Buddhist Meditation Techniques Research Articles

Cemetery meditations and Morbid Visions: death metal as a spiritual exercise

ABSTRACT Scholarship on death metal tends to emphasise its grotesque and provocative aspects, and to define it in terms of transgression. Like many other forms of extreme music, death metal playfully infringes the principles of morality and decency by representing topics that usually remain inexpressible. In this paper, I propose to draw on the methodology of Comparative Religion to reframe and complement this approach. I relate death metal to Buddhist meditation techniques that involve bodily decay and sickness, and suggest that underneath its grotesque appearance, death metal reveals a meditative element that likens it to religious practice. In the light of this comparative and religious approach, I draw some conclusions for the future of Metal Studies.

Практики самопознания в буддизме и современное философское образование

Introduction. The article is focused on studying the self-knowledge techniques used in Buddhism and their application in teaching philosophy. The relevance of the study is due to the search for new approaches to studying philosophy, including approaches related to philosophical practice, as well as the interest of modern scientists in the problem of consciousness. The problem of consciousness is interdisciplinary and its study is of practical importance for philosophers, psychologists, linguists, specialists in artificial intelligence. Buddhism as a philosophical doctrine provides rich material for the study of the phenomenon of consciousness, which does not lose its relevance today. A feature of the Buddhist approach to consciousness is that it has an axiological orientation that is directly related to the problem of self-knowledge. The practices of self-knowledge used in Buddhism enable a person to become happier and more harmonious, which is so important for each of us. The aim of the study is to conduct a philosophical analysis of Buddhist practices of self-knowledge and self-transformation in order to use them in the educational process. Methods: the author uses general scientific methods of analysis and synthesis, deduction and induction; phenomenological method to identify the intentions that are key for consciousness. The author also uses the hermeneutical method to interpret Buddhist texts. The method of introspection as self-observation of consciousness is used in Buddhist meditation techniques. The scientific novelty of the study is that we approach the study of extensive material on Buddhism in the context of the problem of selfknowledge, which is inextricably linked with the Buddhist concept of consciousness. The revealed and studied Buddhist techniques of self-knowledge have been adapted for teaching philosophy. Results. A philosophical analysis of the literature on Buddhism in the context of the problem of self-knowledge was carried out. As a result of the analysis, Buddhist techniques for working with consciousness, such as meditation, the method of pondering Zen koans, the method of getting rid of material attachments, or the practice of austerities, were studied and described. A philosophical analysis of various Buddhist meditation techniques showed that they are based on the Buddhist concept of consciousness, which denies the existence of an individual “I”, considers the “I” to be nothing more than a combination of various dharmas, therefore the purpose of meditation in Buddhism is to identify oneself with one’s own “I”, to achieve a state of voidness in which we must comprehend our true identity. The method of pondering Zen koans is also one of the techniques for working with one’s consciousness in Buddhism. As a result of deliberation of these paradoxical miniatures, a person goes beyond the boundaries of logical thinking; there is a transition from the level of profane consciousness to the level of deep consciousness. The basis of the method of getting rid of material attachments or the practice of austerities in Buddhism is the concept of the middle path. We have established a similarity between the method of getting rid of material attachments, the concept of the middle path and minimalism as a way of life. Findings. Elements of the Buddhist practices of self-transformation can be successfully used in the teaching of philosophy at the university as a practical aspect of studying this discipline, forming students with the idea of philosophy as a way of life leading to positive self-transformation. Studying the practical aspects of Buddhist philosophy contributes to the formation of tolerance, awareness, education of humanism and altruism, and the skills of psycho-emotional self-regulation.

Diabetes Management and the Buddhist Philosophy: Toward Holistic Care.

