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Elizabeth Large, Baltimore Sun: A funny thing happened to meditation on the way to the 21st century. It got demystified, and in the process became acceptable to mainstream America.

You won’t hear people talking about Nirvana much with today’s Westernized meditation, and there’s hardly a crystal in sight. Instead scientists are studying Buddhist monks with electroencephalographs and magnetic resonance imaging. Health care professionals are recommending meditation when drugs and other therapies don’t work, and sometimes when they do — they may call it a “relaxation technique,” to avoid the m-word.

Meditation, a discipline nearly as old as human life and a mainstay of Eastern spirituality, has gained reluctant acceptance as a treatment for everything from high blood pressure to attention deficit disorder. By sitting quietly and concentrating on a word, breath or image, meditators can put themselves into a state of deep relaxation. Recent scientific studies have shown the process may boost the immune system, control pain and lower stress.

“Its effectiveness has been fairly well-established with controlled research,” says Glenn Schiraldi, who is on the stress management faculty of the University of Maryland, College Park Department of Public and Community Health. Schiraldi meditates 10 or 15 minutes every morning. “It creates changes in the body opposite in every way to stress, and it’s intrinsically pleasant to do.”

Several months ago, an unusual conference took place at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Tibetan Buddhist monks and their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, met with leading U.S. neuroscientists and behavioral researchers to plan future studies. The conference sold out to an audience of 1,200 (most of them scientists) and had a waiting list of 1,600.

“Meditation works,” a cover story in Time magazine proclaimed this summer, detailing the scientific research that shows it can profoundly affect the body and actually reshape the brain. Millions of Americans seem to agree. As alternative medical treatments go, meditation seems to have the most clear-cut benefits, the kind that can be demonstrated in the lab (although the article also poked fun at the process, expressing the ambivalence many Americans still feel about it).

While it’s true that meditation is being stripped of the mystical trappings that make Westerners uneasy — the chanting, incense and Sanskrit mantras (a repeated word or phrase to quiet the mind) — people who start practicing for health reasons often end up finding the spirituality of meditation on their own. Reaching Nirvana might be even better than, say, controlling migraines.

A few months ago, Bob Parrott, a 49-year-old car salesman who lives in Abingdon, Md., was diagnosed with laryngeal cancer. He started to meditate daily, using a bargain-table book he picked up at a Barnes & Noble as a guide. When he talks about the benefits of meditating, he doesn’t mention pain or stress, or the fact that he’s able to tolerate the radiation treatments better.

“The system has helped me live in the here and now,” he says. “I’m not wearing any of my hats. I’m not a car salesman. Not a husband. Not a father. The discovery of a deeper self erases a lot of the fear of mortality.”

The short-term positive effects of meditation on the nervous system have been generally accepted in the United States ever since the best seller “Relaxation Response” by a Harvard cardiologist, Herbert Benson, was published in 1975. The latest science suggests meditation can have long-term health benefits, maybe even life-extending ones. Sophisticated scans have shown it can actually rewire the brain.

You don’t need any special equipment to practice, although a whole industry has sprung up in the last few years selling cushions, clothes, audio and videotapes, books and focusing aids like meditation crystals. You don’t have to wait for an appointment or worry about whether your health insurance will pay for it. And you don’t have to be a New Age kook.

Lisa Sanders, a Towson, Md., graduate student whose field is human resources development, has been practicing for the last three years. Three or four evenings a week she goes into her bedroom, puts on a compact disc of meditation music she bought at Best Buy, sits with her legs crossed and meditates for 15 or 20 minutes.

“I relax, I get a new start on whatever I’m into, it calms me down,” she says.

If scientists were recording the 23-year-old’s EEGs as she focuses on her breathing, shuts out the outside world and enters a meditative state, they would find that the activity in the areas of her brain that process sensory information slows down. Conscious thought decreases and relaxation increases.

In a small but intriguing study, Richard Davidson, a psychologist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, found that “mindfulness meditation” — focusing on the present moment and appreciating it fully — seems to increase activity in the area of the brain associated with lower anxiety and a more optimistic outlook in general, a result that lasts after the meditation practice ends. His research team also studied immune function by giving participants in the study flu shots. Two months later those who meditated had developed significantly more antibodies to the vaccine than the control group.

