EXPERIMENTS IN PRAYER/MEDITATION
Thesis: There is an infinite unconscious source of knowledge, wisdom and power just sitting there, within and around us, just waiting to be tapped. This KWP is, of itself, neutral. However, according to our choice, it can be used for good or evil. It can be used constructively--to build a universe of great beauty and filled with goodness, truth, justice, harmony and peace for all.
Or, it can be used destructively.
LOVE--the highest good
The key to accessing this power for good is knowing how to turn on creative, or spiritual, love, not to be confused with its by products: physical, sensual and mental pleasures.
BEWARE OF PRIDE--the power of the ego
G-D is the symbol I use to describe all the KWP there is. The only thing which prevents us from accessing G-D--all this KWP--is an arrogant, or proud, self-centered conscious ego, which seeks only its personal pleasure and power over others, including pro-creation. On its own, this ego is like a sitting duck for what Freud called the ID--our self-centered unconscious drives, our undisciplined emotions.
The neurologist, cum psychologist, Dr. Sigmund Freud, the so-called atheist did contribute much to our understanding of human nature. He was, also, the mentor of Carl Jung (Man's Search for his Soul), who acknowledged the spiritual factor as an important component of human nature.
The ID driven ego prevents the KWP of G-D from getting through to us.
The good news is: By a simple act of good will, or love, the ego can agree to put itself aside, dedicate itself to truly love the self, the love and service of others, including the physical universe. Immediately, a postive kind of unconscious power begins to vibrate and flow from the postive unconscious, within us, to the conscious, and we begin to connect with the goodness, the openess and the dedication of the universe--G-D.
PRAYER/MEDITATION--PM
In the Aramaic, the language of Jesus' day, the word is 'slaha'. It simply means to connect with, to tune in to. IMO, Jesus did not pray to, or petition a god. He connected with G-D.
What is the nature and function of PM. Does prayer/meditation have any practical value? Or are we just talking to and fooling ourselves? Is it a powerful tool? Or just a toy? Or wishful thinking? Is there a God--one who hears and answers all prayers?
Putting my ego aside, here, in addition to the above, I want to hear about your theories of PM. Let us not be afraid to write about our personal experiments with this whole phenomenon of PM, to find out if it has any practical value and/or foundation in fact.
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IMHO, the main purpose of prayer/meditation is the achievement of at-one-ment with the All that Is--in the form of knowledge, wisdom and power, physically, mentally and spiritually. In one word,G-D. In reaching this goal I have at my disposal all the philosophy, science and art I am capable of understanding and using.
As a human being, I think of myself as consisting of three components. I am a spiritual being who happens to have a mind and a body. All components are important. However, I begin with my body, because, without a healthy body/brain, it is not likely I will have a good mind.
YOGA--be at-one-ment with
Most people are probably familiar with the word 'yoga'. Millions of Westerners, religious and non-religious, now practice this Eastern art. It comes from the Sanskrit 'zuga' meaning to be at-one-ment with, to connect with, to unite with. The Greek is 'zugos'. See Matthew 11:29, 30. There, Jesus, sepcifically recommends using zugos, which we translate a 'yoke'. Keep in mind, that yokes were primitive machines used to make burdens lighter.
I have been aware of the nature and value of yoga since the 1960. Since then, I have always used stretching--as I have gone about my regular activities, writing, gardening, art, as my way of doing exercise. But, to be honest, I have only begun to take yoga seriously since last July, 2005. It was then that I came across a little book which I have had on a top shelf of my library since 1993. The book is on the Five Tibetan Rites. Here is a summary of the information that is in the book:
http://www.mkprojects.com/pf_TibetanRites.htm
The PHYSICAL ECOLOGY--a spiritual value, IMO
Physically speaking, yoga is a way of connecting with the universe, physically. Think about it. We would all die, very shortly, if we never took the next breath (pneuma, the Greek for air, wind, breath). Without reasonably good air no other form of life is possible. The same is true for the next important physical component of our bodies, water. It goes without saying that the third component is food.
In the sense that we all breathe, drink and eat, we all practice yoga, that is, connecting with the One--at least, physically. In helping us make that connection, efficiently, the natural sciences, IMO, play an invaluable role. The more we know and the wiser we are in applying this knowledge, the healthier we will be.
In Luke 2:52, it not only says that Jesus increased, "...in favour with God and man"--in other words, spiritually--it also says that he increased in "wisdom" (mentally) and in "stature". The fully functioning spiritual being is constructed on a physical foundation.
Any thoughts to add?
As a human being, I think of myself as consisting of three components. I am a spiritual being who happens to have a mind and a body. All components are important. However, I begin with my body, because, without a healthy body/brain, it is not likely I will have a good mind.
YOGA--be at-one-ment with
Most people are probably familiar with the word 'yoga'. Millions of Westerners, religious and non-religious, now practice this Eastern art. It comes from the Sanskrit 'zuga' meaning to be at-one-ment with, to connect with, to unite with. The Greek is 'zugos'. See Matthew 11:29, 30. There, Jesus, sepcifically recommends using zugos, which we translate a 'yoke'. Keep in mind, that yokes were primitive machines used to make burdens lighter.
I have been aware of the nature and value of yoga since the 1960. Since then, I have always used stretching--as I have gone about my regular activities, writing, gardening, art, as my way of doing exercise. But, to be honest, I have only begun to take yoga seriously since last July, 2005. It was then that I came across a little book which I have had on a top shelf of my library since 1993. The book is on the Five Tibetan Rites. Here is a summary of the information that is in the book:
http://www.mkprojects.com/pf_TibetanRites.htm
The PHYSICAL ECOLOGY--a spiritual value, IMO
Physically speaking, yoga is a way of connecting with the universe, physically. Think about it. We would all die, very shortly, if we never took the next breath (pneuma, the Greek for air, wind, breath). Without reasonably good air no other form of life is possible. The same is true for the next important physical component of our bodies, water. It goes without saying that the third component is food.
