Brains of Buddhist monks scanned in meditation study

Study scans Buddhist monk brains
23 April 2011
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-ca...

The BBC's Matt Danzico interviews US neuroscientist Zoran Josipovic who is researching the brain science behind meditation. Buddhist monk Tibetan Lama Phakyab Rinpoche is a participant in this fMRI study out of New York University.

Zoran Josipovic, PhD is a long-term meditation practitioner in the Dzog-chen, Zen and Advaita Vedanta traditions. He is a Research Associate and Adjunct Professor in the Psychology Department and Center for Neural Science, New York University, studying states of consciousness cultivated through contemplative practice.
 

Brains of Buddhist monks scanned in meditation study

By Matt DanzicoBBC News, New York

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In a laboratory tucked away off a noisy New York City street, a soft-spoken neuroscientist has been placing Tibetan Buddhist monks into a car-sized brain scanner to better understand the ancient practice of meditation.

But could this unusual research not only unravel the secrets of leading a harmonious life but also shed light on some of the world's more mysterious diseases?

Zoran Josipovic, a research scientist and adjunct professor at New York University, says he has been peering into the brains of monks while they meditate in an attempt to understand how their brains reorganise themselves during the exercise.

Since 2008, the researcher has been placing the minds and bodies of prominent Buddhist figures into a five-tonne (5,000kg) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine.

The scanner tracks blood flow within the monks' heads as they meditate inside its clunky walls, which echoes a musical rhythm when the machine is operating.

Dr Josipovic, who also moonlights as a Buddhist monk, says he is hoping to find how some meditators achieve a state of "nonduality" or "oneness" with the world, a unifying consciousness between a person and their environment.

The study specifically looks at the default network in the brain, which controls self-reflective thoughts

"One thing that meditation does for those who practise it a lot is that it cultivates attentional skills," Dr Josipovic says, adding that those harnessed skills can help lead to a more tranquil and happier way of being.

"Meditation research, particularly in the last 10 years or so, has shown to be very promising because it points to an ability of the brain to change and optimise in a way we didn't know previously was possible."

When one relaxes into a state of oneness, the neural networks in experienced practitioners change as they lower the psychological wall between themselves and their environments, Dr Josipovic says.

And this reorganisation in the brain may lead to what some meditators claim to be a deep harmony between themselves and their surroundings.

Shifting attention

Dr Josipovic's research is part of a larger effort better to understand what scientists have dubbed the default network in the brain.

He says the brain appears to be organised into two networks: the extrinsic network and the intrinsic, or default, network.

Dr Josipovic has scanned the brains of more than 20 experienced meditators during the study

The extrinsic portion of the brain becomes active when individuals are focused on external tasks, like playing sports or pouring a cup of coffee.

The default network churns when people reflect on matters that involve themselves and their emotions.

But the networks are rarely fully active at the same time. And like a seesaw, when one rises, the other one dips down.

This neural set-up allows individuals to concentrate more easily on one task at any given time, without being consumed by distractions like daydreaming.

"What we're trying to do is basically track the changes in the networks in the brain as the person shifts between these modes of attention," Dr Josipovic says.

Dr Josipovic has found that some Buddhist monks and other experienced meditators have the ability to keep both neural networks active at the same time during meditation - that is to say, they have found a way to lift both sides of the seesaw simultaneously.

And Dr Josipovic believes this ability to churn both the internal and external networks in the brain concurrently may lead the monks to experience a harmonious feeling of oneness with their environment.

Self-reflection

Scientists previously believed the self-reflective, default network in the brain was simply one that was active when a person had no task on which to focus their attention.

But researchers have found in the past decade that this section of the brain swells with activity when the subject thinks about the self.

The default network came to light in 2001 when Dr Marcus Raichle, a neurologist at the Washington University School of Medicine in the US state of Missouri, began scanning the brains of individuals who were not given tasks to perform.

The patients quickly became bored, and Dr Raichle noticed a second network, that had previously gone unnoticed, danced with activity. But the researcher was unclear why this activity was occurring.

Other scientists were quick to suggest that Dr Raichle's subjects could have actually been thinking about themselves.

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It's a major and understudied network in the brain that seems to be very involved in a lot of neurological disorders, including autism and Alzheimer's”

Cindy LustigUniversity of Michigan, associate professor of neuroscience

Soon other neuroscientists, who conducted studies using movies to stimulate the brain, found that when there was a lull of activity in a film, the default network began to flash - signalling that research subjects may have begun to think about themselves out of boredom.

