China's traditional meditation practice can actually be traced back to the era of the Yellow Emperor 5000 years ago.
According to Zhuangzi, the Yellow Emperor once asked a man named Guang how to live a long life. Guang said, "Ignore and don't listen. Keep your head still, and you will be right. It must be quiet and clear, without your shape. You can live forever without hard work. You can't see anything, you can't hear anything, you don't know anything, and your God will remain in shape, and shape is immortal. "
The above incisive exposition is actually the true feelings in meditation and the way to live forever. Meditation can not only improve health and prolong life, but also enlighten and increase wisdom. Therefore, Mahayana, Vajrayana, Taoism, Confucianism and yoga all attach great importance to meditation.
"Interpretation of Zen Paramita" said: "Zen is the most important thing to get the treasure of all Buddhas. If you get jewelry, you will get all the treasures. "
"The Second Method of Interpreting Paramita" says: "Practice meditation because of rest, and get meditation because of illness."
After five years' research, Harvard University professor and Dr. Harry of the University of Maryland said: "Meditation and meditation can greatly improve the hormone levels of vision, blood pressure and cognitive function, and can also treat many incurable diseases and chronic diseases such as heart disease and arthritis."
Bernie, a surgeon at Yale Medical School? Seguer also believes: "Meditation is an action to relax the mind and can cure AIDS and cancer, which are regarded as terminal diseases."
Studies by Dutch scientists show that meditators are 50% less likely to get sick than others, and 87% less likely to be infected with serious life-threatening diseases.
In addition, scientists also found that a large number of alpha waves in the brain during meditation can obviously promote the growth of a hormone, which will enlarge blood vessels and smooth blood flow, and significantly increase adenosine triphosphate, an indispensable substance in the metabolism of various institutions and cells in the human body, thus greatly increasing human immune function.
According to the world science and technology translation, Robert, director of the Center for Natural Medicine and Prevention at Herrich Disposal University in the United States? After years of research, Schneider said: "Transcendental meditation seems to be able to restore the self-repair mechanism and self-balance mechanism of the human body. It acts on neurohormones and some nervous systems, thus helping to alleviate the symptoms of heart disease and other diseases ... This technology is a natural relaxation process that can make you feel comfortable and quiet. "
The researchers also said: "If you meditate twice a day for 20 minutes, it is an effective way to prevent and treat cardiovascular diseases and can be used as an auxiliary means of traditional heart disease treatment."
Scientists at the University of Illinois in the United States observed the physiological experiment of sitting posture of 40 students. The results show that as long as they sit for 5 to 10 minutes, the oxygen consumption of the human brain will drop by 17%, which is equivalent to the change after 7 hours of deep sleep. At the same time, it was found that the concentration of lactic acid called "fatin" in the blood of the subjects also decreased to some extent
Hinayana Buddhism says, "Sitting for a long time will lead to meditation." Meditation can not only increase skill, preserve health and cure diseases, but also enlighten wisdom and realize the way of life in the universe.
According to a recent report on the website of New Scientist, scientists at the University of Kentucky have found that if you stay up late, meditation for 40 minutes can make up for the lack of sleep.
The researchers asked 10 subjects who stayed up all night to meditate, read, chat or sleep respectively, and after 40 minutes, they were given a "mental action vigilance task" test. The experimental results shocked the researchers.
Although all the subjects have never practiced meditation, they will have an excellent performance immediately after 40 minutes. However, it takes at least 1 hour to wake up from the haze after a 40-minute nap. And those who chat and read books are not helpful to restore energy, which shows that meditation and meditation really have incredible help to the brain.
After decades of research on the brain, researchers in an air force base laboratory in Ohio, USA, found that there are several different types of human brain activities, including 8 to 13HZ α wave, 14 to 25HZ β wave, 4 to 7HZ θ wave and 1 3HZ δ wave. When our brain is nervous, emotional or excited, beta waves often appear; When we are in a quiet and awake state, alpha waves will appear in our brains; When you are extremely tired or asleep, delta waves will appear in your brain; However, when adults are frustrated, depressed, mentally ill and children, θ waves usually appear in their brains.
