Buddhist Meditation Practices Research Articles

Situating the Concept of Mindfulness in the Theravāda Tradition

Mindfulness plays a prominent role in traditional and modern Buddhist meditation practice. This paper examines the theoretical background of the concept of mindfulness (sati) as presented in the early Buddhist sources, recorded in Theravāda Buddhism. It outlines the definitions and presentations of mindfulness (sati) in the Pāli Canon and examines how it is embedded within the fundamental models of Buddhist discourse. Then it investigates mindfulness within the philosophical framework of the Abhidhamma, where it is presented as one of the mental factors (cetasika) involved in cognitive processes; it outlines its characteristics, functions, conditions, and compatibility with other mental factors, which occur as components within the interdependent processes of consciousness (citta). The article shows how mindfulness has a special role as a component on the Buddhist path to liberation from suffering (dukkha) and how it is integrated within the soteriological and ethical goals of Buddhist practice.

Mindfulness-based Therapy in Modern Psychology: Convergence and Divergence from Early Buddhist Thought

This article offers a comparative analysis on mindfulness from mindfulness-based therapies in the contemporary literature and from Buddhist meditation practices in the Pāli Canon. This includes a review of the presiding definitions of mindfulness, recent scientific findings in the literature and the current theories on the underlying mechanisms of mindfulness. The meditation practices from the Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) programme are compared to the origins of mindfulness of breathing meditations from the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta (MN 10). Further, recent research into the cultivation of skilful states of mind including compassion, self-compassion, loving-kindness, equanimity and sympathetic joy are reviewed and compared to an anthology of texts from the Pāli Canon. Ethical issues emerging from the convergence of science and Buddhist philosophy are also discussed for further consideration.Abbreviations: AN: Aṅguttara Nikāya; BPS: Buddhist Publication Society; Dhp: Dhammapada; Dhs: Dhammasaṅgaṇī; DN: Dīgha Nikāya; Iti: Itivuttaka; MN: Majjhima Nikāya; Miln: Milindapañha; Paṭis: Paṭisambhidāmagga; SN: Saṃyutta Nikāya; Sn: Sutta Nipāta; Ud: Udāna; Vibh: Vibhaṅga; Vim: Vimuttimagga; Vsm: Visuddhimagga

Buddhist Wisdom for Healing the Earth

Buddhist Wisdom for Healing the Earth

A Case Study in the Relationship of Mind to Body: Transforming the Embodied Mind

This paper employs ethnographic research methods to study a Buddhist meditation practice that takes the walking body as its object. The mundane act of walking is transformed into a meditative object for the purpose of refining states of embodied consciousness. This meditation practice offers a glimpse of the relationship of body to mind, a fundamental concern within the philosophy of mind. The analytic focus of this paper is the practical nature of meditation work. Aspects of Buddhist Philosophy are explored and compared to analytic themes within Phenomenology and Ethnomethodology.

What Can I Gift Myself? A Meeting between Christian and Buddhist Forms of Meditation from an Autistic Perspective

The past fifty years have seen some growth in theological and spiritual interest in the sacred spaces where Christian and Buddhist spirituality and spiritual practices meet and can mutually enhance each other. Likewise, there has been an increased interest in exploring the sacred space where, in general, spirituality and disability meet. This article sets out to explore, through the eyes and spirituality of two adults with Asperger's syndrome/high functioning autism, how three specific forms of Buddhist meditative practices can be adapted to fit within a Christian spiritual paradigm

Engagement in Buddhist Meditation Practices Among Non-Buddhists: Associations with Religious Identity and Practice

The relationship between contemporary mindfulness practice and its Buddhist roots has generated debate as popularity in secular clinical contexts increases. Researchers, clinicians, and practitioners question the ethics of secularizing these practices, as well the potential barriers of offering mindfulness programs in the context of Buddhism, especially for individuals who practice or identify with non-Buddhist religions. However, to date, there has been little empirical exploration of these associations. Using a sample from a previous study of 173 inmates in a minimum-security correctional facility, the study compared individuals who voluntarily participated in an intensive Buddhist Vipassana mediation course (n = 57) with those who chose not to participate (n = 116). The associations between religious affiliation, participation in an intensive meditation course, and post-course changes in engagement in non-Buddhist religious practices were assessed. Results show that participation in the Vipassana course was not significantly associated with religious identification or level of engagement prior to taking the course or with engagement in religious practices 3 months following their release from jail. These results suggest that mindfulness meditation, even when taught in a traditional Buddhist context, may be attractive and acceptable to those of other religious faiths, and involvement in such practices does not threaten engagement in non-Buddhist religious practices.

