MA 42 Benefits of Meditation In The Here And Now

Meditation from the Thai Theravada tradition following a modernized interpretation of Boran Kammatthana. This meditation introduces some proven benefits of meditating that can be seen after a few months of practice including changing the shape of your brain, reducing negativity in the mind, unwinding the harmful effects of stress and anxiety, improving performance under stress, helping with sleep problems, boosting positivity and generally enhancing quality of life.

Transcript

So start by finding a comfortable position for yourself in the meditation.

Find a position by which you feel you could sit for a long long time without having to move around too much.

Your posture should be as comfortable as possible,

Resting either on a cushion,

A pillow,

Or maybe sitting on a straight back chair.

If you're sitting cross-legged then you may be able to bring your knees to the floor ideally,

If not then support your knees with blankets or towels,

So that you get a good stable tripod-like posture,

To be able to sit for your meditation without having to move around too much.

And in this way you can bring your spine up nice and tall,

To fill your spine with energy.

At the same time you can let your lower lumbar region relax to its natural shape.

Allow your hands to rest palm upwards in your lap,

With the right hand over the left hand,

The index finger of the right hand touching against the thumb of the left hand.

The way you close your eyes should be as gentle as possible,

Or if you prefer you can cast your gaze softly at the floor in front of you,

Allowing your eyes to defocus.

And invite a sense of softness to the face.

Feel the folds in the skin of the forehead relax.

Feel the space between the eyebrows soften.

And make sure your eyelids are as relaxed as possible.

If you observe carefully you'll notice that even your eyeballs can relax.

And allow that sense of softness to flow down through your temples in a gentle wave.

Your lips touch your knee lightly together as the mouth relaxes.

The tongue softens within the mouth.

Also the jawline softens.

We relax our neck and throat,

Finding softness in their length and openness.

We let our shoulders relax away from our ears,

And let the elbows rest at the sides of the body.

And you can also let your belly soften.

Also relax your legs all the way down to your feet and your toes,

So that your whole body feels light in weight,

Almost as if it has disappeared into the atmosphere around you.

Turning your attention inward,

You can let your attention gently peel away from the outside world.

In the same way you can relax your state of mind,

Putting aside any worries or concerns in your life,

As if you were alone in the world.

A person with no past and no future,

Entirely focused in the present moment and on the task in hand.

Conjuring up a sense of well-being within yourself,

As if well-being were made up of tiny particles inside yourself,

Particles of happiness and joy,

That grow and spread inside you to fill the whole of your body and mind,

Leaving no space inside yourself or any other sort of thought.

And when we feel relaxed both in body and in mind,

Very gently,

Using no effort at all,

We imagine our whole body to be nothing but an empty space or a hollow cavity,

With no organs or tissues,

Muscles or bones.

Or instead you may imagine your body to have been transformed into a sort of transparent bubble,

With nothing on the inside.

And when you're ready again,

Very gently,

Using no effort at all,

Remember back to that picture of the bright shining sun or full moon that you had a few moments ago.

Maybe yellow or gold in colour,

White or red.

It doesn't matter if the actual picture is not as clear as you normally see it with your eyes,

Even if it's vague,

Accept it anyway.

There may be some people who feel the warmth of the sun but don't actually see it.

Again you can use that tactile sense of warmth as an object for your meditation.

And in this case we allow that bright picture or that feeling of warmth to make its way gently downwards inside the space of our body,

Almost as if we were gradually breathing it down to the deepest point of our breath,

Or gently swallowing the object down to the very pit of our stomach.

And once the bright object or the sense of warmth reaches that point in our abdomen,

There's no need for us to move it anywhere else anymore.

We maintain it gently with a feather-like touch at the very centre of ourselves.

If we find our awareness wandering away onto other things,

Like the sounds around us,

Distractions around us,

Each time we realise we just bring our attention back to the centre of our body as before.

If the inner object disappears we can conjure up a new one,

It's not a big deal.

And when we're new to meditation we'll find that our mind wanders often.

But each time we bring it back it'll become a little bit easier to keep it in place the next time round.

Until before long we'll find that our awareness is spending more time centred than it is wandering,

At which point we'll start to have an intuitive feeling of the mind being able to stay at the centre almost by second nature.