Professor Wallace of Harvard University in the United States found that the alpha wave intensity in the forehead area and the central area of the head will greatly increase when the human body is at rest, and the frequency will slow down from above 20HZ to 8 to 9HZ. The alpha wave rhythm of the occipital main branch of the brain gradually shifted to the forehead, and its intensity increased by 425% to 525%. However, the electrical activity of nerve cells is highly orderly and changes at the same time, which is 4 to 5 times higher than that without training.
In addition, scientists also found that regular meditation can increase the thickness of prefrontal cortex and right forebrain cortex, which are the places to control people's attention and perception. Many famous scientists, writers, inventors and other celebrities have thick prefrontal cortex, and their brain waves are at alpha wave frequency most of the time, which shows that meditation can really make the brain agile and easy to generate inspiration.
"Great Wisdom" said: "Although the Bodhisattva is far away from all sentient beings, she never gives up, seeking true wisdom in a quiet place to measure everything."
The new version of Zhao De says: "The image of water is clear, and the mind is calm and intelligent."
According to geophysicists, the Humen wave between the space ionosphere and the earth is 8 to 14 Hz, which is basically similar to the brain wave when the human body meditates into silence. Therefore, meditation in the ethereal realm where things and things are forgotten will lead to an understanding of the road of life and the true meaning of the universe.
Scientists have also proved through experiments that through orderly training, the human body can learn to control and regulate its brain waves, and when the body and mind are completely relaxed, its memory is almost endless, and it is found that these people's memory has no obvious saturation point.
Joseph, a scientist who discovered the superconducting festival and won the Nobel Prize in Physics? Sen once said: "Science has developed to this day, and it is difficult to go on without meditation experience."
Many scientists believe that transcendental meditation is the highest technology for the brain to give full play to its function, which can subtly stimulate the power of the left hemisphere of the brain to influence the right hemisphere and make the right hemisphere give full play to its thinking ability.
To sum up, the function of meditation is not only to strengthen the body, prolong life, enlighten and increase wisdom, but also to explore research methods and the mysteries of human life science. It even has far-reaching significance and role in the development of science and technology and the mysteries of nature.
Modern science has proved that meditation can change the brain structure. It is reported that American scientists found in 2005 that meditation can not only relax your spirit and calm your mind, but also change the structure of your brain and enhance your wisdom.
People who have practiced meditation say that meditation makes them energetic, while others say that they just need a short sleep.
Although many studies have shown that the brain wave form of brain activity will change during meditation, and the spontaneous discharge rate of neurons will also be coordinated, does meditation really play a role in restoring energy like sleep?
O'Hare of the University of Kentucky and his colleagues confirmed the above problems through "mental action alert work". This is a recognized research method to test the influence of sleep deprivation on people's thinking acuity.
The researchers asked the subjects to stare at the computer screen and press the button as soon as an image appeared. In general, people will react within 200-300 milliseconds, but a person who lacks sleep will spend a long time, sometimes even unaware of the appearance of the image.
O'Hare et al. asked 10 tired subjects to do the above test after sleeping, meditating, reading or chatting for 40 minutes.
What shocked the researchers was that although all the subjects had never practiced meditation, they immediately performed well after 40 minutes of meditation; However, after a 40-minute nap, the subjects need at least 1 hour to wake up from the gloom and make a good performance; Reading or chatting doesn't help to restore energy.
O'Hare said that after 40 minutes of meditation, the test performance of all parts of the subjects improved. Meditation and meditation are particularly amazing when the subjects stay up all night. Scientists still don't know why meditation can make people energetic. They are studying people who spend several hours meditating every day, hoping to find the answer.
Dr. Laro of MassachusettsGeneralHospital and his colleagues compared 15 volunteers with 1-30 years of meditation and meditation experience with those without meditation.
They found that meditation did increase the thickness of the prefrontal cortex and the right forebrain island, two areas that control people's attention and perception.
Previous studies have shown that some famous musicians, athletes and linguists have thickened these cortical areas. Both Laro and O'Hare presented their research at the annual meeting of the Neurological Society held in Washington, D.C. from June 5th to 10, 2005.
It is worth mentioning that the study of brain waves in these three States by modern scientists has also revealed many common truths.
