Neuro Scientist works with Dalai Lama to study happiness

I found this article and think, yeah, we know meditation expands all the higher faculties and still people are not convinced. If you learn how to do one thing in life, learn meditation and tap into that amazing inner silence that wraps and encompasses us all.

SCIENTIST INSPIRED BY DALAI LAMA STUDIES HAPPINESS

MADISON, Wis. — After hearing about his cutting-edge research on the brain and emotions through mutual friends, the Dalai Lama invited Richard Davidson to his home in India in 1992 to pose a question.

Scientists often study depression, anxiety and fear, but why not devote your work to the causes of positive human qualities like happiness and compassion? the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader asked.

"I couldn't give him a good answer," recalled Davidson, a University of Wisconsin-Madison neuro-scientist.

Since then, Davidson has become a partner in the Dalai Lama's attempts to build a connection between Buddhism and western science. This weekend, the Dalai Lama will mark the opening of the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds at the university's Waisman Center, where more than a dozen researchers will study the science behind positive qualities of mind. Davidson said the center will be the only one in the world with a meditation room next to a brain imaging laboratory.

Davidson's research has used brain imaging technology on Buddhist monks and other veteran practitioners of meditation to try to learn how their training affects mental health.

His team's findings suggest meditation and other "contemplative practices" can improve compassion, empathy, kindness and attention. They support the concept that even adult brains can change through experience and learning.

"He's made some interesting discoveries about meditation, and I think he is doing very good science," said John Wiley, who was university chancellor from 2001 to 2008 and is interim director of the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery.

Initially, "a significant number of his colleagues around the world were suspicious and thought that it wasn't adequately grounded in hard science," Wiley said. "He's proved them wrong."

The appearance comes as the Dalai Lama has spent more time promoting research into traditional Buddhist meditative practices and urging scientists to help create a more ethical and peaceful world.

Davidson, named one of Time magazine's most 100 influential people in 2006, will appear with the Dalai Lama at scientific events five times this year.

"His relationship with the Dalai Lama lends a great deal of public influence to the hard science that he does," said David Addiss, a former Centers for Disease Control official who now works at the Fetzer Institute, a Michigan nonprofit that gave Davidson a $2.5 million grant.

Yet Davidson's relationship with the Dalai Lama remains controversial. When he invited the Dalai Lama to speak at a 2005 neuroscience conference, dozens of researchers signed a petition in protest.

Some of the criticism appeared motivated by Chinese researchers who disagree politically with the Dalai Lama's stance on Tibet. Others said it was an inappropriate mix of faith with science.

Davidson, who meditates every morning but does not consider himself a practicing Buddhist, has also been criticized for being too close to someone with an interest in the outcome of his research.

Davidson said the Dalai Lama's commitment to science is remarkable for a religious leader of his stature, and notes that the Dalai Lama has said he is prepared to give up any part of Buddhism that is contradicted by scientific fact.

"He also is the first one to point out the limitations of meditation and how it's not a cure all and be all for everything and has very limited effects on health," Davidson said.

Davidson is ready to test his research in real-world situations. The center plans to begin training local fifth-grade teachers next fall to cultivate skills like patience and relaxation among their students.

"We're really intrigued with his research that shows students can learn how to relax so they can focus more on learning," said Sue Abplanalp, assistant superintendent for elementary schools in the Madison public schools.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Ac Cent Tuate The Pos it ive

I've been hearing a lot of negative stuff from people lately who don't realize they're so full of bile yet I have to hear them out, so it was serendipitous to come across this Harold Arlen/Johnny Mercer. song, sung here by Aretha Franklin, with phrasing lifted from Dinah Washington.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IP9h40z0sk

here are the words

You've got to accentuate the positive

Eliminate the negative

Latch on to the affirmative

Don't mess with Mister In-Between

You've got to spread joy up to the maximum

Bring gloom down to the minimum

Have faith or pandemonium's Liable to walk upon the scene

To illustrate his last remark Jonah in the whale, Noah in the ark

What did they do Just when everything looked so dark.