In the sense that we all breathe, drink and eat, we all practice yoga, that is, connecting with the One--at least, physically. In helping us make that connection, efficiently, the natural sciences, IMO, play an invaluable role. The more we know and the wiser we are in applying this knowledge, the healthier we will be.
In Luke 2:52, it not only says that Jesus increased, "...in favour with God and man"--in other words, spiritually--it also says that he increased in "wisdom" (mentally) and in "stature". The fully functioning spiritual being is constructed on a physical foundation.
Any thoughts to add?
many people in the East do not consider the breathing and stretching exercises of Hatha yoga, which is widely practiced in the West, to be real yoga. The real yogas are meditative and focus on mind. Hatha yogas only purpose is to prepare the body and breath. I would recommend "The Complete Yoga Book" as a start, by James Hewitt.
The same goes for the Tibetan Rites which are just a set of physical exercises.
I don't see that prayer can be any better than meditation if the former elevates rote and mindless verbal requests to god over silent mindfulness. What do you mean by prayer, Lindsay?
The same goes for the Tibetan Rites which are just a set of physical exercises.
I don't see that prayer can be any better than meditation if the former elevates rote and mindless verbal requests to god over silent mindfulness. What do you mean by prayer, Lindsay?
as far as I know, hatha yoga is as 'real' a yoga as any other. It deals in the physical body, which is part of the total system.
QUOTE(Dan @ Feb 18, 12:02 PM) 
as far as I know, hatha yoga is as 'real' a yoga as any other. It deals in the physical body, which is part of the total system.
Hatha yoga alone does not lead to union or mindfulness. It is typically used as a precursor to the meditative yogas because the reasoning is, the body and breath must be right before the mind can be stilled. Even so, many in the West do not bother with the meditative yogas and use Hatha only for physical fitness and breathing exercises, to make themselves feel better.
QUOTE(lucid_dream @ Feb 18, 12:10 PM)
Hatha yoga alone does not lead to union or mindfulness. It is typically used as a precursor to the meditative yogas because the reasoning is, the body and breath must be right before the mind can be stilled. Even so, many in the West do not bother with the meditative yogas and use Hatha only for physical fitness and breathing exercises, to make themselves feel better.
Yes, it has its place in the yoga pantheon. It is in fact 'real' yoga, but it is not alone sufficient to achieve the mythical samadhi state. In analogy, we can understand 'physical education' as a form of 'education' just as 'hatha yoga' is a form of 'yoga'. It is interesting that Westerners are unaware of this distinction.
Lucid is correct Hatha Yoga is only the first step in eastern practices, the real yoga is known as Raja Yoga which translates into King Yoga, or divine yoga. Raja deals with the mind, they concentrate on aspects like having complete mental control over your mind and body. Hatha is considered the lower of the two Yoga's and is only used in preperation for Raja Yoga which teaches you to control you heartbeat, fear, anger it truely aims to give you greater mental control over yourself. I have looked hard for literature dealing with Raja Yoga and it is difficult to find, Hatha has been widely commercialized throughout north america and various other spin offs like trancendal meditation (scam) have been created to hone in on this huge market. Raja is considered the way to enlightenment for those who practice it, its ultimate goal is to become closer to god.
nonsense. Raja yoga is simply one in a progression of yogas described in the Gita. To say it is the only 'real' yoga is to miss the point.
I am not saying it is the only "real" yoga, hatha focus' on psychical and raja focus' on mental..
QUOTE(maximus242 @ Feb 19, 09:53 AM)
... the real yoga is known as Raja Yoga ...
lol yeah I suppose I should have chosen my words better, what I meant was that hatha is only the beginning where as the western ideaology is that it is the only yoga.
sounds better
QUOTE(Dan @ Feb 19, 01:26 PM)
sounds better
PRAYER. I was asked to define prayer. It is a very complex concept, which--in the sense that it is a conscious appeal to the divine, or the holiding of communion with the divine--is universal, for those who believe in personal gods, or God.
Even in the Bible, prayer takes more than one form. For example, in Psalm 69-19-28, prayer is very self-centered. See also Psalm 83, and 109-1-20. In Mark 1: 35, it is simple communion; in Psalm 25, it is petition; in Genesis 32:22-32, and Luke 22:29-36, it is a wrestling with God; in Psalm 51, it is confession; in Genesis 28:18-22, it is the uttering of vows; in Luke 1:46-55, 67-79, it is praise and thanksgiving; in I Sam.1:12-15, it is an unspoken desire in the heart; in Matt.8:25, a mere comment, and in John 17, Jesus offered a prolonged utterance. Because of the influence of Jesus, New Testament prayers differ from those of the Old Testaments.
For those interested in more details about the nature of prayer, check out the article on it in Harper's Bible Dictionary--or any good Bible dictionary.
http://www.bibletexts.com/glossary/bar.htm
================================
I used the word simply because it is the one we commonly used to translate, in English, the Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic and Greek terms for the way we try to get the attention of God--the ground of all being. I certainly do not use the word to mean that I believe that there is a supreme Santa-Claus like god who will send us favours if we are willing to petition and plead with him in the right way.
[More on this important topic, later]
There are 8 limbs of Yoga. Does amyone know what they are?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/artic...6-2005Jan2.html
Meditation Gives Brain a Charge, Study Finds
By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 3, 2005; Page A05
Brain research is beginning to produce concrete evidence for something that Buddhist practitioners of meditation have maintained for centuries: Mental discipline and meditative practice can change the workings of the brain and allow people to achieve different levels of awareness.