But Dr Raichle says the default network is important for more than just thinking about what one had for dinner last night.

"Researchers have wrestled with this idea of how we know we are who we are. The default mode network says something about how that might have come to be," he says.

And Dr Raichle adds that those studying the default network may also help in uncovering the secrets surrounding some psychological disorders, like depression, autism and even Alzheimer's disease.

"If you look at Alzheimer's Disease, and you look at whether it attacks a particular part of the brain, what's amazing is that it actually attacks the default mode network," says Dr Raichle, adding that intrinsic network research, like Dr Josipovic's, could assist in explaining why that is.

Cindy Lustig, associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of Michigan, agrees.

"It's a major and understudied network in the brain that seems to be very involved in a lot of neurological disorders, including autism and Alzheimer's, and understanding how that network interacts with the task-oriented [extrinsic] network is important," she says. "It is sort of the other piece of the puzzle that's been ignored for too long."

Dr Josipovic has scanned the brains of more than 20 experienced meditators, both monks and nuns who primarily study the Tibetan Buddhist style of meditation, to better understand this mysterious network.

He says his research, which will soon be published, will for the moment continue to concentrate on explaining the neurological implications of oneness and tranquillity - though improving understanding of autism or Alzheimer's along the way would certainly be quite a bonus.

Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12661646

Mindfulness Practices and Meditation

Mindfulness Practices and Meditation

Mindfulness and meditative practices can be identified as a group of complex cognitive processes aimed at altering one’s sensory perceptions, emotions, autonomic nervous system and attention. Meditation has traditionally been used by religious (e.g. Buddhist) individuals seeking insight or transcendence by dissolving their sense of self and becoming aware of their surroundings. Today meditation is also beginning to be widely used in medical settings to treat a range of physical and mental disorders such as chronic stress. Since meditation affects many different aspects of the brain and body it is extremely difficult to pinpoint a precise mechanism by which it operates however, with recent
advancements in neuroimaging techniques, there is now a better idea of how meditation might operate on a neurobiological level.[1]
Research in the field of meditation has been known for small sample sizes, absence of proper control conditions, and an overall lack of experimental rigor however that has been changing in recent years due to theoretical and methodological advancements in the field.[2]


Contents
1 General Working Model of Meditation

2 Neural Basis of Meditation


2.1 Prefrontal and Cingulate Cortex

2.2 Thalamus

2.3 Posterior Superior Parietal Lobule

2.4 Medial Temporal Lobe

2.5 Hypothalamic Relay
3 Effects


3.1 Attention

3.2 Emotions

3.3 Autonomic Nervous System
4 Medical Applications



General Working Model of Meditation

Schematic representation of a possible neurophysiological mechanism of meditative states. see reference #1
Mindfulness practices have been used for centuries however only recently have scientists begun to take notice of the physiological importance of such practices. Since meditation affects such a wide array of bodily functions, it has been very difficult to pinpoint an exact mechanism by which it operates. Recent advancements in the neuroscience field, namely improved neuroimaging techniques, have allowed scientists to create well integrated hypothesis based on empirical evidence gathered from a wide range of neuroimaging studies.[3] [4]
A schematic representation of one such integrative model can be seen to the right.
There have been a number of suggested models for meditation; some as recently as the month of this entry's writing.[5] However all models appear to implicate the highly important prefrontal cortex due to its vital importance in attentional processes as well as medial temporal lobe structures such as the hippocampus and enthorhinal cortex. The convergence of multiple models on specific brain regions of interest suggests that scientists have a good basic understanding of the cognitive mechanisms involved.


Neural Basis of MeditationIt is clear from looking at recent models that meditation uses both sympathetic and parasympathetic pathways, uses both excitatory glutaminergic as well as inhibitory gabaergic signals, and affects a wide range of cortical and subcortical brain regions bilaterally including: prefrontal cortex, cingulate cortex,thalamus, posterior superior parietal lobule, hippocampus, parahippocampal cortex, hypothalamus, and a number of endocrine glands.
Though there have been a number of models throughout the years, only the account by Newberg and Iversen (2003) seems to try and not only pinpoint the neurological substrates of meditation, but to also discuss the physiological effects these neurological changes cause.[6]


