A Short Word on Breath Meditation (satire)

From meditation, I learned how to control my breathing. After meditating for many years — almost 25 years now mdash; it dawned on me that controlling my breathing works for recovery from a cold over two years ago.

One day, the tickle in my throat preceding a cough almost overcame me, which was overcome by controlling my breathing until the cough went away.

Today I have practice these breathing exercises consistently. To the average person, breathing is overlooked as unimportant and hardly necessary.

For myself, I find that on days when I do not practice my breathing exercises, I am not as calm as I am when I do practice these exercises.

So rather than simply breathing, I instead count out my breaths while feeling thankful to the Buddha and to God. However, it is important for me to point out that being thankful to a person you admire (a mother or suitable substitute) is also equally useful during breath meditation.

Furthermore, my years of meditation must have paid off because my heart rate ranges from 50-96 beats per minute. which I attribute to meditation and also regular exercise.

It is due to regular exercise and positive thinking that the benefits of breath meditation become amplified.

People sometimes wonder why meditate. My answer is, meditation will help you control your mind and your body, so that you may better serve other people as a friend, a lover or a worker. Indeed, meditation truly is the only mind control tool to help your master your mind and body for your benefit and to benefit society.

Breathe deeply and master body and mind!

The Alternative to Medication

"...Peptides provide our body's most basic communication network. To study the molecules' specific function, Pert and colleagues at NIMH began taking wafer thin slices of rat brains and, using radioactive molecules, mapping peptide receptors in the brain. Dense clusters appeared in parts of the brain long associated with emotion. According to Pert, the hippocampus, a small, almond-shaped structure that is crucial in memory, is the brain's emotional gateway. Almost every variety of peptide receptor is found there, she notes. The frontal cortex and another brain structure, the amygdala, are also densely populated with peptide receptors. Since emotions are regulated by neuropeptides, and the brain's memory centers are filled with receptors for these peptides, it's likely that emotion and memory are intertwined. However, the peptide network reaches into all the organs, glands, spinal cord, and tissues of the body." — Impertinent ideas. (alternative medicine pioneer Candace Pert); Neimark, Jill Psychology Today 11-21-1997

In short, our emotions are stored throughout the body.

For wherever neuropeptides created by our feelings go, so too goes the memory for that feeling.

Thus it is possible to access emotional memory anywhere in the network which makes up the body-mind.

This is how meditation, chiropractic therapy, therapeutic touch (Reiki) and other forms of healing — even the simple activity such as walking - work.

Often our minds do not truly need psycho-pharmaceutical drugs — at least, not for the rest of our lives.

The side effects of those drugs show us their true nature, of becoming too much of a good thing.

Thus, Professor Pert's research implies that even AIDS is a body-mind threat, and that an interdisciplinary outlook towards disease is the optimal one.

However, I would caution against the strategy implied in the movie "What the Bleep Do We Know?" when Amanda throws away her anti-anxiety medication.

Tapering off medication is essential to gaining control over the body-mind. This involves reducing medication over a period of time i.e. over a period of four months from full dose to 3/4 of the dose over the first month of weaning to 1/2 of the dose during the second month to 1/4 the dose during the third month, to 1/8th the dose during the fourth.

No one needs to go through the process alone, given the number of cognitive behavior therapy groups out there to help a person by providing emotional support.

Even so, a few people may view daily exercise, a multivitamin supplement, salmon oil capsules and wholesome food as useful on the long run for what ails them.

The challenge is in adopting such a strategy to maintain positive mental health.

Boundless Way, Boundless Truth

The Zen master Yun-feng wrote:

The way is the perennial Way,
the truth is the perennial Truth:
don't misapply body and mind
chasing after sayings.
This is why it is said that
"even the slightest object is dust;
as soon as you arouse intent,
you’re confused by hallucination."

To which I humbly reply:

The boundless Way leads
to the boundless Truth!
For the well-applied body-mind
follows the Buddha,
not the sayings of heroes.

---

Originally posted: February 18, 2005 1747H
Update posted: March 6, 2013 0033H

Reference:

Yun-feng quote:

http://www.beliefnet.com/Quotes/Buddhist/General/Y/Yun-Feng/The-Way-Is-The-Perennial-Way-The-Truth-Is-The-Per.aspx