Those transformed states have traditionally been understood in transcendent terms, as something outside the world of physical measurement and objective evaluation. But over the past few years, researchers at the University of Wisconsin working with Tibetan monks have been able to translate those mental experiences into the scientific language of high-frequency gamma waves and brain synchrony, or coordination. And they have pinpointed the left prefrontal cortex, an area just behind the left forehead, as the place where brain activity associated with meditation is especially intense.
"What we found is that the longtime practitioners showed brain activation on a scale we have never seen before," said Richard Davidson, a neuroscientist at the university's new $10 million W.M. Keck Laboratory for Functional Brain Imaging and Behavior. "Their mental practice is having an effect on the brain in the same way golf or tennis practice will enhance performance." It demonstrates, he said, that the brain is capable of being trained and physically modified in ways few people can imagine.
Scientists used to believe the opposite -- that connections among brain nerve cells were fixed early in life and did not change in adulthood. But that assumption was disproved over the past decade with the help of advances in brain imaging and other techniques, and in its place, scientists have embraced the concept of ongoing brain development and "neuroplasticity."
Davidson says his newest results from the meditation study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in November, take the concept of neuroplasticity a step further by showing that mental training through meditation (and presumably other disciplines) can itself change the inner workings and circuitry of the brain.
The new findings are the result of a long, if unlikely, collaboration between Davidson and Tibet's Dalai Lama, the world's best-known practitioner of Buddhism. The Dalai Lama first invited Davidson to his home in Dharamsala, India, in 1992 after learning about Davidson's innovative research into the neuroscience of emotions. The Tibetans have a centuries-old tradition of intensive meditation and, from the start, the Dalai Lama was interested in having Davidson scientifically explore the workings of his monks' meditating minds. Three years ago, the Dalai Lama spent two days visiting Davidson's lab.
The Dalai Lama ultimately dispatched eight of his most accomplished practitioners to Davidson's lab to have them hooked up for electroencephalograph (EEG) testing and brain scanning. The Buddhist practitioners in the experiment had undergone training in the Tibetan Nyingmapa and Kagyupa traditions of meditation for an estimated 10,000 to 50,000 hours, over time periods of 15 to 40 years. As a control, 10 student volunteers with no previous meditation experience were also tested after one week of training.
The monks and volunteers were fitted with a net of 256 electrical sensors and asked to meditate for short periods. Thinking and other mental activity are known to produce slight, but detectable, bursts of electrical activity as large groupings of neurons send messages to each other, and that's what the sensors picked up. Davidson was especially interested in measuring gamma waves, some of the highest-frequency and most important electrical brain impulses.
Both groups were asked to meditate, specifically on unconditional compassion. Buddhist teaching describes that state, which is at the heart of the Dalai Lama's teaching, as the "unrestricted readiness and availability to help living beings." The researchers chose that focus because it does not require concentrating on particular objects, memories or images, and cultivates instead a transformed state of being.
Davidson said that the results unambiguously showed that meditation activated the trained minds of the monks in significantly different ways from those of the volunteers. Most important, the electrodes picked up much greater activation of fast-moving and unusually powerful gamma waves in the monks, and found that the movement of the waves through the brain was far better organized and coordinated than in the students. The meditation novices showed only a slight increase in gamma wave activity while meditating, but some of the monks produced gamma wave activity more powerful than any previously reported in a healthy person, Davidson said.
The monks who had spent the most years meditating had the highest levels of gamma waves, he added. This "dose response" -- where higher levels of a drug or activity have greater effect than lower levels -- is what researchers look for to assess cause and effect.
In previous studies, mental activities such as focus, memory, learning and consciousness were associated with the kind of enhanced neural coordination found in the monks. The intense gamma waves found in the monks have also been associated with knitting together disparate brain circuits, and so are connected to higher mental activity and heightened awareness, as well.
Davidson's research is consistent with his earlier work that pinpointed the left prefrontal cortex as a brain region associated with happiness and positive thoughts and emotions. Using functional magnetic resonance imagining (fMRI) on the meditating monks, Davidson found that their brain activity -- as measured by the EEG -- was especially high in this area.
Davidson concludes from the research that meditation not only changes the workings of the brain in the short term, but also quite possibly produces permanent changes. That finding, he said, is based on the fact that the monks had considerably more gamma wave activity than the control group even before they started meditating. A researcher at the University of Massachusetts, Jon Kabat-Zinn, came to a similar conclusion several years ago.
Researchers at Harvard and Princeton universities are now testing some of the same monks on different aspects of their meditation practice: their ability to visualize images and control their thinking. Davidson is also planning further research.
"What we found is that the trained mind, or brain, is physically different from the untrained one," he said. In time, "we'll be able to better understand the potential importance of this kind of mental training and increase the likelihood that it will be taken seriously."
Meditation Gives Brain a Charge, Study Finds
By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 3, 2005; Page A05
Brain research is beginning to produce concrete evidence for something that Buddhist practitioners of meditation have maintained for centuries: Mental discipline and meditative practice can change the workings of the brain and allow people to achieve different levels of awareness.
Those transformed states have traditionally been understood in transcendent terms, as something outside the world of physical measurement and objective evaluation. But over the past few years, researchers at the University of Wisconsin working with Tibetan monks have been able to translate those mental experiences into the scientific language of high-frequency gamma waves and brain synchrony, or coordination. And they have pinpointed the left prefrontal cortex, an area just behind the left forehead, as the place where brain activity associated with meditation is especially intense.
"What we found is that the longtime practitioners showed brain activation on a scale we have never seen before," said Richard Davidson, a neuroscientist at the university's new $10 million W.M. Keck Laboratory for Functional Brain Imaging and Behavior. "Their mental practice is having an effect on the brain in the same way golf or tennis practice will enhance performance." It demonstrates, he said, that the brain is capable of being trained and physically modified in ways few people can imagine.
