Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal: Meditation and the Brain (science video)

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Meditation and the Brain (science video)

Kalyani and Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; Integral Eric; Ven. Vimalaramsi
(LINK) PART II

Having made a New Year's resolution to "meditate more," it is probably a good idea to learn to meditate. Everyone already knows how. It is natural. But not knowing that we know is as good as not knowing. Kalyani, our resident meditation instructor taught us the way to success.

Sit comfortably. Comfort is far more important than perfection. Smile. Relax every part of the body. Generate loving-kindness in all directions to dispel the taint of ill will and anger. Gently, slowly take the attention to the breath just under the nose at the nostrils.

Don't breathe; allow breathing. Watch that breathing. Pay very close attention until it becomes fascinating, amazing, happening all by itself. There is no need to comment or control, lengthen or shorten, slow or speed up. Just watch. Imagine a tuft of cloud or cotton, morning mist or fog being dispersed, or any image of the breath. And pay very close attention.

Mint Deva Technique (Peppermint Fairy Method): Kalyani innovated a brilliant masterstroke: Employ essential oil of peppermint (a bhumi-deva science calls Mentha piperita). Dab it under the nose to stay alert and remember to keep attention here. Its hot-cool sensation holds attention like training wheels hold balance on a bike. Mindful means wakeful, diligent, vigilant, remembering to bring the mind back to the breath. More than aromatherapy, it helps the mind hold an increasingly faint and subtle meditation object (the fine breath once the gross breath settles down).

The mind goes away, of course. It always has. It has lived in the forest of sensual pleasures, seeking here and seeking there for them. Bring it back. And bring it back again. Never getting annoyed or angry that it leaves. Just stay with it. BE HERE NOW. Now it is time to sit effortlessly still.

Silence is everything, externally and more importantly internally. There is only watching. Vigilant, wakeful, "mindful" (minding, being aware, not contemplating), the mind's eye observes.

"Concentration" (samadhi) is not struggling. It is almost the opposite. It is simply the mind cohering, collecting, optimally integrating. Jhana is "absorption." Jhana (or dhyana, zen, ch'an, seon, thien) is meditating. The mind is naturally relaxed, observing, luminous, and at ease.

Vipassana (insight practice) is the yang to jhana's (serenity practice) yin. It comes after one finds tranquility. Kalayani's anti-teacher, Asian-trained American monk Bhante Vimalaramsi, seems to at least understand that jhana is not about struggle and force but rather allowing and accepting.

Focusing on a single thing -- beginning with the breath until the mind makes a sign of the breath called the counterpart sign (nimitta). Then watch the sign, which is still watching the breath as far as the mind is concerned. It is all at the tip of the nose, the meditation spot.

Become absorbed, like water into a sponge, into that light. There is silence, there is peace, there is mental purification, a purifying of the heart accompanied by bliss (piti). It is a strange joy, more joyous than massage and cool water, more pleasing than sense pleasure, more refreshing than sleep. It is bubbly, effervescent, bouyant and unexpected. Allow it.

Eventually the mind/heart prefers peace. Previously, one was beset on all sides by:

craving (lust)
aversion (anger)
sleepiness (laziness)
restlessness (worry)
doubt (uncertainty)

Now, the meditating brain enjoys their opposites, the Five Factors of Absorption (jhananga):

initial application (placing attention)
sustained application (holding attention)
joy (píti, experienced in the body)
happiness (sukha, ease in the mind)
one-pointedness (laser focused mind)

The meditator brings the mind, the attention, to a meditation object, such as the breath. Arousing attention and applying it to a single object. And one keeps the mind on/at/with the object. Holding and remaining with that object. In doing so, an unexpected thing happens: Instead of boredom, , the common reaction to doing something that is too easy/difficult to do, one finds delight, keen investigation, joyful interest that is pleasurable but beyond the five senses. One becomes happy and contented with the object, even protective of it, until the mind unifies. It becomes fixed, fixated, effortlessly on the object. That is serenity meditation. Mastering it by allowing it to happen rather than struggling trying to force it, one is ready to develop liberating insight.