American Buddhist Net

A Preliminary Study Shows Meditating Turns off Stress-Related Genes

By LAUREN COX
ABC News Medical Unit
July 2, 2008

It turns out peaceful thoughts really can influence our bodies, right down to the instructions we receive from our DNA, according to a new study.

Researchers for the study, published in the Public Library of Science, took blood samples from a group of 19 people who habitually meditated or prayed for years, and 19 others who never meditated.

The researchers ran genomic analyses of the blood and found that the meditating group suppressed more than twice the number of stress-related genes -- about 1,000 of them -- than the nonmeditating group.

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June 30, 2008 10:20 AM, by Chris Chatham

Attention training through meditation can reduce the duration of the "attentional blink" - in which detection of a first rare target causes people to be unaware of a second target presented soon after the first - according to research by Slagter et al from PLoSBiology.

The attention blink effect is "attentional" because it only occurs when subjects actually detect the first target, and therefore reflects some kind of a refractory period for attentional orienting: consider it the duration of the "blink" of the mind's eye. You can try it here.

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Suggestion: Two areas researchers might want to take studies on meditation are lucid sleep and hypnotic states. Then compare the three. I would be interested to know what, if any, differences there are between the deep meditative states of an experienced meditator and the deep lucid sleep states of someone experienced in that. Same for hypnotic states, though experience with them would not be necessary. ABN
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June 27, 2008 12:44 PM, by Chris Chatham

As discussed earlier this week, meditation may be an alternative form of brain training - or "brain untraining" - that shows transfer to tasks requiring cognitive control. There have been a few updates to this fascinating line of research, not least of which is a fascinating paper by Amishi Jha and colleagues from the University of Pennsylvania. They showed that relative to a control group, meditation influences particular components of attention in ways that are compatible with beliefs long held in the meditation community.

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Has some interesting detail about hypnotism near the end. ABN
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June 25, 2008 4:05 PM, by Chris Chatham

In a fascinating review of the cognitive neuroscience of attention, authors Raz and Buhle note that most research on attention focuses on defining situations in which it is no longer required to perform a task - in other words, the automatization of thought and behavior. Yet relatively few studies focus on whether thought and behavior can be de-automatized - or, as I might call it if I were asking for trouble, deprogrammed.

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Good, short piece, worth reading. ABN
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by Rajah Kuruppu

Man comprises of mind and body. Modern medical science is now according an important place to the mind, but the Buddha over 2,500 years ago emphasised the invaluable role of the mind. In fact the opening lines of the Dhammapada, a collection of important sayings of the Buddha, state that the mind is the forerunner of all states of being, mind is supreme, mind made are they. Accordingly, Bhavana commonly translated to English as meditation, is assigned a crucial role in the practice of the Dhamma. Bhavana means the culture or the development of the mind and perhaps the English word meditation does not adequately describe Bhavana but it may be used for convenience provided the true meaning of the term Bhavana is understood.

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Friday 06 June 2008

The Auvergne is a popular tourist destination, famed for its volcanoes. But there’s another attraction drawing dozens of Buddhists from across Europe. Three years ago, a group of Buddhists embarked on a long spiritual retreat and are just about to return to the world after 1,190 days of meditation.

The retreat is a unique experience of a particularly austere form of voluntary isolation, complete with a severe daily regime, including 12 hours of meditation per day. They returned to the world last month.

It was in the Auvergne, in these majestic environs, that the community of Dhagpo Kunfrun decided to set up its hermitages and its meditation centers in 1984.

On the eve of their exit, the entire community is present and preparing for their departure. One of the Buddhist, Bruno, talks about his decision to make the retreat. “For me, it’s a gift, a life experience. People who do not know might be afraid. We are there to reassure them, to show to them that we are really happy for them. That it really comes from us, from our souls.”

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Dana Clark Felty | Saturday, May 31, 2008

A form of silent meditation with roots in Buddhism has come to southeast Georgia.

The Southeast Vipassana Center will hold an open house Sunday at its new training center on Rogers Break Road just south of Jesup in rural Wayne County.

The center opened earlier this year to provide free 10-day courses on Vipassana meditation, a form of silent meditation similar to some practiced in Buddhism.

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A one-day workshop teaches how to make a Thai delicacy and cultivate mindfulness at the same time

May 24, 2008
VASANA CHINVARAKORN

For a moment, my heart raced with anxiety. This business of scraping coconut meat from its shell was not at all simple. The monk-teacher's demonstration seemed effortless; he held the half-cut coconut and rotated it gently around a metal blade attached to a wooden bench called kratai kood maprao (coconut scraper), and slowly but steadily, soft, whitish fibre dropped into a bowl underneath. To try to imitate him, though, was a different story. I found my hands refusing to coordinate. The scraped coconut looked pitifully rough and came out in big chunks. At one stage, I even almost fell off the so-called "scraper rabbit". Hmm ... that would have been laughable - to fail the class when it had barely begun.