Scientists used to believe the opposite -- that connections among brain nerve cells were fixed early in life and did not change in adulthood. But that assumption was disproved over the past decade with the help of advances in brain imaging and other techniques, and in its place, scientists have embraced the concept of ongoing brain development and "neuroplasticity."
Davidson says his newest results from the meditation study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in November, take the concept of neuroplasticity a step further by showing that mental training through meditation (and presumably other disciplines) can itself change the inner workings and circuitry of the brain.
The new findings are the result of a long, if unlikely, collaboration between Davidson and Tibet's Dalai Lama, the world's best-known practitioner of Buddhism. The Dalai Lama first invited Davidson to his home in Dharamsala, India, in 1992 after learning about Davidson's innovative research into the neuroscience of emotions. The Tibetans have a centuries-old tradition of intensive meditation and, from the start, the Dalai Lama was interested in having Davidson scientifically explore the workings of his monks' meditating minds. Three years ago, the Dalai Lama spent two days visiting Davidson's lab.
The Dalai Lama ultimately dispatched eight of his most accomplished practitioners to Davidson's lab to have them hooked up for electroencephalograph (EEG) testing and brain scanning. The Buddhist practitioners in the experiment had undergone training in the Tibetan Nyingmapa and Kagyupa traditions of meditation for an estimated 10,000 to 50,000 hours, over time periods of 15 to 40 years. As a control, 10 student volunteers with no previous meditation experience were also tested after one week of training.
The monks and volunteers were fitted with a net of 256 electrical sensors and asked to meditate for short periods. Thinking and other mental activity are known to produce slight, but detectable, bursts of electrical activity as large groupings of neurons send messages to each other, and that's what the sensors picked up. Davidson was especially interested in measuring gamma waves, some of the highest-frequency and most important electrical brain impulses.
Both groups were asked to meditate, specifically on unconditional compassion. Buddhist teaching describes that state, which is at the heart of the Dalai Lama's teaching, as the "unrestricted readiness and availability to help living beings." The researchers chose that focus because it does not require concentrating on particular objects, memories or images, and cultivates instead a transformed state of being.
Davidson said that the results unambiguously showed that meditation activated the trained minds of the monks in significantly different ways from those of the volunteers. Most important, the electrodes picked up much greater activation of fast-moving and unusually powerful gamma waves in the monks, and found that the movement of the waves through the brain was far better organized and coordinated than in the students. The meditation novices showed only a slight increase in gamma wave activity while meditating, but some of the monks produced gamma wave activity more powerful than any previously reported in a healthy person, Davidson said.
The monks who had spent the most years meditating had the highest levels of gamma waves, he added. This "dose response" -- where higher levels of a drug or activity have greater effect than lower levels -- is what researchers look for to assess cause and effect.
In previous studies, mental activities such as focus, memory, learning and consciousness were associated with the kind of enhanced neural coordination found in the monks. The intense gamma waves found in the monks have also been associated with knitting together disparate brain circuits, and so are connected to higher mental activity and heightened awareness, as well.
Davidson's research is consistent with his earlier work that pinpointed the left prefrontal cortex as a brain region associated with happiness and positive thoughts and emotions. Using functional magnetic resonance imagining (fMRI) on the meditating monks, Davidson found that their brain activity -- as measured by the EEG -- was especially high in this area.
Davidson concludes from the research that meditation not only changes the workings of the brain in the short term, but also quite possibly produces permanent changes. That finding, he said, is based on the fact that the monks had considerably more gamma wave activity than the control group even before they started meditating. A researcher at the University of Massachusetts, Jon Kabat-Zinn, came to a similar conclusion several years ago.
Researchers at Harvard and Princeton universities are now testing some of the same monks on different aspects of their meditation practice: their ability to visualize images and control their thinking. Davidson is also planning further research.
"What we found is that the trained mind, or brain, is physically different from the untrained one," he said. In time, "we'll be able to better understand the potential importance of this kind of mental training and increase the likelihood that it will be taken seriously."
QUOTE(Guest @ Feb 20, 06:02 PM)
There are 8 limbs of Yoga. Does amyone know what they are?
Yoga means Union. In the west Yoga is typically associated with the discipline of maintaining body postures, to train the body. To find union with God the Yoga combines body, mind and spirit. One must unite the body with the mind and unite the body and the mind with spirit.
The following is from a translation of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
Maharishi Patanjali was also known as Govinda Yogindra, "The Light-Filled King of the Yogis."
He was commonly considered to be the Teacher of the first Sankaracharya, who revitalized the knowledge of Enlightenment some five centuries before the birth of Christ.
Maharishi Patanjali was a fully conscious human being. Maharishii literally means "great sage."
A rishi, a sage, is an individual who has ascended to the first stage of enlightenment, Perpetual Consciousness, which is characterized by recognition that the inner Self is Infinite, not limited by space, time or causation, one with the omnipresent One, the Creator of All that Is.
A Maharishi is an individual who has Ascended to Unified Consciousness, in which the inner experience of Infinite Awareness is also experienced outside, as the essential Reality of everyone and everything.
Patanjali was established in this ultimate level of human consciousness. His text of Yoga was designed to help anyone rise to this state of human perfection.
Sutras are very short and concise statements. Sutra literally means "thread."
The Yoga Sutras are the threads that together constitute the tapestry of Yoga.
Yoga comes from the root, yug, which means to join together. So the Yoga Sutras are the threads that join together.
Yoga is the science of joining together the individual lower self with the universal higher Self, the indivisible spark of God that resides within everyone.