Prefrontal and Cingulate CortexThe prefrontal cortex is the most sophisticated area of the neocortex. Studies have long indicated the involvement of the prefrontal cortex in delegating attentional resources.[7] [8] It is not surprising then that any neurological account of meditation should start in the prefrontal cortex as meditation is largely the practice of training and turning one's attention inwards. In addition to attention, the prefrontal cortex has been implicated in orchestrating complex cognitive functions such as working memory, executive control and even moral judgement. Studies have indicated increased blood flow in the prefrontal cortex region for over a decade now. These early studies used positron emission topography (PET) techniques to show increased cerebral blood flow to the prefrontal and cingulate cortices.[9] [10] More recent imaging studies have continued to show similar results now using more advanced neuroimaging techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in addition to the temporally sensitive EEG's. One such study found increased activation in the anterior prefrontal cortex even in novice meditators and has implicated serotonin (5-HT) as an important neurotransmitter in meditation.[11]

ThalamusThe thalamus is an important structure located between the cerebral cortex and the midbrain. The thalamus functions as a relay of sorts for information flow throughout the brain, it relays sensory and motor information to and from the cerebral cortex. As such, the thalamus has been implicated in processes vital for mindfulness practices, e.g., consciousness, attention. It has been suggested that during mindfulness practices the increased activity in the PFC would cause a concurrent increase in thalamic activity, namely in the reticular nucleus, which secretes the inhibitory c-aminobutyric acid (GABA) neurotransmitter onto the lateral posterior and geniculate nuclei which in turn would decrease sensory input into the posterior superior parietal lobule thereby creating a feedback loop to focus attention.[12] This hypothesis is further supported with evidence from a recent study which compared yoga (a form of mindfulness practice) practitioners with a control group.[13] This study found a 27% increase in brain GABA levels in the yoga over the control group. Furthermore another study has suggested that the thalamus is also involved in the pain modulating effect found in mindfulness practitioners where reduction in pain was associated with thalamic deactivation.[14]


Posterior Superior Parietal LobuleThe posterior superior parietal lobule (PSPL) is the smallest area of the brain discussed in this current article and thus it is important to get a sense of where exactly in the brain it is located. The PSPL is located in the parietal lobe along the mid line of the brain and is located just above the intraparietal sulcus (see illustration on the right). This area has long been associated with visuospatial processing. The PSPL integrates various sensory inputs to aid in the construction of a rich three dimensional representation of the body's position in space which in turn allows for coordinated motion as well as controlled interactions with one's environment. As previously mentioned, the PSPL receives inputs from the thalamus and is therefore a part of the widespread attentional network that was being discussed. Recently it has also been suggested that the PSPL plays a major role in working memory manipulation.[15] In this experiment researchers tested individuals with lesions to the superior parietal lobule and found that damage to this area was reliably correlated with deficits on memory tests requiring informational manipulation but not ones requiring simple rehearsal processes or long term memory. These finding illustrate the the superior parietal sulcus is vital for informational manipulation in working memory.
It has been shown that during meditation there is decreased activation of the PSPL.[16] The involvement of the PSPL in the positioning of the body in three dimensional space has led researchers to postulate that the deactivation of the PSPL during meditation via a gabaergic pathway leading from the thalamus would lead to the dissolution of the self concept and a feeling of being connected to one's surroundings which is often reported by practitioners of mindfulness practices.[17]

Medial Temporal LobeThe medial temporal lobe (MTL) is actually a collection of many smaller structures such as the hippocampus, perihippocampal cortex, amygdala and many other structures. The importance of the medial temporal lobe has been known for a very long time. Much of the currently available research on the medial temporal lobe is centered around memory which the MTL is famous for. The limbic system is extremely important in mindfulness practices because activation of this system has been associated with reports similar to those experienced during meditation.
The hippocampus is a structure found in the MTL which is most commonly associated with memory research but it is also a crucial component of the attentional network. The hippocampus has a variety of projections throughout the brain and importantly interacts with the prefrontal cortex. The hippocampus can recieve stimulation from the thalamus via the glutamenergic pathway which would in turn feedback onto the prefrontal cortex through the nucleus accumbens and the neurotransmitter dopamine. It has been suggested that there is also reciprocal feedback from the hippocampus onto the amygdala which explains the emotional changes experienced during meditation.[18]

Hypothalamic RelayThe hypothalamus is a brain structure composed of many smaller nuclei which are responsible for regulating the body's homeostasis. The effects of mindfulness practices on the hypothalamic relay is what causes the widespread changes and the evident physiological response through a number of hormones and neurotransmitters. The limbic system is extremely interconnected with the hypothalamus and indeed stimulation of the right lateral amygdala leads to increased activity in the ventromedial hypothalamus which in turn leads to the activation of the parasympathetic nervous system.[19]