So why isn’t everyone meditating? For one thing, it isn’t easy. Getting your mind to focus on the present and become quiet isn’t something Westerners are comfortable doing – oms or no oms. Meditating takes patience and perseverance. Buddhists call it “meditation practice” for a reason. To get good at it, you have to do it daily.

But meditation does have a major advantage over other alternative medicines. Doctors and hospitals are comfortable suggesting patients try it because the only downside is feeling foolish or getting bored. No one is sticking needles in patients or manipulating their spines. They aren’t taking herbal supplements not regulated by the FDA. Even the sickest patients don’t require supervision, just a little gentle instruction and an open mind.

“There are a thousand ways to meditate,” says stress management expert Glenn Schiraldi. You don’t have to sit cross-legged or empty your mind of conscious thought.

And there are a thousand different reasons to meditate. Tibetan Buddhists believe that you can connect with your “true, happy nature” by meditating — all the things that make humans good. Other schools of thought feel meditation can put you in touch with divine nature, or God. Most cultures have used meditation in some form, including Aborigines and American Indians.

You may want to try meditating simply as a relaxation technique, because you’re feeling stressed out or you’re not sleeping well. Whatever your reason, getting started is the easy part.

Here’s how:

Get some help. It might be a book or a tape or the Internet, but another person is best. “We all have misconceptions when we start out,” says Chris Kreeger, a meditation instructor at the Shambhala Center in Baltimore. For instance, he says, “It’s not about not having thoughts. It’s more about not being attached to them.”
Find a place to practice. It should be quiet, and you should be comfortable there. “Setting up a place cues us,” says Baltimore psychologist Elaine Yamada. “It tells our bodies this is the time to be in that quiet way.”
Make a commitment to practice on a daily basis, even if only for a few minutes.
Close or half close your eyes and pick a word or a phrase to say over and over. Its rhythm will help you focus. It could be in the form of a prayer if that appeals to you, such as one of Kreeger’s suggestions, “Be still and know that I am God.” Or it could be a syllable like “om.” “Any phrase that resonates with you will do,” says Yamada.
Or pay attention to your breath. Concentrate on the sensation of breathing to the exclusion of everything else.
Let any thoughts that intrude float away like a leaf on the river. With practice, distracting thoughts will subside.

Original article no longer available.

“Twin Peaks” director urges mass meditation

December 1, 2003

Reuters, UK: As the director of such dark films as Blue Velvet, Eraserhead and Mulholland Drive, and the television series Twin Peaks, David Lynch seems an unlikely leader for a world peace campaign based on mass meditation.

He has, however, joined a Washington real estate developer, Jeffrey Abramson, and a publisher to raise $1 billion to bankroll a foundation supplying instructors in transcendental meditation to ease the planet’s stress. “There’s a ton of sceptics out there,” Lynch admitted, acknowledging a certain giggle factor attendant to his project.

“On the surface there’s the giggle. I would just encourage people to look more deeply into this, and the giggles go away, unless it’s just a giggle of pure happiness at the beauty of this – because this plan has been tested.

“Every time it’s been tested it’s reduced crime and violence. It’s a real thing and it could be in place this year and bring peace to Earth.”

Lynch, whose creations have featured twisted visions of small-town American life, said he has been meditating for 34 years, and that it has not dulled his artistic edge. “When I started meditating, I had an anger in me and some people might say, well, that would give you an edge, you’d have a cutting edge.

“But really, in truth, anger is a poison . . . Two weeks after I started meditating, that anger disappeared and it doesn’t mean you can’t get angry, it just means you can’t hold on to it, it doesn’t poison you.”

Lynch is promoting the establishment of a University of World Peace in the US. He and his partners have raised $88 million, but more will be needed to endow 8000 scholarships to teach the transcendental meditation techniques of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

[Original article no longer available.]

Quiet the mind, heal the body

December 1, 2003

Hilary E. MacGregor, LA Times: Inside a church community room, beginning meditators close their eyes, straighten their spines in their folding metal chairs and try to rein in, for just 10 minutes, the thoughts that race like wild horses through their minds.

A woman in the back row yawns. The woman next to her fidgets. Another student sneaks a peek.

“My mind still wanders,” Jeremy Morelock, 33, says of the Buddhist meditation class he has attended for three months in search of stress relief and spiritual growth. “I have these imaginary conversations with people, and then I think, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa … concentrate!’ “

Regular meditation practice is supposed to quiet the mind and allow the body to tap into its own innate healing mechanisms. Yogis and monks have preached the powers of meditation for thousands of years, and the counterculture generation of the ’60s embraced transcendental meditation — a still-thriving form of internal mantra-chanting — as a method to alter consciousness.