Yoga is not a belief system or a religion nor even a philosophy -- it is an extremely practical methodology for systematically expanding the conscious mind. Said another way, Yoga is the Science for overcoming the self-destructive and limiting beliefs and internal programs that keep individual life bound to the experiences of the Waking State of Consciousness -- the state in which life is alternately happy and sad, loving and hating, healthy and sick -- in short, dual.
Yoga provides a systematic ladder for climbing beyond the often painful experiences of the Waking State of duality into the state of non-changing Unified Consciousness, a.k.a. full enlightenment.
1.Yama The yamas refer to an individual�s ethical standards and way of behaving. The yamas have five areas of focus:
Ahimsa: nonviolence against oneself or others, in actions or thoughts.
Aparigraha: noncovetousness, non-grasping, taking only what is necessary.
Asteya: nonstealing, thoughtful in what is yours, not taking advantage of one�s trust.
Brahmacharya: continence, abstinence, self-restraint, conscious awareness.
Satya: truthfulness in all dealings with the self and others.
2. Niyama The niyamas refer to a more internal view of ourselves; to behaviors and observances. The niyamas have five areas of focus:
Isvara Pranidhana: surrender to God, realizing ego is not in control of one�s existence.
Samtosa: contentment and modesty, accepting what happens through expansion of consciousness.
Saucha: purity of the body and thoughts.
Svadhyaya: the study of sacred texts, to study oneself through reflection.
Tapas: literally translated as heat; the fire tha burns away all that is not real, spiritual austerities, which means useful boundaries or focus and discipline.
3.Asana The most common discipline taught in contemporary yoga classes are the postures and movement between postures. Practicing asana helps prepare us for deeper meditation. By maintaining a healthy and open physical body, we are able to come to deeper meditation, enabling us to experience samadhi. From a yoga perspective, this is the primary reason for practicing asana.
4.Pranayama Prana translates as breath or life force. Yama translates as control. Thus pranayama means control of the breath. Through pranayama practice, we learn to control the body and mind by controlling the breath. We can strengthen the energy within as well as making the energy more peaceful. Pranayama increases our lung capacity, decreases stress, helps us focus, and brings a sense of balance of the inner self with the world around us. If practiced correctly, the body and mind become healthier. Practicing the first four limbs of yoga, Yama, Niyama, Asana and Pranayama help us to more thoroughly experience the next four limbs, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi, which focus more on the spiritual self.
5.Pratyahara Pratyahara means withdrawing from the senses. More accurately, it means to transcend the senses so they don�t influence us in a way that prevents us from reaching Samadhi, or enlightenment. By transcending the senses, we move our awareness away from the outer world and toward the inner self. Here, without outside influence, we are able to view our selves in a deeper, more intimate way, ultimately finding the true self.
6.Dharana With the help of Pratyahara, Dharana enables us to concentrate more fully, bringing a richer awareness of the mind. This step is essential to meditation. Here, we use all the previously mentioned limbs to bring our selves to a place of such peacefulness and balance, every thought or influence is met with a totally open mind, body and spirit. There is no preconception, prejudgment, conditioning, fear, anxiety, joy or sorrow to influence our meeting with each event. We meet every moment with our true selves.
7.Dhyana Dhyana is meditation. In Dhyana, or meditation, we move beyond Dharana (concentration) into a state of total awareness. We are able to concentrate on a focus point, while still being aware of everything else around and within us. This is a much more difficult task than might be thought. All the previously mentioned limbs are engaged when we come to this state. The mind and body must be totally quiet and open.
8.Samadhi Samadhi is the state of transcendence of the self, a state of ecstasy. It is the joining or union (the meaning of yoga) with all living things, with the universe, with the Devine. Here, we are in a state of bliss, beyond the place of knowledge, beyond the place of worldly things, to a realization that everything is of the same substance and that all is connected � yoga!
Here are 8 terms given to types of yoga, Jnana Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Raja Yoga, Karma Yoga, Hatha Yoga, Dhyana Yoga, Ashtanga Yoga,
One can grab a branch of a tree and never truly know the root of its existence.
Here are a couple more articles. Fascinating stuff--makes me want to go meditate right now.
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Meditation can boost your gray matter
�Buddhist Insight� practitioners build thicker cortical regions
LIVE SCIENCE
November 13, 2005
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Meditation alters brain patterns in ways that are likely permanent, scientists have known. But a new study shows key parts of the brain actually get thicker through the practice.
Brain imaging of regular working folks who meditate regularly revealed increased thickness in cortical regions related to sensory, auditory and visual perception, as well as internal perception � the automatic monitoring of heart rate or breathing, for example.
The study also indicates that regular meditation may slow age-related thinning of the frontal cortex.
"What is most fascinating to me is the suggestion that meditation practice can change anyone's gray matter," said study team member Jeremy Gray, an assistant professor of psychology at Yale. "The study participants were people with jobs and families. They just meditated on average 40 minutes each day, you don't have to be a monk."
The research team was led by Sara Lazar, assistant in psychology at Massachusetts General Hospital. It is detailed in the November issue of the journal NeuroReport.
The study involved a small number of people, just 20. All had extensive training in Buddhist Insight meditation. But the researchers say the results are significant.
Most of the brain regions identified to be changed through meditation were found in the right hemisphere, which is essential for sustaining attention. And attention is the focus of the meditation.
Other forms of yoga and meditation likely have a similar impact on brain structure, the researchers speculate, but each tradition probably has a slightly different pattern of cortical thickening based on the specific mental exercises involved.
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Scans of Monks' Brains Show Meditation Alters Structure, Functioning
SCIENCE JOURNAL
Sharon Begley, November 5, 2004
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All of the Dalai Lama's guests peered intently at the brain scan projected onto screens at either end of the room, but what different guests they were.
