Meditation Secrets Revealed

As I look around me at a classroom of over 20 eager and curious 6th graders sitting on pillows in a carpeted room with colorful paintings, famous quotes, and a picture of social change leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr, I can’t help but think how far we have come.

At this West Oakland School, every youth is taught mindfulness meditation, yoga, and mindful listening. This under-funded inner city school is taking a radical step towards preventing further violence in it’s community by teaching  students to seek more peaceful and harmonious ways to live.  Growing Up Mindful, is a program designed to teach students mindfulness, open and honest communication, yoga, and other consciousness raising activities. Knowing that this class is now integrated into the school curriculum with the approval and encouragement of the staff and principal is a dream come true.

This program is no singularity, similar programs are sprouting in many elementary, middle, and high schools all over the country. Yoga and Mindfulness are also being taken into jails, juvenile halls, and hospitals. With so much research to back up the claims that Mindfulness meditation and yoga improve concentration, memory, attention, reduce stress, and improve overall health, its no wonder that these ancient practices are finally making their way to public schools.

In addition to the benefits already mentioned, in a school setting students experience a radical boost to their self esteem and improved self image and confidence. By practicing yoga students are able to gain confidence in their own abilities to overcome physically and mentally challenging poses with a peaceful mind. The curriculum also focuses on establish mutual respect, kindness, and understanding- crucial to students facing inner city violence and oppression in their own communities.

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.