Man, they said we better Accentuate the positive

Eliminate the negative

Latch on to the affirmative

Don't mess with Mister In-Between

No, do not mess with Mister In-Between

You've gotta accentuate the positive

Eliminate the negative Latch on to the affirmative

Don't mess with Mister In-Between

You've got to spread joy

Bring gloom (down) down to the minimum Otherwise (otherwise) pandemonium Liable to walk upon the scene

To illustrate my last remark Jonah in the whale, Noah in the ark

What did they say

Say when everything looked so dark

Man, they said we better Accentuate the positive

Eliminate the negative

Latch on to the affirmative

Don't mess with Mister In-Between

No! Baby Don't mess with Mister In-Between

Healing through Writing Workshop, The Feelgood Centre

Wednesday, March 31st, 6.30pm

Ever feel you have something unsaid still locked inside?

Then this workshop might be for you. Learn How Writing really can heal your life. Journaling is often overlooked in our busy lives. With a sensitive approach, truthful writing can be used a therapeutic tool to uncover long buried feelings to gain insight, and thus regain power. Writing your way to health is simple, easy and even good fun.

Kieron’s approach to writing is a unique synthesis of ideas about how writing releases emotions, thus clearing the way for self growth; it is based on a variety of methods developed by pioneers in the field. The added bonus is that he also uses techniques from energy psychology.

During the session you will be shown how to:

• write freely without self censorship
• become centred and focussed
• release blocked emotions
• clarify long standing or unresolved issues
• be more in contact with your dreams

Who is it for?

The workshop is most valuable for people who have recently been through a difficult transition, a major illness, relationship break down, or other traumatic experiences. However because writing can also be a fun activity, it is really open to anyone who feels they have a story they have not yet voiced, or are you just somebody with a story to tell, then writing could be the answer for you.

The Feelgood Centre, 33-34 Chiswell Street, EC1 SFY Barbican or Moorgate Tube
Call 07896 483746

Writing as Self Hypnosis Healing

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Writing is a much undervalued tool for accessing calmer, wiser inner states of mind. When we write, we activate thought streams from both left and right hemispheres of our brain and connect them to our hand. This allows a greater flow of insight and creativity. Problems can seem like monster hurdles, but when they are written out on the page in full, they can trigger perceptual shifts. Seen from this new perspective, they are suddenly unthreatening, bearable or even self-created.

Writing has great health benefits as James Pennebaker’s experiments have proven. There is a direct link between writing about traumas and a healthy rebalancing of the immune system, which aids healing. This won’t happen however, if we just write a few quick notes on a scrap of paper. Having a serious approach, and mustering the courage to tackle our ‘troubling life experiences’ is what will make it work. These personal life events that may contain abuse, rage, violence, depression, doubt, confusion, and low self esteem - are the ‘knots’ of our lives that need unravelling. They are often events we could not understand at the time they happened, but which nevertheless form the basis of our habitual character. They are major stressors that have an impact on our health.

Promoting the body’s natural mechanisms of defence is something that doesn’t have to cost a lot of money paid to a psychotherapist or doctor. It is something we can do for ourselves. It can even take us much further than this, as once a first trauma is cleared, another deeper issue may arise. This is the signal from our higher selves that we are being challenged to grow.

If you write a journal regularly, or keep a daily diary of your thoughts, you will already have experienced the positive health benefits : fewer visits to the doctor, more ‘inner space’, deeper insight into yourself and others, an appreciation of cycles and overall life patterns, ability to make more informed and sustainable choices. Journaling develops an intimacy with the self that far from making us isolated, helps us to understand more easily what others are going through as well. It can even encourage life-long self development.

What is fascinating to me is that writing is a natural trance. Everyone is born knowing how to do, yet many fail to realise its health potential. Some may believe that only a hypnotherapist can create a trance deep enough for healing to occur, but all of us are doing it all the time whenever we go inside ourselves. When writers write stories they are in a creative trance. When readers read these stories, they are also in co-creative trance, engaging with what the writer has produced.

Trance states, where our attention is directed inwards, are both calming and energising. It is through understanding this and acting on it that allows us to realise our physiology and helps us work towards greater psycho-energetic healing.

