Therewere more Asians at the Tucson Consciousness Conference this year than everbefore. The presence of Deepak Chopra, the special section on "EasternPhilosophy and Consciousness," and the increased interest in the Westabout the practice of Meditation probably all contributed. Dr. Herbert Benson'sbook thirty years ago, The Relaxation Response, fostered medical interest in thebenefits of the practice of meditation. Jon Kabat-Zinn has gone around thecountry for many years offering stress reduction programs at Hospitals andUniversities; he has a new book, Mindfulness for Beginners: Reclaiming thepresent moment and your life. It is an all out, no holds barred exhortation topractice daily meditation. "In many Asian languages, the word for 'mind'and the word for 'heart' is the same word. So when you hear the word'mindfulness,' you have to hear the word 'heartfulness' simultaneously tounderstand or feel what mindfulness really is."
Thereare many thumbnail sketches of how to practice meditation; the following isslightly modified from a recent posting on the RealAge website:--Finda quiet place to sit, where no one will interrupt you. Sit comfortably. Closeyour eyes. Breathe.--Unwind:tense and relax each body part, to bring your whole body to stillness.--Goblank. When thoughts come to your mind, repeat a mantra like "peace,"or "om," or "Cloud Nine." --Don'tmove for 5 minutes. Go for 10 or 20 minutes when you can.--Getup slowly, and keep the sense of peacefulness and calm with you as you go backto your daily tasks.
Whatdo the presenters at the Consciousness Conference have to say about this? Thereare now (f)MRIs available to monitor what is actually going on in the brains ofboth novice meditators and long-term practitioners. The bottom line?"Long-term meditators, those who have been practicing for many years, oreven decades, do enter states of very deep relaxation. Breathing rates can dropto 3 or 4 breaths a minute, and brain waves slow down from the usual beta (seenin waking activity) or alpha (seen in normal relaxation), to the much slowerdelta or theta waves." The oddity here is that most of these meditatorsare not doing it to seek relaxation, but something quite different: theymeditate to seek salvation, to help others, to gain insight, or because it isthe portal to ASCs, "altered states of consciousness," and theysimply have become habituated to this unusual experience. For such experts, thegoal is the original meaning of the word "meta-physical," they are doingsomething beyond the physical.
Tothe person who sets aside five minutes a day and uses meditation as a mode ofrelaxation, the experts would probably say, better spend that time going for awalk, or engaging in vigorous exercise. What do I think of all this? Ibelieve that even a few minutes a day dedicated to Meditation can help you copewith the stresses of daily life. I suspect that the experts in Meditation, whopractice for an hour or more a day, really do experience something denied tothe rest of us, something we might perceive in that occasional "Aha!"experience, something that, however infrequent, cleanses the doors ofperception, and enables us to see more deeply into what our life means. Even alittle bit of Meditation is better than none; even a few moments of reflectingon the mystery of Consciousness, the mystery of what it means to be a self, isbetter than going through life only half awake.....
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