Tuesday, May 6, 2025

Tuesday, May 6, 2025

This month we’ll focus on Mindfulness and Neuroscientific research related with meditation. Mindfulness is part of an ancient tradition with countless benefits. It teaches how to calm down and pause, instead of reacting with your anger or irritability, you act without getting stressed or anxious. But originally the practice was not intended for such purposes. These are simply its side-effects. Easy and brief meditations are its spinoffs that have been adopted only recently. The original aim of meditation, still embraced in some cultures and circles, focusses on deep exploration of the mind to get insights into human consciousness. 

Using fMRI and EEG (explained below) and a battery of cutting-edge data analysis for the last thirty years or so neuroscientists have been studying minds of Tibetan monks by imaging their brains to understand the phenomenon of meditation.

EEG (electrocephalogram) records the electrical waves of the brain. These waves represent the synchronous firing of neurons, primarily in the cerebral cortex and are detected through electrodes placed on the scalp of the person who is being tested. 

fMRI (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) is used to measure and map brain activity by detecting changes in blood flow. It allows researchers to observe which parts of the brain are active during various mental tasks, sensory experiences or at rest. This instrument makes three dimensional and minutely detailed maps of the various regions of the brain.

At the University of Wisconsin’s Center for Healthy Minds, the neuroscientist Richard J. Davidson and his team studied the brains of twenty-two yogis including Mingyur Rinpoche who had accumulated 62,000 hours of meditation and those who had minimum of 10,000 hours. These are considered level 1 practitioners. Level 2 and Level 3 is given to those who practice Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) or Transcendental Meditation (TM). However, the most watered-down practice is level 4 such as one-minute or five-minute meditation iphone apps or mindfulness-at-your-office-or-home-desk. 

However, meditation teachers claim that any aspect of meditation that helps alleviate suffering should be learned by all.