Practicing Meditation

This chapter describes the Buddhist practice of meditation as it appears in the early Mahayana context of the Vimalakīrti Sūtra. It stresses mindfulness as a state of mind cultivated in the midst of ordinary life activity. Rather than demanding the abandonment of the passions and emotional sensitivity, it encourages bodhisattvas to cultivate emotion as one essential element of life. That sensitivity is prevented from being an extreme source of suffering by calming and concentration meditation practices. Vimalakirti is described as practicing and teaching insight meditation throughout the sutra as a means of self-transformation and as a method to deal with the inevitable suffering in human life.

The Dangers of Mindfulness: Another Myth?

Criticism of potential drawbacks of mindfulness is crucial for the field to move forward and remain grounded in reality rather than become carried away by the mindfulness hype. At the same time, however, such criticism needs to be reasonable and based on actual facts rather than subjective imagination. The allegation that mindfulness is intrinsically dangerous appears to have been influenced by unreasonable claims made by Daniel Ingram, which have been taken seriously due to an apparent lack of acquaintance of some scholars with Buddhist doctrine and with genuine forms of insight meditation.

Mysticism in Tibetan Buddhism. A study into the Path of Insight

Wysocki Adam, Mysticism in Tibetan Buddhism. A study into the Path of Insight. Culture – Society – Education no 2(16) 2019, Poznań 2019, pp. 183–201, Adam Mickiewicz University Press. ISSN 2300-0422. DOI 10.14746/kse.2019.16.12. The Path of Insight is a spiritual path of Tibetan Buddhism tradition. The fundamental part consists of three elements, such like: preliminary practices, the tranquility meditation and the penetrating insight meditation. However, counted three parts one ought to perceive as aspects of one process aiming to realize of the soteriology purpose. The achievement of the non-dual state has its own development process, which consists experience of the non-dual state, stabilise it and then development of it. Outline of development process is contained in the Path o Insight and relies on exceeding of subjective-objective divisibility. It isperceived as an effect of the ignorance of true nature of the individual. The achievement of the non-dual state, that is nature of the mind (tib. sems nyid) constitutes the purpose of the Path of Insight and it is described by concept-symbol called mahamudra.

Mind–Body Health Technique Liu Zi Jue: Its Creation, Transition, and Formalization

Liu Zi Jue, a traditional mind–body health technique, is highly regarded and has been widely spread nowadays due to its easy learning, easy operation, and demonstrable physical and psychological therapeutic value. However, due to the lack of understanding of its complex development process, practitioners and researchers are easily confused by different versions. This study identified the historical development of Liu Zi Jue systematically, and then divided it into three stages, including (a) the creation, which was a breathing regimen; (b) the transition, which became a therapeutic form of Vipassanā (insight meditation) and was identified as a new relationship between the six sounds and internal organs; and (c) the formalization, which became a comprehensive regimen that integrated Tu Na (breathing techniques in Qigong), mindfulness, Dao Yin (movement–breath–mind techniques, helping the stagnated Qi to flow smoothly), and natural and seasonal nurturing. Besides, future research directions are proposed.

Daoist Meditation

Meditation has been and remains a central practice in the Daoist (Taoist) tradition. This chapter examines Daoist meditation, often referred to as dazuo (“engaging in sitting”) and shouyi (“guarding the One”) in Chinese, from the Later Han dynasty to the present. It provides a general overview of the five major forms of Daoist meditation, namely, apophatic meditation, ingestion, visualization, inner observation, and internal alchemy. Ingestion (fuqi) and visualization (cunxiang) were first systematized in the early medieval period. Inner observation (neiguan), a Daoist adaptation of Buddhist insight meditation (vipassanā), became a central practice during the Tang dynasty. Internal alchemy (neidan) developed during the late Tang dynasty and early Song dynasty. Following this period, apophatic meditation and internal alchemy became the two dominant forms of Daoist meditative praxis. In addition to providing socio-historical background information, this chapter discusses the technical specifics of each type of Daoist meditation, including major texts and informing views.

The Dukkha of Racism

This chapter examines some of the main features of diversity and inclusion work through a case study of the Insight Meditation Community of Washington (DC) (IMCW). It considers the main pragmatic and hermeneutic strategies by which diversity and inclusion initiatives are legitimated within Buddhist thought and practices at IMCW as well as the opposition such work has faced from many of its overwhelmingly white, middle-class and upper-middle-class members. Then, it considers how the work at IMCW reflects shifts around racial diversity and white privilege in the wider Insight community. The chapter concludes by exploring the significance of racial justice and diversity work in terms of the status and unfolding of Buddhist modernism in the United States.

Insight meditation and telomere biology: The effects of intensive retreat and the moderating role of personality

A growing body of evidence suggests that meditation training may have a range of salubrious effects, including improved telomere regulation. Telomeres and the enzyme telomerase interact with a variety of molecular components to regulate cell-cycle signaling cascades, and are implicated in pathways linking psychological stress to disease. We investigated the effects of intensive meditation practice on these biomarkers by measuring changes in telomere length (TL), telomerase activity (TA), and telomere-related gene (TRG) expression during a 1-month residential Insight meditation retreat. Multilevel analyses revealed an apparent TL increase in the retreat group, compared to a group of experienced meditators, similarly comprised in age and gender, who were not on retreat. Moreover, personality traits predicted changes in TL, such that retreat participants highest in neuroticism and lowest in agreeableness demonstrated the greatest increases in TL. Changes observed in TRGs further suggest retreat-related improvements in telomere maintenance, including increases in Gar1 and HnRNPA1, which encode proteins that bind telomerase RNA and telomeric DNA. Although no group-level changes were observed in TA, retreat participants’ TA levels at post-assessment were inversely related to several indices of retreat engagement and prior meditation experience. Neuroticism also predicted variation in TA across retreat. These findings suggest that meditation training in a retreat setting may have positive effects on telomere regulation, which are moderated by individual differences in personality and meditation experience. (ClinicalTrials.gov #NCT03056105).