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Edited 6B Interview with Buddhist Sisters.mp4

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Education and meditation

Dr Anthony Seldon head of Wellington College introduced mindfulness to his school: "It has made the students calmer and more self-possessed. Teachers notice the difference when they have had stillness sessions. Classes are more harmonious and productive. So too are meetings with adults when meetings begin with a mindfulness session."

Stress and meditation

Jenny Edwards CBE, Mental Health Foundation: "Mindfulness meditation helps people change the way they think and feel about their experiences, especially stressful ones. By paying attention to your thoughts and feelings you become more aware of them and better able to manage them. Mindfulness helps induce relaxation, which is a physiological response that slows heart rate, drops blood pressure, and decreases the levels of stress hormones."

Prison and meditation

A prisoner at HMP Wymott: "Meditation practice is working for me. It helps me to be calm, relaxed and not get angry and irritated. It helps me not react to people in a bad way and to take people's opinion on board. Recently, when someone went a bit too far, instead of reacting to it I just walked away."

Later life and meditation

Paul Wride, 64 year-old retiree: "I've been meditating for 15 years but not continuously. I think it helps you to calm down, appreciate things around you and deal with life's tribulations. To anyone thinking about meditating, I'd say try it, particularly mindfulness because its not difficult, you've got nothing to lose."

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Dr Anthony Seldon head of Wellington College introduced mindfulness to his school: "It has made the students calmer and more self-possessed. Teachers notice the difference when they have had stillness sessions. Classes are more harmonious and productive. So too are meetings with adults when meetings begin with a mindfulness session."

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What does God look like? | Thich Nhat Hanh answers questions

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Edited Interview with Brother Dharma Realization.mp4

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What is the Vesak Festival & What Does it Mean to Buddhists? - Behind the News

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How Ullambana (or the hungry ghost festival) came about?

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Meditation's Impact on the Brain | Documentary Clip

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Tibetan monks meditate for hours upon hours each week. Their devotion to their religious traditions makes them experts in the practice of meditation.

Turns out those experts have a lot to teach us about how sustained mindfulness affects the brain.

Meditation and mindfulness induce a heightened state of awareness and focused attention. Various studies demonstrate the practice can help relieve stress - as well as manage anxiety, reduce inflammation, and improve memory and attention, to boot. Such striking results have many doctors, across specialties, prescribing meditation just as they would an anti-depressant or blood pressure medication. But it remains unclear just how meditation confers so many health benefits.

That's why Bin He, a neuroengineer at Carnegie Mellon University, decided to look at the brains of Tibetan monks. In a previous study, He and colleagues saw that individuals with meditation experience were better able to control a computer cursor with their mind than those without it. Since Tibetan monks spend years of their lives engaged in the practice of meditation, He was curious to see if there might be any significant differences in brain activation that might offer a hint into how meditation leads to so many beneficial effects.

"We went to Tibet and measured activity in the brains of monks who had, on average, 15 years of meditation experience - between five and 35 years," he said. "We then compared those results to native Tibetans who had never meditated before."

Using electroencephalography (EEG), a series of electrodes placed on the scalp to measure brain activity, He and his colleagues found that long-term, active meditative practice decreases activity in the default network. This is the brain network associated with the brain at rest - just letting your mind wander with no particular goal in mind - and includes brain areas like the medial prefrontal cortex and the posterior cingulate cortex. What's more, the longer a monk had been practicing, the bigger the reduction in activity the researchers observed.

"It seems the longer you do meditation, the better your brain will be at self-regulation," said He. "You don't have to consume as much energy at rest and you can more easily get yourself into a more relaxed state."

He suggests that meditative practice helps to "optimize" how the brain uses resources. Pioneering neuropsychologist Michael Posner from the University of Oregon, who first outlined how the brain's attention systems work, says that makes sense. His own work, with Yi-Yuan Tang, has shown distinct changes to the white matter, or the nerve fibers that allow different brain regions to more efficiently communicate with one another, surrounding the anterior cingulate, a part of the brain heavily involved with managing attention, with meditation practice. Using diffusion tensor imaging, a special kind of neuroimaging technique, Posner and colleagues found increased levels of myelin, sometimes referred to as brain "insulation," after only a few weeks of regular meditation practice - and that increased insulation helps improve connectivity by letting different brain regions communicate faster and more efficiently.

"This is a major node of attention in the brain - and we can see these changes after only two to four weeks of practice," he said. "Those changes are linked to improved attention in different tasks. And as the anterior cingulate has vast connections to the limbic system, or emotional system, it helps us understand why meditation can help improve mood and reduce anxiety, too."

