Visual sensitivity and mindfulness meditation

Practitioners of the mindfulness form of Buddhist meditation were tested for visual sensitivity before and immediately after a 3-mo. retreat during which they practiced mindfulness meditation for 16 hr. each day. A control group composed of the staff at the retreat center was similarly tested. Visual sensitivity was defined in two ways: by a detection threshold based on the duration of simple light flashes and a discrimination threshold based on the interval between successive simple light flashes. All light flashes were presented tachistoscopically and were of fixed luminance. After the retreat, practitioners could detect shorter single-light flashes and required a shorter interval to differentiate between successive flashes correctly. The control group did not change on either measure. Phenomenological reports indicate that mindfulness practice enables practitioners to become aware of some of the usually preattentive processes involved in visual detection. The results support the statements found in Buddhist texts on meditation concerning the changes in perception encountered during the practice of mindfulness.     

A Web-Based Survey of the Relationship Between Buddhist Religious Practices,Health, and Psychological Characteristics: Research Methods and Preliminary Results

A Web-based survey was conducted to study the religious and health practices, medical history and psychological characteristics among Buddhist practitioners. This report describes the development, advertisement, administration and preliminary results of the survey. Over 1200 Buddhist practitioners responded. Electronic advertisements were the most effective means of recruiting participants. Survey participants were mostly well educated with high incomes and white. Participants engaged in Buddhist practices such as meditation, attending meetings and obtaining instruction from a monk or nun, and practiced healthful behaviors such as regular physical activity and not smoking. Buddhist meditative practice was related to psychological mindfulness and general health.     

Long-term meditation: the relationship between cognitive processes,thinking styles and mindfulness

The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between meditation and cognitive functions. More in depth the purpose is to demonstrate that long-term meditation practice improves attention skills and cognitive flexibility. Eighteen long-term meditation practitioners were compared to a matched control group, who never practiced meditation. Each subject was tested, using computerized software (Presentation Software 9.90), which measured: attention, visual search abilities, working memory and Stroop’s interference tasks. Furthermore, we examined the relationship between long-term meditation practice, mindfulness skills and thinking styles, namely styles of processing information. The results showed significant differences between the two groups, demonstrating that long-term meditation is linked to improvements of attentional functions, working memory and cognitive flexibility.     

Meditation has stronger relationships with mindfulness,kundalini, and mystical experiences than yoga or prayer

Contemplative practices can have profound effects on mindfulness and on physical and sensory and mystical experiences. Individuals who self-reported meditation, yoga, contemplative prayer, or a combination of practices and their patterns of practice were compared for mindfulness, kundalini effects, and mystical experiences. The results suggest that the amount of practice but not the pattern and social conditions of practice influences mindfulness and possibly mystical experiences. Meditation, yoga, contemplative prayer, or a combination of practices all were found to be associated with enhancements of mindfulness, kundalini effects, and mystical experiences, but meditation had particularly strong associations and may be the basis of the associations of yoga and prayer with these outcomes. The results further suggest that the primary association of contemplative practices is with the real time awareness and appreciation of sensory and perceptual experiences which may be the intermediary between disparate practices and mindfulness, kundalini effects, and mystical experiences.     

Intensive Mindfulness Training and the Reduction of Psychological Distress: A Preliminary Study

There is increasing evidence for the utility of mindfulness training as a clinical intervention. Most of this research has examined secular-based mindfulness instruction. The current study examined the effects of a 10-day Buddhist mindfulness meditation course on the psychological symptoms of 53 participants. A repeated-measures analysis of variance indicated reductions in overall psychological distress from the pre-course baseline to a 3-month follow-up. Correlation analyses indicated that the reported reduction in psychological distress was not influenced by social desirability bias and that the effect was not dependent on daily meditation between course completion and follow-up. Issues regarding modality of mindfulness training (secular versus Buddhist) are discussed.     

A Buddhist Epistemological Framework for Mindfulness Meditation

One of the major aims of this article is to provide the theoretical account of mindfulness provided by the systematic Abhidharma epistemology of conscious states. I do not claim to present the one true version of mindfulness, because there is not one version of it in Buddhism; in addition to the Abhidharma model, there is, for example, the nondual Mahāmudrā tradition. A better understanding of a Buddhist philosophical framework will not only help situate meditation practice in its originating tradition, but it will also clarify a Buddhist perspective on consciousness. In this article, I present the Abhidharma account of mindfulness—as explicated in the Abhidharmako?a, the root text for the Abhidharma tradition—and the theoretical model of the mind that underlies its practice. Abhidharma–Yogācara model of the mind, I believe, contains critical philosophical insights relevant to contemporary concerns while at the same time placing mindfulness meditation in its proper philosophical context.     

