Neuroscience and Psychology of Meditation in Everyday Life

by Dusana Dorjee

  In contrast, traditional Buddhist approaches contain comprehensive guidance for different levels of practitioners including time-tested methods which have led practitioners to complete liberation from suffering for centuries. However, the traditional approaches have been, and still are, seeking to find the most suitable ways to make the traditional teachings culturally accessible to Western practitioners without losing their essence. Nevertheless, the long-term perspective of meditation practice which is elaborately explicated and supported in the traditional Buddhist context remains their particular strength. This aspect of the traditional approaches is pertinent to long-term practitioners of both Buddhist and secular meditation who want to go deeper in their practice. The traditional contemplative teachings are also of utmost relevance to those for whom an exposure to secular meditation opens up broader existential questions. This suggests that closer focus on the long-term perspective of secular meditation practice might actually provide an opportunity for the traditional and secular approaches to work more closely together. In addition, the richness and variety of Buddhist practices targeting different levels of meditation experience presents a lot of potential for further enrichment of Western meditation-based programmes.

  Indeed, the current wide-spread interest in meditation techniques, both in their application and in research findings, is pointing to a unique potential of these techniques. Meditation training might be opening up new horizons for the development of the human potential for balance, meaning and purpose. Furthermore, from the scientific perspective, investigations using meditation techniques seem to be tapping into the most fundamental questions of philosophy and science concerning the relationship between mind, brain and body. The current interest in meditation may suggest the beginning of a new paradigm in Western thinking and scientific exploration of the human mind – a paradigm which has the phenomenological investigation of the mind and consciousness in the context of human potential for well-being, purpose and virtue at its core.

  The term ‘contemplative’ is now increasingly more used to describe the arising scientific discipline developing this new paradigm. The research in contemplative neuroscience is at the moment the most obvious example and other disciplines such as contemplative education are emerging. The development of contemplative psychology and contemplative psychotherapy seems the natural next step in the progression and expansion of this new paradigm. The increasing focus on long-term effects of meditation in the context of human potential for well-being and purpose seems to provide a fruitful platform for flourishing and expansion of these new contemplative disciplines.

  The purpose of this book is to contribute to these developments in the field of contemplative science through considerations about the theoretical and applied framework for contemplative psychology and psychotherapy in the context of cultivating long-term meditation practice in everyday life. Specifically, we will gradually explore the need for existential realization as the possible core motivation of human behaviour and action, and the main driving force behind the current exponentially growing interest in meditation. From the Buddhist perspective, the existential realization can be described as a state of balance, mental equilibrium, which arises from being able to access, recognize and sustain a foundational state of conscious awareness from which other mental events arise. In the Buddhist tradition of Dzogchen, this state is termed ‘rigpa’ and means realization of the ultimate nature of the mind. It is described as a non-conceptual state with naturally arising experience of even-mindedness, peace, joy, compassion, knowing and clarity. With longer-term meditation practice, the meditator can experience glimpses of this state, often preceded by other, somewhat similar and less stable, states of balance which don’t encompass all the characteristics of rigpa. In the absence of the recognizing and actual experience of existential realization, the fundamental drive towards it is expressed through different types of adaptive (e.g., caring and altruism) and maladaptive (e.g., addictions) behaviour. Hence, the book proposes that the core purpose of contemplative psychotherapy is to guide clients towards adaptive expressions of the existential drive and ultimately towards understanding and sustaining the experience of existential realization.

  The first chapter of the book sets the stage for this exploration by outlining a general framework of contemplative science. This framework describes changes in the mind and brain resulting from meditation training in terms of self-regulation and modes of existential awareness. Implications of this framework for development of the human potential for well-being and balance in the context of contemplative psychology and psychotherapy are also discussed. The second chapter then draws important distinctions between immediate and long-term effects of meditation practice. It also distinguishes between formal practice and informal practice in daily life. The following chapters then explore specific ways of developing and sustaining long-term meditation practice, from mindfulness, through explicit practices developing compassion, and techniques utilizing visualization. The later chapters of the book focus on more advanced meditation practices exploring deeper levels of consciousness such as insight meditations, dream yoga and abiding in the ground state of existential balance. To support integration of theory and practice, each of these chapters contains both practical guidance on how to develop and sustain the particular type of practice, and considerations about underlying Buddhist theory as well as associated mechanisms of change in the mind, brain and body physiology. Finally, the last chapter considers broader societal consequences of long-term meditation practice and outlines associated recommendations for further research and practice in the field.

  The book focuses on secular meditation-based techniques derived from various Buddhist traditions and on Buddhist practices, mostly in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition of Dzogchen. This focus on Buddhism-derived and Buddhist traditions was necessary given that the vast majority of current secular meditation-based programmes and current research on meditation builds on and examines Buddhist meditation. The focus on Tibetan Buddhist tradition and particularly the Dzogchen approach was also necessitated in practical terms by my primary meditation practice experience with these approaches. Despite this clear bias in the contemplative perspective, the general framework of contemplative science presented in this book is aimed at opening the exploration in contemplative science to a range of contemplative methods across contemplative traditions. The in-depth exploration of varied Buddhism-derived and Buddhist meditation practices presented in the book is intended as an exemplification of one possible approach to considering and examining long-term effects of meditation which can be applied to other contemplative approaches.