Writing in a trance state may therefore be the most potent yet accessible way of doing self hypnosis healing that we have available. Done properly, it is a very valuable healing tool that is open to anyone with pen, paper and the ‘write’ approach.

Kieron is a hypnotherapist working in Central London. He runs Writing As Healing workshops at The Feelgood Centre, 33-34,Chiswell Street, EC1.

© Kieron Devlin, 2011
all rights reserved 

www.kierondevlin.com

https://www.youtube.com/user/KDjupiter

https://twitter.com/KDJupiter

Kalipara Rock Puja, Neyyar Dam, Kerala, India

Last night, the Saturday 26th, we were taken on a special trip. 'We' in this case are the ashramites staying at the Sivananda Ashram, Neyyar Dam, Kerala, which is a natural beauty spot and a haven away from anything urban. It lies on the edge of a dam surrounded by mountain peaks and a national wildlife sanctuary. They said it was 'just a walk up a hill' for a Puja. It turned out to be more like a hard core hike, that proved unforgettable. We gathered at the ashram gate did a four-step meditation walk, chanting 'Om' internally each four steps. We'd been specially invited to witness this Kali Puja and respect was due to the goddess and the holy rock. The youngish Canadian Swami lead around 100 people in a silent walk down leafy country lanes, at sun down so the trees and bushes were full of mosquitoes, the sound of cicadas and whooping birds, the smell of wood fires, frangipani scent wafted across from open wooden houses where locals lived. An enormous variety of trees grew everywhere, including banana, coconut palms and rubber trees - long grasses by the edge of the pathways reached out as though to touch us. As we passed through the Dam area, locals were curious and said 'hello'. No one replied as we had vowed silence. Why were all these foreigners walking silently to Kalipara Rock? No answer- so the mystery deepened.

We were warned to bring torches as it soon got dark and the path was rocky and perilous. We had to take our shoes off on the upper rock because it was sacred, but no one expected the steepness of the climb with some treacherous rock face to clamber up. Parts of it were so sheer it could freak out the unwary. To look down was fatal. Intention alone impelled us upwards against the odds. No one fell or broke an ankle. We scaled the rock face without incident, although it involved some serious barefoot grip, not to mention rock climbing skills. All were sweating as they reached the top to regain breath.Going barefoot was nasty as the tiny rocks ripped into the soles of my feet and seemed to lodge there. Each step was tentative and painful, only easing off on the smoother rock surfaces.

On the top of the rock itself the puja had already begun. A ceremonial fire was kept alive in a small reed hut fed continuously by the Kali devotee. Everyone watched eager to know what was happening- he just fed the fire with offerings. Fellow ashramite, La La, didn’t come because he had been before, perhaps he knew how difficult the climb would be? Frederick said he suffers a little from vertigo and he found he was only able to get to the top because it was so dark, he just could not see how dangerous it was.

The Kali Puja devotees wore only clean white dhotis wrapped around their loins. A group of women huddled together watched eagerly. The men burned food offerings in a small woven hut where a candle in front of the sacred fire. Drummers beat out a primal rhythm interspersed monotonous bell ringing. The place wafted with incense and wood smoke. It inspired reverence and high expectancy. Then at the peak moment, the principle devotee removed the fire from the fire, and three others blew into conch shells, a bellowing primal sounds echoing across the dark hills, sounding just as it did centuries ago. It was energetically potent. The rock itself has a legend about a famous guru who favoured it as the counter balance the Himalayas of north India. The little bowl where a pool of water formed is said to be where this guru meditated and his lotus pose left an impression.



The top of the rock was small to cope with so many people at once. Luckily, it was too dark to see how sheer the cliff face was on one side. Also it was lucky no one broke their ankle or got lost in the dense undergrowth surrounding the rock. The human chain of people could be spotted by pinpoints of light between trees. Torches helping others see their way and avoid falling dark made it a communal experience. We were not alone under that night sky was rich with stars and so it was like plugging back into the socket of nature's energy. People who live cocooned in cities can really appreciate. Just to be there on Kalipara Hill was a privilege, and to be invited personally from the ashram an honour. The view of the surrounding hill tops and valleys apparently is magnificent and some camp out there so they can witness dawn where the light changes would reveal this wonderful location in its glory.

