Category Archives: media

Get some sleep so you can wake up!

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The quote below caught my attention yesterday as I was reading a post from elephantjournal.com on Facebook. The author is Ricardo das Neves, who is described as a writer on spirituality and humor and a yoga teacher in Seattle, writing about how to fall asleep (both falling asleep and awakening are prerequisites to awakening):

As someone who dips his toes in the meditation pool, I also notice that if I’m lying awake thinking, it’s invariably rehashing the past or planning the future. In the present, there’s only awareness, silence. So to enhance my awareness of thoughts, I locate where in my brain I’m thinking. I notice that it’s mostly top-and-left-of-center, though occasionally it’s back-and-in-and-left. Now I “move” the thoughts over to my right brain. That is, I pretend to feel them coming from the right side of my brain. There’s no question I’m aware of thoughts at this point if I have to push them over to that location. Next, while exhaling slowly, I place short words in my right brain. “Sleep” is a favorite one. It’s not a command; it’s just an exploration of what happens when I say “sleep” every now in my right brain and then perceive all kinds of images that come up out of the blue. That’s the right brain’s language. I notice those random, fleeting images. I keep placing simple words in my right brain. I get images. Words in the right brain. Images. Wordszzzzzzz….

To read the entire article, go here.

I played with this technique this morning at Sunday service at Appamada. We sit for several 30 minute sessions with 10 minute walking sessions in between. Plenty of time to play with your meditation!

Like this: Imagine the word “word” (or pick another word–it doesn’t matter). Imagine it in your mind’s eye as being projected in front of you from your left brain. You get to pick your favorite font. It could be bold, outlined, italic, red, cursive, blocky, whatever you choose. You see a word in front of you coming from your left brain.

Now slide that word over so that in your mind’s eye it is projected from your right brain, and notice what happens.

Do this now before reading on.

For me, the word becomes pure image without meaning, and the letters begin morphing, become covered with fur, or snow. They may change color, dance, unravel and become new shapes. It’s slightly (or majorly) hallucinogenic, and harmless. It’s fun!

This morning during zazen, I also spent time noticing what I saw with my eyes closed. I was facing a window in the zendo (hey, rhyme!), which had morning light flooding through. I let the light in and noticed how my visual centers were stimulated to create vague changing shapes, like phosphorescence. This was fascinating to watch.

Even though I didn’t visualize the word “sleep”, by the time of the reading, I was so deeply relaxed, I caught myself falling into sleep a couple of times. I pulled myself out.

Sit and be still for 30 minutes sometime, if you don’t already. You  may notice that rather than being boring, the opportunities that arise to have fun and be creative are endless!

The entire sky turns into enlightenment

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Okay, so I’ve been rolling out of bed, doing three sun salutations to stretch and warm up, and then I sit.

It’s so early, my brain feels sluggish, which is actually a pleasant experience for li’l ole vata me. I’ve been enjoying these early morning sessions a lot.

The problem, it seems there’s not a lot to write about.

When I say “my brain feels sluggish,” I mean I’m not experiencing much internal dialogue, which is my usual vata experience. And from the words of internal dialogue, whether witnessing or chattering words, come material for this blog.

What I notice gets named and later blogged about.

So I just sit. I notice, but it’s not particularly interesting to verbalize. My attention stays fairly centered on my body. Sensations of parts, sensations of myself as bio-electricity, just kind of a meandering body-centered attention, with moments of brilliant presence.

Maybe this is what it feels like to be a kapha.

I’m remembering a phrase from Dogen’s Jijuyu Zammai: “the entire sky turns into enlightenment.”

Wow. That is going to happen sometime when I’m sitting. I don’t want to miss that, don’t see how I could possibly miss that! It’s motivating!

I just may have to manufacture something to write about.

Happy Buddha’s birthday-enlightenment day-parinirvana, whenever you recognize it.

Another book influences meditation

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I recently read the book Trauma Releasing Exercises by David Berceli, kindly lent to me by John Daniewicz, a member of my sangha, after we had a wide-ranging discussion that included healing from trauma.

Berceli came up with a set of seven physical exercises based on bioenergetics whose purpose is to tire the leg and hip muscles so that they tremble, quiver, and shake. He did this after spending time in war zones in Africa and the Middle East, wanting to find a way to help victims, witnesses, and caregivers release trauma energy from their bodies without psychotherapy. Some cultures don’t include psychotherapy, and some circumstances make it impossible.

The trembling releases the energy frozen in the body from trauma or prolonged stress (which in my view and some others’ has the same effect on the body as a true trauma).

I’ve been doing the exercises a couple of times a week. They take 20-30 minutes to do. At the end, I lie on the floor, knees up, with my legs going through cycles of fine tremors, visible quivering, and gross muscle shaking.

