Benefits of Meditation

Benefits of Meditation

An old piece without any mention of "Feel Good Hormones" secreted while meditating.

Best feel good hormone is "Growth Hormone" which prolongs one's life.
Feel good hormones especially growth hormone is secreted by physical exercise, too.
Piece of chocolates has many feel good hormones except growth hormone.
One has to have a good liver for growth hormone to act.
There is no place for alcohol to boost or release social inhibitions.
Worst culprit to your health is pollution, including smoking and vehicle exhaust.
Cholesterol lowing drugs have NO PLACE and they actually cause Dementia which the drug companies are trying to hide.

Now they have changed the concept to "Free Radical Damage" and "Oxidized Cholesterol" and scavenger receptors in macrophages having a role (going back to inflammation theory of the old). 
 

Both high blood pressure and smoking produce free radicals in the vicinity of the endothelium of blood vessels.

Unsaturated fats (except perhaps coconut oil) encourages free radical formation.

It is tiny electrons that do the damage and not the big molecule Cholesterol which probably scavengers (inactivate) free radicals.

The best antidote is good sleep (in two breaks, one long one short, the memory booster).

Vegetarian diet has many benefits.

This should be read in conjunction with Ambidextrous Activity appended below.

This is part of the introduction to my Book on Meditation.
 

Benefits of Meditation

There are many claims of benefit of meditation often poorly substantiated. Some of these benefit can be obtained without resort to meditation but simple change in life style.

Suppose a meditator changes his food habits drastically say to a vegetarian diet and practice meditation as a routine and finds that his blood cholesterol is lowered significantly, and then if he or she attributes it to the practice of meditation, there is a big flow in that argument.

One is not sure whether the change in diet did effect the blood cholesterol level or the practice of meditation or both did have independent or summation effect on the level of blood cholesterol. Unless one take a random sample and assess the partial correlation then only one can attribute combination or independent effects on a particular quantity tested.

Qualitative changes cannot be tested since one cannot quantify the results. In actual fact the effect of meditation is often qualitative and very individualistic and one cannot feel the same effect a different mediator would have felt at the time of his or her meditative stance or instance/s. this is very true as far a Jhana States are concerned.

With that reservation in mind one can describe the many unmeasurable benefits attributed to meditation in Buddhist literature.

Metta Meditation 

In Buddhist literature it is claimed that one who practices Metta Meditation falls to sleep easily and get up in the morning peacefully.

It is wished in the last three lines of the Sutta. By reciting Karaniya Metta Sutta one should feel physically and psychologically better, one is made free of illness and one attains the highest goal or victory.

That is of course the Nibbana. 
 

They may be just wishful thinking or one may actually feels better physically and psychologically.

It is also claimed that the natural immunity to cancer and infections are increased by practicing  

Metta Meditation.

This is something Venerable Ajhan Brahma Wanso preaches in most of his teaching.

Present Moment Meditation

This is something that is worth discussing here.

It has direct relationship to day to day activities.

I believe it has significant contribution to the efficiency of one’s trained skill, simply due to the intense concentration one may apply in his or her work skill at hand (without any distraction).

It is simply the focused attention to task at hand.

If one is focused on any work, the efficiency goes up by leaps and bounds.

This is very well shown in management tasks.

When focused attention is combined with attitude to work and other measurable increase in environmental components the work output and the efficiency level improve.

This is something shop or floor manager can use in day to day basis.

It is called a quality drill.

It does not matter how one qualify the content or the output but the efficiency of the skill concerned improve by both repeated practice and focused attention to the moment of the activity.

Samatha Meditation

There is no specific measurable benefit of Samatha Bhavana or meditation except the attainment of the four goals or paths of entry to Nibbana,

Buddhist spiritual goal is stream entry through development of Jhana.

Smatha probably is better for those who have less intelligent level (IQ) that one is not able to master the finer scientific tenets.

Vipassana Meditation

This the highest goal of Buddhist meditative practice.

It is claimed that all states of Jhana can be attained only by Vipassana Bhavana or Meditation.

I may be wrong in this assertion but that is what is spread among the lay person without full knowledge of or understanding of mediation.

This is called the gaining of insight.

Only when aspirant has gained the 5th Jhana then one could develop the five kinds of supernatural powers (Abhiñña) the divine eye, divine ear, recall past births, thought-reading and various psychic powers i.e. walk on water.

The attainment of the supernatural powers is not the real goal of Buddhism.

The attainment of these powers may actually be a distraction or hindrance to a true aspirant or a pathfinder (Buddhist path of glory).

The ability to absorb into Jhana states is the goal of Buddhist meditation and Jhana has no hindrance but Jhana is the way forward for stream entry.

The practice of meditation may bring many benefits and they are difficult to quantify or qualify except perhaps the benefit of present moment of meditation or focus which should be practiced without a label of religion or Buddhism.

It is when one has labels and have targets or goals of attainment, the practice of meditation becomes commercial enterprise of undesirable consequences but not simple a way development of mental culture and the simple way of life.

I am one who believe that mediation has value in all wakeful hours of the day. The only exception is when one is asleep and when one dreams.

I am one who talks about dreams and write about dreams and their physiological value is unparalleled only by the practice of meditation in wakeful states.

The meditation practice is the awareness of the wondering mind and its taming. 
 

That is the Buddhist Way.

The goal is not achieving miracle powers, even though they may or may not come as a by-product.

