I have often heard of people who have been helped by
meditation. I have no reason to doubt their testimony. At the least, we have no
reason to believe that meditation does any harm. Whether in the form of
relaxation, focus or prayer, meditation seems to benefit many people. And we
know that one staple of meditation, controlled breathing exercises often helps to
alleviate anxiety.
If we were to use the same parameters to evaluate most forms
of psychotherapy, meditation has much to recommend it. At the least, it does
not offer up idiotic advice and pretend to be telling you the truth of your
desire.
And yet, like most forms of psychotherapy meditation has
been oversold. It has been touted as the cure for the human tendency to aggress
other humans and even a few non-humans. If we all meditated peace would reign
and everyone would be happy. Such claims are obviously
ruses to dupe the gullible.
As you can guess researchers have been hard at work testing
some of the most extravagant claims. The results are not encouraging for the
religionists who are selling meditation as the pathway to world peace.
The Daily Mail reported:
However,
researchers from the UK, New Zealand and The Netherlands, have found meditation
doesn't change how adults behave towards others.
Dr
Miguel Farias, co-author, from Coventry University, said: 'All world religions
promise the world would change for the better if only people were to follow its
rules and practices.
'The
popularisation of meditation techniques in a secular format is offering the
hope of a better self and a better world to many….
The
team of researchers reviewed more than 20 studies that investigated the effect
of various types of meditation to make the conclusion.
They
involved mindfulness - paying more attention to the present moment, and
loving-kindness - imagining objects such as cute animals.
It only
included randomised controlled studies, where meditators were compared to other
individuals that did not meditate.
There is some good news here. Mediation can lower blood
pressure and can help prevent heart disease. Obviously, physical exercise and
good nutrition can also help, but adding meditation to the mix will improve
your chances. It is not going to harm your health.
Otherwise, the researchers found that the studies linking
meditation to increased compassion and less violence were flawed. When the
results from the meditation groups were compared with results from
non-meditation groups, the advantages from meditation diminished. And some of
the studies were conducted by meditation teachers themselves. Apparently, said teachers had skewed the results... no surprise there.
The studies concluded that meditation does not make people
more compassionate and less aggressive or even less prejudiced. So much for world peace.
Stuart: The studies concluded that meditation does not make people more compassionate and less aggressive or even less prejudiced. So much for world peace.
ReplyDeleteYes, like the quote Marianne Williamson heard from The Dalai Lama in 2012: "If every 8 year old in the world is taught meditation, we will eliminate violence from the world within one generation"
http://www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily/2012/11/15/why-the-dalai-lama-is-wrong-to-think-meditation-will-eliminate-violence
It's easy to be skeptical. The pro-meditation argument seems to be that the only thing we have a real possibility to control is ourselves, and if we can do that, we have more choices to avoid adding unnecessarily to the misery of the world.
Or maybe what's important about meditation isn't its success, but when you can't focus like normal, you're more likely to ask why, and some answers can be easy, like the AA's HALT - hungry, angry, lonely, tired checklist for self-care. If you're just acting out, you blame the world for causing how you feel, or using addictions to numb the source. But if you're "acting in" like trying to meditate and failing, then you've got to acknowledge something inside needs attention and look to identify that.
We Christians call this "centering prayer", which, although it has elements of Eastern spirituality, not come with the dross associated with the currently hip meditation. Fr. Thomas Keating has written extensively about this.
ReplyDeleteI favor default. It will piss off a lot of people, but we will not be saddled with a punishing debt. Then maybe investors will think twice about buying our bonds and financing our wild spending sprees. It will necessitate a much needed frugality in the area of government spending.
ReplyDeleteOops! Comment posted to wrong article.
ReplyDeleteAnything that teaches people they can control the outputs of the bio-electric device located in their skull is a good thing in my estimation.
ReplyDeleteJack,
ReplyDeleteThat's right.
James, this is the final word on the subject of meditation.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8iQuAYDJnc
LOL! I always found this medititillation nonsense about making the world more peaceful a hoot. Check out some of the famous Zen Masters of the past, some of the most violent humans who have lived. Cutting off disciples heads, whacking them about the head with their staffs, chopping a cat in half, burning wooden Bhuddha statues, screaming, kicking, spitting, and on and on and on......
ReplyDeleteLike Yoga, the west has taken a deep exercise in how to free oneself from the ego, and turned it into pablum for our childish adult population.
We really do want to eat the cake and have it too!
Sad!
Jack, I see it here, no promises of peace on earth, but as Stuart says, no reason to believe it does any harm, except perhaps to the egos of people who just can't keep a quiet mind I suppose, which might be most of us.
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centering_prayer
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Centering Prayer is a method of meditation used by Few Christians placing a strong emphasis on interior silence. The modern Centering Prayer movement in Christianity can be traced to several books published by three Trappist monks of St. Joseph's Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts in the 1970s: Fr. William Meninger, Fr. M. Basil Pennington and Abbot Thomas Keating. The name was taken from Thomas Merton's description of contemplative prayer (a much older and more traditional practice) as prayer that is "centered entirely on the presence of God.". In his book Contemplative Prayer, Merton writes "“Monastic prayer begins not so much with “considerations” as with a “return to the heart,” finding one’s deepest center, awakening the profound depths of our being”.
Fr. M. Basil Pennington suggests these steps for practicing Centering Prayer:
Sit comfortably with your eyes closed, relax, and quiet yourself. Be in love and faith to God.
. Choose a sacred word that best supports your sincere intention to be in the Lord's presence and open to His divine action within you.
. Let that word be gently present as your symbol of your sincere intention to be in the Lord's presence and open to His divine action within you.
. Whenever you become aware of anything (thoughts, feelings, perceptions, images, associations, etc.), simply return to your sacred word, your anchor.
In addition, Fr. Keating writes,
The method consists in letting go of every kind of thought during prayer, even the most devout thoughts.
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