And to help to create a space between yourself and your thoughts,

We tap into that still,

Silent space.

If thoughts return we do our best to ignore them,

But if ignoring the thoughts proves ineffective we can make use of our traditional mantra,

Hearing the sound of the words,

Samaarahaam,

Samaarahaam,

Samaarahaam,

Coming up as if the source of the sound is at the centre of our body.

And the more you say the mantra the more power you give to the words of the mantra,

And they will start to lead the mind deeper towards a sense of purity in the mind.

So feel these words resonating within your heart,

Within every cell,

Every fibre of your being,

With every repetition of the mantra.

With meditation as with exercise practice makes perfect,

But we don't just exercise for exercise's sake,

We exercise for the benefits of strength and health in our everyday lives.

In the same way we meditate not just for meditation's sake,

But to impact our everyday lives in a positive way.

Although there are long term esoteric conceptual goals of awakening,

Of nirvana,

Of enlightenment,

These can be regarded as distant goals that you can head towards while for the interim focusing on the benefits to you in the here and now in your life.

So what are the benefits of meditation in the here and now?

Perhaps benefits that are also supported by scientific research.

It can be asserted that there is no other single intervention done each day that matches the benefits to our lives of bringing the mind to the centre of the body in meditation.

Our daily activities never influence our wellbeing independent of one another,

But obviously besides keeping healthy,

Exercising daily,

Eating well,

Keeping up therapy,

Keeping a journal or other forms of self-care,

If you were to do just one thing for yourself,

The most important single contribution to your wellbeing would be meditation at the centre of the body.

What meditation at the centre of the body does is that it gives you the skills to detach,

It allows you to see reality as it is,

For what it is.

It gives you the power to stand back from your thoughts as they arise and not get trapped by them.

Without meditation it's like going through life half asleep for want of better expression,

Going through life leap-rogging from one distraction to the next.

If a thought or emotion or a mood pops up and we get trapped by it,

Then we just react,

We get angry,

We get jealous,

We feel attraction,

What we say and do something that we may later regret.

We may feel afraid,

We may feel depressed,

We may feel fearful of the future.

At times when we're in this sort of reactive mindset,

We just react based on the thoughts that we've been trapped by.

When we're trapped in those thoughts,

Then it's very hard to know what to do because they become our reality.

But there is an antidote and the antidote is meditation,

Bringing our focus back within the space of our body.

The mind wanders and acknowledging that but gently and calmly turning our focus back to the centre of the body.

Little by little we'll start to gain control of our mind and start to get independence from the way our thoughts affect us.

And if we practice it regularly every day until bringing our mind to the centre of the body becomes like second nature to us,

Then there will be many benefits that come to us from this practice apart from simply taking back control of our mind from our thoughts.

And the benefits of meditation are so widely recognised that currently the majority of medical professionals give their backing to meditation.

In Britain more than two-thirds of general practitioners agreed that it would be helpful for their patients to learn meditation techniques,

Even for those without any health problems.

And the more doctors don't recommend meditation to their patients,

It's really only limited by the knowledge of and access to appropriate meditation resources.

It's been found that meditation can change the shape of one's brain.

With Canadian researchers finding that in meditators the areas of the brain which regulate pain and emotion were significantly thicker as compared to those who didn't meditate,

Meaning that sensitivity to pain is lowered in meditators and this potential for change known as neuroplasticity means that when you sit to meditate you're not only changing your perspective,

You're actually changing the physical structure of the brain.

Apart from raising the pain threshold,

Meditation is also known to reduce negativity in the mind more generally,

Because meditation reduces the intensity of toxic emotions.

Neuroscientists recently discovered that people who meditate experience negative emotions less intensely than those who do not.

And even the simple practice of labelling the emotions allows us to detach in a good way,

Giving us the chance to step back from negativity.

We become more able to choose the thoughts that we want to listen to.

And if we are in the moment in our everyday life,

If something happens,

For example to make us angry,

Rather than just instantly responding,

We're able to take a little breath,

A mindful moment,

And take a different decision instead.

And being able to have control in this way has benefits in every aspect of our lives.

With the decisions about our diet,

Consumption of intoxicants,

Relationships,

Friends,

Family,

Work ethic or exercise regime,

We become less attached to the thoughts that just pop up randomly,

We're able to overcome moments of low motivational boredom.