Such results are especially promising considering the participants in Posner's study didn't have to join an order of Tibetan monks in order to gain a variety of benefits. Participants improved on tasks measuring attention and problem solving in as little as five days. They also showed reductions in cortisol, a hormone commonly used to measure a person's stress level, Posner said. Improved cognitive skills and lower stress levels are certainly nothing to sneeze at.

Richard Davidson, founder of the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says he is not surprised that so many neuroscience studies are elucidating the neural mechanisms underlying meditation's beneficial effects. He says, taken together, there is strong evidence that a regular, consistent meditative practice offers a lot of direct benefits to the brain - and, by extension, to your psychological and emotional well-being. That's why you shouldn't be surprised if your primary care provider starts mentioning mindfulness techniques at your next yearly check-up.

With several studies backing up the idea that meditation is beneficial for your brain and body, what kind of practice can offer these advantages if you aren't able to take up the same kind of regimen as your average Tibetan monk? There's still a lot of research that needs to be done to understand the type and amount of practice required to get an effect - and it likely will be different for each person. And with so many ways to do so - from workshops to smart phone apps - Davidson says the best kind of meditation is simply the one that you are most likely to stick with.

"Think of it as a form of personal mental hygiene - almost like tooth brushing," he said. "Humans didn't evolve brushing their teeth twice a day. It's a learned skill. Your brain is just as precious as your teeth. So, it's important to take the time to learn a practice and stick to it."
This content was created with support from the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at Broad Institute.
About the Author

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Tibetan monks meditate for hours upon hours each week. Their devotion to their religious traditions makes them experts in the practice of meditation. Turns out those experts have a lot to teach us about how sustained mindfulness affects the brain. Meditation and mindfulness induce a heightened state of awareness and focused attention.

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Serkong Rinpoche – What are the Four Noble Truths?

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This article examines the Four Noble Truths, four principles which contain the essence of the Buddha's teachings.

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The Four Noble Truths | Thich Nhat Hanh (short teaching video)

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Superhumans: The remarkable brain waves of high-level meditators | Daniel Goleman

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What do Monks think about when Meditating?

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What do Monks think about when Meditating?

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Published online 8 June 2005 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news050606-8

News

Buddhists show clarity of attention in optical illusion tasks.

A monk dons goggles for an optical illusion test. Click here to take a test yourself.© Olivia Carter

Meditation can focus the mind in a measurable way, according to a study of Buddhist monks. In a visual test designed to confuse the brain, the monks were able to stave off confusion more easily than those not trained in the contemplative arts.

Researchers studied 76 Tibetan Buddhist monks taking a test of 'perceptual rivalry', in which two conflicting images are presented, one to each eye. This usually causes the brain to switch back and forth between the images every few seconds as it struggles to make sense of what it is seeing.

Monks skilled in the art of 'one-point' meditation - which involves focusing all of one's attention on a single object or thought - were able to slow this switching down or even stop it completely, report Olivia Carter of the University of Queensland in St Lucia, Australia, and colleagues.

In their study, published online by Current Biology, they asked monks with training ranging from to 5 to 54 years to practise different forms of meditation and then don a set of goggles which displayed two different images: horizontal bars to one eye, and vertical bars to the other.

"This is something that the average person cannot do."

Olivia Carter
University of Queensland
The most experienced one-point meditators, who had spent more than 20 years in isolated retreats, were able to resist visual switching for the whole five minutes of the experiment. According to the monks' self-reported assessment, they saw only a single stable image with one set of bars dominant.

There was no noticeable improvement for monks who were practising 'compassion' meditation, which involves contemplating the suffering of others.

The monks were also given another test, of 'motion-induced blindness' (an example can be found at http://www.uq.edu.au/nuq/jack/bonneh.html), which involves staring at a stationary dot in the midst of a pattern of swirling dots, until the other stationary dots in the picture seem to disappear. Monks maintained this 'blindness' state for an average of 4.1 seconds, compared to just 2.6 seconds for ordinary people. The most experienced meditator managed to uphold the optical illusion for more than 12 minutes.

Streams of thought

The discovery supports that idea that meditation calms the mind and allows it to focus more clearly, says Carter. "Monks appear to be able to control the rate and content of thoughts flowing through their 'stream of consciousness'," she says.

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Meditation could conceivably help people with depression, or who have recently suffered a trauma, to stop their minds constantly dwelling on negative thoughts, she suggests.

"It has long been claimed by practitioners of meditation that when faced with bad news or tragic events they are able to acknowledge the tragedy, but rather than dwell on the situation they have the capacity to redirect their thoughts to other, more positive directions," Carter says. "This is something that the average person cannot do."

But John Gruzelier, a neuroscientist at Imperial College London, warns that too much introspection and contemplation might be dangerous for someone struggling with depression.