Mindfulness and psychoanalytic psychotherapy: A clinical convergence.

Mindfulness techniques originating in centuries-old Buddhist meditation practice are increasingly being used in Western psychotherapy. This article focuses on the use of one such mindfulness rubric: “the four steps”—in which Chan (the Chinese term for Zen Buddhism) practice and psychoanalytic psychotherapy process can be integrated clinically. A case example is presented. In this case the therapist was a Taiwanese immigrant and a practicing Buddhist, the supervisor an American psychoanalytic psychotherapist. The supervisory exchange was an important aspect of this convergence of Eastern and Western thought.

Flow and Emotional Experience in Spirituality

This study seeks to compare flow and emotional experience in interactive and coactive collective rituals. For such purpose, a correlational study was performed collecting self-report measures of flow, positive emotions, and social identity in three different social collective gatherings: the Sunday celebration of a Catholic mass ( N = 57), a Zen Buddhist meditation practice ( N = 50), and secular Sunday group activities ( N = 37). Results show the presence of flow in all three contexts, being higher in the interactive social situations (the Catholic mass and other Sunday group activities) than in the coactive one (the Zen meditation practice). Positive emotions are also higher in the interactive situations than in the coactive one. Regarding self-transcendent emotions, there is more inspiration in the Zen meditation practice and more hope in the Catholic mass. Flow and positive emotions are positively correlated in all three contexts. Specifically in the Zen meditation practice, flow, positive emotions, loss of self-consciousness, and social identity are positively correlated.

A Comparative Study of American Buddhist Meditation Practices - Focusing on Zen, Tibetan Meditation, and Vipassana Movement

A Comparative Study of American Buddhist Meditation Practices - Focusing on Zen, Tibetan Meditation, and Vipassana Movement

Effects of a 9-Day Shamatha Buddhist Meditation Retreat on Attention, Mindfulness and Self-Compassion in Participants with a Broad Range of Meditation Experience

These days, there are substantial number of papers published on the effects of meditation-based programs adapted for westerners involving different practices oriented toward mental and physical health. The study assessed the effects of a retreat which was solely focused on Shamatha practices (basic traditional Buddhist meditation practices). The participants on the retreat included those with 1 year of meditation practice or less (LP) and those with more than 1 year of meditation practice (MP). The objective of this study was to evaluate whether a traditional 9-day Shamatha Buddhist meditation retreat could change attention, mindfulness, and self-compassion levels in these participants. We also decided to investigate whether a meditation retreat, which could be intensive and exhaustive for beginners, could be equally beneficial for both LP and MP. The participants answered questionnaires before and after the retreat: Mindful Awareness Attention Scale (MAAS), Self-Compassion Scale (SCS), digit-symbol test, analog scales about stress, anxiety, frustration, perception and attention, and a question about their level of Shamatha based on a traditional Buddhist text. Participants showed improvements on most of the questionnaires and scales after the retreat. There were interaction effects (time and group) in perception (analog scale) and mindfulness. This study suggests that a traditional Shamatha retreat can improve mindfulness, attention, and self-compassion levels in the participants, irrespective of their experience. It also suggests that this kind of retreat could improve mindfulness and perception in participants with more than 1 year of meditation practice.

Madness and Possession in P?li Texts

In the context of contemporary interest in the use of Buddhist meditation practices in modern psychology, psychiatry and psychotherapy, this article offers a preliminary survey of a subject hitherto almost completely unstudied: madness in Premodern P?li texts. (Possession, especially but not only by M?ra, who is both a deity and a phenomenological reality, is regarded by the P?li tradition as a kind of madness.) Using story-literature as well as doctrinal and jurisprudential texts, the article aims to collect together material on three ways in which the ideas and behaviours of madness are used: (i) the literal-pathological, (ii) in comparisons (‘as if’ mad), and (iii) in the metaphorical-evaluative sense where it is alleged that everyone who is not enlightened (or at least on the Path to it) is ‘mad’. It is centered around an eightfold classification of madness given in the commentary to a J?taka story, the Birth Story about Dar?mukha (Ja III #378, III 238–246).

