Newsletter #12, by Brian (19 Aug, 2012)

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Samarpan Online Group Meditation Newsletter

NEWSLETTER TOPIC – Meditation, As It’s Seen…through Brian’s eyes

From a desk of Brian Hughes…

In a London apartment, an attractive 27yr old woman crouches down, trembling in the corner of the living room, too scared to be seen from the window. Her life has been turned upside down by the sudden onset of paranoid schizophrenia. She suffers the torment of her demons being reflected back at her with such force, that she is sure that people outside are out to kill her.

On holiday in Croatia, a 35 yr old man breaks down in tears with the realisation that his life has become so miserable that he simply can’t carry on,  but that there is a new ‘spiritual’ path, as yet undefined, that may be open to him and help give him relief of the suffering he now experiences.

In Auckland, New Zealand, a 53yr old man has survived a heart attack but now suffers an ongoing depression so debilitating it destroys his self esteem, and the relationships with his staff and his family.

I personally know these people and I’ve witnessed each of them experience, through learning the simple practice of meditation, a powerful shift that has transformed their lives.

By practicing mindful awareness, the young woman suffering paranoid schizophrenia is now beginning to catch when her mind plays tricks on her. She is beginning to see that her torment is caused by the delusional mental afflictions of her mind rather than really existing out there in the world. Although she is just starting on her meditation journey, by practicing present moment awareness, she can already experience glimpses of a better life, one free of torment, where she can experience that she is much loved, that she is OK, and that world has not condemned her to a living hell.

The man suffering the debilitating effects of depression after a heart attack is learning that by taking regular time out during the day to rest in non-judgmental awareness, he can disengage from the ‘doing mind’ and settle in the ‘being mind’. This allows him a release of mental tension and the clamping down of his problem solving mind which causes grasping and narrow minded thinking. His perspective broadens, he sees new creative solutions to his problems, and he experiences a sense of lightness, openness and inner joy that seems to disperse the dark clouds of depression.

I myself was the 35 yr old Londoner who had a transformative realisation on a holiday in Croatia. I’d been living a ‘work hard-play hard’ lifestyle in London. I felt trapped and driven to push myself to continuously achieve more, working longer and longer hours. I had a poor diet, did little exercise and compensated for the lack of joy in my life by drinking and partying heavily. My body reacted by producing illnesses. I was diagnosed with Ankylosing spondylitis, an autoimmune arthritic condition. I suddenly got tinnitus. I suffered from gastritis and IBS. Emotionally I was a wreck. I was often negative and self critical. My relationship with my girlfriend, with friends and family were full of drama and disappointment. I had a deep sense that I was not good enough, that I didn’t belong and that the only way I would ever experience the unconditional love that my heart yearned for was to fix the ‘mistakes of the past’ by achieving better results. Every new achievement gave only momentary satisfaction, and soon I was again driven to chasing the orange carrot that remained forever just out of reach.

An invitation from a new friend, Honey Kalaria, to attend a meditation group in East London changed everything. The group was part of an international organisation called Samarpan Meditation. There was a guru, a mantra to chant at the beginning of the meditation, and the process was designed to awaken an energy known in India as Kundalini. It was all very exotic and completely unrelated to anything I’d ever known before. But I experienced such a sense of wellbeing when I was with the group, that I became an enthusiastic meditation student. The collective meditation experience seemed to put me on a fast track, taking me away from my suffering and speeding me towards a sense of peace and happiness.

With the new ability to rest in meditation came the settling of the mind. I began to distinguish the elements of my mind that were causing me so much pain. I could see patterns of thinking that were destructive and I started to let them go. I began to sense that I was connected to something much larger and more powerful than myself. I became sensitive to energetic experiences occurring in my body. Sometimes I could actually feel negativity leave my body. I became much healthier, I stopped drinking alcohol, I began to eat well, to exercise and to naturally lean towards the wholesome and the life affirming. The qualities of my relationships transformed to become precious and rewarding.

The more I meditate the easier it becomes to accept myself exactly as I am. Love and compassion for myself and others continues to develop.

Mediation for me has been a process of first relaxation, then stability of the mind, and after that cultivation of vividness and clarity. Mediation is like the sharp end of a sword that cuts through delusion. I am much calmer, and by getting better at letting go of the hyper-vigilant, problem solving mind, I seem to be allowing a greater benevolent force run the show. It feels like I engage with a more primal, pre verbal consciousness and wisdom. This force can be called many things, spirit, body-mind, universal consciousness, intuition, connectivity with nature and the universe, God. It doesn’t really matter what I name it, I just know that by letting go of mental afflictions, and getting myself out of the way, my mind and body naturally heals by itself… which is amazing.

Since I have been meditating regularly I experience joy every day. I feel my heart sing during random moments of beauty, encountering a mountain view, a beautiful sunrise, or a smile from a stranger. I easily feel openness and connection with people. It feels great to witness my heart’s longing and just let it be and rejoice in its existence, whether the desire is fulfilled or not. I now have the confidence that all the resources I require in life are already at my fingertips, and that I have something to contribute, to give back. I know that I am constantly developing my sense of intuition and that this inner wisdom guides me, and lets me know when I’m ‘off track’. I enjoy a more consistent sense of wellbeing. When unexpected things happen, I’m not thrown off balance, I’m not drawn into the drama. Instead I’m usually steady, like a ship on an even keel. I seem to have access to a sense wonder and excitement at just being alive, no matter what is happening, and a deep connection to the ebb and flow of the source of life.

In the twenty first century there’s now a convergence between Western science and the Eastern contemplative traditions. With the extraordinary developments in neuroscience and the technological advances of MRI scanning, scientists can now see how meditation affects the body and the brain. We know for example that monks who are experienced meditators have a larger, thicker, and more developed prefrontal cortex. This area of the brain is associated with logic, decision making, socialisation, creative thinking, goal setting, and the ability to discern good & bad choices. Reduced volumes of the prefrontal cortex are associated with ADHD, schizophrenia, depression, and bipolar disorder.

We know that meditation helps us to regulate the autonomic nervous system. Meditation encourages disengagement from the Limbic brain which has a relationship with the ‘Sympathetic’ nervous system, the fight or flight response that fires up the production of stress hormones; and engages the stimulation of the “rest-and-digest” activities of  the ‘para-sympathetic’ nervous system.

Meditation, mindfulness, and the ability to simply observe emotions and label them, reduces stimulation of the Amygdala, which is associated with generating the emotions of fear and anger.

We know of meditation’s success in dealing with depression (considered by the World Health Organisation to be the second most serious health issue by 2020). Mindfulness meditation may rival medication at preventing relapse in people with depression. It helps people with Irritable bowel syndrome, Obesity, Social Anxiety, Chronic diseases, Insomnia, Multiple sclerosis and Paranoid Schizophrenia.

But as a neuroscientist friend of mine recently exclaimed, knowing which part of the brain is being activated, doesn’t actually help one to have a more fulfilling meditation. A meditation teacher once told me, the extent to which we need to intellectually understand something is in direct proportion to how little we are able to just open our heart and trust.

No matter how much we experiment, verify results, further test and examine… at some point if we are to gain any benefit from the contemplative spiritual practices, we need to open our hearts, trust in the higher wisdom and allow ourselves to fall into the loving and supporting arms of the universe.

If you can quieten the mind enough to begin to listen to the heart, you will find that you already have the answers you seek.

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