Meditation, Brain, Body, Mind

Hi there folks,

As I had promised, from this posting on we will start talking more about meditation itself. Before going on to the steps of meditation that Lama Samten (picture), my meditation master, lays out in order to increase attention, compassion and experience deeper levels of reality, I decided to talk about meditation in general, and then narrow down to more specific practice as we go along.

As you all know, there are lots of types of meditations out there, and this practice has been gaining more popularity over the years. It has been practiced all over, from yogi caves and monasteries to work out gyms. The benefits of practicing this "activity" have become so evident that it is attracting more and more adepts, as well as the scientific community to perform studies on how it affects the body and the brain.

One of these studies has to do with the neuroplascticity of the brain. Our neurons connect with each other to form an entranced web which influences the way we perceive and react to external stimuli. However, our very response to external stimuli will also reinforce and solidify the connections of this web, limiting ourselves to patterns of response. The more ingrained our habits are, the more solid these connections become and more difficult it is for us to change and widen our perception of reality. Meditation has been proven to ease these connections, enabling actual changes through reconfiguring neurons connections.

This is very evident just by observing how we interact with the world. If we have the same routine over and over, always connecting with the same people, the same habits and so on, the more difficult it is to see other opportunities out there. Opportunities to learn how to do things differently, meet other people, recognize other values and be open to more profound experiences.

His Holiness The Dalai Lama has been for years engaged in the study of how meditation interferes in the brain.

Here goes an extract from an article on meditation and neuroplasticity:

"...Since the 1990s, the Dalai Lama has been lending monks and lamas to neuroscientists for studies of how meditation alters activity in the brain. The idea was not to document brain changes during meditation but to see whether such mental training produces enduring changes in the brain.

...All the Buddhist “adepts” — experienced meditators — who lent their brains to science had practiced meditation for at least 10,000 hours. One by one, they made their way to the basement lab of Richard Davidson at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He and his colleagues wired them up like latter-day Medusas, a tangle of wires snaking from their scalps to the electroencephalograph that would record their brain waves.

...As the volunteers began meditating, one kind of brain wave grew exceptionally strong: gamma waves. These, scientists believe, are a signature of neuronal activity that knits together far-flung circuits — consciousness, in a sense. Gamma waves appear when the brain brings together different features of an object, such as look, feel, sound and other attributes that lead the brain to its aha moment of, yup, that’s an armadillo.

Some of the novices “showed a slight but significant increase in the gamma signal,” Prof. Davidson explained to the Dalai Lama. But at the moment the monks switched on compassion meditation, the gamma signal began rising and kept rising. On its own, that is hardly astounding: Everything the mind does has a physical correlate, so the gamma waves (much more intense than in the novice meditators) might just have been the mark of compassion meditation.

Except for one thing. In between meditations, the gamma signal in the monks never died down. Even when they were not meditating, their brains were different from the novices’ brains, marked by waves associated with perception, problem solving and consciousness. Moreover, the more hours of meditation training a monk had had, the stronger and more enduring the gamma signal...."

I invite you o read the article from the following link: http://bipolarblast.wordpress.com/2008/06/19/meditation-and-neuroplasticity/

If you search on the web you will also find the benefits below along with others:

- It lowers oxygen consumption.
- It decreases respiratory rate.
- It increases blood flow and slows the heart rate.
- Increases exercise tolerance in heart patients.
- Leads to a deeper level of relaxation.
- Good for people with high blood pressure as it brings the B.P. to normal.
- Reduces anxiety attacks by lowering the levels of blood lactate.
- Decreases muscle tension (any pain due to tension) and headaches.
- Builds self-confidence.
- It increases serotonin production which influences mood and behaviour. Low levels of serotonin are associated with depression, obesity, insomnia and headaches.
- Helps in chronic diseases like allergies , arthritis etc.
- Reduces Pre- menstrual Syndrome.
- Helps in post-operative healing.
- Enhances the immune system. Research has revealed that meditation increases activity of 'natural-killer cells', which kill bacteria and cancer cells.
- Also reduces activity of viruses and emotional distress.

Have a great one!

Cris