meditation

MEDITATION BASICS

Prayer – we are full and we talk, we ask.
Meditation – we are empty and we listen, we receive.
To listen click on the following links:

Part One - Science,    Part Two - Art.      Part 3 - Practice,
Meditation: A Safe Place
Welcome to a brief introduction to the art, and the science, of meditation. To
many people the word ‘meditation’ evokes an image of someone sitting in a full lotus
position, eyes closed, hands resting on the knees with palms facing upward and
thumb and middle fingers touching, humming OMMMMM. And truly, yes, this is
meditation, that is it is a form of meditation, an ancient practice long associated with
India and the East. But meditation is more than an individual form or technique.

What is meditation? The Encyclopedia Britannica describes it as a ‘private
devotion or mental exercise consisting of innumerable techniques of concentration,
contemplation, and abstraction, regarded as conducive to heightened spiritual
awareness or somatic calm, occurring worldwide since ancient times in a variety of
contexts.’ That is a good, broad, working definition but for the purpose of this
presentation I am going to go a little further and describe it as the art of bringing all
the aspects of being human, mind-body-spirit, into alignment in a condition of
stillness and rest.

As an art it is open to interpretation and personal design. It is the opposite of
multi-tasking where we are shattered and scattered to the winds in the pursuit of
goals whose purpose we often lose sight of in our great rush of energies and
instead instructs us to do nothing but be.

But we are Western and we like science, things that can be measured, replicated,
and clearly labeled and so I will begin with some reports of scientific studies of the
practice of meditating and its benefits.

The Science
Most recently work being conducted by Dr. Richard Davidson at the Laboratory
for Affective Neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has received
national attention. Dr. Richardson was selected by Time Magazine as one of the
people who shape our world for 2006 and the lab’s research was featured in the
January 16th issue of that same magazine. In addition, a documentary, with the
title The New Medicine, and featuring the lab’s research and its contribution to
the growing field of mind-body medicine, aired on PBS on March 29th of this year.

The laboratory is engaged in a broad research program on the brain mechanisms
connected with emotions and their regulation. It also studies the mechanisms of
mind-brain-body interaction. As part of the work on promoting enhanced
resilience to emotional challenge they have, over the last ten years, extensively
studied meditation.

Davidson’s best known work focuses on neuroplasticity, the capacity of the brain
to develop and change throughout life. He has been able to demonstrate
precisely how meditation alters brain function by linking Tibetan Buddhist monks
to the objective reality of electrical activity in the central nervous system. With the
aid of brain scanning technology, Positron Emission Tomography or PET scan
and Functional magnetic Resonance Imagery or MRI, he has found that Buddhist
style meditation in Western patients has the potential to cause physiological
changes in the brain and immune system. For example, his work identifies the left
prefrontal cortex, an area of the brain behind the left forehead as a locus of neural
activity strongly associated with deep meditation. By identifying interactions
between the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala, a key center for processing
memory and emotion, his work opens the way for possible new approaches for
treating mood and anxiety disorders. It is hoped it may also reveal strategies for
dealing with age-related memory loss and cognitive decline.

For decades, scientific research in this country has focused on short-term effects
of meditation on the nervous system, finding that meditation reduces markers of
stress like heart rate and perspiration. This research became the basis of the
‘relaxation response’ written about by Dr. Herbert Benson of Harvard.
Buddhist practice, however, emphasizes enduring changes in mental activity and it
is the neural and physical impact of long term change that has become intriguing to
scientists. Researchers from Yale, Harvard, Massachusetts General Hospital,
and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology published a new research study in
the November 2005 issue of NeuroReport. The report shows that meditation is
associated with increased cortical thickness in areas of the brain that are important
for sensory, cognitive and emotional processing.

Magnetic resonance imaging showed that the regular practice of meditation is
associated as well with increased thickness in a subset of cortical regions related to
auditory, visual and internal perception, such as heart rate or breathing. The
researchers also found that regular meditation may slow age-related thinning of the
frontal cortex. Significantly the study participants were Boston-area workers with
families who practiced a Western style mindfulness, or insight, meditation for a total
of 40 minutes a day.