On one side sat five neuroscientists, united in their belief that physical processes in the brain can explain all the wonders of the mind, without appeal to anything spiritual or nonphysical.
Facing them sat dozens of Tibetan Buddhist monks in burgundy-and-saffron robes, convinced that one round-faced young man in their midst is the reincarnation of one of the Dalai Lama's late teachers, that another is the reincarnation of a 12th-century monk, and that the entity we call "mind" is not, as neuroscience says, just a manifestation of the brain.
It was not, in other words, your typical science meeting.
But although the Buddhists and scientists who met for five days last month in the Dalai Lama's home in Dharamsala, India, had different views on the little matters of reincarnation and the relationship of mind to brain, they set them aside in the interest of a shared goal. They had come together in the shadows of the Himalayas to discuss one of the hottest topics in brain science: neuroplasticity.
The term refers to the brain's recently discovered ability to change its structure and function, in particular by expanding or strengthening circuits that are used and by shrinking or weakening those that are rarely engaged. In its short history, the science of neuroplasticity has mostly documented brain changes that reflect physical experience and input from the outside world. In pianists who play many arpeggios, for instance, brain regions that control the index finger and middle finger become fused, apparently because when one finger hits a key in one of these fast-tempo movements, the other does so almost simultaneously, fooling the brain into thinking the two fingers are one. As a result of the fused brain regions, the pianist can no longer move those fingers independently of one another.
Lately, however, scientists have begun to wonder whether the brain can change in response to purely internal, mental signals. That's where the Buddhists come in. Their centuries-old tradition of meditation offers a real-life experiment in the power of those will-o'-the-wisps, thoughts, to alter the physical matter of the brain.
"Of all the concepts in modern neuroscience, it is neuroplasticity that has the greatest potential for meaningful interaction with Buddhism," says neuroscientist Richard Davidson of the University of Wisconsin, Madison. The Dalai Lama agreed, and he encouraged monks to donate (temporarily) their brains to science.
The result was the scans that Prof. Davidson projected in Dharamsala. They compared brain activity in volunteers who were novice meditators to that of Buddhist monks who had spent more than 10,000 hours in meditation. The task was to practice "compassion" meditation, generating a feeling of loving kindness toward all beings.
"We tried to generate a mental state in which compassion permeates the whole mind with no other thoughts," says Matthieu Ricard, a Buddhist monk at Shechen Monastery in Katmandu, Nepal, who holds a Ph.D. in genetics.
In a striking difference between novices and monks, the latter showed a dramatic increase in high-frequency brain activity called gamma waves during compassion meditation. Thought to be the signature of neuronal activity that knits together far-flung brain circuits, gamma waves underlie higher mental activity such as consciousness. The novice meditators "showed a slight increase in gamma activity, but most monks showed extremely large increases of a sort that has never been reported before in the neuroscience literature," says Prof. Davidson, suggesting that mental training can bring the brain to a greater level of consciousness.
Using the brain scan called functional magnetic resonance imaging, the scientists pinpointed regions that were active during compassion meditation. In almost every case, the enhanced activity was greater in the monks' brains than the novices'. Activity in the left prefrontal cortex (the seat of positive emotions such as happiness) swamped activity in the right prefrontal (site of negative emotions and anxiety), something never before seen from purely mental activity. A sprawling circuit that switches on at the sight of suffering also showed greater activity in the monks. So did regions responsible for planned movement, as if the monks' brains were itching to go to the aid of those in distress.
"It feels like a total readiness to act, to help," recalled Mr. Ricard.
The study will be published next week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "We can't rule out the possibility that there was a pre-existing difference in brain function between monks and novices," says Prof. Davidson, "but the fact that monks with the most hours of meditation showed the greatest brain changes gives us confidence that the changes are actually produced by mental training."
That opens up the tantalizing possibility that the brain, like the rest of the body, can be altered intentionally. Just as aerobics sculpt the muscles, so mental training sculpts the gray matter in ways scientists are only beginning to fathom.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Meditation can boost your gray matter
�Buddhist Insight� practitioners build thicker cortical regions
LIVE SCIENCE
November 13, 2005
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Meditation alters brain patterns in ways that are likely permanent, scientists have known. But a new study shows key parts of the brain actually get thicker through the practice.
Brain imaging of regular working folks who meditate regularly revealed increased thickness in cortical regions related to sensory, auditory and visual perception, as well as internal perception � the automatic monitoring of heart rate or breathing, for example.
The study also indicates that regular meditation may slow age-related thinning of the frontal cortex.
"What is most fascinating to me is the suggestion that meditation practice can change anyone's gray matter," said study team member Jeremy Gray, an assistant professor of psychology at Yale. "The study participants were people with jobs and families. They just meditated on average 40 minutes each day, you don't have to be a monk."
The research team was led by Sara Lazar, assistant in psychology at Massachusetts General Hospital. It is detailed in the November issue of the journal NeuroReport.
The study involved a small number of people, just 20. All had extensive training in Buddhist Insight meditation. But the researchers say the results are significant.
Most of the brain regions identified to be changed through meditation were found in the right hemisphere, which is essential for sustaining attention. And attention is the focus of the meditation.
Other forms of yoga and meditation likely have a similar impact on brain structure, the researchers speculate, but each tradition probably has a slightly different pattern of cortical thickening based on the specific mental exercises involved.
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Scans of Monks' Brains Show Meditation Alters Structure, Functioning
SCIENCE JOURNAL
Sharon Begley, November 5, 2004
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All of the Dalai Lama's guests peered intently at the brain scan projected onto screens at either end of the room, but what different guests they were.
On one side sat five neuroscientists, united in their belief that physical processes in the brain can explain all the wonders of the mind, without appeal to anything spiritual or nonphysical.
