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July 16, 2004

Article: Meditation Helps Folks Disengage...

This is a recent article from Commercial Appeal a newspaper in TN. I'm posting it here because the site requires registration to access the full article. It is a rather simple piece recounting some of the stress-reduction benefits of meditation, nothing too deep or threatening, and ends with the value of centering prayer as a parallel practice. I wish it had gone into more depth about Insight meditation which it pops out of the blue, and that it would explain the statement about how it can lead to some suffering. But, hey, this is a piece designed to help people feel more secure about this strange thing called meditation that many in their midst seem to be trying. As such, the goal is not depth but assuaging fear by making the unknown seem familiar, hence the mention of health benefits, and ending with centering prayer.

Meditation helps folks disengage, see clearly, release stress, improve health

By B. Blair Dedrick Contact July 12, 2004

John Greer compares the average person's everyday thoughts to a waterfall.

"You can't see anything in a cascading river," said the Memphis teacher of insight meditation. "But when the water gets to a lake, you can see the sky clearly."

To see clearly is the point of meditation, which Greer practices. As a lifestyle choice, meditation can be a path to better health, a way to spiritual enlightenment or simply a way to stay attentive to the present moment.

"When you are thinking, you are always in the past or the future, never in the moment," Greer said. "When you slow down your mind, you return to where life is most real - where you are living."

Insight meditation is not a clearing of the mind so much as the ability to have thoughts, acknowledge them and let them go, said Greer, a retired professor of instruction and curriculum leadership at the University of Memphis.

"Have you ever seen the dogs at (Southland) Greyhound Park? They run at break-neck speed after a fake rabbit," Greer said. "We (humans) are like that. Meditation is the opposite. It says, 'Hey, slow down and appreciate the fact you're alive.'

"Meditation has done so much for me. It brings you back to the wonder of existence."

Mark Muesse decided to try meditation almost 20 years ago to help ease stress and anxieties. The Rhodes professor of religion stayed with it because it was successful.

"I'm one of those people who like to control things," Muesse said. "Meditation teaches you the more you try to control, the more you suffer. The more you relinquish control, the happier you will be."

Contrary to some beliefs, insight meditation is not a "feel good" experience, Muesse said. While some may feel extreme elation, others may feel sheer agony.

"The benefits of meditation are universal," Muesse said. "There are certain things anyone who practices diligently will achieve."

One of those benefits for Daniel Lamontagne and his students is health.

Lamontagne is the head of Healing Meditation, a business in Memphis that teaches meditation to students wanting do everything from improving their cholesterol and blood pressure levels to ending alcohol and drug use.

"Stress and the mind affect health," he said. "Good health is a combination of mind, body and spirit. Meditation is just another aspect of good health."

Various scientific studies by well-known institutions have found that meditation lowers blood pressure, chemical levels associated with stress , and the risk for heart disease.

Web sites, such as Black Women's Health Imperative (www.blackwomenshealth .org), advocate meditation for all-around health.

Lamontagne has had stu-dents in the past 14 years with all kinds of health problems, including cancer, heart problems, HIV, multiple sclerosis, chronic fatigue syndrome and attention deficit disorder.

For students not fighting physical problems, Lamontagne's program helps them better deal with the everyday stresses of life.

"It's like a preventative," he said. "Eating well helps, exercise helps and alleviating stress and fear helps."

When Candia Ludy arrived in Tanzania in 1981, the country suffered from a severe food and water shortage, closing factories and unrepaired roads.

"It was a stressful time," Ludy said. "Probably the worst time in Tanzanian history."

Ludy's husband had been sent to the African nation by Catholic Relief Services for a three-year tour. Ludy packed up her household, gathered some extra books and went with him.

In her boxes of books were two books by Buddhist teacher Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and another by a Zen teacher.

"I needed help; I was overwhelmed," she said. "The books just worked on me and came up in my life and made more and more sense to me."

Ludy has been meditating ever since.

"I'm sure not stopping," she said. "It's my life."

In addition to being the facilitator for Dharma Memphis, (dharmamemphis.com), Ludy works closely with the local Vietnamese Pho-Da Temple.

Buddhism teaches that there are many paths to the same end. Ludy said, "Each way is working on the same things, so you have to find out what works for you."

Ludy likens this type of meditation to a gentle form of therapy. She emphasized that it is not a pushing, harsh way of facing problems, however, as they can be laid aside for later if they become overwhelming.

"If you put attention, loving attention, on a problem, it will start to melt away," she said. "Meditation is a very organic, very natural way to make life sweeter. Life doesn't have to be miserable."

Mike Potter practices centering prayer, a "wordless, imageless means of centering simply by opening and consenting to God's presence and activity within."

Like insight meditation, centering prayer leads to the opening of the mind and heart to God, said Potter.

"The methods are different," he said. "But both practices have the potential to lead to spiritual awakening."

Ten years ago Potter began practicing Buddhist meditation, looking for a more spiritual relationship with God. He discovered centering prayer about five years later and rejoined his family's church, Trinity United Methodist.

"Centering prayer has allowed me to practice a contemplative spirituality totally within the Christian context," he said.

More than 400 people practice nondenominational centering prayer in the Memphis area, either on their own or in a small group, said Potter. "It is a means of connecting to that 'small, still voice' that is calling more and more people into a deepening relationship with Christ."

- B. Blair Dedrick:

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