Mon, November 19, 2012
Breaking study is the first to show link between being present in the moment and ageless DNA
By
Michael Forrester
"Scientific studies have suggested that a mind that is present and in the
moment indicates well-being, whereas shifting our energy to the past or
future can lead to unhappiness. Now, a preliminary UCSF study shows a
link between mind wandering and aging, by looking at a biological
measure of longevity within our DNA.
In the study,
telomere length, an emerging biomarker for cellular and general bodily
aging, was assessed in association with the tendency to be present in
the moment versus the tendency to mind wander, in research on 239
healthy, midlife women ranging in age from 50 to 65 years."
See "Link to External Source Article" below to read further.
Again, modern science supports what we learn in The Urantia Book. Have a look at "Time and Eternity", where we read about the benefits of living in the eternal NOW:
118:1.7
To become mature is to live more intensely in the present, at the same
time escaping from the limitations of the present. The plans of
maturity, founded on past experience, are coming into being in the
present in such manner as to enhance the values of the future.
The time unit of immaturity concentrates meaning-value into the present
moment in such a way as to divorce the present of its true relationship
to the not-present—the past-future. The time unit of maturity
is proportioned so to reveal the co-ordinate relationship of
past-present-future that the self begins to gain insight into the
wholeness of events, begins to view the landscape of time from the
panoramic perspective of broadened horizons, begins perhaps to suspect
the nonbeginning, nonending eternal continuum, the fragments of which
are called time.
On the levels of the infinite and the absolute the moment of the
present contains all of the past as well as all of the future. I AM
signifies also I WAS and I WILL BE. And this represents our best
concept of eternity and the eternal.
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Fri, November 02, 2012
Meditation: the healing force of a quiet mind
By
Cathy Johnson
"Research is showing the ancient spiritual practice of meditation can help manage and prevent a range of mental and physical health problems.
Research shows meditation can improve the wellbeing of people with a range of conditions including depression, anxiety, chronic pain and cancer."
See "Link to External Source Article" below to read further.
It is good to know that this wonderful spiritual practice of meditation is gaining such a wide acceptance - even in the medical community. It was successfully practiced by Jesus as well, so we KNOW it has to have benefit!!! Throughout the pages of The Urantia Book, we read of Jesus meditating.
From Rodan of Alexandria:
160:1.10 But the greatest of all methods of problem solving I have learned from Jesus, your Master. I refer to that which he so consistently practices, and which he has so faithfully taught you, the isolation of worshipful meditation. In this habit of Jesus' going off so frequently by himself to commune with the Father in heaven is to be found the technique, not only of gathering strength and wisdom for the ordinary conflicts of living, but also of appropriating the energy for the solution of the higher problems of a moral and spiritual nature. But even correct methods of solving problems will not compensate for inherent defects of personality or atone for the absence of the hunger and thirst for true righteousness.
Here's our topical study on meditation, too
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Fri, October 26, 2012
Study Shows How Prayer, Meditation Affect Brain Activity (VIDEO)
By
Jahnabi Barooah
How do prayer and meditation affect brain activity? Dr. Andrew Newberg, MD, is the Director of Research at the Myrna Brind Center for Integrative Medicine at Thomson Jefferson University Hospital and Medical College, and he has studied the neuroscientific effect of religious and spiritual experiences for decades.
In a video that recently aired on "Through the Wormhole" narrated by Morgan Freeman on the TV channel Science, Dr. Newberg explains that to study the effect of meditation and prayer on the brain, he injects his subjects with a harmless radioactive dye while they are deep in prayer / meditation. The dye migrates to the parts of the brain where the blood flow is the strongest, i.e,. to the most active part of the brain.
This is the intro to an interesting article about prayer and meditation, complete with charts and a video, too. See "Link to External Source Article" below to read further. And while you're there, you'll also enjoy a slide show highlighting some of "America's Most Iconic Prayers."
Please see TruthBooks topical studies on both Prayer and Meditation
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Fri, January 20, 2012
Reliable Methods: The Future of Self-Transcendence
By
Joe Loizzo, M.D., Ph.D.
The three decades since mindfulness meditation was first found to
help with anxiety, chronic pain and depression have seen the reversal of
a trend that goes back over a century. When Freud founded psychotherapy
as "a middle way between philosophy and medicine," he took pains to
keep it on the scientific side of the modern gulf between science and
religion. He did this in part by basing his insights on evolutionary
neurobiology, and in part by distancing his psychology from its sources
in the spiritual philosophy of Romanticism.
As clients and therapists have grown more curious about the traditional
practice behind mindfulness, they've learned that it comes embedded in a
complex psychology all its own, including integrated disciplines of
cognitive self-analysis, emotional self-healing and behavioral
life-change. This second wave of influence has brought mounting
awareness of the scientific tradition of classical Buddhist psychology
and its core disciplines. With this, the tide has shifted away from
simply grafting mindfulness into conventional therapies, toward a fuller
confluence of Buddhist and Western psychology.
See "Link to External Source Article" below to read further.
And for some Urantia Book insights on meditation and "intelligent reflection" please see
this link...
