Therapeutic Uses for Meditation

[Master Vigil]

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Business made me very unbalanced in my taoist life. But I wish to share an article I wrote on the Therapeutic Uses for Meditation. I hope you will enjoy it.

Therapeutic Uses for Meditation

By Dan Bernardo

The room is dim, lit only by scant flickers of candlelight. The air is of a foggy complexion due to the presence of lingering incense smoke. A soft, but powerful form of music seems to grasp your ears yet you cannot find its origin. Your body is erect yet nimble. Your legs are crossed, and you don’t remember how you even bent that way. Your head is tilted slightly down, and your chin is tucked slightly in. Your eyes are not open, but they are not closed. Your mind is working, yet you don’t notice it. You hear the noise of the water dripping in the nearby fountain, yet you cannot ask the water why it drips. Your breathing is controlled, repetitive, harmonic. A thought arises, you notice it, and then you drop it. What is happening here? Meditation is happening.

To begin with, I would like to first address meditation itself. I will discuss tradition, uses of old, and uses of new. I will also discuss the philosophical aspect of meditation which allows its use to be of greater magnitude. I will discuss the differences of the uses of old, as compared to the uses of new. I will break it up into two groups, Chinese, and Medical. In the Chinese group I will discuss Taoist meditation, the concept of chi, and the meditative practice called Chi Gung. I will also discuss concepts such as Wu Wei, and P’u. In the Medical group, I will discuss modern scientific findings of the effects meditation has both on the physical body as well as the mind. Overall, I will discuss the therapeutic methods that meditation is used for.

First Group:

Chinese culture goes far back into a time of warring states, and constant turmoil. Approximately in the year 500 B.C.E., a man by the name of Lao Tzu (Old Boy) was a bookkeeper for the local library, and governmental institutions in his state. It is said that one day, he was saddened by his people’s disinclination to cultivate the natural goodness he advocated and seeking greater personal solitude for his closing years, climbed a water buffalo and rode westward toward what is now Tibet. At the Hankao Pass a gatekeeper, sensing the unusual character of the truant, tried to persuade him to turn back. Failing this, he asked if the "Old Boy" would not at last leave a record of his beliefs to the civilization he was abandoning. This Lao Tzu consented to do. He retired for three days and returned with a slim volume fo five thousand characters title Tao Te Ching, or The Way and Its Power (Smith). This was the first mentioning of Tao in the natural sense in the history of Chinese culture. And Lao Tzu’s philosophy went on to birth a world religion that still has great influence in the world today. Whenever one says to another, "just go with the flow." They are speaking Taoist thought. Taoist thought is based not only on the Tao, but in the concept of simplicity.

The five colors blind the eye.

The five tones deafen the ear.

The five flavors cloy the palate.

Racing and hunting madden the mind.

Rare goods tempt man to do wrong.

Therefore the sage takes care of the belly, not the eye.

He prefers what is within, to what is without.

Chapter 12, Tao Te Ching : Lao Tzu

It is within this concept of simplicity that the uses of Taoist meditation are found. From Taoist thought we get the idea of Chi. This concept is quite misunderstood nowadays. It is given a metaphysical connotation that makes it seem supernatural, this is false. Chi is simply the energy that causes life. The energy that causes the synapses to fire in the brain, the heart to beat, the muscles to move. Modern science uses different terms, but they are one in the same. A Taoist form of meditation called Chi Gung, is used to manipulate the chi in the body. Harvard did a test on a group of Buddhist monks doing the Tibetan version of Chi Gung called Tum Mo. They show the ability to control body temperature while in a meditative state. They were placed in a room that was kept at 40 degrees Fahrenheit and would have a wet sheet soaked in 49 degrees Fahrenheit cold water placed over their shoulders, and then would proceed to heat the sheets causing steam and eventually completely drying the sheets. They were required to dry 3 sheets in a matter of 3 hours. We clearly see that the meditative state of the mind can control the energy (chi) in the body to raise body temperature.

Another Taoist concept worth discussing is Wu Wei. To a westerner, this may seem as laziness and procrastination. But it indeed is not. Wu Wei can be translated to mean "effortless action." It is like water. If you think of water running in a stream, it is not in control of where its going, yet it gets there effortlessly. Wu Wei talks about necessity, and doing what’s necessary. A great suffering that people go through is stress. But what stresses people? One reason why people are stressed is due to lack of control. When something bad happens in one’s life, the knowledge that you couldn’t control the situation can be stressful. When one worries about the future, the knowledge that one cannot control the future can be stressful. We constantly try to be in control of where we are going, but instead we are just like the water. When this is realized, stress can be alleviated almost immediately. The struggle however, is actually realizing it.

Another Taoist concept worth discussing is P’u. This is our inner nature which can be changed, manipulated, and lost by becoming too complex. Again, along with the concept of simplicity, our inner nature works best in a simple state. As wonderfully put on the back cover of the Tao of Pooh, "While Eyeore frets... and Piglet hesitates... and Rabbit calculates... and Owl pontificates... Pooh just is (Hoff). Another way people get stress is they try to fight fire with fire. (They drink to fight stress, etc...) This can be equated to P’u by comparing it to hitting a cork in water, the harder you hit, the harder it recoils. If the cork represents our stressors, then fighting them will only cause more stress.

