Essay On Buddhist Meditation

The implications of meditation have long been controversial and abundant research studies have been done in support of meditations potential to change the brain and body. The results within this research paper center on main changes in the brain such as reducing depression, effecting levels of cognitive flexibility, and creativity due to meditation. The research also focuses on variations within the body as well as changes that may be included in both topics of brain and body relating to stress regulation, heart rate variability, and emotional responses. This research paper examines these articles and their studies in order to support the argument that meditation encourages positive changes

Meditation causes you to think on God and his Excellencies, which can possibly change your life, all by itself.

“Meditation is a means of transforming the mind” (The Buddhist Centre 2015). Buddhists practice and teach meditation to help enhance the concentration, clarity, positivity, and find a calming sense of the mind (The Buddhist Centre 2015). Buddhists believe that we have full control and power over our minds meaning that we have the power to change how we think and feel during situations through meditation. (ReligionFacts 2015). Buddhist’s believe dedicated meditation can encourage people to have a clearer, more positive, and peaceful world view. Buddhist’s believe people can alter negative perceptions of themselves and turn it into something positive through meditation/ (The Buddhist Centre 2015).

Mindfulness meditation consists of skills and methods to unplug from the busy world around you and from the busy 'monkey brain ' so often experienced in today 's life and particularly in ADHD, anxiety and depression. According to Jon Kabat-Zinn, mindfulness meditation trains and reinforces the ability to pay attention to the present moment, on purpose which helps to increase concentration, decrease anxiety, improve sleep, improve mood, decrease the stress response, and improve physical and emotional health. The studies are compelling about the health benefits of mindfulness meditation. In fact, studies show that mindfulness meditation actually changes the brain in positive ways. The cortex of the brain is thicker in certain areas of the brain in those who practice mindfulness meditation. And brainwave patterns are changed in healthy ways as well.

Meditation helps Buddhists to understand that the Buddha should be treated as their example, and the attachment on things and how to cope with the feelings of unselfishness and desiring. It helps Buddhists to develop genuine emotions, rejoice in the happiness of others, and do everything they can to free others from suffering. It can help you become a more loving person in daily life.

Josephine P. Briggs, M. (2010, June 25). Exploring the Power of Meditation. Retrieved from National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health: https://nccih.nih.gov/about/offices/od/2010-06.htm

These effects of mind wandering has been shown to be inefficient towards learning and this is due to the fact that while we are engaged in mind wandering our attention is on our internal thoughts and feelings therefore mind wandering impairs the ability to integrate any new information from the external environment (Smallwood et al., 2007). Relating this principle to myself it was clearly evident to me that meditation serves as an antidote for a wandering mind it is beneficial in gaining wisdom about oneself, experiencing positive emotions and improving day to day learning (Moneyham and Schooler, 2013).

In the research concerning transcendental meditation, variables linked with and most often tested in relation to TM include stress, anxiety, depression, ego development, and cognition, all of which contribute to overall well-being. Sample sizes in these studies vary greatly, some consisting of smaller groups and other that synthesize information collected from larger studies. There is also great variation in terms of time, some studies spanning over only a few months while others study groups over the span of ten years. This diversity within the studies is helpful in gaining a more well-rounded understanding of TM and its effects.

There is not much research demonstrating negative effects of meditation. The arguments against meditation are proposed based upon the validity of the experiments, the human error of the experiments, and the significance of the data (95 percent accuracy or higher). For instance, the experiment with the monks does not consider the amount of brain function each person had before meditating. “it remains for future studies to show that these EEG signatures are caused by long-terming training itself and not individual differences before training” (Lieberman). The issue revolves on the amount of brain activity before meditation and the amount of meditation that has been practiced since the beginning to

We learned some meditation techniques through an app and some breathing exercises to help de-stress ourselves. This is an important skill to attain in life, meditation allows you to sleep better, have less stress due to lower cortisol levels and reduces anxiety, allows for a better memory, more happiness, activates both the left and right hemispheres in your brain which leads to faster learning and more creativity. All of these great benefits that come from meditation allow for a better learning, motivation, memory and achievement. If meditation can reduce stress and anxiety it can allow for you to focus better in class and on the tasks assigned. Not only more sleep, but a deeper sleep can allow for you to be attentive and able to keep memories in long term, it would allow you to recall information previously learned a lot better. Not to mention since sleep can affect your mood and meditation brings on happiness it could create for higher motivations and a desire to achieve goals. Most people use one side of their brain more than the other, this creates an imbalance, by meditation you would then be allowed to create a balance and use both hemispheres. Both hemispheres are quite different too; the left would carry reasoning, logic, and be ruled by facts, whereas the right is creative, imaginative, and

I agree meditation can do wonders for the human brain. It has been proven with MRI's that  the brains of the people who meditate have a higher amount of gray matter in the hippocampus area compare to those that do not meditate. This part of the brain has to do with the way we process information and memory.  Medication can also help us synchronize the left hemisphere of the brain,  responsible for our mathematical thinking and the right hemisphere which is our creative and intuitive side the connection among the two is called "whole brain synchronization" It is believe that past inventors and great thinkers were able to use both the right and left parts of the brain in harmony.  (Meditation's Effect on the Brain: Positive Changes Through Meditative

Through this log I have discovered how much mindfulness can affect my life. Doing just six straight days of doing a single five-minute endeavour of mindfulness, I noted that I went to sleep better, my mood was generally more positive and mindfulness as the first activity in the morning made me feel refreshed and awake instantly each day. was only by feeling less stressed and tired, I realised how drained and high-strung I felt on a regular basis. I may return to the five-minute meditations because that feels more appropriate for a daily practice, another adaption I may make is that I will trade listening to a guided meditation or silence, I may listen to classical music.

What do CEOs, inner city school children, returning military personnel, prisoner inmates, MBA players, doctors, and nurses all have in common? Would you guess the answer is meditation? While there are many paths to meditation mindful meditation has become the most common. In recent years there has been a growing population of people who are finding meditation helpful to reduce stress, improve productivity, and relieve symptoms of anxiety and depression. Due to the increasing popularity there is now more money than ever going towards funding scientific studies to help understand the effects mediation and mindfulness have on the body and the mind. Carolyn Gregoir, at The Huffington Post writes “It’s undeniable

It lets us get to know our true selves, by analyzing our objective self and deleting our flaws. It can as well better our grades. By taking a few minuets from our day to do this meditation, helps us relax and improve our functioning. This type of meditation can help our troops as well, with so much stress that they are carrying they are able to recuperate from it. Another way it is beneficial is by changing the brain in a protective way, meaning from mental illnesses due to increasing myelin tissue around the axons. You could also control and handle your emotions in a different positive manner. One of the reasons that amazed me was that it makes music sound better, because you are able to concentrate on it easily and are able to enjoy it. The health perks that it has are incredible some being body awareness, self-awareness, regulation of emotion and regulation of attention. Another use that it has in health is with doctors, they listen more carefully and become better listeners when interacting with their patients. The fourteenth reason is more depressing because there are many seniors that suffer from heath conditions due to being lonely. In doing this exercise daily, it can reduce the feelings of being lonely. If more people do this we could decrease the number of depressed lonely

First, a brief historical origin of meditation and contextualizing mindfulness, following the literature reviewed to provide a foundational understanding of various types of meditation being practiced and what its documented effects have been. The second body of the literature reviewed on the neurobiology and mechanisms of change with mindfulness meditation practice.