Another relevant study is: Urantia Book teachings about
Transcendence
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Fri, October 07, 2011
Meditation Creates Substantial Reduction in Health Care Costs
By
MassageMag.com
Meditation is among the complementary health care practices, like
massage, shown to have several benefits; and many massage therapists use
meditation as a self-care or spiritual practice.
New research shows medical costs decreased 28 percent among
high-spending health care consumers after five years of transcendental
meditation practice.
The study shows people with consistently high health care costs
experienced a 28-percent cumulative decrease in physician fees after an
average of five years practicing the stress-reducing transcendental
meditation technique compared with their baseline.
"In most populations, a small fraction of people account for the
majority of health care costs," a press release noted. "In the U.S., the
highest-spending 10 percent in the general population incurred 60 to 70
percent of total medical expenditures annually."
Chronic stress is the number-one factor contributing to high medical expenses, the press release added.
***************
To see the results of this study, please see HERE
And, we invite you to have a look at our topical study on MEDITATION
Finally, please see this very enlightening study by Peter Holley titled "Meditation in The Urantia Book (Jesus Style Meditation)"
Labels:
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Fri, June 24, 2011
Elderhood: A Buddhist Approach to Aging Well
By
Lewis Richmond
This March I turned 64 -- one year away from Medicare, two years away
from Social Security. So there it is: I'm a baby boomer, a Buddhist,
and one individual face to face with his own aging. But I'm not alone.
Each day and every day for the next twenty years, 10,000 boomers will
turn 65. This is a fact with enormous implications for our politics,
our society -- and, I believe, our spiritual life.
Forty years ago, when my Buddhist teacher Shunryu Suzuki
was in his mid-sixties and the students around him were mostly in their
20s and 30s, someone asked him, "Why do we meditate?" He replied, "So
you can enjoy your old age." We all laughed and thought he was joking.
Now that I am the age he was then, I realize he wasn't joking at all.
Some aspects of growing old can be hard to enjoy, and a spiritual
practice can definitely help. This isn't just theory; the Handbook of Religion and Health by
Koenig et al. presents research showing that people who have a regular
religious attendance or practice live, on average, 7 years longer than
those who do not. That research result is even more significant when we
remember that for the first time in human history, people will be
living in relative good health into their 70s, 80s, and even 90s. What
are we all going to do with that extra gift of time?
For the last several years I have been developing a contemplative
approach to growing old and aging well. I have come to believe, as my
teacher did, that spiritual practice can help us to age gracefully, and
that the last part of life is a fruitful time for spiritual inquiry and
practice. As part of my research, I logged on to Amazon, put in the
search word "aging" and sorted by descending best-seller. Yes, there
were a lot of best-selling books with the word "aging" in the title.
But when I looked more closely I could see that most of the titles
really weren't about aging per se, but about postponing, disguising, or
reversing aging. It was only when I set aside sales rank as my
criterion that I found some good books with a spiritual approach to
aging. Two of my favorites are The Gift of Years: Growing Older Gracefully by Benedictine nun Joan Chittister, and Spirituality and Aging by gerontology professor Robert C. Atchley.
What other resources do we have for accepting aging with grace, about
learning the lessons of wisdom that aging teaches, about investigating
the deep questions of our human life? 2,500 years ago, the Buddha had a
lot to say about the inevitability of loss and change. What could all
of us aging folks learn from his teaching today?
The Buddha taught that "everything changes," and many of today's
Buddhists repeat that teaching as a patent truism. But suppose we were
to rephrase those words to say, "Everything we love and cherish is going
to age, decline, and eventually disappear, including our own precious
selves?" Suddenly this "truism" takes on a different coloration and
urgency. It's all going to go, the Buddha is saying, all of it --
everything that matters to us. In fact that process is always
happening; everything is aging, all the time. How is it that we didn't
notice?
When we are young, we don't notice. In youth, life is full of
opportunity, and when things go wrong there are do-overs and second
chances. But on the downhill slope of life, we start to notice the
worrisome finitude of time. We go to more funerals, we visit more
hospitals, we view the daily news with more distance, and we start to
feel an autumnal chill in the air. There are joys too, of course --
grandchildren, time for travel (if we can afford it!), the pursuit of
long-dreamed-of avocations and new beginnings, as well as the energizing
impulse to "give back" to community and society.
There is also a fresh opportunity to look to the inner life, to
revisit the deep questions that a busy career and family
responsibilities might have long pushed into the background...
*******************
Please click HERE to see the rest of this article.
The Urantia Book has quite a bit to say about Buddhism - its positive and its negative aspects. Buddhism is one of the world's great religions, and its teachings deserve more than just a cursory look. If one enhances the Buddhist teachings with the concept of a personal God, it seems that it is a religion that could hold a great deal of value for the individual.
Please go HERE to read a sampling of Buddhist religious thought. And for further study, you can plug in the word "buddha," or "buddhism" into Truthbook's convenient search engine.
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Fri, February 25, 2011
Solitude, reflection tied to college success
By
Julia Ferrante
LEWISBURG, Pa.— Studies have shown that students who are engaged in
and out of the classroom learn more through hands-on experiences.
