about. Dalai Lama’s brain challenge produces split decision
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