Sleeping (and dreaming) is the practice of letting the mind go into a unobtrusive and unhindered movement and of the the mind unaware of the physiological inputs that lapses into random aberrations of all sorts with dreaming as an interlude.

On the other hand meditation is to “let go the attachments” one has with all mental faculties both sensual and mind centred.

Goals of Buddhist Meditation

The goal is the attainment of Jhana states and stream entry by progressive cultivation of meditation in basically by four methods.

1. Metta Meditation.

2. Samatha Meditation with Kasina or various Kamatahan

This is adequately dealt by Venerable Ajhan Brahma Wanso in the book Happiness through meditation.

It is also published as “Meditation., Bliss and Beyond”.

It the best book currently available on Meditation in general and my intention is to make it more global and take the religious tag in the moment of its use.

Memory and Meditation

I want to share a drill I practice on day to day basis.

This is especially because, I am beginning to lose my memory and there are short lapses infrequent though, but enough to raise alarm bells on my part lately.

Once I forgot all my password for bank cards briefly.

This was during our long industrial action when I was having laid back approach to life and was not having adequate sleep (involved in Linux downloads and testing) at night.

This coincided with forgetting passwords for half a dozen emails and Linux forum passwords.

This shook my inner senses and I now have now have a ready made retrieval method based on memory drill.

The combination of Metta Meditation and moment meditation has worked wonders for me since then.

I now even have a simple protocol to remember 16 number Visa Card.

The memory loss is partly due to gray matter losing its material and neural networks due to old age which is seriously encroaching my body if not the brain.

Metta meditation makes one sleeps well not in one go but in two short spells (Night is the shortest spell when I do most of my work to avoid mosquito menace. The mosquitoes make me aware of my lack of Metta Meditation, too).

The dog is the target animal of Metta.

Then in the morning I have a brief 5 minutes Moment Meditation practice at the end of it, I have a mental list of 10 things or map out the tasks to do.

If the list go up to 20, I do it in two spells like my sleep.

A morning list and an evening list.

That has worked well for the last one year and I still do not carry apiece of paper with all the tasks.

If I have to carry a piece of paper to to remind me day to day work, I think I should say Good Bye and take first steps in the next birth.

That is my wish list.

Since I have not yet achieved stream entry, in spite of my mediation efforts, that will eventually happen and only option left for me.

There is another simple addition to this list.

I do not use a cell phone by default.

No electronic aids or tinkle too.

I do not want to gadget to master me.

I rather master my brain instead.

Ambidextrous of Activity
 
Instead of a programmed or rigid life style, I am proposing a balancing act or the right and the left coordination technique, in daily living and practises.
It is simple.

Learn to use both hands.
 
If you are right handed in writing try to use left hand for toilet cleaning (wipe the back with the left hand with tissues or without tissues).
Try combing with the left hand on alternative days.
 

Try the same with shaving.
 
I believe one has to be ambidextrous when shaving anyway.
 
If you take Route A for your walk (not jogging) one day, the next day make it the Route B and reroute your walking (for example turning left, where you turned right the day before and vice versa).
 
Never take the same route in two consecutive days.
 
It is difficult but with perseverance one can reschedule the routes.
 
In other words become ambidextrous in all your activities.
 
I have observed many right handed people have left handed strokes.
 
I postulate the concept that when one neglects an activity over time, that side of the brain gets less blood flowing in day to day life. 

So I believe the atherosclerotic patches appear on blood vessels supplying, that side of the brain, first. 

Or may be when shower of fat particles leave a plaque from the aorta or its major branches, the slow circulation (narrow to begin with) has a greater chance of obstruction.
 
Mind you I have been teaching atherosclerosis all my life.
 
Its emphasis changed over time and current belief is it is due to inflammation that trigger thrombosis.
 
I am entitled to have my own views about atherosclerosis / thrombosis, saga.
 
I do not even believe the cholesterol theory since cholesterol is a vital biochemical molecule which even produce sex hormones.
 
Now they have changed the concept to free radical damage and oxidized cholesterol and scavenger receptors in macrophages having a role (going back to old inflammation theory).
 
So trying to promote blood flow to the non dominant side of the brain by actively promoting ambidextrous activity is a plausible strategy.
 
This I believe is very healthy but a simple method and prevent strokes on the non dominant side of the brain.
 
I would expand on this further stating that learning a second language promotes the activity of the creative brain or the non dominant brain and the second language is located on the right side (the activities are represented in the opposite side of the brain due to crisscrossing of nerve fibers in the brain stem).
 
In actual fact the evolution has promoted this by design but we tend to neglect.
 
The Chinese are adept at using both hands.
 
The ancient Chinese wisdom was to promote children to be ambidextrous and knitting embroidery, crotchet are Chinese inventions.
 
My mother who lived up to nineties was a good exponent of these dying arts.
 
She also possessed the ability of two languages, thanks to British education.

Sphere of Activity
 
Few lines about sphere of activity is in order.

My definition of sphere of activity is the extent of the expansion of your geographical movement in your daily activities including work, shopping, going to the library or bookshops or any recreational activity, including meditation and religious activities.
 
That covers a lot and unfortunately the cellphone extends your sphere of activity beyond the shores.
 
I consider telephone as a hindrance except when one travels aboard.
 
The car also expands it.
 
I believe in reducing the sphere of activity to the minimum functionality one needs for survival.
 
Of course it reduces the traffic-jams of present day and one less person on the road is better for this planet wellbeing (less fuming exhaust).


Why go to a meditation retreat when one can do “Moment Meditation” or “Plant Watching” as an exercise at home?