Buddhist philosophy is a way of life that transcends the borders of religion and focuses on the alleviation of suffering. The core teaching of Buddha was the Four Noble Truths: there is suffering, suffering is caused by clinging and ignorance, there is a way out of suffering and that way is the Noble Eightfold Path. The medical analogy in diabetes care would include identification of diabetes, understanding its etiopathogenesis, and how prognosis can be improved with appropriate care and management of this chronic disorder. Gaining awareness about the cause of illness and conducting our lives in a manner that nourishes and maintains long-term good health leads to improved outcomes for individuals living with diabetes and improve their overall well-being. The Noble Eightfold Path in Buddhism constitutes of right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. These elements of the Eightfold Path can be taken as guiding principles in diabetes care. Buddhist meditation techniques, including mindfulness meditation-based strategies, have been used for stress reduction and management of chronic disorders such as chronic pain, depression, anxiety, hypertension, and diabetes. In this article, we focus on how Buddhist philosophy offers several suggestions, precepts, and practices that guide a diabetic individual toward holistic health.

Compassion and its role in the clinical encounter – An argument for compassion training

Empathic communication, (i.e. emotionally engaging with a patient), is an important part of the therapeutic relationship. It hasbeen shown to improve the health and therapeutic outcomes for patients by improving diagnosis and compliance. In the West, front-line medical professionals, including herbal medicine practitioners, put themselves at risk of burnout and compassion fatigue by giving emotionally intensive care. While treatments for compassion fatigue and burnout are available, another way forward is needed to ensure healthcare professionals do not become ill; one that will enable both patients and healthcare professionals to receive the care needed. In this paper it is argued that compassion, which is defined in this paper, involves different neural circuitry to empathy and can protect healthcare professionals from the effects of stress that can, if not addressed, lead to burnout. Traditional Buddhist meditation techniques such as loving-kindness meditation have been shown to increase compassion in non-meditative states. Short daily sessions of such mediation practices have been shown to improve compassion in a way that protects healthcare professionals from burnout.

Contemplative Neuroscience: An Integrative Approach for Investigating Consciousness

This paper explores the field of contemplative neuroscience as a means of studying consciousness on both neurological and experiential levels. While our current scientific paradigm favors the view that consciousness is a purely physical phenomenon and should be examined as such, contemplative neuroscience posits that awareness, attention, and emotion are malleable skills that can be refined in order to provide detailed, accurate self-reports about the conscious experience. These reports can then be used to inform neurological data, in order to form a more holistic understanding of consciousness as both a physical and mental process. Buddhist meditation techniques are a paradigm example of the type of training necessary to cultivate accurate awareness of mental states. I practiced Buddhist meditation extensively over several months as a way to inform my study. In addition, I conducted a comprehensive review of scientific publications on the current research being conducted on meditation, and philosophical literature on the importance of contemplative training in respect to neuroscience. My experience meditating highlighted the large difference between the untrained, unaware mind and the mind that has been trained in awareness, emphasizing the value of using experienced contemplative practitioners as a means to further consciousness studies. These results point to a need to use refined phenomenological reports as a more accurate way of interpreting neurological data, making use of subtleties and details that would not be available to us were we to use untrained subjects.

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1It is a trib ute to the accumulated wisdom of humankind that a traditional Buddhist meditation practice going back 2500 years, which was originally designed in part to deal with the prob lem of human suffering, has been successfully adapted to prevent the relapse of depression in the modern era. Bud dhist meditation techniques were originally adapted by Jon Kabat-Zinn, founding executive director of the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (www .umassmed .edu /Content .aspx?id=43102), for mindfulnessbased stress reduction (MBSR). Reviews of MBSR studies suggest that it decreases depression, anxiety and psychologic distress in people with chronic somatic diseases 2 and that it reduces stress, ruminative thinking and trait anxiety in healthy people. 3 Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy is similar to MBSR and is designed to change some of the cognitions that are associated with depression. 4

Eastern Meditative Techniques and Hypnosis: A New Synthesis

In this article major ancient Buddhist meditation techniques, samatha, vipassana, Zen, and ton-len, will be described in reference to contemporary clinical hypnosis. In so doing, the Eastern healing framework out of which these techniques emerged is examined in comparison with and in contrast to its Western counterpart. A growing body of empirical literature shows that meditation and hypnosis have many resemblances despite the distinct differences in underlying philosophy and technical methodologies. Although not all meditation techniques “fit” the Western culture, each has much to offer to clinicians who are familiar with hypnosis.