Continued below...

[Master Vigil]

Second Group:

Along with the philosophical aspects of meditation, we find that the medical results are phenomenal as well. Take for instance the Buddhist monks practicing Tum mo. They were able to raise their body temperature enough to cause the chilled 49 degrees sheets to steam, when a normal human would have shivered, and if body temperatures would continue to drop under those conditions, death could occur. "Herbert Benson is an associate professor of medicine at the Harvard medical school, and president of the Mind/Body medical institute at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. He firmly believes that studying advanced forms of meditation can uncover capacities that will help us to better tread stress-related illness." (William J. Cromie)

Scientific studies of meditation and other contemplative forms have only recently become a subject of scientific interest within the last half century. "In 1931 Kovoor Behanan, and Indian graduate student in psychology at Yale, was awarded a Sterling Fellowship to undertake as has since been recognized as the first empirical study of yoga and meditation. Supported in this research by Walter Miles, an eminent professor of psychology, Behanan wrote a book about yoga that described quantitative studies of his own yogic breathing. During 72 days of experiments at Yale, he found that one breathing exercise, or pranayama, increased his oxygen consumption by 24.5%, and second by 18.5%, and a third by12%. This study helped stimulate interest in meditation research by showing that the physiological effects of yoga could be examined in the laboratory. Unlike many tales by travelers to the East, Behanan’s straightforward, well-observed account of his laboratory research was free of exaggeration and mystification" (Murphy).

Since this first study, countless of others have been done on Taoist monks, zen Buddhist monks, Tibetan Buddhist monks, yogi’s, etc... And time and time again we find that the studies show amazing health benefits and psychological benefits from meditation. The American Heart Association did a study that showed 69% improvement in heart and artery health for people "who were trained to practice a consistent technique for meditation." It is being used to "prevent, control, slow or at least control the pain of many chronic illnesses, such as AIDS, cancer and infertility. It is also being used to depression, hyperactivity and attention deficit disorder. There have also been studies to show that meditation increases the number of immune cells that fight breast cancer, this comes from other studies showing that meditation drastically reduces blood pressure" (Stein). There was a study that showed women with PMS who practiced meditation had reduced their symptoms by 58% (Collinge). But due to the wonders of modern technology, we can now look at the brain more intricately. We can see how meditation increases alpha wave rhythms, and improves synchronization of these alpha rhythms among our regions of the brain. Clearly the psychological and physical uses of meditation are wondrous.

In conclusion, we see how meditation taken in both philosophical and medical ways, can be put into use for many great reasons. We see that not only does it reduce stress, but it can also lower your blood pressure, increase your immune system, improve cardiac health, and help us relax in this complex and crazy society we live in. But that is only the beginning. With its ability to focus and control the mind, enlightenment, peace, and a higher spiritual awareness exists as well. The most important part of meditation is that it works on so many different levels, and it’s available in many forms. It isn’t based solely in religion, or even in spirituality. Its effects are everywhere. And with newer brain mapping technology, and the Dalai Lama volunteering for future studies, we will learn much more.

Works Cited.

Collinge, William. Meditation is Good Medicine. 12 Aug. 2004. Mar. 2005
http://my.webmd.com/content/article/96/103693.htm

Cromie, William J. "Meditation Changes Temperatures: Mind Controls Body in Extreme Experiments." Harvard Gazzette. Mar. 2005 http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/.../09-tummo.html

Hoff, Benjamin. The Tao of Pooh. New York: Dutton, 1982.

KSL-TV. Studies Showing Meditation Helps Stress. 22 Dec. 2004. Mar. 2005http://tv.ksl.com/index.php?nid=5&sid=140554

Lao Tzu. Tao Te Ching. Trans. John C.H. Wu. Boston: Shambhala, 1990.

Murphy, Michael. Scientific Studies of Contemplative Experience: An Overview. Mar. 2005 http://www.noetic.org/research/medbiblio/ch1.htm

Smith, Huston. The World’s Religions. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1991.

Stein, Joel. Just Say Om. 4 Aug. 2003. Mar. 2005 http://www.time.com/time/archive/pre...471136,00.html

[Travis Clementsmith]

I was interested in the wu wei. I have had two moments in my life that I would describe as transcendental. One time I was playing basketball and the other time I was painting a wall in my dining room. In both instances, for a brief period of time, my actions felt effortless, in sports it is known as "playing in the zone". The way I try to explain it is that there is a perfect way of executing a particular action, and that perfection is defined by effortlessness. For example, when I was shooting the basketball, my actions were not textbook as far as how to shoot a jumpshot, but the effortlessness I experienced at getting the ball in the hoop was perfect. Is this wu wei, or am I describing something different?

Travis

[Master Vigil]

I have experienced "being in the zone" many times as well. And while it an example of wu wei; one also has to realize that when your not in the zone, wu wei would be seen as accepting that you are not and not trying very hard to be in the zone. Does that make sense? The feeling you feel in the zone is an effortless feeling. And is an example of wu wei, it isn't the whole of wu wei.

[Travis Clementsmith]

Yes it does, thank you.

Travis

[Master Vigil]

You're very welcome.