Mindfulness Meditation Being Used In Hospitals & Schools
USA Today Article: June 8, 2008
This article just barely touches on all the research that has been done in the last 30 years to prove that meditation and mindfulness can create huge psychological and even physiological changes. In fact prayer and meditation are very similar but the main difference is that one the former is intricately associated with a religion practice while the latter is a technique. Meditation is a skill, just like riding a bicycle or learning to drive a car. One does not have to be spiritual or religious in any way shape or form to practice meditation or mindfulness. In fact, the same can be said for prayer. People frequently get confused by this because these techniques come from religious traditions of Buddhism and Hinduism, but they can be separated out. I personally practice meditation daily and love yoga but do not have any interest in Buddhism or Hinduism. Is this wrong? Would any Buddhist hold this against me? I doubt it.
Despite a growing pile of Western and Eastern scientific research about these practices, there is still a lot of misconception and narrow minded thinking, especially among scientists. The Dali Lama recently spoke at a neuroscience conference about conducting more research on meditation to help people deal with stress and better control their moods and as a response to his invitation, over 500 scientist signed a petition to try and stop him from speaking there. Their reason; don’t want religion mixed in with science. What rubbish! Like helping people deal with stress and gain greater emotional control is such a terrible thing. If there is one thing that we can all learn from the great religions of the world it is to have more compassion, kindness, and love. I think that everyone could use a bit more of these qualities, no matter what religion or belief system they ascribe to.
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