“THE NEW SCIENCE OF HEALTH AND HAPPINESS”: INVESTIGATING BUDDHIST ENGAGEMENTS WITH THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF MEDITATION

Clinical and neuroscientific studies of Buddhist meditation practices are frequent topics in the news media, and have helped certain practices (such as mindfulness) achieve mainstream cultural status. Buddhists have reacted by using these studies in a number of ways. Some deploy the studies to show the compatibility of science and Buddhism, often using the authority of science to lend credence to Buddhism. Other Buddhists use meditation studies to demonstrate the superiority of Buddhism over science. Within inter‐Buddhist debates, meditation studies are used to argue for changes in practice or belief, but also sometimes to reinforce certain traditional practices. Benjamin Zeller's threefold categorization of religious groups’ attitudes toward science (guide, replace, absorb) and José Ignacio Cabezón's three ideal types of relationships between Buddhism and science (conflict/ambivalence, compatibility/identity, complementarity) contribute to analysis of Buddhist uses of scientific studies of meditation.     

Doing and Being: Mindfulness,Health, and Quiet Ego Characteristics Among Buddhist Practitioners

We examined the relationship between meditation experience, psychological mindfulness, quiet ego characteristics, and self-reported physical health in a diverse sample of adults with a range of Buddhist experience (N = 117) gathered from a web-based survey administered to Buddhist practitioners around the world between August 1, 2007 and January 31, 2008. Practicing meditation on a regular basis and greater experience with Buddhism was related to higher psychological mindfulness scores. Psychological mindfulness was correlated with a latent variable called “quiet ego characteristics” that reflected measures based on Bauer and Wayment’s (Transcending self-interest: psychological explorations of the quiet ego. American Psychological Association, Washington, DC, pp 7–19, 2008) conceptual and multidimensional definition of a “quiet ego”: wisdom, altruism, sense of interdependence with all living things, need for structure (reversed), anger/verbal aggression (reversed), and negative affectivity (reversed). In turn, quiet ego characteristics were positively related to self-reported health. Our findings provide continuing support for the key role psychological mindfulness may play in psychological and physical well-being.     

Owning Mindfulness: A Bibliometric Analysis of Mindfulness Literature Trends Within and Outside of Buddhist Contexts

The mindfulness literature, now extended beyond strict Buddhist and psychotherapeutic contexts, has trended in some important directions, giving rise to both conflict and opportunity. In terms of mindfulness-directed effort, which academic disciplines are outpacing which? Has the degree of disembeddedness from Buddhist contexts changed over time? What is the relationship between trends in mindfulness, meditation, and Buddhism-oriented literature? Through a bibliometric analysis of mindfulness literature within academic journals, several patterns emerge. Results support a substantial increase in ‘academic effort’ toward mindfulness, crossing a number of disciplines, independent of increased publications concerning meditation, Buddhism, or in these fields at large. While the psychological disciplines have dominated mindfulness literature for several decades, their ‘share’ of the overall pool of academic literature has not increased in recent years. Mindfulness-related effort in the humanities, too, is at an all-time high, but not so from a ‘share’ perspective. Other disciplines are grabbing a larger slice of the pie. This bibliometric analysis aids the interdisciplinary field of mindfulness studies in exploring where they started, factors contributing to subsequent transformations, and how discrete contributing fields relate to one another in the context of the overall field of mindfulness studies.     

Saving Time: A Buddhist Perspective on the End

This paper interprets Buddhist meditation from perspectives of Western psychology and explores the common grounds shared by the two disciplines. Cognitive operations in Buddhist meditation are mainly characterized by mindfulness and concentration in relation to attention. Mindfulness in particular plays a pivotal role in regulating attention. My study based on Buddhist literature corroborates significant correspondence between mindfulness and metacognition as propounded by some psychologists. In vipassanā meditation, mindfulness regulates attention in such a way that attention is directed to monitor the ever-changing experiences from moment to moment so that the practitioner attains the ‘metacognitive insight’ into the nature of things. In samatha meditation, mindfulness picks an object as the focus of ‘selective attention' and monitors whether attention is concentrated on the chosen object so as to attain the state of ‘concentration’. Nimitta that appears in a deep state of concentration resembles ‘imagery’ in psychology. Mindfulness consists in the wholesome functioning of saññā. A finding by psychologists supports my view that saññā can act as perception on the one hand and, on the other hand, it can produce nimitta ‘imagery’ in deep meditation where perception is suspended.     