Mindfulness-based hypnotherapy for common psychological disorders

'Mindfulness' is an essential element of Buddhist meditative practices. It is paying attention to the present moment and to what we experience. Hypnosis is a state of a state of increased suggestibility with constriction of peripheral awareness and increased focal concentration on task at hand. Thus there are many similarities between hypnosis and mindfulness and they are, many a times, complementary. This review article focuses on the applications and evidences for using mindfulness- based hypnotherapy in the management of psychological disorders.

HEALING BREATHS AND ROTTING BONES:ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BUDDHIST AND CHINESE MEDITATION PRACTICES DURING THE EASTERN HAN AND THREE KINGDOMS PERIOD

AbstractThis article examines the presentation and interpretation of Buddhist meditation in China during the Han and Three Kingdoms period. Previous scholarship has often claimed that during this period of time the Chinese were most attracted to those Indian Buddhist meditation practices that were seen, or had the potential to be seen, as similar to native Chinese breathing exercises, and that Buddhist meditation was accordingly interpreted through the lens of such practices. Through an examination of the key early Chinese Buddhist sources pertaining to meditation, including newly discovered texts found at Kongō-ji temple in Japan, I argue that this long-standing interpretation of how Buddhist meditation came to be accepted in China is not correct. Buddhist meditation practices were, rather, self-consciously presented as the polar opposite of native Chinese meditation practices, and methods such as the contemplation of bodily impurity, seen by previous scholars as unappealing to the early Chinese audience...

Is mindfulness Buddhist? (and why it matters).

Modern exponents of mindfulness meditation promote the therapeutic effects of "bare attention"--a sort of non-judgmental, non-discursive attending to the moment-to-moment flow of consciousness. This approach to Buddhist meditation can be traced to Burmese Buddhist reform movements of the first half of the 20th century, and is arguably at odds with more traditional Theravāda Buddhist doctrine and meditative practices. But the cultivation of present-centered awareness is not without precedent in Buddhist history; similar innovations arose in medieval Chinese Zen (Chan) and Tibetan Dzogchen. These movements have several things in common. In each case the reforms were, in part, attempts to render Buddhist practice and insight accessible to laypersons unfamiliar with Buddhist philosophy and/or unwilling to adopt a renunciatory lifestyle. In addition, these movements all promised astonishingly quick results. And finally, the innovations in practice were met with suspicion and criticism from traditional Buddhist quarters. Those interested in the therapeutic effects of mindfulness and bare attention are often not aware of the existence, much less the content, of the controversies surrounding these practices in Asian Buddhist history.

Being Peace and Practicing Peace: New Mexico Buddhists and the Peace Within

This article presents the spiritual journeys and practices of two American Buddhists living in New Mexico in the early twenty-first century and conceives of their oral history narratives as spiritual autobiographies. It also uses the concept of “being present” to draw parallels between Buddhist meditative practices and the practice of oral history interviewing. Ultimately, however, the author concludes that the presentation of oral history, whether in aural, written, or visual form, cannot adequately convey the embodied and ephemeral experience of the interview itself. Only the narrator and interviewer are present for the moment of mutual creation and exploration that constitute the practice of oral history interviewing.

Brief Training of Psychoneuroendocrinoimmunology-Based Meditation (PNEIMED) Reduces Stress Symptom Ratings and Improves Control on Salivary Cortisol Secretion Under Basal and Stimulated Conditions

Meditation is proposed as an anti-stress practice lowering allostatic load and promoting well-being, with brief formats providing some of the benefits of longer interventions. PsychoNeuroEndocrinoImmunology-based meditation (PNEIMED) combines the teaching of philosophy and practice of Buddhist meditation with a grounding in human physiology from a systemic and integrative perspective. We evaluated the effects of four-day PNEIMED training (30 h) on subjective and objective indices of stress in healthy adults. A non-randomized, controlled, before-and-after study was conducted. Participants (n = 125, mostly health practitioners) answered a questionnaire rating stress symptom before (T0) and after (Tf) a PNEIMED course. In an additional sample (n = 40; smokers, overweight persons, women taking contraceptives, and subjects with oral pathologies were excluded), divided into PNEIMED-attending (intervention, n = 21) and non-meditating (control, n = 19) groups, salivary cortisol was measured upon awakening and during a challenging mental task. Self-rated distress scores were highly reduced after the PNEIMED course. In the intervention group, improvement of psychological well-being was accompanied by decrease in cortisol levels at awakening. No T0-vs-Tf changes in distress scores and morning cortisol were found in controls. Based on baseline-to-peak increment of cortisol response at T0, 26 subjects (n = 13 for each group) were classified as task-responders. The amplitude and duration of the cortisol response decreased after PNEIMED, whereas no effects were found in controls. Brief PNEIMED training yields immediate benefits, reducing distress symptoms and adrenocortical activity under basal and stimulated conditions. PNEIMED may represent an effective practice to manage stress and anxiety, particularly among subjects facing a multitude of job-related stressors, such as healthcare workers.