But many people today are taking up meditation for reasons that have little or nothing to do with spiritual enlightenment and a lot to do with improving their health. Scientists are using MRI and other advanced technologies to study the physiological changes that occur in meditating Buddhist monks. These researchers are starting to demonstrate, with the type of laboratory science that can influence even skeptical physicians, what those who engage in this ancient practice have believed for many centuries: Meditation works.

A growing body of research has shown that meditation has clear benefits. Now, doctors and other health-care professionals are recommending meditation as a way to treat a variety of ills, from depression to high blood pressure and hyperactivity. In some cases, meditation — or as it’s sometimes called, “relaxation techniques” — is prescribed when other treatments, such as prescription drugs, haven’t worked, or as a complement to drug therapy. Recent research has shown that meditation can help reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke, as well as reduce pain and enhance the body’s immune system.

Meditation is free, accessible and portable. It has no negative side effects — a fact that makes doctors feel comfortable recommending it. Meditation requires only that you be able to sit quietly for 10 minutes or more, while focusing on your breath or a word or phrase. Anyone can do it. And while millions of Americans already are meditating in some fashion, many more would likely benefit.

“I believe that meditation is the most important thing a person can do for their health,” said Dr. David Simon, medical director and chief executive of the Chopra Center at La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, Calif., the wellness clinic founded by New Age author and physician, Dr. Deepak Chopra. “The most powerful pharmacy on Earth is not Savon or Rite Aid, but the human body,” Simon said.

With so much evidence, why aren’t more people doing it?

As with many lifestyle changes, most notably diet and exercise, getting started and sticking with meditation can be difficult. Meditation takes time and discipline. Desperately seeking health or sanity, many stressed-out people yearn for some quiet time amid the chaotic frenzy of their daily lives. Finding 10 uninterrupted minutes and a quiet place to sit down and shut your eyes can be a stumbling block. It’s problematic to zone out in a cubicle at work, or at a restaurant during lunch. And home life can be hectic in these wired and wireless times.

No one knows for sure how many of those who begin meditating continue the practice. Gen Kelsang Lekma, a Buddhist nun who has taught meditation for a decade in Los Angeles, said the dropout rate is fairly high: Only about half the students who begin a typical 13-class series will complete it, she estimates, and perhaps two out of 10 students who begin meditating will still be doing so after a couple of years.

Students abandon the practice for a variety of reasons, Lekma said. Some don’t like it or can’t get the hang of it, and others lack the discipline to practice it regularly, usually daily. Some students are attracted to meditation out of a desire to learn something about Buddhist philosophy, but eventually lose interest.

How a person comes to meditation may also have an impact on his or her willingness to stick with it. For example, an increasing number of physicians are recommending meditation as a form of therapy to patients with heart disease, high blood pressure and even infertility. Dr. Herbert Benson, a Harvard University professor and president of the Mind/Body Medical Institute in Chestnut Hill, Mass., said that in his clinical experience, about 60% to 70% of those who begin a meditation-type practice primarily for medical reasons (sometimes at the recommendation of their doctor) adopt the teachings.

Proponents of the practice — from Buddhists to cardiologists — are trying to help more people work meditation into their daily lives. So what are the most effective approaches for starting meditation and ensuring you’ll stick with it?

The first step is to make the commitment, experts said. Learn about why it works physiologically and how it might benefit your health.

Published more than 25 years ago, Benson’s pioneering book, “The Relaxation Response,” showed how 10 minutes of meditative technique a day could increase concentration and counteract the harmful effects of stress, such as high blood pressure and strokes.

Considered by many to be the father of meditation in this country, Benson uses the phrase “relaxation response” to refer broadly to various meditation-type techniques — including prayer, qi gong, yoga and tai chi — that quiet the brain. The practices also counter the “fight-or-flight” response, which is triggered in stressful situations, and the accompanying secretion of norepinephrine, a hormone produced by the adrenal gland that, along with epinephrine, increases metabolism, blood pressure, mental activity and heart rate.

Newcomers need to stick with meditation long enough to make it a habit. Taking a meditation class or attending a meditation retreat can be a shortcut to feeling the positive effects of meditation faster and establishing a routine, experts said.