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May 24, 2008

Meditation classes under Buddhist Nun Kelsang Chundzen will begin in Stroudsburg on June 5 under the theme "Discovering the Path to Happiness."

...Classes will be held at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of the Poconos at 940A Ann St. in Stroudsburg on Thursday evenings beginning June 5 and continuing to July 17 from 7 to 9 p.m. The fee is $8 per class.

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Some of the things you should know before taking a course in vipassana meditation

May 23, 2008

Are you one of those who can't help feeling surprised - and maybe suspicious - when you hear of people deciding to go on a vipassana meditation course? Do you, perhaps, think it's just because it's a trend? Or do you think more charitably that these people must be suffering and in need of a temporary retreat from this cruel world?

For overseas visitors, its attraction is that the classes are easily available here and that this form of meditation is non-denominational - you don't have to be Buddhist to appreciate it, even though the teachers may be Buddhist monks. They generally seem to be rather proud of welcoming people of all faiths, or none.

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By Tom Keogh
Special to The Seattle Times

"The Dhamma Brothers," a documentary written and directed by Jenny Phillips, Andrew Kukura and Anne Marie Stein. 76 minutes. Not rated, suitable for teens and up. Grand Illusion.

The question of how convicted criminals should spend their time while incarcerated is one of those evergreen issues on talk radio or in the stump speeches of get-tough politicians. Prison is punishment, some people argue, and therefore prisoners shouldn't expect to feel hopeful about their situation.

But at the exceptionally dangerous Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bessemer, Ala., where assaults are described in the documentary "The Dhamma Brothers" as a near-daily occurrence, hope appears to be a viable remedy for ceaseless violence. At least, that is, for a small group of inmates who participated in an unlikely 2002 experiment with Vipassana meditation.

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May 02, 2008
By Anne Calos

Alisa Parlette was just a child when she realized she had a special “gift.”

“I saw people who had ‘crossed over’ when I was little. My mother didn’t want to hear about it, but I knew it was special, so I just developed it over the years,” Parlette said.

Since then, Parlette worked as a psychic medium, doing readings at homes and office parties and teaching meditation at the former Mother Earth at the Old Post Office. A very personal experience, though, brought her to offer a meditation class geared specifically to children with mental health disabilities and their parents.

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By GLENN GAMBOA

NEW YORK — David Lynch doesn't want to be the spokesman for anything.

The Oscar-nominated director still prefers to let his movies — such as "Eraserhead," "The Elephant Man," "Blue Velvet," "Mulholland Drive" and the recent "Inland Empire" — speak for themselves.

But, in recent years, as he learned more about increasingly stressed-out children and violent schools, Lynch felt he might be able to help by bringing Transcendental Meditation, which he has practiced for 34 years, to schools.

"Schools have tried many, many, many things and nothing on the surface is working," Lynch said from his office in Los Angeles.

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In December 2007 I started meditating. A friend of mine had lent me some books about Buddhism. After reading them I was very eager to learn more. What attracted me most to Buddhism: 1) it is not a religion, it’s ‘merely’ a set of guidelines that help you in your search for happiness, 2) you learn by experience, it’s a way of living. Here are 10 things that I learned through 5 months of meditation.

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April 29, 2008
Laurie Desjardins

Empathy and compassion are two emotions that make us human. It's the ability to identify with another person, to place ourselves in another's shoes, which allow us to have a greater connection with our fellow man.

Unfortunately, with the stress and general busy-ness of life, it becomes harder for us to place ourselves in the lives of others, as we're too busy worried about our own lives and our own families. Though it is easy for us to empathize with those close to us, it's a lot harder to summon compassion for people we've never met.

However, it's possible to learn compassion and empathy through meditation techniques.

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By Keleigh Friedrich

“You have to use your mind to lose your mind,” an irreverent guru once told me. In other words, the only way to still acrobatic thoughts, or what Buddhists call “taming the monkey mind,” is by using the mind as a tool of observation. Hence, the practice of meditation.

I’ve meditated on and off for years but never stuck with it. The very idea of spending 40 minutes “doing nothing” brings on a mild panic—so all the more reason to spend a Sunday evening with the Sacramento Buddhist Meditation Group, where, as a matter of pride, I intended to hold out for longer than five minutes.

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April 18, 2008
By Tom Moran

For almost 20 years, Matthieu Ricard has served as the French translator for the Dalai Lama. Ricard, a bestselling author, award-winning photographer, doctor of cellular genetics and Buddhist monk, will speak at Northrop Auditorium today about cultivating one's inner conditions for genuine happiness.

On Thursday, he spoke with The Minnesota Daily to discuss his philosophies and the controversies surrounding Tibet.

