How Meditation Techniques Compare

There are so many differend meditations.Are you looking for the right meditation for you? Many are seeking tools to turn within and thats already a first step.

Some people tries to fix their problems with everything from psychotherapy and Prozac to positive thinking and politics. And some people are ready to close their eyes and take a dive - not to escape, but to more fully BE.

I find that most of the people no longer need to be convinced of meditation's practical benefits. But people do often ask, "Aren't all meditation techniques basically the same?"

Experts in the venerated traditions of meditation have always marveled at the mind's subtlety, appreciating its keen responsiveness and sensitivity to different mental procedures. Great master teachers of meditation have recognized that the various techniques engage the mind in different ways and naturally produce different results. With advancements in neurophysiology, scientists are now identifying distinctions among varieties of meditation practices.

The Myth of the Relaxation Response

The old "scientific" myth that meditation practices all induce the same, general state of physiological rest - so called the "relaxation response" - has been overturned. Though many practices provide relaxation, decades of research show that not all techniques produce the same physiological, psychological or behavioral effects.

Three major categories of meditation

Nowaday we have meditation labs have sprung up in United States at universities across the country - places such as Yale, UCLA, University of Oregon, UW Madison and Maharishi University of Management. Their contributions have helped researchers identify three major categories of techniques, classified according to EEG measurements and the type of cognitive processing or mental activity involved:

    * Controlled focus: Classic examples of concentration or controlled focus are found in the revered traditions of Zen, Tibetan Buddhism, Qiqong, Yoga and Vedanta, though many methods involve attempts to control or direct the mind. Attention is focused on an object of meditation - such as one's breath, an idea or image, deity, an emotion or sound vibration, like mantra repetition. Brain waves recorded during these practices are typically in the gamma frequency (20-50 Hz), seen whenever you concentrate or during "active" cognitive processing.

    * Open monitoring: These mindfulness type practices, common in Vipassana and Zazen, involve watching or actively paying attention to experiences - without judging, reacting or holding on. Open monitoring gives rise to frontal theta (4-8 Hz), an EEG pattern commonly seen during memory tasks or reflection on mental concepts.(EEG Patern - Electroencephalogram is 7.81 to 7.83 Hz frequency of an individual. This is the same frequency range as in the earth's magnetic field , known as "Schumann Resonance").

    * Automatic self-transcending: This category describes practices designed to go beyond their own mental activity - enabling the mind to spontaneously transcend the process of meditation itself. Whereas concentration and open monitoring require degrees of effort or directed focus to sustain the activity of meditation, this approach is effortless because there is no attempt to direct attention - no controlled cognitive processing. An example is the Transcendental Meditation technique. The EEG pattern of this category is frontal alpha coherence, associated with a distinct state of relaxed inner wakefulness.

Some other techniques may fall under more than one category.For example, guided meditation is controlled focus if the instruction is to "Hold attention on your breath." But if the instructor says, "Now just watch your thoughts, letting them come and go," then you're probably doing open monitoring.

As you doing different practices, you get different results.

Without the scientific research, meditative states and their effects remain subjective. Brain research, along with findings on psychological and behavioral effects, gives a more objective framework for health professionals or anyone to determine which meditation technique might be most beneficial for a given purpose.

For example, research suggests that concentration techniques may improve focusing ability. A study on advanced Buddhist monks - some of whom have done more than 10,000 hours of meditation -- found that concentrating on "loving kindness and compassion" increased those feelings and produced synchronous gamma activity in the left pre-frontal cortex - indicating more powerful focus.The effect of open monitoring or non-judgemental observation is said to increase even-mindedness in daily life.Studies on mindfulness-type practices indicate better pain management and reduction of negative though patterns.

I find that most meditators are no longer concerned that a technique might come from the East or have roots in a spiritual tradition - their main concern is that the practice works, and now the science can help to remove the guesswork. Alot of people are choosing meditation to counterbalance a fast pace, outer directed and over stimulated life, and yet turning to something as simple as our own inner silence.

based on Jeanne Ball article 'How Meditation Techniques Compare'