Facing them sat dozens of Tibetan Buddhist monks in burgundy-and-saffron robes, convinced that one round-faced young man in their midst is the reincarnation of one of the Dalai Lama's late teachers, that another is the reincarnation of a 12th-century monk, and that the entity we call "mind" is not, as neuroscience says, just a manifestation of the brain.
It was not, in other words, your typical science meeting.
But although the Buddhists and scientists who met for five days last month in the Dalai Lama's home in Dharamsala, India, had different views on the little matters of reincarnation and the relationship of mind to brain, they set them aside in the interest of a shared goal. They had come together in the shadows of the Himalayas to discuss one of the hottest topics in brain science: neuroplasticity.
The term refers to the brain's recently discovered ability to change its structure and function, in particular by expanding or strengthening circuits that are used and by shrinking or weakening those that are rarely engaged. In its short history, the science of neuroplasticity has mostly documented brain changes that reflect physical experience and input from the outside world. In pianists who play many arpeggios, for instance, brain regions that control the index finger and middle finger become fused, apparently because when one finger hits a key in one of these fast-tempo movements, the other does so almost simultaneously, fooling the brain into thinking the two fingers are one. As a result of the fused brain regions, the pianist can no longer move those fingers independently of one another.
Lately, however, scientists have begun to wonder whether the brain can change in response to purely internal, mental signals. That's where the Buddhists come in. Their centuries-old tradition of meditation offers a real-life experiment in the power of those will-o'-the-wisps, thoughts, to alter the physical matter of the brain.
"Of all the concepts in modern neuroscience, it is neuroplasticity that has the greatest potential for meaningful interaction with Buddhism," says neuroscientist Richard Davidson of the University of Wisconsin, Madison. The Dalai Lama agreed, and he encouraged monks to donate (temporarily) their brains to science.
The result was the scans that Prof. Davidson projected in Dharamsala. They compared brain activity in volunteers who were novice meditators to that of Buddhist monks who had spent more than 10,000 hours in meditation. The task was to practice "compassion" meditation, generating a feeling of loving kindness toward all beings.
"We tried to generate a mental state in which compassion permeates the whole mind with no other thoughts," says Matthieu Ricard, a Buddhist monk at Shechen Monastery in Katmandu, Nepal, who holds a Ph.D. in genetics.
In a striking difference between novices and monks, the latter showed a dramatic increase in high-frequency brain activity called gamma waves during compassion meditation. Thought to be the signature of neuronal activity that knits together far-flung brain circuits, gamma waves underlie higher mental activity such as consciousness. The novice meditators "showed a slight increase in gamma activity, but most monks showed extremely large increases of a sort that has never been reported before in the neuroscience literature," says Prof. Davidson, suggesting that mental training can bring the brain to a greater level of consciousness.
Using the brain scan called functional magnetic resonance imaging, the scientists pinpointed regions that were active during compassion meditation. In almost every case, the enhanced activity was greater in the monks' brains than the novices'. Activity in the left prefrontal cortex (the seat of positive emotions such as happiness) swamped activity in the right prefrontal (site of negative emotions and anxiety), something never before seen from purely mental activity. A sprawling circuit that switches on at the sight of suffering also showed greater activity in the monks. So did regions responsible for planned movement, as if the monks' brains were itching to go to the aid of those in distress.
"It feels like a total readiness to act, to help," recalled Mr. Ricard.
The study will be published next week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "We can't rule out the possibility that there was a pre-existing difference in brain function between monks and novices," says Prof. Davidson, "but the fact that monks with the most hours of meditation showed the greatest brain changes gives us confidence that the changes are actually produced by mental training."
That opens up the tantalizing possibility that the brain, like the rest of the body, can be altered intentionally. Just as aerobics sculpt the muscles, so mental training sculpts the gray matter in ways scientists are only beginning to fathom.
QUOTE(OnlyNow @ Feb 20, 11:34 AM)
Here are a couple more articles. Fascinating stuff--makes me want to go meditate right now.....
....That opens up the tantalizing possibility that the brain, like the rest of the body, can be altered intentionally. Just as aerobics sculpt the muscles, so mental training sculpts the gray matter in ways scientists are only beginning to fathom.
I just finished with a mediation-case: It involved a mother--in her seventies--and her 50 year old daughter. They were in a constant state of serious conflict. It was the mother who brought the problem to me. I started by using the phone and by writing a note or two. Then, along with the mother, my wife and I visited the daughter's home--owned by the mother and rented to the daughter--to observe the circumstances in which she is living--not well kept at all.
Over the next few weeks--the mother actually comes to our weekly discussion group. She is often accompanied by her bachelor son--not on good terms with his sister--who looks after his mother's properties. Over several weeks discussion--in group and by phone--I was able to make the mother aware that both she and her son were using the "shame and blame" game...without really being aware of it...to "punish" the daughter/sister in order to get her to change her slovenly ways. This attitude prevented any real communication from taking place. Even simple, mole-hill-sized repairs to the house, which the mother asked the son to do, became mountainous problems.
Before the mediation process, the mother and the son, who live together and seem to get along, were unable to communicate to the daughter/sister without trying to blame and shame her. The daughter retaliated by becoming even more careless and untidy in her personal habits...alcohol and tobacco involved...In was apparent to me that she also became paranoid.
In addition to having conversations with the family, I also introduced them to good literature having to do with the art of communication and getting along. It took nearly nine months, but things have changed, for the better, over the last month. Thank G-D.
=========================================================================
Currently, I am working with a male person, in his late thirties. He, his brother and mother have some very serious communication and emotional problems. He told me that, recently, he felt suicidal. I began working with him about two months ago. More later.
Both cases, involved my given the above instructions in the use of meditation and process prayer.
