Mindfulness Archive

Meditation and Cognitive Independence

July 3, 2006 · Category: Intellectual, Meditation, Mindfulness, Politics

Will Wilkinson has an interesting post titled "Declaration of Cognitive Independence?" in which he talks about the perils of confirmation bias, the process "whereby we seek and find confirmatory evidence in support of already existing beliefs and ignore or reinterpret disconfirmatory evidence." After pointing out some of the silly (at best) and destructive (at worst) behaviors that can result from confirmation bias, Will ends with the following suggestion: So, this Independence Day, why not pick up a political book you know you’ll disagree with. Or write a short essay giving the best argument you can think of for a ...

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Check Out Jay Allen’s Blog

June 28, 2006 · Category: Buddhism, Integral, Intellectual, Meditation, Mindfulness, Objectivism

I recently discovered the bloggings of another Rand-influenced meditator, Jay Andrew Allen. Yes -- for those of you who remember -- this is the same Jay Allen that was a spirited defender of Leonard Peikoff from back in the day on alt.philosophy.objectivism. Jay tells me that he doesn't consider himself an Objectivist anymore, and I'm hoping to hear more of his thoughts on that subject at some point soon. In the interim, I've been greatly enjoying the diversity and incisiveness of his writings. You can find his old blog at jayandrewallen.com, but today he's blogging much more actively on his Zaadz blog, the ...

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Meditation and Chronic Pain

June 2, 2006 · Category: Buddhism, Eckhart Tolle, Health, Meditation, Mindfulness

A new friend has pointed me to a conversation on his blog about meditation and chronic pain. He invited me to comment since he knows I've got some experience with the topic. The original questioner asks: How do you deal with Chronic Severe Pain? It takes energy to have patience, and long term agonizing pain disrupts the spirit, makes meditation impossible, sends shock waves through the whole body constantly, relaxation cannot happen. Enlighten me. For help in this area, I highly recommend the book Break Through Pain by Shinzen Young. It is the best book I've read on the subject. I can relate ...

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Quotes from ‘The Way of the Superior Man’

May 20, 2006 · Category: Individualism, Integral, Mindfulness, Personal, Reviews

I've been reading (sometimes re-reading) chapters from David Deida's magnificent book The Way Of The Superior Man on a regular basis lately. I often do this for a few minutes at night before heading to bed, as an opportunity for reflection. Below are few quotes that have been especially meaningful to me. In any given moment, a man's growth is optimized if he leans just beyond his edge, his capacity, his fear. He should not be too lazy, happily stagnating in the zone of security and comfort. Nor should he push far beyond his edge, stressing himself unnecessarily, unable to metabolize his ...

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Questions that Inspire Greater Happiness

April 1, 2006 · Category: Intellectual, Mindfulness, Objectivism

Faustin asks some fascinating, challenging questions: These are a few of my favorite questions. I believe, when your boots hit the ground, your answers to these questions matter. *** Is life an exciting adventure to be welcomed? Is happiness possible? Can we, as humans, understand the world around us? Thus, can we effectively cope with its challenges? Can human relations be healthy? Are they generally mutually beneficial? Can we wake up in the morning, confident that there are other good people in the world, doing fascinating things, providing products and services that further our lives, our goals, our happiness, and should we thus embrace their freedom and ...

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Arguments Dramatically Slow Wound Healing

December 5, 2005 · Category: Mindfulness

Thanks to Marsh for pointing this one out: The stress a married couple experiences during a 30-minute argument can delay their bodies’ ability to heal a wound by at least a day, according to a new study. And if the couples’ relationship endures routine hostility, the delay can be increased yet further. There could be important implications for people suffering from chronic wounds, such as skin ulcers. “We knew that chronic stress causes reduced immunity, but to find that an argument of just half an hour has such a profound effect on wound healing is quite shocking,” says Patricia Price at the Wound ...

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‘Parking’ the Eyes During Meditation

August 13, 2005 · Category: Mindfulness

Just sent this in to Mudita Forum... I've noticed something recently, during my sittings, that I thought might be worth sharing. When I sit down to meditate, if I pick a spot on the floor or on the bedspread in front of me (if I'm facing a bed in my room, as I often did during this year's Brasington retreat), and allow my opened eyes to kind of "park" on that one spot, I find that within a matter of moments I slip into a relaxed and focused sort of reverie. It's not reverie in the sense of daydreaming, but in ...

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On Lovingkindness and Happiness

July 5, 2005 · Category: Buddhism, Meditation, Mindfulness, Mudita Forum, Personal

Mudita Forum has begun a chapter-by-chapter discussion of Sharon Salzberg's book Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness, which discusses the Buddhist practice of lovingkindness (or metta, in Pali). Below is a posting I wrote on the subject, in response to Damian's question "Has anyone else had experience with metta meditation that they'd care to share?" I should mention that I'm somewhat reluctant to post this topic on my blog. I expect that some Objectivists will be repulsed. And that's a downright shame, in my mind, as lovingkindness meditation one of the most concrete examples I've found of a technology for ...

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Neural Effects of Long-Term Meditation Practice

November 30, 2004 · Category: Mindfulness

An interesting new study has been published on the neural effects of long-term meditation practice. Here's the abstract: Practitioners understand "meditation," or mental training, to be a process of familiarization with one's own mental life leading to long-lasting changes in cognition and emotion. Little is known about this process and its impact on the brain. Here we find that long-term Buddhist practitioners self-induce sustained electroencephalographic high-amplitude gamma-band oscillations and phase-synchrony during meditation. These electroencephalogram patterns differ from those of controls, in particular over lateral frontoparietal electrodes. In addition, the ratio of gamma-band activity (25-42 Hz) to slow oscillatory activity (4-13 Hz) ...

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More on the Health Benefits of Mindfulness

September 29, 2004 · Category: Health, Meditation, Mindfulness

I've been pointing people to Ruth Baer's (2003) meta-analysis of the benefits of mindfulness (available in crystal-clear PDF format on David Fresco's web site) for some time, as an excellent introduction to and overview of the current mindfulness research. Today, via Marshall (via Drew), I learned about a new meta-analysis that is in publication in the Journal of Psychosomatic Research, exploring the health benefits of mindfulness: J Psychosom Res. 2004 Jul;57(1):35-43. Mindfulness-based stress reduction and health benefits. A meta-analysis. Grossman P, Niemann L, Schmidt S, Walach H. Freiburg Institute for Mindfulness Research, Konradstr. 32, 79100 Freiburg, Germany. OBJECTIVE: Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is a structured group ...

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