“Most people find it very difficult to begin a meditation practice on their own,” said Lekma, 37, resident teacher at the Echo Park Buddhist temple. “When you meditate with others, you get some kind of group dynamic going. When you get some people who are experienced, you kind of feed off it.”

Experts caution, however, that meditation won’t produce the immediate “hit,” such as reduced stress or increased energy, that a workout in the gym or other brisk exercise will do. Meditation takes time to learn, and even people who have been doing it for years still have times when their minds wander.

“The first few times you feel like an idiot doing it,” said Dr. Lee Lipsenthal, medical director of the Dr. Dean Ornish Program for Reversing Heart Disease and Lifestyle Advantage in Sausalito, Calif., who has meditated for 20 years and recommends meditation, along with diet and exercise changes, to patients with heart disease. “You are feeling anxious, your head is spinning, you are thinking you could be doing X, Y and Z, until you get the hang of it. That takes nearly six weeks of daily practice.”

Experts also stress the importance of new students choosing a meditation technique that conforms to their own belief system. This should make it easier to stick to the discipline over the long run. For a Catholic, it could be saying Hail Marys. For a Jew, it could be davening. For others, it could mean simply repeating a mantra-type phrase like “peace, love.” Finally, it is important to be patient and start slowly. Lekma, the Buddhist nun, suggests starting with tiny steps, such as a single weekly session with others, followed by a small personal commitment that you could stick to — for example, five to 10 minutes a day.

“People come in with a lot of enthusiasm, but have unrealistic expectations,” Lekma said. “Instead of taking very small steps they say, ‘I want to run a marathon.’ First you have to run half a block.”

A study recently conducted at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles showed how quickly those small steps can make a difference. The study, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health and presented at the American Heart Assn. scientific sessions in Orlando, Fla., in November, found that patients with coronary heart disease who practiced transcendental meditation for the first time showed a significant improvement in their blood pressure and insulin resistance (pre-diabetes).

The 16-week study, conducted by Dr. Bairey Merz, of Cedars-Sinai, with Dr. Robert Schneider, director of the Institute for Natural Medicine and Prevention at the Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa, is the first to demonstrate this blood pressure effect in heart patients. Meditation was able to produce a benefit roughly equivalent to the use of one type of blood pressure medication, the researchers found.

Mario Farnier, 53, a biomedical researcher, was recovering from a 1999 heart attack when he was admitted to the hospital last August with chest pains and underwent an angioplasty procedure. He enrolled in the meditation study and, by the study’s end, had improved enough that his doctors were able to cut one of his medications by half.

“I must say, I felt good at the time of the study,” Farnier said. He continued meditating with others until the group study ended, but has found it more difficult to continue a regular practice on his own. He still meditates occasionally, shutting his office door for quiet, but finds it harder to make time to meditate than for the regular running workouts he has done for decades. “The more you think you need it, the less time you have to do it,” he said. “If the pressure is there I can’t do it. I say I’ll do it later, but by the end of the day I never do it.”

Most beginners say they continue to need help to carry on the practice. At a crowded Wednesday night meditation class at the Khandakapala Buddhist Center in Los Angeles, Dave Hernandez, a self-employed artist, sat cross-legged on a burgundy cushion and worked to tame his restless mind. “I tried meditating on my own,” he said. “But it’s just like a rocket ship taking off when you are meditating with other people. It’s really high. That high place is just harder to get to when you are on your own.”

Article no longer available.

Chanting, Meditation and talking to the Dalai Lama

December 1, 2003

Original article no longer available

Neil Meaney, ABC Regional, Australia: Having spoken to Geshe Sonam Thargye, when the monks of Tibet were in Shepparton on their “Sacred footsteps of the world tour”, Breakfast presenter Neil Meaney couldn’t resist the opportunity to meet Geshe in person and have a chat at ABC Goulburn Murray’s Wodonga Studio..

Neil asked Geshe how he came to be in Australia.. “I am now an Aussie monk, I have been here 5 years now, I permanently live here now.. I have one sponsor and she lives in Geelong and first I came when I finished study; Buddhism philosophy at the University, and (had a) holiday, came to Geelong and many local people asked if (I could) stay in Geelong and teach philosophy and meditation and I decided I would stay in Australia and within the last year I am an Australian citizen and I enjoy it very much..”