EffectsThis article has demonstrated that the number of neurological substrates affected by mindfulness practices is vast. It is no surprise then that mindfulness practices have extremely wide spread effects throughout the rest of the body.
As previously mentioned, mindfulness practices affect systems involving attention, emotion, and the autonomic nervous system. In addition to these, the effects

AttentionOne of the main effects of mindfulness practices is that on the attentional system. This paper has attempted to illustrate the pathway and effects that mindfulness practices have on attention through the various neural pathways previously described. Researchers have concluded that mindfulness allows people to more aptly control their attentional machinery, allowing for shifting of focus.[20] These enhanced regulatory abilities could then in turn enhance a person's ability of a variety of cognitive tasks such as insight problem solving and even improving working memory capacity.

EmotionsAs previously mentioned, mindfulness practices affect emotions through the amygdala and the hypothalamic regulation of bodily hormones. It has been suggested that due to the secretion of serotonin found during mindfulness practices helps improve mood.[21] This is not surprising as this is exactly the way that anti depression drugs such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors work; by increasing the availability of synaptic serotonin. Furthermore, it has also been shown that the practice of meditation actually changes the way sadness is expressed.[22] This research has shown that through meditation, the recruitment of somatosensory cortical areas can be reduced which correlates to lower vulnerability to dysphoric feelings.

Autonomic Nervous SystemFinally, mindfulness practices have great effects on the autonomic nervous system. As mentioned above, the parasympathetic system is activated during mindfulness practices through the hypothalamus. Activation of the parasympathetic system leads to many desired bodily effects such as decrease in respiration rate, decrease in heart rate and an overall decrease in stress hormone levels. Overall, just as with attention, research suggests that mindfulness practices grant people greater control over their autonomic nervous systems.[23]

Medical ApplicationsHaving discussed many of the effects that mindfulness practices have on the body, it should be clear that mindfulness practices pose a great potential alternative avenue for treatment of various disorders. Research shows that mindfulness based stress reduction clinical practices which seeks to alleviate suffering through increasing an individual's awareness of moment to moment experiences and the associated mental processes has shown a consistent effect size of 0.5.[24] This suggests that mindfulness based treatments could be effectively used to treat a large number of both physiological and psychological ailments including chronic stress disorders, panic disorders, anxiety disorders, depression, emotional dysregulation and many more. It is encouraging to see research being done into this promising non-invasive set of techniques.

^ Newberg, A. B., & Iversen, J. (2003). The neural basis of the complex mental task of meditation: Neurotransmitter and neurochemical considerations. Medical Hypotheses, 61(2), 282-291. doi:10.1016/S0306-9877(03)00175-0
^ Lutz, A., Slagter, H. A., Dunne, J. D., & Davidson, R. J. (2008). Attention regulation and monitoring in meditation. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 12(4), 163-169.
^ see [1]
^ see [4]
^ Sperduti, M., Martinelli, P., & Piolino, P. (2012). A neurocognitive model of meditation based on activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis. Consciousness and Cognition, 21(1), 269-276.
^ see [1]
^ Rossi, A., Pessoa, L., Desimone, R., & Ungerleider, L. (2009). The prefrontal cortex and the executive control of attention.Experimental Brain Research, 192(3), 489-497. doi:10.1007/s00221-008-1642-z
^ Asplund, C. L., Todd, J. J., Snyder, A. P., & Marois, R. (2010). A central role for the lateral prefrontal cortex in goal-directed and stimulus-driven attention.Nature Neuroscience, 13(4), 507-512.
^ Newberg A. B., Alavi A., Baime M. et al. (2001). The measurement of regional cerebral blood flow during the complex cognitive task of meditation: a preliminary SPECT study. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging 106, 113–122.
^ Lazar S. W., Bush G., Gollub R. L. et al. (2000). Functional brain mapping of the relaxation response and meditation. Neuroreport. 11, 1581–1585.
^ Yu, X., Fumoto, M., Nakatani, Y., Sekiyama, T., Kikuchi, H., Seki, Y., . . . Arita, H. (2011). Activation of the anterior prefrontal cortex and serotonergic system is associated with improvements in mood and EEG changes induced by zen meditation practice in novices. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 80(2), 103-111.
^ see [1]
^ Chris C. Streeter, J. Eric Jensen, Ruth M. Perlmutter, Howard J. Cabral, Hua Tian, Devin B. Terhune, Domenic A. Ciraulo, and Perry F. Renshaw. (2007). Yoga Asana Sessions Increase Brain GABA Levels: A Pilot Study. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. 13(4): 419-426. doi:10.1089/acm.2007.6338.