Beta wave (above 14HZ) is the dominant wave when most people are awake. With the increase of beta wave, the body gradually becomes nervous, thus reducing the ability of the immune system in the body. At this time, people's energy consumption intensifies and they are prone to fatigue. If they don't have enough rest, they can easily accumulate stress. Appropriate β wave has a positive effect on attention improvement and cognitive behavior development.
When θ wave (4-8 Hz) is the dominant wave, people's consciousness is in a state of half waking and half sleeping, and their bodies are deeply relaxed, which is very suggestive of external information, that is, they are hypnotized.
θ wave is very helpful to trigger deep memory, increase inspiration, improve creativity and strengthen long-term memory, so θ wave is called "the gate of memory and learning".
δ wave (0.4-4 Hz) When δ wave is the dominant wave, it is in a deep sleep and unconscious state. People's sleep quality is directly related to δ wave. δ wave sleep is a dreamless deep sleep state. If you summon a state similar to δ wave when you have difficulty sleeping, you can quickly get rid of insomnia and enter a deep sleep. The pursuit of beauty sleep is this short but deep sleep. In addition, according to scientific research, δ wave is also the key to develop human intuitive radar system and super mysterious power.
There is another brain wave: alpha wave (8- 14Hz). When alpha wave is the dominant wave, people's consciousness is clear, but their body is relaxed, which provides a bridge between consciousness and subconscious. Relaxation: it is related to whether a person's mood is calm and easy-going, and whether he feels relaxed and happy; Anxiety and tension can inhibit alpha waves, which are most likely to appear when awake and with eyes closed. In this state, the physical and mental energy consumption is the least, and more energy is obtained relative to the brain, so the operation will be faster, smoother, more inspiring and more intuitive. Alpha wave is the best brain wave state for people to learn and think. From the study of brain waves, it can be found that when meditation practitioners are quiet, α waves increase obviously. The higher the skill, the higher the voltage of α wave and θ wave, and the better the synchronization and coordination of brain waves. The increase and coordination of brain wave voltage means that the energy in the "small universe" of human brain has increased, which has undergone qualitative changes and connected more brain nerve cell networks. It also means that the confused consciousness that is usually influenced by the outside world is transformed into a clear and happy consciousness, and the anxiety and tension are alleviated.
It can be seen that when the brain waves are in the alpha state, the gate between consciousness and subconscious is opened, and the body feels that the "short-term memory" on the conscious level is easy to communicate with the subconscious.
There is a great scientist in the west. His name is Tesla. The result he proved in science, like what we experience in meditation, is a real "emptiness". Some people call it "god", "heaven", "Buddha nature", "energy" or "quantum theory" and so on. Whatever you call it, this "emptiness"
When we meditate, we put everything down and enter this "emptiness"-that is, the essence of everything, and then change from "emptiness" to "existence", which will flow into our inner side and make us better and smarter, which is exactly the purpose of Tesla's research.
This kind of "emptiness" is from the heart, the root of everything, and the place where you and I come, but since this body has been formed, we might as well enjoy it.
Tesla and many scientists have confirmed that everything does not exist in a solid state as most people think. The Buddha also proved that our bodies are only illusions. These statements are not mysterious at all, and they are very scientific.
When we look inward, we will find nothing, no body, no matter, only a real world, a real energy, and that is our source. As long as we don't think of ourselves as this body, we can understand where we come from; Real energy is the source of everything, and Tesla said so.
If we can communicate with this real "emptiness" and "existence" and separate them, we can make full use of it to create everything, use this energy to make cars and planes run, and it is completely free, without using oil or abusing world resources.
Maybe in the future, more scientists will prove that meditation is really true. They use scientific methods to change "being" from "emptiness", and we use our body and mind to get this energy from meditation, to understand where we come from and to go back there in the future, and to understand that our essence is not this body.
We must use this scientific explanation to clarify the mystery of practice. Actually, these things are not mysterious at all.
A master spoke in English in Bangkok, Thailand 1994438+0.5438+0.
The New Favorite of American Hospitals and Schools: Meditation
Meditation was once considered as an abstruse and mysterious pursuit, but now it has become the mainstream of American society. According to a survey conducted by the US government in 2007, there are more than 20 million people in the United States who meditate, that is, one in every 1 1 has had meditation experience in the past.