It was a personal thrill to be part of the Kali Puja, and more than repaid the effort of the dangerous climb. I noted how the music can hypnotise people quickly, the sound of repetitive drumming, smoke and bell ringing, all part of the 'dream time'. We all bathed in the sacred smoke, and anointed our foreheads with flower pods and felt special.

Kali is a serious goddess, not for the faint of heart. She is goddess of cyclical time and destruction and grants release from the binding emotions of anger, greed and lust. She is often depicted with a garland of skulls around her neck, dead hands around her waist, the sword of knowledge in hand, chopping of heads (the ego) her foot on the chest of Shiva, sticking out her tongue at the god's unusual behaviour. She is known to love sucking the blood of demons, and can get carried away doing this. Shiva, her husband, threw himself under her feet in order to stop her raging madness against evil. The effect is like the calm after the storm. Doing Kali Puja aids one in fighting off enemies and freeing one from the chains of karma. It is a religious cleansing act done on this day to celebrate the power of Kalipara which means 'rock of Kali'. Thus, she 'rocks'.


The ‘cultish’ aspect of being with a group from an ashram didn’t escape me, but I was open to the experience of reconnecting to nature and an ancient rite as practised by Hindus for thousands of years. It was a high point - literal and metaphoric- of my trip to Kerala, a peak experience that is etched in my psyche.   

© Kieron Devlin, 2011

www.kierondevlin.com

https://www.youtube.com/user/KDjupiter

https://twitter.com/KDJupiter

Good Walking Mad Morning Free E Booklet

So it's finally arrived - Free E-Day. Here's my little offering, Good Walking, Mad Morning, a meandering verbal meditation on the joys of walking coupled with reflections on the fast-changing scenery of inner London.

In the City people are the landscape.

Complete with my own photos.

it's available by clicking this link to the Scribd Site.

Happy reading.

Top Ten Songs that had an Impact on my Life

Recently I was asked to do a Desert Island Discs choice, to select the top ten songs that moved me, songs that had an impact on my life. I've often thought how true the line by Noel Coward is 'extraordinary how potent cheap music is.' Its power is so underestimated. The paradox is that cheap doesn't do it justice; it is more like vast inner riches with all the associations the songs bring up. The limit was ten - Ten!!!! It was criminal. So many gems to be discarded from the parade.

Wracking my brains was easy but selecting was extremely hard. I ended up with a continually reshuffled list of nearly 30 songs vital to significant moments in my life. It bugged me for days, yet I kept remembering more and more songs that had a powerful impact on me. So it's wonderful for jogging the memory. Who could ever forget The Verve's haunting anthem Bitter Sweet Symphony back in 1997? I can't, no doubt along with thousands of others whose lives it touched. Yet, I could not include it. I tended to wallow back in the Seventies when I was in my teens. I cut my teeth on the early part of the decade when life without music was unthinkable.

So here's my list... It may not suit most people, taste is subjective after all. They are roughly in chronological order, rather than in order of merit.I vote for them all equally but don't be surprised if I retain the right to change my mind.

• Dolphins: Tim Buckley

• Quicksand: David Bowie

• Boredom: The Buzzcocks

• Light of the Magical Moon: Marc Bolan

• Perfect Day: Lou Reed

• Corpus Christi Carol: Jeff Buckley

• To The Birds: Suede

• Let Down: Radiohead

• The Guests: (Leonard Cohen) Anthony and the Johnsons

• Adam’s Lullaby: Natacha Atlas/Jocelyn Pook

Enjoy listening.I recommend doing it as an exercise in what is important to you. Send your lists so I can listen too. Choose songs that are great landmarks that mark stages in your life. We probably churned through lots of difficult experiences and were helped by these songs in countless subtle yet profound ways that have now been coded into our DNA and will go with us to the grave. It definitely gets you reflecting hard on which ones not just affected you but really seared deep. Music has a transforming power, which allows us to overcome the love of power and enter a shared world of emotions.

As Aldous Huxley said: After silence that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.