But taking time in solitude to reflect is just as important as the
activities themselves, says Joseph Murray, an associate professor of
education at Bucknell University who has studied college student
development for more than 20 years.
"Students need to spend time alone with their thoughts, and there's
reason to believe that's not happening nearly enough," Murray said.
National discussion
How college students spend their time has become a topic of much discussion recently with the publication of a new book, Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses, which
has gained national attention for its conclusions about academic
success, extra-curricular activities and study habits since its release
in January. In the book, authors Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa,
sociology professors at New York University and the University of
Virginia, respectively, conclude that those who study by themselves are
more apt to succeed and to retain knowledge than those who study in
groups.
They, like Murray, advocate the reincorporation of solitude into academic life.
Unlike Murray's work, Arum's and Roksa's research runs somewhat
counter to the National Survey of Student Engagement, which advocates
extra-curricular activities as a way of enhancing the learning
experience. Arum and Roksa tie academic shortcomings to certain teaching
and learning methods and wide involvement in programs outside the
classroom.
........
The challenge of reincorporating solitude into the academic
experience is on par with a global culture shift, with the increasing
connectedness that smartphones and other mobile devices offer, Murray
noted.
"In this culture of busyness and with all this social networking,
students have the experience that every waking hour should be spent
doing something," Murray said. "Part of it is because student engagement
is encouraged. There is a lot of evidence that students who are engaged
learn better, but we need to make it OK for students to find places for
stress relief and reflection and to take time for themselves.
"The millennial generation is very tech savvy, but do they know how
to experience solitude? Are we asking students to be involved in just
being and to unplug?"
Murray suggests that colleges and universities create more
opportunities for students to think about their experiences and to
process them mentally and to ask themselves what insight they can gain
from the experiences they have had.
"We need to create opportunities for reflection," Murray said. "If
all we are doing is engaging, engaging, engaging, we lose that piece
that transforms experience into learning."
***************
Please click HERE for the entire article...
From The Urantia Book:
Said Jesus: 192.2.2 "Let experience teach you the value of meditation and the power of intelligent reflection.”
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Fri, January 21, 2011
Children need more meditation and less stimulation
By
Shirley Lancaster
If you want your children to feel more relaxed and less stressed, give them silence, not iPods.
This
unthinkable idea came to mind after listening to Ernie Christie and Dr
Cathy Day, two educationists from Queensland, Australia. They were
addressing an audience at Regent's College, London, on the benefits of allowing children to experience regular periods of silent meditation in the classroom.
A
pilot study in 2005, involving teaching meditation to five- to
17-year-olds, had shown that children are not only capable of
meditation, they actually enjoy it. The benefits to children's wellbeing
were so obvious to teachers that it persuaded Cathy Day, director of Townsville Catholic Education Office, to spend precious funds implementing the first Christian meditation programme for all schools in the diocese.
The
initiative had two important catalysts: a diocesan bishop sympathetic
to meditation, Michael Putney, and the input of Laurence Freeman OSB,
leader of the World Community for Christian Meditation.
Without their help, Day admitted, nothing would have got off the
ground. When an almost pathological "busyness" is the norm, valuing
stillness and silence is counter-cultural. When our culture trains us to
be winners, to compete and to consume, we all sense society's
imbalance, said Freeman. We need to give children an experience of
another way of relating to themselves and to others.
Deputy
director Christie agreed. If children are over-stimulated we rob them of
something precious: being allowed to "just be" where children discover
their own inner sense of who they are. Hijacked by a "doing" culture
that measures everything by what we achieve or possess, meditation helps
children access a deeper part of themselves – an inner sanctuary away
from a world of incessant activity and noise. They learn to honour their
own spiritual life.
We all have a spiritual life, irrespective of
any faith we hold, said Christie. Meditation can be practised with a
diversity of beliefs: children of other faiths take part in the
programme. Meditating in a group can give children an early sense of
belonging, says Christie. Children with learning or physical
disabilities can join in and feel part of the class. But the practice is
introduced gradually. The recommended meditation time is one minute per
age level; for five- and six-year-olds, it would be five to six
minutes.
A video of interviews with teachers, children and parents
was admirably honest. Children of varying ages said meditation helped
them to feel "relaxed" or more "peaceful". One boy said it helped his
thoughts "just settle"; one girl enjoyed being "quiet". A child from an
indigenous community said he was able "to be himself". Teachers reported
improved behaviour in difficult children. Yet no one suggested it was a
"cure all" practice. But at a recent awards ceremony in the second
largest school in Townsville, the key speech was on the positive
benefits of meditation.
**************
Please click HERE to access the rest of the article...worth reading.
From The Urantia Book:
160:3.1 "Emotional excitement is not the ideal spiritual stimulus. Excitement does not augment energy; it rather exhausts the powers of both mind and body...Meditation makes the contact of mind with spirit; relaxation determines the capacity for spiritual receptivity."
And this is certainly as true for children as it is for grown-ups...check out Truthbook's feature on Parenting HERE
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