So did Geshe mind staying? “I believe Australia is a beautiful country, with food and education .. a very good country, but not a good country for monk and nuns.. (for) monks and nuns, Monasteries are best.. here not many Monasteries but (my) personality is a more social life and more contact with other people many different age, different culture, and very open mind and I enjoy it very much.. I like to surf Geelong close to beach and very good for me therefore..”

Why is it so valuable to Meditate.. “..because we need a healthy body.. we must exercise running or good food, that’s the cause and effect.. meditate is exercise of the mind, if you good meditate, you become healthy mind, In our lives its very important; body and mind”

“I meditate normally three times a day.. If I not busy, maybe morning one or two hours and then afternoon and before go to bed..”

Have you spent much time with the Dalai Lama? “..I spent time with him this year.. with almost 14 minutes just him and me.. he is a very humble and .. if you go in there you are amazed you know.. he is just normal.. I’m lucky I am very close to him”

Geshe was also again happy to chant for Neil, but said he wouldn’t be at his best “This morning only one half coffee and not good, if I have two coffee more good..”

Christian Mantras and Meditation

December 1, 2003

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Christopher Mendonca, Times of India: Chanting of mantras and the practice of meditation are time-honoured traditions in oriental religions like Hinduism and Buddhism. But because of the universal validity of this practice, the Desert Fathers adopted it and made this the starting point for the “tradition of pure prayer” which they handed down within the Christian context.

Christians use the concept of chanting in a variety of ways in their prayer. The Divine Office or Prayer of the Church is a rhythmic recitation or singing of the Psalms in monastic communities.

The Rosary is the successive repetition of the ”Hail Mary”. But perhaps the most popular mantra used by Christians is “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me”. The Way of the Pilgrim is the story of a Russian pilgrim who learned the practice of the presence of God through the constant use of this mantra.

Eastern tradition of meditation helps the mind turn away from thoughts and images, to help achieve liberation. Similarly, the Christian tradition of pure prayer seeks to protect us from distraction, taking us to the inner silence of the heart where Christ prays in us through the Spirit.

For a Christian the practice of meditation is the practice of an ”awareness” of God in Christ. Equally, at the heart of the practice of Christian meditation is the essential onslaught on the ”ego” so that we may be completely free from its domination. Prophet Isaiah says (30:15): “In conversion and tranquillity lies your salvation”.

Conversion and inner silence are the essential ingredients of Christian meditation. Solitude is the place of conversion. It is not a private therapeutic place. Rather it is the place where the old self dies and the new self is born.

It is in Christian terms a death-resurrection experience, a participation in the Death and Resurrection of Jesus…

Meditation for ‘Christmas rage’

December 1, 2003

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Christmas shoppers in Manchester are being offered a remedy for stress.

The Manchester Buddhist Centre is showing a video on the BBC Big Screen in Exchange Square giving a free lesson in meditation.

The video will give shoppers the chance to learn basic meditation techniques.

Shoppers, office workers, and passers-by will be encouraged to follow the meditation on screen on Friday lunchtime.

Helpers will be on hand in the square from Manchester Buddhist Centre.

Munisha, from the Manchester Buddhist Centre, says: “I think it’s just very good to come back to this still centre, come back to breathing, thinking ‘Ah yes, I’m a human being and I wasn’t just born to shop’.”

And psychologists say Christmas rage is as much a reality as road rage or air rage…

Readying for quiet–but joyous–celebration

December 1, 2003

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Manya A. Brachear, Chicago Tribune: For some Zen practitioners, an all-night session of intense meditation in honor of the Buddha’s enlightenment is a virtual Buddhist boot camp–a rigorous regimen that prepares them to rise above any challenge, whether mental, physical or spiritual. For others, like Nabi Anita Evans, it’s a welcome respite from the other holidays’ hustle and bustle–a chance to clean the clutter from her mind and start the year anew.

“I really feel like I need to recharge myself,” said Evans, a Chicagoan who took the name Nabi when she became a Buddhist last year. “I like to go in and not expect anything and be open to how it affects me. I do hope it gives me some renewed energy to start the new year with a kick in the butt.”