When I feel done, I just straighten my legs and the trembling stops.  I feel more present.

Berceli has a newer, more sophisticated version of the book, The Revolutionary Trauma Release Process. Both are available on amazon.com.

The exercises are pretty much the same in both books. (By the way, the latter book got 5 stars from all 21 reviewers on Amazon, pretty remarkable in itself.)

There’s a video too, which I haven’t seen.

I think everyone should at least know about the exercises, and if you’ve ever had trauma in your life or been a caregiver to traumatized people or been under prolonged stress, please consider actually doing them, no matter how long ago it was.

This is definitely remedial work, but the more we can let go of the past, even as it resides in our bodies, the more capacity we have for being present, in my opinion.

And that’s how I tie this topic into my meditation blog. It’s about cultivating presence, and this helps.

I’m back, sitting without pain and with more spaciousness

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I haven’t posted for about two weeks because I haven’t had internet access at home (short version: dead tree fell and took down cable; long version: it involved finding someone to rescue the bee colony living inside the dead tree), and I’ve been super busy at work with no time to sneak a blog post in.

So here I am. This little break from blogging has given me some perspective. Here are some of my newest revelations:

  • After about 3 months of daily sitting, I stopped hurting for the most part. My body learned to accommodate the practice of sitting in stillness for 30 minutes without pain. I am grateful for this. Mind you, the pain of sitting was never severe. It ranged from just-above-the-radar discomfort, to mild pain, to stiffness, tightness, hurting toward the end of a session. Sitting through the pain with awareness taught me about the variety of sensations called “pain,” and that it’s dynamic, constantly changing. I didn’t know this would happen. I thought pain was part of it.
  • I have a sense of having more spaciousness within. I’m really unsure how to put this into words. How do you experience your own identity? Not in relation to others–how do you see yourself? I’m much bigger than I thought. Who I am is more centered and stronger, yet I have more capacity.
  • I forgot to meditate at least two more times (mumble mumble). Sometimes I remember late, and then I sit. Three times now I have not remembered until the next day that I did not sit the previous day. I like meditating at various times during the day, getting to know my various diurnal energies. And I think I’d like to start the day with it.

Okay, I’m off to zipline in Wimberley. Will post again tomorrow

Milestone, appreciation

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The previous post was my 100th blog post, and as of this moment, people have viewed this blog 827 times.

Thank you.

Zen meditation changes brain, lowers pain threshold

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Here’s a blurb I read in a newsletter from the Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe:

Zen and Pain

The world is full of suffering, it is also full of overcoming it.
—Helen Keller

Zen meditation helps lower sensitivity to pain by thickening a part of the brain that regulates emotion and painful sensations, according to a study published recently.

University of Montreal researchers compared the grey matter thickness of 17 Zen meditators and 18 non-meditators and found evidence that practising the centuries-old discipline can reinforce a central part of the brain called the anterior cingulate. “Through training, Zen meditators appear to thicken certain areas of their cortex and this appears to underlie their lower sensitivity to pain,” lead author Joshua Grant said in a statement.

Building on an earlier study, the researchers measured thermal pain sensitivity by applying a heated plate to the calf of participants. This was followed by scanning the brains of subjects with structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

The MRI results showed central brain regions that regulate emotion and pain were significantly thicker in meditators compared to non-meditators. “The often painful posture associated with Zen meditation may lead to thicker cortex and lower pain sensitivity,” Grant opined.

The study was published in a special issue of the American Psychological Association journal, Emotion.

In the previous study, the researchers recruited Zen meditators with more than 1,000 hours of practice and non-meditators and measured their respective tolerance to pain.

Several of the meditators tolerated a maximum 53°C produced by a heating plate. They appeared to further reduce their pain partly through slower breathing: 12 breaths per minute versus an average of 15 breaths for non-meditators.

“Slower breathing certainly coincided with reduced pain and may influence pain by keeping the body in a relaxed state,” Grant said in the earlier study.

Ultimately, Zen meditators experience an 18% reduction in pain sensitivity, according to the original study.

Moving into the unknown

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It’s been a few days since I posted. I’ve been enjoying this a little break from the near-daily blogging. I usually like writing, but the sitting practice, the job, the sangha, the family and friends, the garden, shopping, eating, sleeping, relaxing, and other activities I do all take time.

I was doing too much. I have been feeling tired. I perceived something going on that I didn’t have words for.

These few days of silence have helped me realize that I’m undergoing a shift. I can’t quite put my finger on exactly what it is happening. Not yet. Sometimes it’s good to just be silent and let it be. Let it unfold.

Something, some thought, some realization, is moving toward awareness. I sense it. I feel it. I know it in my bones. I know it means change. I feel myself surrendering, preparing for it, not knowing what it is.

