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 well being (less fuming
exhaust).
Why go to
a meditation retreat when one can do “Moment Meditation” or
“Plant Watching” as an exercise at home?
