by Evelyn Cash
For those of us who can’t get enough articles detailing the science
behind mindfulness and how it affects the brain, here is a recent
article from Psychology Today: The Neuroscience of Mindfulness.
I know I personally love to read third-party, non-Buddhist, scientific
rationales for why mindfulness and meditation work. I like being able
to point to non-religious sources for why meditation works when people
ask me why I chose Buddhism or why I meditate.
The article, by David Rock,
touches on some of the debates we’ve had on this blog about
secularizing Buddhist teachings to make them accessible to everyone
(see Jerry’s Buddhism is not a Religion parts 1, 2 and 3). From the introduction of the piece:
“I have a problem with something as important as deeper thinking being linked to any religion.
Not because I have anything against Buddhism or against any religion at
all. (Of all the organized religions, Buddhism appears to be one that
generates a minimum of human conflict.) The reason I have a problem is
it’s hard enough getting across the idea that being mindful is useful,
without activating a threat response from the billions of non-buddhists
who could benefit from it.”
I
do agree that the world would be a little bit better if everyone
practiced some form of mindfulness everyday, regardless of their
religious leanings. As the author of the article points out, it
doesn’t need to be religious and it doesn’t even need to be a formal
sitting practice. Practicing mindfulness can be as simple as taking
three mindful breaths before you eat your meal. According to the
science, every little bit helps.
posted November 1, 2009 at 10:53 am
Thanks for posting this Evelyn. Always great to see academic support for the benefits of mindfulness. The mindfulness Rock talks about is tremendously helpful. Combine that with a curiosity about the other basic teachings of the Buddha, and you’ve got a recipe for a more compassionate life, one in which you understand a lot more about how things really connect and affect each other – whether you practice a religion or not!
posted November 1, 2009 at 1:58 pm
This sort of examination / exploration is right up my alley! I’ve often told people that the meditation we did in our Tae Kwon Do practice is the closest thing I’ve had to prayer in my life in a long, long time.
Thanks for sharing this!
Kathleen
posted November 1, 2009 at 5:41 pm
I do a lot of things that helps me and I don’t even claim a certain faith.
Mediate is one them.
Coffee is on.
posted November 1, 2009 at 8:50 pm
It’s funny but when you read it described scientifically it seems so obvious – maybe it’s just me – I like this part:
“A series of other studies has found that these two circuits, narrative and direct experience, are inversely correlated. In other words, if you think about an upcoming meeting while you wash dishes, you are more likely to overlook a broken glass and cut your hand, because the brain map involved in visual perception is less active when the narrative map is activated. You don’t see as much (or hear as much, or feel as much, or sense anything as much) when you are lost in thought. Sadly, even a beer doesn’t taste as good in this state.
Fortunately, this scenario works both ways. When you focus your attention on incoming data, such as the feeling of the water on your hands while you wash up, it reduces activation of the narrative circuitry. This explains why, for example, if your narrative circuitry is going crazy worrying about an upcoming stressful event, it helps to take a deep breath and focus on the present moment. All your senses “come alive” at that moment.”
Seems obvious the way Rock has written it.
posted November 2, 2009 at 4:01 am
science, ultimately is a devotion to the functioning of the outer world.
if that somehow confirms inner spiritual discoveries, that is fine. But it is a young discipline, it overthrows its theories with every new generation, and should not be held up to be the be all and end all of the discovery of truth.
If you look in the wrong direction, you might accidentally catch a whiff of the right direction. But if you really want to find the truth, it is not in a petri dish, it is through inner search.
The same psychology that today may be verifying that meditation produces interesting effects on the brain chemistry and functioning, was the same psychology that only a short generation ago was declaring homosexuality a disease…in full open rebellion of any shred of truth or humanity.
While the scientific method tries for impartiality, the problem with the scientific method is that, by very definition, it can not explore all the variables that affect a problem. Therefore, the existence of unknowns will always affect the results. In other words, for a scientific experiment to truly produce fully accurate results, it would have to be omniscient prior to being initiated.
And then, science is often consciously skewed by the corruption of testers looking to produce one result or the other.
So, this idea that science is some kind of perfect instrument for finding the truth is deeply flawed.
That instrument does exist, however, and it is the spiritual path.
posted November 3, 2009 at 12:04 pm
Interesting article Evelyn, thanks. I think it points to the value of “branding” mindfulness apart from an exclusive identification with Buddhism.
posted November 3, 2009 at 6:05 pm
It is nice to see this. I use mindfulness meditation myself, as well as other meditation forms. For me, learning it was like a gift to myself. I was doing it for my own benefit.
posted November 18, 2009 at 5:26 pm
On the matter of mindfulness and the brain :
I had no idea that Buddhism was so materialistically dualistic in its orientation, with the dyad not balanced, …which would be bad enough,… but weighted on the side of the purely material self. The empirical measure of the spirit, not the spiritual measure of experience, is the only way to go, at least for those who know no other way.