Analysis of agreement between dobutamine stress echocardiography and exercise nuclear angiography in severe aortic regurgitation

sclerosis patients. Alternative Therap Health Med 1996;2:75–79. 8. Wallace RK, Benson H, Wilson AF. A wakeful hypometabolic state. Am J Phys 1971;3:795–799. 9. Benson H, Malhoutra M, Goldman R, Jacobs G, Hopkins P. Three case reports of the metabolic and electroencephalographic changes during advance Buddhist meditation techniques. Behav Med 1990;16:90–95. 10. Ornish D, Scherwitz LW, Doody RS, et al. Effect of stress management training and dietary changes in treating ischemic heart disease. JAMA 1983;249: 54–59. 11. Rector TS, Kubo SH, Cohn JN. Patients’ self-assessment of their congestive heart failure. Part 2: Content reliability and validity of a new measure, the Minnesota Living with Heart Failure questionnaire. Heart Failure 1987;198– 209. 12. Guyatt GH. Thompson PJ. Berman LB, Sullivan M, Townsend M, Jones N, Pugseey S. How should we measure function in patients with chronic heart and lung disease? J Chronic Dis 1985;38:517–524. 13. McGavin CR, Artvinli M, Naol H. Dyspnea, disability and distance walked: comparison of extimates of exercise performance in respiratory disease. BMJ 1978;2:241–243. 14. Mahler DA, Weinberg DH, Wells CK, Feinstein AR. The measurement of dyspnea: contents, interobserver agreement and physiologic correlates of two new clinical indexes. Chest 1984;85:751–58. 15. Borg GAV. Psychophysical bases of perceived exertion. Med Sci Sports Exerc 1982;14:377–381. 16. Epstein G, Barrett EAM, Halper JP, Seriff NS, et al. Alleviating asthma with mental imagery: a phenomenological approach. Alternative Complement Therap1997. 17. Cohn J, Goldstein S, Greenberg B, Lorell B, Bourge R, Jaski B, Gottlieb S, McGrew F, DeMets D, White B. A dose-dependent increase in mortality with vesnarinone among patients with severe heart failure. N Eng J Med 1998;339: 1810–1816. 18. Kubo S, Gollub S, Bourge R, Rahko P, Cobb F, Jessup M, Brozena S, Brodsky M, Kirlin D, Shanes J. Beneficial effects of pimobendan on exercise tolerance and quality of life in patients with heart failure. Results of a multicenter trial. Circulation 1992;85:942–999. 19. Konstam V, Salem D, Pouleur H, Kostis J, Gorkin L, Shumaker S, Mottard I, Woods P, Konstam M, Yusuf S. Baseline quality of life as a predictor of mortality and hospitalization in 5,025 patients with congestive heart failure. Am J Cardiol 196;78:890–895. 20. Epstein G. Healing Visualizations: Creating Health Through Imagery. New York: Bantam, 1989.

