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Keep the Doctor Away: Whatever the cause, stress is all too often the outcome of living our daily lives. But, when we think that the world has gone plain bonkers, can meditation help to keep us reasonably sane? Read more here.

Female First: The method of meditation has been practised for hundreds of years and the health and social benefits are doubtless. Meditation classes are designed to calm the mind and gain clarity and perspective and once you’ve mastered the basics the methods are entirely transferable to everyday life. Read more here.

Newsday: In recent years, as he learned more about increasingly stressed-out children and violent schools, David Lynch felt he might be able to help by bringing Transcendental Meditation to schools. Schools have tried many, many, many things and nothing on the surface is working,” Lynch says from his office in Los Angeles. “But when a student or a teacher truly transcends and experiences this deepest level of life, watch what happens. It transforms the schools. It transforms the kids… . … Click to read more »

Reuters: Practicing a particular type of meditation twice a day can significantly reduce blood pressure, according to an analysis of existing research on the technique. The blood pressure reductions associated with regular practice of transcendental meditation, or TM, would translate to a 12-15 percent reduced risk of dying from cardiovascular causes and a 15-20 percent lower risk of stroke, according Dr. James W. Anderson, the study’s lead author. Read more here.

New Scientist: A survey finds that refugees fleeing Tibet have higher levels of depression and anxiety than Tibetans born and raised in relatively stable exile communities in India and Nepal. But even Tibetans born in exile have questionnaire scores that classify them as “depressed”. “The results highlight the cost of the ongoing human-rights crisis within Tibet in human emotional suffering,” says lead researcher Charles Raison, from the Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, … Click to read more »

The New York Times: The teachings of the Buddha infiltrate a maximum-security prison in “The Dhamma Brothers,” a thinking-head documentary about finding answers within for those who can’t get out.

Visit the film’s web site and view a trailer here.

Filmed in 2002 at the Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bessemer, Ala., one of the most violent prisons in North America, this provocative film follows a small group of inmates through … Click to read more »

The Buffalo News: As a longtime practitioner of meditation, Charles Halpern heads the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society, which attempts to introduce meditation into universities and other institutions. Halpern leads workshops for attorneys and judges to teach them to slow down rather than to speed up, to look inward as well as outward. Read more here.

World attention continues to be focused on human rights abuses in Tibet. The relay of the Olympic torch from Greece to China has been marked by protests in London and Paris. An estimated 10,000 protesters gathered in San Francisco, although the protests may have been subdued by the rerouting of the torch relay at the last minute, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

Despite the ongoing protests, the Assembly of National Olympic Committees … Click to read more »

US News and World Report: Brent Kessel, cofounder of investment firm Abacus Portfolios, isn’t your typical money manager. He wakes up around 5 a.m. to meditate for 45 minutes and then practices yoga for an hour and a half before making his way to his desk. In his new book, It’s Not About the Money: Unlock Your Money Type to Achieve Spiritual and Financial Abundance, Kessel, 40, combines his wealth management expertise with his yoga … Click to read more »

Quad City Times: Meditation is used by some medical professionals because it appears to have long-term benefits as far as emotional and physical well-being is concerned. It tends to ease conditions that are worsened by stress, including allergies, arthritis, cancer, chronic pain, heart disease and depression. Read more here.

Nicholas Kristof writes in the New York Times: In the aftermath of the Tibet upheavals, the complicated romance between America and China is degenerating into mutual recriminations, muttering about Olympic boycotts and tensions that are likely to rise through the summer.

It would be convenient if we could simply denounce the crackdown in Tibet as the unpopular action of a dictatorial government. But it wasn’t. It was the popular action of a dictatorial government, … Click to read more »

Los Angeles Times: The Los Angeles Lakers are back on a winning track. Maybe there will be more deep breathing and introspection at their practices. Jackson put them through a meditation session at Sunday’s shoot-around, and that night they ended two-game skid. Read more here.

BBC: Scientists are beginning to uncover evidence that meditation has a tangible effect on the brain. Although sceptics argue that it is not a practical way to try to deal with the stresses of modern life, the long years when adherents were unable to point to hard science to support their belief in the technique may finally be coming to an end. Read more here.

Reuters UK: Max Simon is a man with a mission — to give the ancient art of meditation a cool, sexy makeover that will appeal to young people who have never heard of Maharishi Yogi. Forty years after Western baby boomers started dabbling in yoga and Indian transcendental practices, Simon, 25, is ditching some of the traditions in a bid to encourage 1 million young people to connect with their inner selves. “We … Click to read more »

London Guardian: A China-organised media trip to Lhasa was interrupted by protesting monks who accused the government of lying to the outside world. More than 30 monks at Jokhang Temple - the most sacred in Tibetan Buddhism - burst in on a briefing during the first foreign journalists tour since riots erupted in the Tibetan capital on March 14. Interrupting a speech about inter-ethnic harmony by the head of the temple’s administrative office, the lamas surrounded the journalists and said, … Click to read more »

As protests for Tibetan autonomy continued into the third week, China further stepped up its crackdown within Tibetan and Chinese provinces. According to Reuters, China sought to contain ongoing protests in its ethnic Tibetan regions, as it stepped up detentions in Tibet’s capital Lhasa and vowed tighter control over monasteries. The western province of Qinghai was the latest area to report anti-government activities, with hundreds of … Click to read more »

Scientific American: People who practice meditation can enhance their ability to concentrate—or even lower their blood pressure. They can also cultivate compassion, according to a new study. Specifically, concentrating on the loving kindness one feels toward one’s family (and expanding that to include strangers) physically affects brain regions that play a role in empathy. Read more here.

The New Yorker: Events of the past week been a reminder of the devotion Tibetans have for the Dalai Lama. However, who the Dalai Lama is and what he believes for aren’t always clearly understood. He has been described as ‘a simple monk’, yet he is also a noble-laureate, participates in neuroscience conferences, and speaks about globalization. To help explain who the Dalai Lama is and his role in the modern Tibet, Pico … Click to read more »

Following last weekend’s violent protests in Tibet, the Chinese government arrested dozens of people involved in a wave of anti-Chinese violence and sent in more troops to crush further unrest, The New York Times reports. Accounts by the Chinese government and the Tibetan community continued to differ sharply, with the Chinese government stating that 13 Han Chinese died in the Lhasa violence, and at least three rioters. … Click to read more »

The Daily Mail: As a scientist, I have always been cautious about alternative therapies. But having spent the past few months examining the scientific facts about hypnotherapy, reflexology and meditation — three of the fastest growing therapies in the UK — I’m beginning to understand their appeal. Take meditation, for instance. Not so long ago, I would have said sitting around cross-legged for hours, reflecting on goodness knows what, would be a pretty futile exercise. Yet it’s said meditation can … Click to read more »