Benefits of Meditation
Meditation practice appears to bring forth a number of pragmatic benefits. From a neuroscientific perspective, regular practice of meditation seems to reduce cognitive decline associated with normal aging by offsetting cortical thinning (Lazar et al., 2005; Pagnoni & Cekic, 2007). Slagter et al. (2007) corroborate the idea that “plasticity in brain and mental function exists throughout life” (p. 1234) by demonstrating how a three-month intensive meditation can improve attention skills, specifically by shortening attentional blink. They conclude that unlike video games, the “purely mental training of attention skills” in meditation can actually “influence performance on a novel task that calls upon those skills” (Slagter et al., 2007, p. 1233). The lasting effects of improved attentional abilities evidenced by the activation of attentional circuitry—such as the anterior cingulate, right dorsolateral prefrontal, insular, occipital and parietal cortices—as a result of regular meditation practice have also been documented in several other studies (Kozasa, Radvany, Barreiros, Leite, & Amaro, 2008; Lazar et al., 2000). Furthermore, meditation enables one to exercise the flexibility to respond to stimuli in a nonhabitual way (Kutz, Borysenko, & Benson, 1985; Perez-De-Albeniz, 2000; Shapiro & Zifferblatt, 1976; Snaith, 1998; Wells, 2002; Wenk-Sormaz, 2005). Meditation appears to enhance one's creativity (Travis, 1979) and ability to learn (Cranson et al., 1991).
In addition, meditation has been demonstrated to improve immune system function (Davidson et al., 2003; Newberg & Iversen, 2003; Rood et al., 1993; Solberg et al., 1995), for example: breast and prostrate cancer (Carlson et al., 2003), asthma (Castes et al., 1999), serum and salivary immunoglobin (Green, Green, & Santoro, 1988 as cited in Collins & Dunn, 2005), The integration of imagery in meditation practice has been shown to have a significantly positive influence on manifestations of humorally mediated autoimmune diseases, such as in: dermatomyositis (Collins & Dunn, 2005), metastatic cancer (Gruber et al., 1988), and human immunodeficiency virus (Robinson, Matthews, & Witek-Janusek, 2003).
The body-mindfulness that results from meditation is also shown to be effective in managing long-term chronic pain (Kabat-Zinn, 1984; Kabat-Zinn, Lipworth, & Burney, 1985; Pike, 2008). The “equanimous observation” of impermanent physical sensations is likely to enable one to be fully conscious of the “reactive mind and its exacerbating pre-occupation with the cyclical pattern leading to negative thoughts and feelings” (Fleischman, 1999 as cited in Pike, 2008, p. 50).
The mechanisms underlying how meditation appears to bring about positive emotional changes have also been investigated (Bondolfi, 2004). After being taught meditation, patients who frequently got admitted to a psychiatric hospital because of problems associated with acute anger, have been found to display no physical aggression and very little verbal aggression during a four-year follow-up study in the community (Singh et al., 2007). Leung and Singhal (2004) even suggest that meditation could also positively influence personality. The less elaborate stimulus processing and the flexibility to engage and disengage from target stimuli in response to task demands (Slagter et al., 2007) support the idea that one can become less fixated on an object or idea after an extended period of meditation practice. As research to date seems to support the wide-ranging benefits of consciousness training in meditation practice, the resulting inevitable perceptual shifts may explain the centrality of meditation practice among Buddhist practitioners regardless of approach to attain Buddhahood or Perfect Enlightenment.
Reflections
- Is the information above congruent with your predictions? How are they congruent or incongruent with one another?
- Having read the benefits of meditation practice, would you try to take up meditation practice? What possible concerns do you have with starting your own practice?