  Overall, the book highlights that the next phase of investigating and applying meditation-based techniques in the context of long-term meditation practice will undoubtedly be challenging, but also insightful and worthwhile. Importantly, the book explains how the emerging disciplines of contemplative science may enrich our understanding of human potential for well-being and balance. It is my hope that the book will encourage the readers, from health professionals through contemplative researchers and long-term meditation practitioners, to further explore long-term meditation practice in both theory and practice.

  References

  Brefczynski-Lewis, J.A., Lutz, A., Schaefer, H.S., Levinson, D.B. and Davidson, R.J., 2007. Neural correlates of attentional expertise in long-term meditation practitioners. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104 (27), pp. 11483–11488.

  Dorjee, D., 2010. Kinds and dimensions of mindfulness: Why it is important to distinguish them. Mindfulness, 1 (3), pp. 152–160.

  Garland, S.N., Carlson, L.E., Cook, S., Lansdell, L. and Speca, M., 2007. A non-randomized comparison of mindfulness-based stress reduction and healing arts programs for facilitating post-traumatic growth and spirituality in cancer outpatients. Supportive Care in Cancer, 15 (8), pp. 949–961.

  Hofmann, S.G., Sawyer, A.T., Witt, A.A. and Oh, D., 2010. The effect of mindfulness-based therapy on anxiety and de
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  Piet, J. and Hougaard, E., 2011. The effect of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for prevention of relapse in recurrent major depressive disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Clinical Psychology Review, 31 (6), pp. 1032–1040.

  Shennan, C., Payne, S. and Fenlon, D., 2011. What is the evidence for the use of mindfulness-based interventions in cancer care? A review. Psycho-Oncology, 20 (7), pp. 681–697.

  Taylor, V.A., Grant, J., Daneault, V., Scavone, G., Breton, E., Roffe-Vidal, S., Courtemanche, J., Lavarenne, A.S. and Beauregard, M., 2011. Impact of mindfulness on the neural responses to emotional pictures in experienced and beginner meditators. Neuroimage, 57 (4), pp. 1524–1533.

  Chapter 1

  The new science of meditation

  Meditation is, for the most part, no longer viewed as an exotic mystical spiritual practice. Scientific research conducted over the last two decades suggests that meditation-based techniques can have health and well-being enhancing effects in a range of clinical conditions. For example, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) has been shown as effective as antidepressant medication in the treatment of recurrent depression (Kuyken et al., 2015). There is also encouraging cumulative evidence on the beneficial effects of mindfulness-based approaches in the treatment of anxiety (Hofmann et al., 2010). In addition, research using psycho-physiological and neuroscientific methods documented changes in body and brain functioning after only four or five days of regular meditation practice for 20 minutes a day (Tang et al., 2007; Zeidan et al., 2011). As a result, meditation is becoming a mainstream approach to health and well-being.

  Nevertheless, many questions about the effects and mechanisms of meditation, particularly when it comes to long-term practice, remain unanswered. This is partially due to the health-related applications of meditation and associated research typically taking only a limited short-term view of meditation as a tool for ‘fixing various health problems’. Such an approach, while useful as an initial step in the development of a new field, restricts a broader perspective of the role meditation can play in supporting human potential for health and well-being beyond a specific health complaint. As the discipline of meditation research moves to a formative stage which will define its future standing amongst other sciences and approaches, it is timely to consider questions about the broader and long-term goals of meditation practice and research. This chapter outlines the foundations of a framework for application and research of meditation which could enable us to fully harness what meditation can offer to our health and well-being.

  What is the science of meditation missing?

  Majority of neuroscience research on meditation has so far been investigating how meditation changes brain structures and functions underlying our abilities to focus attention and manage our emotions (Tang, Hölzel and Posner, 2015). Yet, very few studies examined how such brain changes might be relevant to our sense of self and our deeper views of meaning and purpose in life. So despite the explosion of meditation research over the last two decades, most of the studies have neglected the possible impact of meditation on our sense of meaning and purpose. This is somewhat paradoxical, given that the ultimate aim of most meditation practices is to enable the practitioner to explore such existential questions; meditation practices are usually embedded in contemplative systems which support and guide the practitioner on a spiritual path of exploring these questions.

  So if the essential goal of meditation practices is in enabling exploration of life’s meaning and purpose, why is this aspect of meditation mostly ignored in the current research? There might be several reasons for this and the first one could be simply the consequence of meditation research being a young scientific discipline. Due to the nascent state of the field, most of the initial studies focused on demonstrating that meditation can have measurable impact on our health and well-being. Similarly, most neuroscientific research on meditation has been aiming to show that meditation training can be associated with detectable changes in the brain which might be health-conducive. This initial research has provided useful evidence which invited more mainstream interest in both applications and further research on meditation. Indeed, the research literature on meditation currently grows by nearly a thousand studies each year in comparison to a couple dozen per year three decades ago.