More and more medical centers begin to teach patients meditation to relieve pain and stress. In clinics and hospitals, there are more than 200 kinds of meditation courses, most of which focus on a mental image, a voice or a person's own breathing. Although it looks simple on the surface, it is really effective.
Some foundations also cooperate with schools to provide students with courses to practice meditation on campus. Teachers in primary schools say that teaching children to meditate can calm them down, at the same time, it can prolong the duration of attention, increase concentration and improve memory.
Great changes in social acceptance of meditation have prompted the scientific community to accelerate the research on the benefits of meditation;
Some scientific studies have proved that meditation can really relieve pain, improve attention and immune function, lower blood pressure, suppress anxiety and insomnia, and may even help prevent depression.
With the help of advanced brain scanning technology, scientists have begun to prove that meditation can directly affect the function and structure of the brain. Through brain scanning, compared with another group of people who never meditate, people who meditate for a long time find that the areas in the brain that control attention and internal sensory acuity become thicker. These people will be alert to muscle tension caused by their anger or anxiety.
In May this year, a study by UCLA found that the part of the meditator's brain responsible for attention and emotional regulation is larger, and there is more gray matter in the brain, which can improve intellectual function. In addition, there is an area in the cerebral cortex that will naturally become thinner with age, and meditation can slow down the pace of change.
In addition, there is an area in the cerebral cortex that will naturally become thinner with age, and meditation can slow down the pace of change.
Richard Davidson, a neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin, said that his research found that even novice meditators had more activation in areas of the brain that were beneficial to human beings. The more these areas are activated, the greater the antibody response of the body to influenza vaccine, and the more protective effect of the vaccine can be enhanced. Meditation has influenced many biological processes by changing the brain.
With the continuous expansion of research, scientists have solved more mysteries surrounding meditation. For those who meditate for a long time, its benefits are self-evident. Tim Ryan, a 35-year-old Ohio Rep., meditates for at least 45 minutes every day before leaving home, because the noisy proceedings on Capitol Hill forced him to recharge his batteries and deal with it calmly.
He said that meditation helps him keep his mind clear and concentrate more, so that he can become a better listener and make insightful analysis quickly.
He said that I am more sober and enjoy life more than before.
Everyone should be familiar with "meditation" and know that it is a way used by people who want to meditate or practice. But what effect does meditation have?
In March 2002, the BBC reported that AndrewNewberg of the Radiology Department of the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center used modern imaging technology to study the results of meditation.
Dr newberg compared the changes of active parts of the cerebral cortex of Tibetan lamas during and after meditation.
He used a technique called positron emission tomography (SPECT) to observe the changes of regional blood flow in the brain by comparing the regional blood flow tomography of Lama after meditation and meditation, thus inferring which parts of the brain are more active and which parts are less active during meditation, and understanding the activity of the cerebral cortex during meditation.
It is found that during meditation, the activity in the frontal lobe of the brain is enhanced, while the activity in the occipital lobe of the brain is weakened.
Dr newberg explained: "Usually, when people pay attention to a specific thing, the activity in the front of the brain increases, while the activity in the back of the brain decreases obviously. This part is generally considered to have played a sense of direction, three-dimensional effect and so on. These results can explain why people usually have the feeling of forgetting themselves and losing time and space during meditation, which is exactly what was observed in the experiment. "
Dr. newberg said that he has been thinking about reality, truth and God since he was a child, and these thoughts have also guided him to use his professional knowledge in neuroscience and brain imaging technology to study the relationship between brain, mind and religious practice in the future, which will help to understand the influence of religious practice on physical and mental health.
He talked about the direct relationship between health and psychology, and showed that meditation helps to lower blood pressure, slow down heart rate, reduce anxiety and relieve depression. He also believes that studying the material world and inner world of human beings is equally beneficial to human beings.
Dr newberg also found a special phenomenon. In his research, he found that people will feel the magical experience of "spiritual psychology" when they meditate, and this spiritual experience is far more real than what they feel in daily life.
This also shows that people's spiritual and psychological experience may be stronger, clearer and more real than what we feel with our senses every day.
(partially sorted and forwarded)