The Art
Before we get down to the basic “how to” introduction to meditation practice it is
important to differentiate between two major forms of meditation – concentrative
and mindfulness. Concentrative meditation focuses on repressing or transcending
the mental chatter that is continually running in our heads. Transcendental
Meditation is the most well known of this form. TM originated in an ancient Vedic
tradition of India and is practiced for 20 minutes, twice a day, with the eyes closed.
The technique is taught, for a fee, in a 7 step process which includes an
introductory lecture, personal interview and instruction and checking afterwards to
verify the technique was learned properly. In this approach you focus attention on
one thing, a mantra which is a special sound or phrase you repeat silently to
yourself. The intent is to prevent distracting thoughts from entering the mind.

Mindfulness meditation, on the other hand, recognizes the distracting thought
without reacting to it or judging it, identifies it objectively and then lets it go. It
originated in Buddhism and is sometimes called Zen meditation or vipassana,
meaning insight meditation.   It is based on the concept of having an increased
awareness of the present. It is thought that this helps those who practice it
experience the thoughts and emotions in normal daily life with greater balance and
acceptance. In order to calm the mind the focus is placed on the flow of breath in
and out of the body. Both of these types of meditation are being studied in
research projects sponsored by the National Center for Complementary and
Alternative Medicine. It is mindfulness meditation that we will be describing here.

We’ll start with “intention”. As with any art the results are best if your intention is
to embrace the practice fully for the length of time you decide to give it and if you
give it enough time to manifest the essence of the experience. In other words,
suspend disbelief, be patient with the practice and with yourself, and allow the
experience to happen freely.

We’re going to talk about setting, posture and breathing. As you develop the
habit of meditating in a style that you feel comfortable and at home with, the
setting becomes less important, but in the beginning it requires some attention.
You want a location that will offer the least amount of distracting sights, sounds
and smells as possible. One of the reasons for the use of incense, music, and
candles or other objects to focus on is to create a kind of ‘white noise’ or scent or
sight, to blot out small distractions. While these may be helpful or pleasant they
are not necessary. To begin with just find as quiet a spot as you can. Soft or
natural lighting and a clear space that is free of clutter is best.

Now check out what you’re wearing. Any kind of loose clothing is fine. You want
your body to feel free to move into its natural form and for the breath to move
easily. That means nothing tight or constricting. If you are doing this at home an
old pair of comfortable pajamas is great. Other wise just loosen belts, bras, ties or
whatever else that might hamper the natural positioning of the body.

When you have decided on a place and time where you will feel free of pressure
and distraction you will be ready to start on the three basics of meditation –
posture, breathing, and calming the mind. Please don’t be frightened by the word
‘posture’. It only refers to assuming a balanced position where the back is straight
and the head is held lightly as if there is a string attached to its crown pulling ever
so gently upward. This can be achieved in a variety of ways. The positions are
roughly divided between lotus positions and ‘not-lotus’ positions such as kneeling
or sitting upright in a chair.

Positions
The lotus positions include Burmese, half-lotus and full lotus. They can best be
understood by seeing pictures of them and trying them out. Some websites,
among the many, where you can find pictures are www.mro.org and www.mkzc.org.
To briefly describe the postures, they involve sitting cross-legged on a small
cushion on the floor with the knees touching the floor. With your bottom on the
pillow and two knees touching the ground, you form a tripod base that gives three
hundred and sixty-degree stability. Sometimes it takes a bit of exercise to be able
to get the legs to drop that far but if you stick with it after awhile the muscles will
loosen up and the knees will begin to drop. To help that happen, sit on the front
third of the cushion shifting your body forward a little bit.

In the Burmese position both feet are touching the floor. In a half lotus the left
foot is placed up onto the right thigh and the right leg is tucked under. In a full
lotus position the feet are tucked up over the opposing thigh creating a stable,
balanced triangle. These are impressive looking postures and certainly fine ones
for relaxed meditation – if you can attain and maintain them comfortably. But be
assured, the posture itself does not determine or constitute the quality or value of
the meditation practice.