  Another reason why the research on meditation has so far mostly omitted the existential questions of meaning and purpose is perhaps the complexity of meditation training. Traditional approaches to meditation are greatly multifaceted: they involve cultivation of attention control and stability, practices targeting emotional well-being, reflections on values and the construal of meaning in life, etc. (Dorjee, 2013), coupled with faith-based and ritualistic practices. Understanding and capturing such rich systems of meditation training is a very difficult task. As a consequence, vast majority of research on meditation has so far focused on particular meditation techniques, such as mindfulness, separated from the complex traditional systems where they originated. This approach might have been necessary in the initial phases of meditation research, but is becoming restrictive as the field evolves towards a more mature stage and searches for its unique standing amongst other scientific disciplines. Indeed, investigation of meditation techniques as methods of training attention, improving emotion regulation or enhancing well-being to some extent falls short of clearly showing how these techniques differ from other non-meditation-based ways of training attention, emotion regulation or well-being. After all, research shows that some computer games can enhance attention (Dye, Green and Bavelier, 2009) and various positive psychology methods can make us happier (Seligman et al., 2005)!

  Given that meditation-based methods are not the only ways to improve our cognitive functioning or well-being and the evidence base on meditation is still fairly limited, it is surprising how much scientific and lay interest in meditation there currently is. It is also surprising how polarizing the attitudes towards meditation techniques and associated research are – on one side of the continuum there are strong enthusiasts, on the other sworn critics, with little balance in perceptions in the middle of the range of opinions. And quite often meditation techniques, particularly mindfulness, are currently referred to as ‘the latest fad’ across the continuum of perceptions.

  Interestingly, one possible explanation for this somewhat imbalanced pattern of views might be that meditation techniques are tapping into the existential (meaning and purpose related) aspect of our experience which remains mostly unaddressed by other psychological approaches and more broadly by our materialistic society and the culture of popularity contests. The meditation techniques seem to provide a connection for experiential exploration of our deeper sense of meaning, purpose in life and genuine happiness. Accordingly, the proponents of meditation may see meditation-based approaches as uniquely placed to address this yearning for existential connection. And the criticism of meditation might actually also be related to the same aspect of meditation – at least some of the critics highlight that current research artificially isolates meditation techniques from their contemplative systems and presents them as means to an end, be it the reduction in stress or increase in attention focus, rather than as a path to deeper existential exploration. So both opinion extremes might be actually responding to the existential dimension of meditation training which is mostly not considered in both further research and the teaching of psychological meditation-based approaches.

  How can current meditation research and teaching address this important gap in our understanding and practice of meditation? It is possible that the solution will require a somewhat radical shift in the way we have been approaching meditation research and the application of meditation-based techniques so far. It might be that we need to build a ‘new science of meditation’ which would clearly lay out the unique subject, aims and methods of the discipline with existential dimension of meditation and its impact on
our health and well-being taking central stage. As a first step, we may need to expand our perspective of meditation practices beyond the practices themselves and start taking into account the goals and progression of the whole path of meditation training. And to tackle the complexity of such a perspective, we may need to look for common broader patterns of changes in the processes of the mind, and associated changes in the brain, in long-term meditation practice (Dorjee, 2016). Whilst applying this approach, the similarities and differences in changes resulting from different meditation approaches, including mindfulness, compassion, visualization, contemplative prayer, insight practices etc., will be of particular interest. Such research and applications may give rise to a science of meditation as a discipline with strong foundations and important implications for long-term approaches to health and well-being at the individual level and beyond. We will now explore the core building blocks and principles of the new science of meditation.

  The mind’s capacity to self-regulate

  The ability to manage attention, emotions and behaviour is necessary for our effective everyday functioning including planning, decision making, well-being and academic success. This ability is in psychology often referred to as ‘self-regulation’ and development of effective self-regulation is one of the key themes in education. This is not surprising given that levels of self-regulation in 2-year-olds have been found to predict their health, wealth and even levels of criminality as adults (Moffitt et al., 2011). Hence, there is keen interest amongst educators, health professionals, parents and policy makers in supporting children to develop effective self-regulation in childhood and in the enhancement of self-regulatory skills across the life-span.

  Interestingly, improvements in self-regulation seem to underlie the beneficial outcomes associated with training in meditation-based approaches, particularly mindfulness (Tang, Hölzel and Posner, 2015). Some aspects of self-regulation are uniquely targeted by meditation practices, the core one being the awareness of thoughts, sensations, feelings, behaviours and their underlying processes. The awareness and observation of contents and processes in one’s own mind is often referred to as introspection. It is also referred to as a metacognitive skill, meaning that this awareness can be considered as happening one level above the usual contents and processes of the mind – it is the awareness of the contents and processes of the mind which is distinct from the contents and processes observed.