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Apr 11, 2008
By Anne Harding

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Practicing a particular type of meditation twice a day can significantly reduce blood pressure, according to an analysis of existing research on the technique.

The blood pressure reductions associated with regular practice of transcendental meditation, or TM, would translate to a 12-15 percent reduced risk of dying from cardiovascular causes and a 15-20 percent lower risk of stroke, Dr. James W. Anderson, the study's lead author, told Reuters Health.

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Friday, April 11, 2008
By Andrew O’Hehir

Donaldson Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison in Bessemer, Ala., that houses the worst offenders in America's direst state prison system, does not seem a likely venue for a Buddhist meditation retreat. It's a dank-looking brick structure right out of "The Shawshank Redemption," wrapped in barbed wire and electrical fencing and set in the pine woods along the red-clay banks of the Black Warrior River. Many of its inmates will never see the outside world again. Maybe the point of Jenny Phillips, Andy Kukura and Anne Marie Stein's documentary "The Dhamma Brothers" is to argue that there could be no place where 10 days of solitary and silent introspection are so valuable and so necessary.

...You don't have to buy much of the Vipassana ideology to understand why the men who made it through the retreat felt a tremendous sense of brotherhood and accomplishment. (Most have maintained their meditation practice, and most returned for a second retreat a few years later.) These men have been incarcerated and abandoned, perhaps for understandable reasons, and locked up to die in a place of total hopelessness and nihilism. Suddenly people arrive who propose to treat them like adult human beings capable of a difficult emotional process of self-examination and self-discipline.

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April 10, 2008
By Janet Grist

WHAT can possibly be the attraction of a three-year Buddhist retreat, during which you rise at 3am and, apart from letters, have no communication with the outside world?

The answer is easy according to retreat participant Bridget Gebbie - because it works!

Ms Gebbie, a psychotherapist from Balmain in Sydney, said she was always a sensitive person. "I was kind of without a skin and always had a concern about what I was doing - is it the right thing, is it appropriate? All of those questions. They're not there any more and that is freedom."

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Scientists are beginning to uncover evidence that meditation has a tangible effect on the brain.

Monday, 31 March 2008
By Naomi Law

Sceptics argue that it is not a practical way to try to deal with the stresses of modern life.

But the long years when adherents were unable to point to hard science to support their belief in the technique may finally be coming to an end.

..."It teaches a way of looking at problems, observing them clearly but not necessarily trying to fix them or solve them.

"It suggests to people that they begin to see all their thoughts as just thoughts, whether they are positive, negative or neutral."

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Although critics get hung up on labels, Buddhist Christians meditate on the benefits they discover.

March 28, 2008
By JEFF STRICKLER

Mary Jo Meadow avoids using what she calls the "B word." It's not the "B word" you might expect, but the retired religious studies professor says that many people consider it just as profane, in its own way.

The word is Buddhist. Meadow is considered one the world's foremost experts on Buddhist Christians, although some people try a slightly different spin by calling themselves Christian Buddhists.

..."Christianity includes a call to meditate, but it never provides a method of meditating, a step-by-step guide on how to do it," she said. "As a result, a lot of Christian meditation gets stale because you get stuck..."

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March 22, 2008
By Sandi Dolbee

In a land of honking horns, chirping cell phones and drive-through attention spans, there isn't time to be patient.

Pick your poison: consumerism, materialism, self-absorption. Experts say they are each an ingredient in a recipe for perpetual impatience, turning humans into hamsters racing in their wheels, getting nowhere fast.

...In Buddhism, this seduction is attributed to ignorance – ignoring the pure, clean natural state of the mind by getting caught up with the distractions of the world. “It creates a cycle of dissatisfaction,” [Karma Lekshe] Tsomo says. “If we were satisfied, we wouldn't need all that stuff.”

How can people become more patient?

“The Buddhist would recommend meditation. Meditation is a way of getting back to that state of awareness,” Tsomo says.

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Friday, 21 March 2008
Ven. Acariya Nanasampanna Thera

A person, who wants to train his heart to become skilfull and to know what is behind the deluded tricks of the defilements (kilesas), must not be attached to study and learning in Buddhism to such an extent that it gives rise to the defilements.

But also he must not abandon study and learning, for to do this goes beyond the teaching of the Buddha. Both these ways are contrary to the purpose which the Buddha desired that one should aim at.

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Thursday, March 20, 2008
By Charles Robinson

AUGUSTA — The Kennebec Center for Buddhist Studies and the Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Augusta will offer a unique daylong opportunity for the study of five distinct Buddhist traditions currently practiced in Maine.

There is no charge to attend the gathering which will be held from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday, March 22 at the Unitarian Universalist Community Church on 69 Winthrop St.

The format of the workshop will offer opportunities to learn the teachings of five Buddhist traditions as well as guided instructions on how to practice the meditation techniques developed over the course of more than 2,500 years.

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