Using a kneeling bench with a cushion placed under the buttocks and resting on
the feet or sitting comfortably upright in a chair, both feet on the ground with a
small cushion at the small of the back to prevent slumping is every bit as good.
Indeed an excellent tool for achieving the desired posture is a balance chair. The
balance chair was designed to take advantage of the benefits of dropping the
thighs in relationship to the spine. Muscular effort and lumbar sacral spine forces
are more in balance front to back and side to side in the open thigh position and
even more so when the legs are opened creating what is called a "perched
position". Whichever posture you choose you want the spine erect and the
diaphragm free to move fully and naturally with each breath.
The shoulders are centered over the hips and the nose is centered in line with the
navel. Finally, to assure that you are in a relaxed yet balanced posture, wriggle
around a little, rotate your shoulders to make sure you’re not holding tension and
then let them drop naturally.

When you have positioned yourself thus far in a good fashion, you can place your
hands in your lap in a number of different ways but the classic position is with the
dominant hand, the one you write with, face up with the other hand resting easily
on it and the two thumbs lightly touching. This not only gives you something to do
with your hands but also places them near your center of gravity and concentrates
the flow of energy in a circle around that center.

Once you are settled in, there are a few other things you can check on. The mouth
is closed with the tongue held lightly against the upper palate, the ridge behind the
front teeth. This reduces the need to salivate and swallow. The chin is slightly
tucked in. Your eyes are about half open with your gaze slanted downward so you
are aware but not focused and you are ready to go.

Breathe
Because your breath is calming down and slowing down, attention to your breath
calms your mind along with your body. Begin with four cycles of controlled
breathing to help you relax and bring your attention in to what you are doing in this
time and place. Check that your tongue is in its yogic position, lightly touching the
ridge behind the front teeth. You are going to inhale quietly through your nose to
a count of four, then hold your breath for a count of six, and follow that by
exhaling noisily around your tongue and through your mouth, making a whooshing
sound to the count of eight. Then you will close your mouth and repeat the cycle
till you have done four complete cycles. Then you will return to your natural
breath rhythm. Try that with me now while I count – inhale 1,2,3,4 – hold
1,2,3,4,5,6 – exhale 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8. Again – inhale 1,2,3,4 – hold 1,2,3,4,5,6 –
exhale 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8. Again – inhale 1,2,3,4 – hold 1,2,3,4,5,6 – exhale
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8. Again – inhale 1,2,3,4 – hold 1,2,3,4,5,6 – exhale 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8.

Let your breath return to its natural rhythm. Now begin to count your breaths
silently, on the out-breath, from 1 to 10. If you lose count just go back to 1 again.
I’ll try it with you once counting on the exhale. Keep your breath normal and
relaxed. Inhale 1 – inhale 2 – inhale 3 – inhale 4 – inhale 5 – inhale 6 – inhale 7 –
inhale 8 – inhale 9 – inhale 10. If your mind begins to wander and thoughts creep
in, look at the thought, acknowledge it, and then deliberately and consciously let it
go and begin the count again at one. Putting your mind on each individual breath
will be just enough to keep it from running around in circles. Each time you return
to the breath you are empowering yourself with the ability to put your mind where
you want it, when you want it there, for as long as you want it there. That simple
fact is extremely important. You are learning to take control of your own mind; you
are becoming aware of self and conscious of the existence of choice.

When you get to 10 come back to 1 and start all over. Do this for 10 minutes.
Once you have developed the meditation habit you can extend this time to 15 and
then 20 minutes at a time if you wish but ten minutes to start with is fine. It is more
important to practice this at least twice a day than to increase the time at each
sitting.

Finish
At the end of the ten minutes take a little time to reorient yourself before getting
on with your routine. Some people find it useful to take some notes about what
went on during the meditation. Stand up, stretch and take a few deep breaths.
Understand that this is a process that develops results over time. Give it at least
three months before you decide whether it’s worth your while. The difference
between popping a pill to calm the mind and relax the body and meditating is the
same as the difference between relying on a crutch for
the rest of your life and being able to build up your own muscles, and the only side
effects are good ones.

In time, when you're able to stay with the counting and repeatedly get to ten
without any effort and without thoughts interfering, you'll want to just follow the
breath and abandon the counting altogether. Let the breath breathe itself. It
takes some time to get to that point and there’s no reason to rush it with the idea
that you should be ‘progressing’. Each step is the ‘real thing’ in meditation. It is
the process that bears the fruit.
Good Luck to you!