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A not-entirely-random selection of blog posts on meditation.

Road rage meditation
Meditation in recovery: Mudita (Sympathetic Joy)
When is a retreat not a retreat?
5-a-day for the mind
Meditation and the neuroscience of inner peace

In America there’s a feeling of Christmas. But that’s not the only winter holiday going on. Jews are lighting Hanukkah candles, Muslims recently feasted on Eid al-Adha, and pagans celebrated the solstice. So it’s a good time for researchers to consider spirituality—from a scientific point of view.

One experience central to major religions around the world is that of transcendence, the idea of almost losing a sense of self to the feeling that there’s something bigger out there. Now scientists at … Click to read more »

Alternet: For thousands of years, Buddhist meditators have claimed that the simple act of sitting down and following their breath while letting go of intrusive thoughts can free one from the entanglements of neurotic suffering. Now, scientists are using cutting-edge scanning technology to watch the meditating mind at work. They are finding that regular meditation has a measurable effect on a variety of brain structures related to attention — an example of what is known as neuroplasticity, where the brain … Click to read more »

Psychology Today: Psychologist Nick Epley explores how we attribute beliefs and attitudes to other minds, including those of deities. In ongoing research at the University of Chicago, he and his collaborators are finding that people’s own beliefs line up much more closely with the beliefs they attribute to their gods than to those they peg on other people. If you manipulate people’s views, their gods’ assigned views change, too. Read more here.

Fort Collins Now: For the past several years, an organization called The Mind and Life Institute has been coordinating a yearly dialogue between the Dalai Lama and Western scientists. Increasingly, these scientists are neurologists and psychologists interested in such things as how emotions can be controlled and how attention can be marshaled to perform tasks more efficiently than before. They believe that meditators throughout the long history of Buddhism have uncovered some insights into such topics. Read more here.

Fort Collins Now: For the past several years, an organization called The Mind and Life Institute has been coordinating a yearly dialogue between the Dalai Lama and Western scientists. Increasingly, these scientists are neurologists and psychologists interested in such things as how emotions can be controlled and how attention can be marshaled to perform tasks more efficiently than before. They believe that meditators throughout the long history of Buddhism have uncovered some insights into such topics. Read more here.

kansascity.com: Zen Buddhist meditation may help treat depression, attention deficit disorder and anxiety, among other maladies. Mental illness such as obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression are characterized in part by “excessive rumination” or runaway thoughts. Zen meditators show an enhanced ability to control their mind’s focus and disentangle it from distracting or harmful preoccupations. Read more here.

A not-entirely-random selection of blog posts on meditation.

Mindful politics
Lying-down meditation

The health benefits of incense
Cultivation
Meditation and the brain

Washington Post: Elin Danien quietly listens to a meditation tape, eyes closed, as the radioactive tracer is injected into her IV, freezing a picture of the blood flow in her brain. As a research associate at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Danien is sharp enough to organize an upcoming exhibit on the Mayans but finds herself increasingly forgetful. Now she is part of a study to determine whether meditation can improve brain functioning — to measure … Click to read more »

A not-entirely-random selection of blog posts on meditation.

Vipassana meditation
Neural correlates of Zen meditation
The Finer Points of Map Based Practice
Science of Happiness
Words for Milo
Sitting Together in Silence
way past right/wrong

The Daily Free Press: The secret to a healthy body and an open mind may lie in just that: lying still, or meditating, changes basic human neurology, a Harvard professor says.
About 30 Boston University students and staff members came to the Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences Monday evening to hear Harvard University history of science professor Anne Harrington discuss the effects that meditation has on the brain in “Eastern Brains: Probing the Partnership Between Buddhism and the Brain … Click to read more »

A not-entirely-random selection of blog posts on meditation.

How To Meditate (& Why it May Help You Overcome Depression)

my day of silent meditation

Two Articles That Look At Meditation To Deal With Chronic Pain

Brain Science Podcast #44: Meditation and the Brain

A Meditation Timer for iPhone

Jill Bolte Taylor was suddenly struck by an awareness of a deep connectedness with the world, a profound spiritual realization that her body blended with the world around her, that she was a being composed of energy, connected to other beings composed of energy. “The energy of my spirit seemed to flow like a great whale gliding through a sea of silent euphoria,” she later wrote.

And this all happened because of a … Click to read more »