Although some Buddhists celebrate their founder’s birth, enlightenment and passage into nirvana in the spring, followers of East Asian traditions observe the enlightenment anniversary in December…

Called Bodhi Day, the holiday celebrates Buddhism’s beginnings, when its founder, the Indian prince Siddhartha Gautama, attained enlightenment. After a six-year journey to find the meaning of life, he fasted to free his spirit, replenished himself with a dish of rice and milk, then sat overnight meditating underneath the Bodhi tree. When he awoke, he turned his eyes to the heavens, saw the morning star and was enlightened.

On Friday, Evans and other members of Chicago’s Buddhist Society of Compassionate Wisdom will begin a five-day retreat at Zen Buddhist Temple, 1710 W. Cornelia Ave. The retreat ends Wednesday, but not before members complete an eight-hour overnight sitting to commemorate the holiest day of the year.

In Zen Buddhist sects, predominant in the Chicago area, the occasion calls for intensive meditation, or sesshin, a metaphorical re-enactment of the Buddha’s quest for spiritual enlightenment.

In a meditation hall with mirrors, practitioners will sit from 8 p.m. Tuesday to 4 a.m. Wednesday, just as the Buddha did roughly 2,500 years ago.

Although members can meditate in two-hour intervals between 8 p.m. and midnight, those there at midnight must stay sequestered until 4 a.m.

To clear the mind, novices are taught to focus on their breathing, counting as they inhale and exhale. More advanced students concentrate on spiritual riddles referred to as koans.

Questions can include: “What is it?” “Who am I?” and “Where does a flame go when it goes out?”

The riddles, which have no answers, force the students to suspend their thought processes to reach a deeper truth.

“We always use our mind in a reasonable, reasoning fashion,” said Sensei Sevan Ross, who is head of Chicago Zen Center, 2029 Ridge Ave., Evanston. “What Zen requires is that we use it in a very different way. It’s like working a weak muscle. We must alter the way we use our minds for spiritual growth.”

Regardless of the tools available, sitting for even a half-hour in the lotus position and emptying one’s mind can be arduous.

Knees, ankles and other joints begin to ache. The mind starts to wander and daydreams take hold, as does exhaustion.

Thinking about the suffering only makes it worse, said Kosu Diane Snider, who became a Buddhist in 1997. The purpose of the sesshin is to rise above it, she said.

“I can be struggling and feeling like I’m going nowhere, and in a moment it clicks,” Snider said. “All of a sudden I can concentrate, and it feels wonderful.”

Kojun Kim Rodriguez remembers crossing that threshold during her first Bodhi Day sesshin in 1997.

Her body temperature suddenly rose as if a fever were washing over her. Then, as if the fever had broken, she was overcome by euphoria.

Ross said Zen is a practice of spiritual cleansing from experience instead of doctrine.

“The sesshin may be the most noble and most intense experience that a human being can pass through outside things like childbirth or near-death experiences,” Ross said. “Most people after sesshin feel like a lot of the weight has been lifted from them. What’s been lifted is the weight of their personality.”

That feeling of accomplishment is celebrated when the meditation ends. Practitioners leave their coats behind, venture out into the frigid dawn and look at the stars. The awakening is exhilarating, Evans said.

“There we are, just a bunch of Buddhas standing in the street laughing at the stars.”

Snider said what the Buddha saw when he looked at the morning star is yet another koan.

“What he saw is something that is not visible with our eyes,” she said.

Back inside, members eat porridge of brown rice, seeds and nuts boiled in soymilk, similar to what the Buddha ate before his enlightenment.

It is another reminder that everyone has a Buddha nature and thus the capacity for enlightenment.

For Rodriguez, the meditation strengthened her resolve to stay on her spiritual path.

“Something inside me significantly shifted,” Rodriguez said. “Suddenly, going to meditation wasn’t a drag anymore. It kind of inspired me to keep meditating.

“It gets very crystal clear what it’s all about.”

Sit still, why don’t you?

November 30, 2003

The Age, Australia: Stressed? Of course I’m stressed. Even when I’m at ease, I’m tense. So when I take a meditation class at East Kew’s Life Development Centre, I try to clear the mind of preconceptions of something practiced by hippies in the hazy aroma of incense and candlelight.

Meditation has gone mainstream. Once the domain of left-wing guru-seekers, the art of relaxation has moved into the business world and is now sought out by well-heeled executives and upper management as a way of clearing the pressures of the working week. Even Harry M. Miller meditates.

The Tuesday morning class in Kew is a…

Meditation center to incorporate spiritual elements

November 1, 2003