Disentangling the neural mechanisms involved in Hinduism- and Buddhism-related meditations

The most diffuse forms of meditation derive from Hinduism and Buddhism spiritual traditions. Different cognitive processes are set in place to reach these meditation states. According to an historical-philological hypothesis (Wynne, 2009) the two forms of meditation could be disentangled. While mindfulness is the focus of Buddhist meditation reached by focusing sustained attention on the body, on breathing and on the content of the thoughts, reaching an ineffable state of nothigness accompanied by a loss of sense of self and duality (Samadhi) is the main focus of Hinduism-inspired meditation. It is possible that these different practices activate separate brain networks. We tested this hypothesis by conducting an activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies. The network related to Buddhism-inspired meditation (16 experiments, 263 subjects, and 96 activation foci) included activations in some frontal lobe structures associated with executive attention, possibly confirming the fundamental role of mindfulness shared by many Buddhist meditations. By contrast, the network related to Hinduism-inspired meditation (8 experiments, 54 activation foci and 66 subjects) triggered a left lateralized network of areas including the postcentral gyrus, the superior parietal lobe, the hippocampus and the right middle cingulate cortex. The dissociation between anterior and posterior networks support the notion that different meditation styles and traditions are characterized by different patterns of neural activation.     

Volume contents and author index for Volume 10, 2009

Although there are very few published studies on the issue, there is much anecdotal evidence that, despite all its undisputed benefits, meditation practice can have psychologically deleterious effects. In this paper I will describe a body-based model for understanding trauma, the Trauma Resiliency model, and suggest it might be a helpful tool in anticipating, preventing and/or mitigating these effects. I will argue that Buddhist traditions are replete with frameworks, tools and techniques for addressing some of the psychological pitfalls highlighted. However, some of these methods may have been ‘lost in translation’ as Buddhist meditation training has been adapted for a Western audience. I will make the case that, somewhat ironically, in operational terms some of the secular modalities for teaching mindfulness (such as MBSR) may be psychologically ‘safer’ than those offered in a (Western) Buddhist context. I will call for further inquiry about how to mitigate and protect against psychological harms in Buddhist meditation training.     

Buddhist Meditation and the British Colonial Gaze in Nineteenth-Century Sri Lanka

ABSTRACT

This paper argues that the multiple orientalist expressions that flowed from British pens in nineteenth century Sri Lanka are of use to the scholar of Buddhism, in that they can not only shed light on the growth of Buddhist modernism and the use of the term ‘meditation’ within it, but also on Sri Lankan Buddhist practice on the ground. It first surveys the preconceptions of the British about the concept of ‘meditation’. It then examines the writings of a representative selection of scholar civil servants and Christian missionaries who were resident in Sri Lanka within the century. This data reveal that a vibrant culture of Buddhist devotion and preaching existed throughout the century, together, among the laity, with the practice of ‘meditation’ on objects related to insight into reality. Additionally, it suggests that the jhānas, although hard for westerners to understand, were an important part of Buddhist self-understanding. The paper, therefore, argues that the priority given to vipassanā as the essence of meditation within Buddhist Modernism is a reduction of the diversity within traditional practice and a distortion of the traditionally recognised interrelationship between the jhānas and other forms of mental culture.     

The Enhancement of Visuospatial Processing Efficiency Through Buddhist Deity Meditation

ABSTRACT— This study examined the effects of meditation on mental imagery, evaluating Buddhist monks' reports concerning their extraordinary imagery skills. Practitioners of Buddhist meditation were divided into two groups according to their preferred meditation style: Deity Yoga (focused attention on an internal visual image) or Open Presence (evenly distributed attention, not directed to any particular object). Both groups of meditators completed computerized mental-imagery tasks before and after meditation. Their performance was compared with that of control groups, who either rested or performed other visuospatial tasks between testing sessions. The results indicate that all the groups performed at the same baseline level, but after meditation, Deity Yoga practitioners demonstrated a dramatic increase in performance on imagery tasks compared with the other groups. The results suggest that Deity meditation specifically trains one's capacity to access heightened visuospatial processing resources, rather than generally improving visuospatial imagery abilities.     