Healing Breaths and Rotting Bones: On the Relationship Between Buddhist and Chinese Meditation Practices During the Eastern Han and three Kingdoms Period

This article examines the presentation and interpretation of Buddhist meditation in China during the Han and Three Kingdoms period. Previous scholarship has often claimed that during this period of time the Chinese were most attracted to those Indian Buddhist meditation practices that were seen, or had the potential to be seen, as similar to native Chinese breathing exercises, and that Buddhist meditation was accordingly interpreted through the lens of such practices. Through an examination ofthe key early Chinese Buddhist sources pertaining to meditation, including newly discovered texts found at Kongō-ji temple in Japan, I argue that this long-standing interpretation of how Buddhist meditation came to be accepted in China is not correct. Buddhist meditation practices were, rather, self-consciously presented as the polar opposite of native Chinese meditation practices, and methods such as the contemplation of bodily impurity, seen by previous scholars as unappealing to the early Chinese audience, were in fact highly valued.

Awakening is not a metaphor: the effects of Buddhist meditation practices on basic wakefulness

Buddhist meditation practices have become a topic of widespread interest in both science and medicine. Traditional Buddhist formulations describe meditation as a state of relaxed alertness that must guard against both excessive hyperarousal (restlessness) and excessive hypoarousal (drowsiness, sleep). Modern applications of meditation have emphasized the hypoarousing and relaxing effects without as much emphasis on the arousing or alertness-promoting effects. In an attempt to counterbalance the plethora of data demonstrating the relaxing and hypoarousing effects of Buddhist meditation, this interdisciplinary review aims to provide evidence of meditation's arousing or wake-promoting effects by drawing both from Buddhist textual sources and from scientific studies, including subjective, behavioral, and neuroimaging studies during wakefulness, meditation, and sleep. Factors that may influence whether meditation increases or decreases arousal are discussed, with particular emphasis on dose, expertise, and contemplative trajectory. The course of meditative progress suggests a nonlinear multiphasic trajectory, such that early phases that are more effortful may produce more fatigue and sleep propensity, while later stages produce greater wakefulness as a result of neuroplastic changes and more efficient processing.

Buddhist Visual Worlds II: Practices of Visualization and Vision

AbstractThis article discusses Buddhist meditative practices that make use of visual worlds. First among these are practices of “visualization,” which involve visual scenes created in the mind's eye. Buddhist traditions contain a variety of these techniques, and use them for a diverse set of purposes: devotion, cultivating mental focus, generating mindsets and motivations, and transforming personal identity. Though less common, Buddhists also have traditions that involve practices of “vision,” where meditators seek spontaneous experiences of luminosity that are seen with the eyes rather than simply created in imagination. The article examines several of these visionary practices, with particular emphasis on meditative techniques found in the Kālacakra and Great Perfection traditions.

Experienced Mindfulness Meditators Exhibit Higher Parietal-Occipital EEG Gamma Activity during NREM Sleep

Over the past several years meditation practice has gained increasing attention as a non-pharmacological intervention to provide health related benefits, from promoting general wellness to alleviating the symptoms of a variety of medical conditions. However, the effects of meditation training on brain activity still need to be fully characterized. Sleep provides a unique approach to explore the meditation-related plastic changes in brain function. In this study we performed sleep high-density electroencephalographic (hdEEG) recordings in long-term meditators (LTM) of Buddhist meditation practices (approximately 8700 mean hours of life practice) and meditation naive individuals. We found that LTM had increased parietal-occipital EEG gamma power during NREM sleep. This increase was specific for the gamma range (25–40 Hz), was not related to the level of spontaneous arousal during NREM and was positively correlated with the length of lifetime daily meditation practice. Altogether, these findings indicate that meditation practice produces measurable changes in spontaneous brain activity, and suggest that EEG gamma activity during sleep represents a sensitive measure of the long-lasting, plastic effects of meditative training on brain function.