What is truly important? Job? House? No.

Truth is important.

I am being shaped by this practice. I am letting go of plans. I am letting go of who I thought I was, of what seemed to give me security.

This was a scary place to me, but now I see it’s inevitable, and all I can do is surrender and allow it to unfold and appreciate the process.

Trying to find words for it. It seems to be some kind of reclaiming of myself, or claiming myself, or releasing myself, freeing myself. Moving into the unknown.

Slowing down, freaking out

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I have several topics to address. First, I am feeling behind in this busy life — with taxes, gardening, housework, projects, plans — and also spring has sprung in Austin, Texas, USA. I desire to be outdoors enjoying it when I can, because it doesn’t last very long.

So I am not going to be blogging as often for a while.

Sitting daily for 3o minutes is still a very high priority. I will probably blog at least twice a week, maybe more if so moved, but not daily like I was doing for awhile.

Peg says that the practice of meditation tends to follow a pattern of breakthrough followed by a plateau as you integrate. I imagine you all probably like to read more about the breakthroughs and aren’t all that interested in the integration part. I’m the same way.

After awhile, integrating a breakthrough becomes harder to write about. You know it is still affecting your body-mind system. You sense that it’s still happening but at a subtler level, more sporadic. I figure it’s getting down into synapses and cells and molecules and atoms. Not much to say there.

~~~

Today I saw a new health care practitioner who works with energy. My internal jury is still out, giving a technique that’s brand new to me a fair chance, so I’m not going to say too much about it yet.

She shared some information with me that was alarming. About my energy. It seems possible that it could be true. Yet something about her communication with me rubbed me the wrong way, and I haven’t been able to put my finger on it until I began having this imaginary one-sided conversation (internal rant) that lets me know one of my buttons has been pushed:

You may think  you know all about my energy system, more than I do, and perhaps you’re right. But you don’t know me. I am not broken. I’ve made 57 circles around the sun so far, and that’s a lot of life.

If your words imply that I’m broken or that only you can fix me, I’m not sure I want to work with you. I don’t like being in that position. I’ve been getting along without you all these years. I allow you to help me. Respect that.

I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt because you’re young, someone I respect recommended you, it is possible that what you say is at least partly true, and I am curious whether what you do is effective.

Just please, don’t be a drama queen, okay? You freaking out makes me feel like a freak, and you know what? I don’t need it.

I go back in two weeks. If there’s anything more to write about this, I will!

Article: autonomous sitting

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This article focuses on the physiology of sitting. It mentions challenges for meditators with steps to strengthen sitting ability.

http://www.zafu.net/whatswrong.html

I began sitting on an exercise ball at my office job about 5 years ago. I felt tired at the end of the workday because of the extra effort of holding my torso upright without support. That lasted for a week. I don’t notice it at all now.

Using an exercise ball for a chair ($13 at Target), I move more frequently. I found a stable position that works well too: I sit with my tailbone at top center, knees wide, heels tucked into the ball — so my hips are higher than my knees.

I add air once or twice a year to keep it firm.

Pink noise, bad memory

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Got up early, sat before work, and right now I cannot remember anything clearly about sitting this morning, except that I did it! No big or small realizations, no startling insights, not even small moments stand out in my memory.

So there you have it. Nothing to write about. The blogger’s worst nightmare. Oh, well!

I did read something today that may be of interest to you — it was news to me. Apparently some film geeks (or attention geeks, or psychologists) broke down a bunch of movies into scenes and shots and compared them to the natural human pattern of attention. Here are some excerpts:

Pink noise is a characteristic signal profile seated somewhere between random and rigid, and for utterly mysterious reasons, our world is ablush with it….

Hollywood filmmakers, whether they know it or not, have become steadily more adroit at shaping basic movie structure to match the pulsatile, half-smooth, half-raggedy way we attend to the world around us….

Track the pulsings of a quasar, the beatings of a heart, the flow of the tides, the bunchings and thinnings of traffic, or the gyrations of the stock market, and the data points will graph out as pink noise. Much recent evidence from reaction-time experiments suggests that we think, focus and refocus our minds, all at the speed of pink.

I wonder how meditation affects one’s signal profile. Food for thought! Pulsatile food for thought, that is.

I had never seen or heard the word pulsatile before. I looked it up. It means:

Undergoing pulsation; vibrating.

Not sure why the writer didn’t choose pulsating. (Just my mind at work.)

Here’s the link if you want to read the whole article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/02/science/02angi.html?em

And here’s a link to a UT/Austin website about white, brown, and pink noise. Scroll down for findings about noise and people with ADHD and recovering alcoholics: http://homepage.psy.utexas.edu/homepage/group/GildenLAB/fractal.htm