慈心禅在心理学视角下的应用

随着正念在西方心理学界的流行,慈心禅作为另一种颇具应用潜力的传统佛教禅修方式,正受到越来越多心理学家的关注。系统的慈心禅训练可以培养积极情绪、缓解消极的情绪反应,而即时的慈心禅练习也可以作为一种情绪调节策略。慈心禅可有效提升自我同情,培养对他人的共情能力和积极态度,此外还可辅助某些疾病的治疗。除进一步深入已有方向,未来研究可更多借鉴佛教视角提出新课题,如对慈心进行有效测量,探索慈心禅所诱发情绪的特殊性质,干预愤怒、嫉妒等负性情绪并探索慈心禅的应用方式与条件等。     

Mindfulness meditation and relaxation training increases time sensitivity

Two experiments examined the effect of mindfulness meditation and relaxation on time perception using a temporal bisection task. In Experiment 1, the participants performed a temporal task before and after exercises of mindfulness meditation or relaxation. In Experiment 2, the procedure was similar than that used in Experiment 1, except that the participants were trained to mediate or relax every day over a period of several weeks. The results showed that mindfulness meditation exercises increased sensitivity to time and lengthened perceived time. However, this temporal improvement with meditation exercises was primarily observed in the experienced meditators. Our results also showed the experienced meditators were less anxious than the novice participants, and that the sensitivity to time increased when the level of anxiety decreased. Our results were explained by the practice of mindfulness technique that had developed individuals’ abilities in devoting more attention resources to temporal information processing.     

Learning from experience: Bion's concept of reverie and Buddhist meditation: A comparative study

The author argues for a common denominator between Bion's view and the Buddhist view of mental development. In both thought systems, mental growth is synonymous to learning from experience. The author closely examines Bion's concept of attention and compares it to mindfulness, a major factor in Buddhist meditation. In both doctrines, attention must be isolated from other mental processes in order to attain learning from experience. The author compares reverie to the state of mind of equanimity. She argues that enhancement of the ability of reverie, or improving the inner container such that it can hold any content while unmoved by desire, is the purpose of Buddhist practice. Both view the mind as capable of transcending its own restrictions and 'the capacity to know anything' as attainable through disciplined practice.     

Mindfulness meditation improves cognition: Evidence of brief mental training

Although research has found that long-term mindfulness meditation practice promotes executive functioning and the ability to sustain attention, the effects of brief mindfulness meditation training have not been fully explored. We examined whether brief meditation training affects cognition and mood when compared to an active control group. After four sessions of either meditation training or listening to a recorded book, participants with no prior meditation experience were assessed with measures of mood, verbal fluency, visual coding, and working memory. Both interventions were effective at improving mood but only brief meditation training reduced fatigue, anxiety, and increased mindfulness. Moreover, brief mindfulness training significantly improved visuo-spatial processing, working memory, and executive functioning. Our findings suggest that 4 days of meditation training can enhance the ability to sustain attention; benefits that have previously been reported with long-term meditators.     

From me to we: Revolutionising Mindfulness in Schools

The practice of mindfulness adapts Buddhist meditation to everyday life. It seems effective at managing depression and anxiety, and is taught in schools to boost resilience and grades. Mostly, this prioritises calm. Students learn to focus on themselves, without Buddhist teachings on ethics or interdependence. This limits the scope for transformation. Whilst it can help to share techniques to cope with stress, it would be more insightful to target its causes not just symptoms. Instead, a fixation on self gets reinforced, which serves the prevailing market system. The onus is on individuals to be more resilient, instead of changing how things work. Widening inequality and a volatile climate are communal expressions of the roots of suffering, identified by Buddhists as greed, hatred and delusion. If mindfulness in schools were to cultivate ‘moral and civic virtues’, as British members of parliament argue it should, it could foster compassionate ‘pro-social’ action.     

Complex partial epileptic-like experiences in university students and practitioners of Dharmakaya in Thailand: comparison with Canadian university students.

We tested the hypothesis that individuals who frequently practice meditation within another culture whose assumptions explicitly endorse this practice should exhibit more frequent and varied experience associated with complex partial epilepsy (without the seizures) as inferred by the Personal Philosophy Inventory and Roberts' Questionnaire for the Epileptic Spectrum Disorder. 80 practitioners of Dharma Meditation and 24 university students in Thailand were compared with 76 students from first-year courses in psychology in a Canadian university. Although there were large significant differences for some items and clusters of items expected as a result of cultural differences, there were no statistically significant differences between the two populations for the proportions of complex partial epileptic-like experiences or their frequency of occurrence. There were no strong or consistent correlations between the history of meditation within the sample who practiced Dharma meditation and these experiences. These results suggest complex partial epileptic-like experiences may be a normal feature of the human species.