^ Salomons, T.,Aaron, K. (2011). Does Meditation Reduce Pain through a Unique Neural Mechanism? The Journal of Neuroscience, 31(36), 12705-12707;doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2843-11.2011


^ Koenigs, M., Barbey, A. K., Postle, B. R., Grafman, J. (2009). Superior parietal cortex is critical for the manipulation of information in working memory.The Journal of Neuroscience, 29(47), 14980-14986; doi: 10.1523/​JNEUROSCI.3706-09.2009
^ Wang, D. J. J., Rao, H., Korczykowski, M., Wintering, N., Pluta, J., Khalsa, D. S., & Newberg, A. B. (2011). Cerebral blood flow changes associated with different meditation practices and perceived depth of meditation. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, 191(1), 60-67. doi:10.1016/j.pscychresns.2010.09.011
^ see [1]
^ see [1]
^ Davis, 1992 as cited in Newberg & Iversen, 2003
^ Lutz, A., Slagter, H. A., Dunne, J. D., & Davidson, R. J. (2008). Attention regulation and monitoring in meditation. Trends in Cognitive Sciences,12(4), 163-169.
^ see [1]
^ Farb, N. A. S., Anderson, A. K., Mayberg, H., Bean, J., McKeon, D., & Segal, Z. V. (2010). Minding one's emotions: Mindfulness training alters the neural expression of sadness. Emotion, 10(1), 25-33a. doi:10.1037/a0017151
^ Tang, Y., Ma, Y., Fan, Y., Feng, H., Wang, J., Feng, S., . . . Fan, M. (2009). Central and autonomic nervous system interaction is altered by short-term meditation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106(22), 8865-8870. doi:10.1073/pnas.0904031106
^ Grossman, P., Niemann, L., Schmidt, S., & Walach, H. (2004). Mindfulness-based stress reduction and health benefits: A meta-analysis.Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 57(1), 35-43.

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Mindfulness and Meditation

Meditation is a practice that involves the self-regulation of the body and mind to achieve mental, physical and spiritual well-being. The main mechanism of meditation is the training of attention and awareness to bring automatic mental and physical processes under voluntary control, thereby inducing a state of calmness, heightened alertness, and blissfulness[1]. Recent research indicates that such experiences produced by meditation practices can be related to changes in default mode network (DMN) activity, where meditation appears to reduce activity in the main nodes related to generation of wandering thoughts, and increase connectivities of regions implicated in cognitive control and self-awareness[2]. Neuroimaging studies also indicate a number of functional and structural changes related to meditation, such as thickening of cortical gray matter[3]. These cortical changes seem to link meditation with a number of long-term effects on learning and plasticity, stress and depression, and pain perception. Furthermore, meditation has been shown to have positive effects for people diagnosed with epilepsy, possibly through inducing cortical thickening and changes in DMN connectivity[4]. Meditation has been shown to have some clinical applications, and have been integrated into therapies such as Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). Through current scientific literature, it is clear that mediation is not just a spiritual practice, but also one that neuroscientists should take seriously in their understanding and research.

Table of Contents

1.Mindfulness Meditation and Brain Activity

2. Meditation and Learning and Plasticity

3 Meditation and Pain Perception

4. Meditation and Depression

5. Meditation and epilepsy

https://neurowiki2012.wikispaces.com/Mindfulness+Practices+and+Meditation

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Meditation: Getting Started | Mindful

Meditation: Getting Started

So you want to start practicing meditation, but need to know the very basics—like how to sit. Mindfulness pioneer Jon Kabat-Zinn offers helpful tips for beginners from his new book.

The way to undertake the practice is as an experiment. I suggest that you give yourself at least six months to practice every day, whether you like it or not, whether you feel like it or not. While six months may sound extreme, actually it is being offered as a way for you to reconnect with and nurture the genius elements of your own being, all too easily abandoned in the pull of the seeming urgency of personal commitments, responsibilities, and unexamined lifestyle habits.

Here are a few pointers to get you started and suggestions for how to work with some of the common challenges to beginning a meditation practice:

1. Posture

The carriage of your body during formal practice is important. It helps if you adopt a posture that embodies wakefulness, even or especially if you feel sleepy. That probably means not practicing lying down, although lying down can be a wonderful way to cultivate mindfulness and wakefulness as we do in various body scans and lying-down meditations. If you set your intention at the beginning of a period of practice to “fall awake” instead of “falling asleep,” then it is fine to experiment with practicing lying down.