Pilot study of guided imagery use in patients with severe heart failure

Patients with congestive heart failure (CHF) are limited in their daily lives by symptoms of dyspnea and fatigue. These symptoms result from central and peripheral effects of the failing heart. Additionally, a psychological component may also contribute to the multifactorial perceptions of dyspnea and fatigue. Although some meta-analyses point to an inconsistent impact on objective end points, 1 Spiegel D, Moore R. Imagery and hypnosis in the treatment of cancer patients. Oncology 1997;11:1179–1178. Google Scholar , 2 Wallace K.G Analysis of recent literature concerning relaxation and imagery interventions for cancer pain. Cancer Nursing. 1997; 20: 79-87 Crossref PubMed Scopus (52) Google Scholar studies on mind-body techniques such as hypnosis, 3 Ashton Jr, C Whitworth G.C Seldomridge J.A Shapiro P.A Weinberg A.D Michler R.E Smith C.R Rose E.A Fisher S Oz M.C Self-hypnosis reduces anxiety following coronary artery bypass surgery. A prospective, randomized trial. J Cardiovasc Surg. 1997; 38: 69-75 PubMed Google Scholar biofeedback, meditation, 4 Schneider R.H Staggers F Alexander C.N Sheppard W Rainforth M Kondwani K Smith S King C.G A randomized controlled trial of stress reduction for hypertension in older African Americans. Hypertension. 1995; 26: 820-827 Crossref PubMed Scopus (256) Google Scholar and guided imagery 5 Tusek D Church J.M Fazio V.W Guided imagery as a coping strategy for perioperative patients. Ann RN J. 1997; 66: 644-649 Google Scholar , 6 Troesch L.M Rodehaver C Delaney E Yanes B The influence of guided imagery on chemotherapy-related nausea and vomiting. Oncol Forum. 1993; 20: 1179-1185 PubMed Google Scholar , 7 Maguire B.L The effects of imagery on attitudes and moods in multiple sclerosis patients. Alternative Therap Health Med. 1996; 2: 75-79 PubMed Google Scholar have demonstrated that many subjects have the ability to effect physiological and psychological changes upon themselves. Mind-body techniques that invoke the relaxation response have been shown to reduce resting metabolic rates, improve hemodynamics, and decrease stress and anxiety in healthy and ill populations. 8 Wallace R.K Benson H Wilson A.F A wakeful hypometabolic state. Am J Phys. 1971; 3: 795-799 Google Scholar , 9 Benson H Malhoutra M Goldman R Jacobs G Hopkins P Three case reports of the metabolic and electroencephalographic changes during advance Buddhist meditation techniques. Behav Med. 1990; 16: 90-95 Crossref PubMed Scopus (84) Google Scholar , 10 Ornish D Scherwitz L.W Doody R.S et al. Effect of stress management training and dietary changes in treating ischemic heart disease. JAMA. 1983; 249: 54-59 Crossref PubMed Scopus (164) Google Scholar Guided imagery has not been studied in patients with CHF. The effects of this intervention on exercise performance and the sensations of dyspnea and fatigue in patients with severe heart failure were studied before and after instruction of this relaxation technique.

Three Case Reports of the Metabolic and Electroencephalographic Changes during Advanced Buddhist Meditation Techniques

To examine the extent to which advanced meditative practices might alter body metabolism and the electroencephalogram (EEG), we investigated three Tibetan Buddhist monks living in the Rumtek monastery in Sikkim, India. In a study carried out in February 1988, we found that during the practice of several different meditative practices, resting metabolism (VO2) could be both raised (up to 61%) and lowered (down to 64%). The reduction from rest is the largest ever reported. On the EEG, marked asymmetry in alpha and beta activity between the hemispheres and increased beta activity were present. From these three case reports, we conclude that advanced meditative practices may yield different alterations in metabolism (there are also forms of meditation that increase metabolism) and that the decreases in metabolism can be striking.

Evolution, Emptiness and the Fantasy Self

Current psychoanalytic thinking emphasizes understanding the development of self in the infant and in therapy, while Eastern religions investigate the phenomenology of the self-especially its representational, spatial, and temporal composition. Western therapies examine developmental roots of self-disorders, while Eastern thinking regards even normal self-development as pathological, and claims that the self must be transcended. In this article, representative Eastern and Western concepts of self are investigated, as well as the current debate between transpersonal and existential psychologists concerning psychological evolution and the ultimate goals of therapy. A synthesis of these viewpoints is offered, and a phenomenological therapy is presented, based on object relations theory, existential/humanist therapy, and Buddhist meditation techniques.

The Pure Land revisited: Sino-Japanese meditations and near-death experiences of the next world.

This paper examines Buddhist meditation techniques as they apply to Pure Land visions and deathbed visions, particularly with their parallelism to modern American near-death and deathbed visions.