Blog Action Day 2008: Nourishing Awareness

Nourishing Awareness

Thich Nhat Hanh, a Buddhist monk and poet born in central Vietnam, is a Leader of the social action movement known as Engaged Buddhism. He was nominated for the 1967 Nobel Peace Prize by Martin Luther King, Jr. In “Peace Is Every Step,” he presents a meditation which helps North Americans and Europeans to be mindful of Third World children who do not have enough to eat.

We who live in North America and Europe are accustomed to eating grains and other foods imported from the Third Worlds, such as coffee from Colombia, chocolate from Ghana, or fragrant rice from Thailand. We must be aware that children in these countries, except those from rich families, never see such fine products. They eat inferior foods, while the finer products are put aside for export in order to bring in foreign exchange. There are even some parents who, because they do not have the means to feed their children, resort to selling their children to be servants to families who have enough to eat.

Before each meal, we can join our palms in mindfulness and think about the children who do not have enough to eat. Doing so will help us maintain mindfulness of our good fortune, and perhaps one day we will find ways to do something to help change the system of injustice that exists in the world. In many refugee families, before each meal, a child holds up his bowl of rice an says something like this: “Today, on the table, there are many delicious foods. I am grateful to be here with my family enjoying these wonderful dishes. I know there are many children less fortunate, who are very hungry.” Being a refugee he knows, for example, that most Thai children never see the kind of fine rice grown in Thailand that he is about to eat. It is difficult to explain to children in the “overdeveloped” nations that not all children in the world have such beautiful and nourishing food. Awareness of this fact alone can help us overcome many of our own psychological pains. Eventually our contemplation can help us see how to assist those who need our help so much.

Thich Nhat Hanh, excerpt from “Nourishing Awareness” from Peace Is Every Step. Copyright © 1991 by . Reprinted with the permission of Bantam Books, a division of the Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc.

Zen Meditation Really Does Clear the Mind

Science confirms what Zennists have known all along!

Study (Emory University): Zen Meditation Really Does Clear the Mind

By Charles Q. Choi, Special to LiveScience
02 September 2008

The seemingly nonsensical Zen practice of “thinking about not thinking” could help free the mind of distractions, new brain scans reveal.

This suggests Zen meditation could help treat attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (so-called ADD or ADHD), obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety disorder, major depression and other disorders marked by distracting thoughts.

In the last decade, there has been a resurgence of scientific research into meditation, due in part to the wide availability and increasing sophistication of brain-scanning techniques. For instance, scientists recently found that months of intense training in meditation can sharpen a person’s brain enough to help them notice details they might otherwise miss.

“It is important that this type of research be conducted with high scientific standards because it carries a long-standing stigma — perhaps well-deserved? — of being wishy-washy,” said researcher Giuseppe Pagnoni, a neuroscientist at Emory University in Atlanta. “Constructive skepticism should always be welcomed as a great sparring partner.”

Pagnoni and his colleagues investigated Zen meditation, which Pagnoni himself has practiced while studying for his doctorate in Italy.

The Zen of Zen

Zen meditation vigorously discourages mental withdrawal from the world and dreaminess, and instead asks one to keep fully aware with a vigilant attitude. It typically asks one to silently focus on breathing and one’s posture with eyes open in a quiet place and to calmly dismiss any thoughts as they pop up, essentially “thinking nothing.” One can over time learn how to keep one’s mind from wandering, become aware of otherwise unconscious behaviors and preconceived notions and hopefully gain insights into oneself, others and the world.

To see what effects Zen meditation might have on the brain, scientists compared 12 people from the Atlanta area with more than three years of daily practice in Zen meditation with 12 novices who had never practiced meditation.

The researchers “had to screen — and discard — a number of colorful characters who during the interview declared that they were meditating regularly by screaming in a towel while stomping their feet on the ground, or that they were communicating frequently with beings of other planets,” Pagnoni recalled. “Such are the unexpected joys of this research!”

As the volunteers had their brains scanned, they were asked to focus on their breathing. Every once in a while, they had to distinguish a real word from a nonsense word displayed at random times on a computer screen and, having done that, promptly try and focus on their breathing again.

Their scans revealed that Zen training led to different activity in a set of brain regions known as the “default network,” which is linked with spontaneous bursts of thought and wandering minds. After volunteers experienced in Zen were distracted by the computer, their brains returned faster to how they were before the interruption than novice brains did. This effect was especially striking in the angular gyrus, a brain region important for processing language.

“The regular practice of meditation may enhance the capacity to limit the influence of distracting thoughts,” Pagnoni said.

Posturing the findings

“What I find really interesting in this approach is that it stands to regulate the mind by regulating the body — posture, breathing,” Pagnoni said. The neural circuits for controlling posture are quite distinct from those responsible for higher brain functions, “and perhaps shifting one’s attention to posture or breathing facilitates a temporary quelling of mental chatter.”

By teaching people how to clear their minds of interruptions, Zen meditation could help disorders marked by distracting thoughts, Pagnoni said.

“There is already some evidence that a behavioral therapy incorporating elements of mindfulness training derived from meditation can be beneficial in reducing relapses in major depression,” Pagnoni noted.

Pagnoni added that the default mode network might be especially vulnerable to Alzheimer’s disease.

“Although we enter the field of wild speculations here, could the practice of meditation, by providing regular intervals of respite in the incessant working of the default network, have — if mildly — protective effects for Alzheimer disease?” he conjectured.

Pagnoni noted one potential failing of the study was that the volunteers experienced in Zen meditation might have some innate capacity for controlling their thoughts, explaining the differences seen. Ideally, scientists could track novices as they grow experienced in Zen meditation, to see if their brains change or not, he said.

The research, funded by a National Institutes of Health grant, is detailed online Sept. 3 in the journal PLoS ONE.

http://www.livescience.com/health/080902-zen-meditation.html

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Introduction to Mindful Meditation

I started an online meditation course this week.

The course was put together by the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, CA.  I had come across the website audiodharma.org some time ago and have spent time listening to the various talks available in mp3 on the site.

There was one series in particular that interested me titled “Introduction to Mindful Meditation”.  I downloaded them and began listening, but never became fully engaged, nor tried to use them to start a meditation practice.  I continued to visit the site however and saw a new section mentioning that in the next few months they would begin an online meditation course based on these talks by Gil Fronsdal.  I immediately emailed them requesting my place in the class.

The course began this last Monday, and I can’t say I’ve been doing very well at it so far.  My family life has been hit pretty hard with a few things this week which were taking up my time and mind in many ways.  I know that I allowed these to be a distraction and excuse for me in many ways, but what’s done is done.

I’m getting back on track now and am going to email my support instructor and fill her in on what’s been going on in my life this week, and how my meditation sessions have been thus far.  I also decided that I would add all of the information here for anyone that is interested.   The course may be audited by anyone, you just don’t have the extra benefit of the support from an instructor.

I know many of you practice Vipassana meditation (greenfrog, etc) and so I would love to get your thoughts on the practice and any advice you may have as I begin/continue my journey.

You can access the information by following the meditation link at the top of the page or by following the below link.

Introduction to Mindful Meditation