University of Queensland

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Published online 8 June 2005 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news050606-8 News Buddhists show clarity of attention in optical illusion tasks. A monk dons goggles for an optical illusion test. Click here to take a test yourself.© Olivia Carter Meditation can focus the mind in a measurable way, according to a study of Buddhist monks.

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What does Buddhism teach about life after death? - Life after death - GCSE Religious Studies Revision - BBC Bitesize

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Through good actions, such as ethical conduct, and by developing concentration and wisdom, Buddhists hope to either gain or to ensure a better future for themselves. These good actions are set out in the , which includes right speech, right livelihood, and right concentration.

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Death is a significant time in Buddhist culture. The dead person's soul is believed to move on to a new existence in the cycle of . At the point of death, a person's karmic status (how much positive and negative they have accumulated) determines how they will be reborn. For the mourners, death is a powerful reminder of samsara, the and their own karmic status. The is a way of picturing the beliefs of samsara.

Six realms of rebirth

In Buddhist belief, there are six realms of rebirth. The realm in which a person is reborn depends on the positive and negative karma they have accrued during their lifetime:

Realm of the Gods or 'Devas' - rebirth in this realm is the result of good karma. Devas enjoy pleasure and relaxation. However, it is a realm of attachment and does not lead to nirvana .

Realm of the Demi-Gods - these beings are powerful but angry. Their anger keeps them in the cycle of samsara.

Human Realm - although some human lives are hard, because a human can learn and understand, this realm holds the potential of enlightenment and nirvana.

Animal Realm - animals are driven by survival, hunger and competition. Their existence is impulsive, and they cannot attain wisdom or insight.

Realm of the Hungry Ghosts - these beings are never satisfied and always hungry. They live in a perpetual state of craving that is never satisfied.

Hell Realm - a lifetime of greed, anger and hatred leads to the Hell Realm, where those inside suffer in various ways.

Dhammapada 170-1

These verses remind Buddhists that freedom from rebirth lies in coming to understand the of the , or the aspects of being human. Emotions, consciousness and the physical body will all change and die. For Buddhists, understanding the temporary nature of these things frees the mind from physical and emotional craving.

Theravada traditions

In traditions, in order to assist the dead person's transfer to another rebirth, relatives will offer charity to monks and nuns or a monastery in order to gain positive karma for the deceased. In Sri Lanka, cloth is given to monks to be used for robes on behalf of the deceased.

The body is cremated as the was cremated. At the funeral ceremony, are spoken that reminds people of the impermanence of life. At one week, three months and one year after the death, monks visit the home of the relatives and lead ceremonies to increase the deceased's person's positive karma.

Mahayana traditions

In traditions, when someone is dying, relatives or loved ones whisper the name of the Buddha into their ear so it is the last name they hear.

The body is cremated. The funeral often takes place after a few days to allow the first stage of rebirth to occur. In Mahayana traditions, rebirth takes up to 49 days (seven weeks).

In Japan, after the body has been cremated, relatives take the bones from the ashes and place them in a burial urn, feet first so they are not upside down. The urn is then buried in a family grave or temple.

Obon in Japan (Mahayana)

The festival of , meaning 'good dance', is celebrated in Japan. It is an opportunity for people to clean their deceased relatives' graves and honour them at household shrines. The name comes from the story of a monk who saw his deceased mother suffering in the Realm of the Hungry Ghosts . He made offerings on her behalf, and also began to understand her selfishness in life. She was released from this realm and he danced for joy. During Obon, Japanese Buddhists perform dances and think about death, karma and rebirth.

Tibetan (Mahayana) traditions

A book called the Tibetan Book of the Dead is read to people who are dying and recently deceased. Even if the person has died, it is believed to assist the departed soul in moving between rebirths. Not all Tibetan traditions use the Book of the Dead , but all chant guidance and wisdom to the dead and dying to assist the soul towards its next rebirth.

Tibet is mountainous and finding suitable burial sites as well as enough firewood for cremation can be hard. Therefore, the body may be fed to vultures in a 'sky burial' . This is regarded as a lesson in impermanence as the body is given up, and also a last act of generosity in feeding the vultures. Monks chant mantras around the body.

Why do monks chant to a deceased person?

The soul is moving between rebirths and the chanting assists the departed soul to its next rebirth.

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Death and mourning - Practices in Buddhism - GCSE Religious Studies Revision - OCR - BBC Bitesize

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Death is a significant time in Buddhist culture. The dead person's soul is believed to move on to a new existence in the cycle of . At the point of death, a person's karmic status (how much positive and negative they have accumulated) determines how they will be reborn.