Instead of listening to the thoughts that say we can't be bothered,

Instead of accepting those thoughts as our reality,

We realise that our reality is that we're just observing those thoughts and those thoughts are not us.

So rather than just acquiescing,

We push through and do the exercise,

Push through and clean the house,

Push through to study or start the business.

We're able to engage in more challenging conversations with our loved ones and close friends,

Enabling us to understand them better on a deeper level.

We'll be able to tell the difference between the things that we want and the things that are imposed on us.

And it all comes back to a dedicated meditation practice.

It all comes back to returning our focus to the centre of the body repeatedly until we gain full control of our mental state.

Meditation is also known to unwind the harmful effects of stress as can be seen with blood pressure,

Cholesterol levels and even heart disease.

It boosts the immune system by what's known as the relaxation response.

It's been shown to reduce anxiety.

Even after two months of meditation,

90% of those with generalised anxiety disorder were able to reduce their anxiety and depression.

And this effect continued for up to three years after their initial trial.

Anxiety and depression are reduced by meditation,

Has been verified by a whole raft of different studies.

It shows the far reaching effect on the symptoms across a wide range of health disorders.

Even if your stress levels are not affecting your health,

Meditation improves performance under stress,

Helping to offset the loss of mental performance in stressful situations and maintaining peak performance,

Whether it be for first responders,

Relief workers,

Trauma surgeons or even professional athletes.

Meditation helps people meet deadlines.

Researchers finding that practitioners showed significant improvements in their cognitive skills,

Even after only four days of meditation training,

Doing particularly well on physical and mental tasks requiring sustained attention,

Even under time constraints.

And for those suffering from sleeplessness,

Meditation can reduce the time it takes to get to sleep.

Meditation has been incorporated as an integral component of treatment for insomnia,

Allowing sufferers to reduce their reliance on medication and halving the average time spent getting to sleep.

It is known that apart from reducing negativity in the mind,

Meditation boosts all the positive aspects of our mind as well,

Activating the parts of the brain related to happiness,

The parts of the brain associated with resilience and optimism,

Which become more active even in those who have only meditated for two months,

With the corresponding increased feelings of happiness and wellbeing within ourselves.

Meditation is known to enhance the quality of life by preventing relapse into depression and the enhanced quality of life is much better than those who rely on medication to get the same effects.

Not only does the enhanced quality of life affect the people who meditate,

But even those around them seem to benefit as well,

Almost as if meditation were a form of social good or a form of altruism in a sense.

You can imagine what the world would be like if everyone could take a deep breath,

Calm down and just detach a bit from their innate biases,

From their moods and stresses,

Anxiety and anger,

Rather than just reacting,

Saying or doing something in the wake of heightened emotionality.

Imagine how good the world would be if we could just be a little bit more detached,

A little bit more aware of how our mental states impact the words and actions in our lives.

And it's also not a myth that meditation can help make a person's complexion more radiant.

Meditation has been shown to clear treatable skin conditions related to psychological stress.

Conditions like psoriasis,

Meditator's skin,

Cleared four times more quickly than expected.

And meditation is also related to self-control.

Even after just a few days of meditation,

There is increased blood flow to the parts of the brain involved with control of emotions and behaviour,

Which is why the practice of meditation,

Even for short periods of time,

Has become an essential part of rehabilitation from disorders of various sorts,

Concerning intoxicants or smoking or binge eating.

It's been shown that meditation helps keep a person bright and alert,

Since the reduction of grey matter normally associated with aging has been found to be offset by meditation.

With significantly better accuracy and speed of response amongst meditators,

Then normally would be expected for a person of their age.

So for all the benefits I have described today,

Although a mere fraction of benefits seen in the here and now,

They are all substantial reasons to try to bring some meditation into your daily life.

Maybe the most important single intervention that you ever made in your life.

So for now we continue to cultivate our mind on track at the centre of our body,

Bringing our mind back from any untoward thoughts or emotions by means of our mantra,

As we make good wishes for ourselves and others on the basis of the meditation and the brightness both inside and out that we have cultivated today.

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Reviews

Thank you dear teacher. Your gentle voice and soothing tone really helps settle my mind. I commit to a daily practice and grateful for any benefits. ☮️💖🙏🖖🪷