OnlyNow date='Feb 20, 11:34 AM writes:
To the above, I will add that, IMHO, in addition to the above, and in cooperaton with GOD, we can also sculpt, or alter, circumstances external to the physical body.
During over 40 years of ministry I preached any open-minded and non-dogmatic approach to the Bible and theology. Since I retired (1994) it has been my dream to find, or to start, a new congregation of people, connected with the United Church of Canada, willing to take this same open-minded and non-dogmatic approach.
About two years ago, things began to happen. December, 12, 2005, inspired by the life and work of progressive Christian thinkers and with little personal effort from me, things began to come together. A small group of us started a congregation called
PATHWAYS
Check out
http://www.dioceseofnewark.org/jsspong/ and
http://www.progressivechristianity.ca/
=================
And speaking of yoga: Since last June, I have been doing the FIVE TIBETAN RITES, almost on a daily basis. I am more than pleased with the results. Anyone else doing these rites?
(More to follow...)
QUOTE
...Fascinating stuff--makes me want to go meditate right now....Meditation can boost your gray matter
Meditation alters brain patterns in ways that are likely permanent, scientists have known. But a new study shows key parts of the brain actually get thicker through the practice.
Brain imaging of regular working folks who meditate regularly revealed increased thickness in cortical regions related to sensory, auditory and visual perception, as well as internal perception — the automatic monitoring of heart rate or breathing, for example....
"What is most fascinating to me is the suggestion that meditation practice can change anyone's gray matter," said study team member Jeremy Gray, an assistant professor of psychology at Yale. "The study participants were people with jobs and families. They just meditated on average 40 minutes each day, you don't have to be a monk."
The research team was led by Sara Lazar, assistant in psychology at Massachusetts General Hospital. It is detailed in the November issue of the journal NeuroReport.
The study involved a small number of people, just 20. All had extensive training in Buddhist Insight meditation. But the researchers say the results are significant.
Most of the brain regions identified to be changed through meditation were found in the right hemisphere, which is essential for sustaining attention. And attention is the focus of the meditation.
Other forms of yoga and meditation likely have a similar impact on brain structure, the researchers speculate, but each tradition probably has a slightly different pattern of cortical thickening based on the specific mental exercises involved. .....
-
......The study will be published next week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "We can't rule out the possibility that there was a pre-existing difference in brain function between monks and novices," says Prof. Davidson, "but the fact that monks with the most hours of meditation showed the greatest brain changes gives us confidence that the changes are actually produced by mental training."
That opens up the tantalizing possibility that the brain, like the rest of the body, can be altered, intentionally. Just as aerobics sculpt the muscles, so mental training sculpts the gray matter in ways scientists are only beginning to fathom.
Meditation alters brain patterns in ways that are likely permanent, scientists have known. But a new study shows key parts of the brain actually get thicker through the practice.
Brain imaging of regular working folks who meditate regularly revealed increased thickness in cortical regions related to sensory, auditory and visual perception, as well as internal perception — the automatic monitoring of heart rate or breathing, for example....
"What is most fascinating to me is the suggestion that meditation practice can change anyone's gray matter," said study team member Jeremy Gray, an assistant professor of psychology at Yale. "The study participants were people with jobs and families. They just meditated on average 40 minutes each day, you don't have to be a monk."
The research team was led by Sara Lazar, assistant in psychology at Massachusetts General Hospital. It is detailed in the November issue of the journal NeuroReport.
The study involved a small number of people, just 20. All had extensive training in Buddhist Insight meditation. But the researchers say the results are significant.
Most of the brain regions identified to be changed through meditation were found in the right hemisphere, which is essential for sustaining attention. And attention is the focus of the meditation.
Other forms of yoga and meditation likely have a similar impact on brain structure, the researchers speculate, but each tradition probably has a slightly different pattern of cortical thickening based on the specific mental exercises involved. .....
-
......The study will be published next week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "We can't rule out the possibility that there was a pre-existing difference in brain function between monks and novices," says Prof. Davidson, "but the fact that monks with the most hours of meditation showed the greatest brain changes gives us confidence that the changes are actually produced by mental training."
That opens up the tantalizing possibility that the brain, like the rest of the body, can be altered, intentionally. Just as aerobics sculpt the muscles, so mental training sculpts the gray matter in ways scientists are only beginning to fathom.
To the above, I will add that, IMHO, in addition to the above, and in cooperaton with GOD, we can also sculpt, or alter, circumstances external to the physical body.
During over 40 years of ministry I preached any open-minded and non-dogmatic approach to the Bible and theology. Since I retired (1994) it has been my dream to find, or to start, a new congregation of people, connected with the United Church of Canada, willing to take this same open-minded and non-dogmatic approach.
About two years ago, things began to happen. December, 12, 2005, inspired by the life and work of progressive Christian thinkers and with little personal effort from me, things began to come together. A small group of us started a congregation called
PATHWAYS
Check out
http://www.dioceseofnewark.org/jsspong/ and
http://www.progressivechristianity.ca/
=================
And speaking of yoga: Since last June, I have been doing the FIVE TIBETAN RITES, almost on a daily basis. I am more than pleased with the results. Anyone else doing these rites?
(More to follow...)
Funnily enough, I was just watching a very fascinating programme about the Veda texts of India. In the programme, new sites and artifacts were discovered, with reliefs showing various Yoga mediation positions (and advanced positions at that), dating from almost 9500 B.C. It makes you wonder how old some of these practices really are?
QUOTE(Meklo @ May 18, 06:42 AM)
Funnily enough, I was just watching a very fascinating programme about the Veda texts of India. In the programme, new sites and artifacts were discovered, with reliefs showing various Yoga mediation positions (and advanced positions at that), dating from almost 9500 B.C. It makes you wonder how old some of these practices really are?
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