Aside from the fact that you can also meditate formally when standing still or while walking, a posture that embodies wakefulness usually suggests sitting, and sitting in such a way that the back is straight but relaxed, with the shoulders and arms hanging off the rib cage, the head erect, and the chin slightly tucked. You can sit either on a straight-backed chair or on a cushion on the floor. As best you can, sit in a posture that naturally and easily embodies dignity and presence for you. 

If you choose a chair, try to sit with your feet uncrossed and flat on the floor, and if possible (and it may not always be possible) with your back away from the back of the chair so your posture is self-supporting, with the spine self-elevating out of the pelvis. 

If you choose a cushion on the floor, you will need padding for your knees. A zabuton (a cushioned mat) underneath a zafu (round meditation cushion) is one good solution. If you choose to sit on a zafu, choose one with a height that works for your body. The idea is to sit on the forward third of the cushion, with the pelvis tilted slightly down, allowing the natural lordotic curve in the lower back to move in both a forward and an upward direction. Your knees may or may not touch the floor (or rug or zabuton), depending on how flexible your hips are. For comfort, you may want to support your knees with extra cushioning if they do not rest easy on the surface below you. 

You can do various things with your legs. They can be folded into what is called the Burmese posture, with one lower leg draped in front of the other. That is the easiest, and therefore the posture that is least likely to cause increasingly unpleasant sensations with longer sitting times. 

You can also do various things with your hands. I generally keep mine folded in my lap, with the fingers of the left hand lying on top of the fingers of the right hand, and the thumbs either lying one (left) on top of the other (right) or with the thumb tips touching. The latter forms what is called the 140 “cosmic mudra,” in the shape of an oval above the fingers. There are also many other mudras that you can try out, like keeping your hands on your knees, facing either up or down.

Remember that it is not so much the position of the hands that is important, but your awareness of the feeling of the hands in any position. That way your hands, like your legs and your back, will begin illuminating for you the landscape of your own body and the various embodied sensory qualities associated with the myriad of ways the body can position itself, both in formal meditation and in daily life.(Continued after image below.)

Click here for more information about Mindfulness for Beginners.

2. What to Do with Your Eyes

You can be aware with your eyes closed, and you can be aware with your eyes open. Therefore, you can meditate either with your eyes open or closed. Both have unique virtues, so you might want to experiment with both.

If you sit with your eyes open, it is good to let your gaze fall unfocused on the floor three or four feet out from you or on a wall if you are sitting facing a wall, as they do in some Zen traditions. Let the gaze be still and relaxed. It is not about staring at anything but simply an invitation to experience the chosen object of attention moment by moment, whatever it is, and resting in awareness with the eyes open.

3. Sleepiness

Obviously, if you are sleepy it is best to sit with your eyes open. But it is even better to find a time of day to practice when you are fairly awake. That is one good reason to practice early in the morning, after a good night’s sleep. You can also splash cold water on your face before practicing if you feel sleepy—or even take an invigorating cold shower. Since being awake is important to you or you wouldn’t have made it this far in the book and the practice, it makes sense to set up the conditions as best you can to be fully present.

Obviously, we have almost no control over some conditions, like how much ambient sound there may be in your location. But again, what is most important is the quality of your attention and awareness, not whether the conditions are optimal. Still, at the beginning, it is very helpful if you can minimize sleepiness and, to the degree possible, disturbances in your outer environment. There will be plenty of distractions to work with inwardly and outwardly, no matter how much you regulate the external environment. 

4. Protecting This Time 

It is best if the time you choose for formal practice is one in which you will not be interrupted. Shut off your cell phone, pager, computer, and the Internet. Close the door of your room and make sure that others know not to interrupt you during this time. This is another good reason for practicing early in the morning, before others have expectations of you, when you can make a time that is devoted strictly to being, a time for nurturing yourself through non-doing and the cultivation of mindfulness and heartfulness.

---

Excerpt from Mindfulness for Beginners: Reclaiming the Present Moment—and Your Life by Jon Kabat-Zinn (Sounds True, Jan. 2012). Click here for more information anhttp://www.mindful.org/Meditation%20in%20Action/getting-started-with-formal-practiced to purchase the book and CD.

Link:  http://www.mindful.org/Meditation%20in%20Action/getting-started-with-formal-practice

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