Meditation and Celebration Event with Milarepa (Boulder, CO) May 9, 2009

This workshop is for both seasoned meditators and those interested in exploring meditation for the first time. It is a unique opportunity to connect with spontaneous inner resources, unlocking potential for a joyous, abundant and creative life. Specially selected meditations to relax the mind and body, along with a live-music event to open the heart… all lighting the way to silence and inner clarity…

Milarepa will be sharing a variety of powerful, new meditation techniques from his “Stepping Stones Series” along with those created by Osho, with whom he studied for many years. Milarepa’s workshops always include lots of music, dance, and song. His presentation is heartful, fun, and effortlessly opens a space for love and meditative silence…

The Interdependence Project (New York City), weekly

Located in New York City’s East Village, The Interdependence Project is a grassroots project for folks interested in working with their minds on the meditation cushion, and stepping out into the local community. The ID Project offers weekly meditation and Buddhism gatherings (Mon/Wed/Sat/Sun), as well as day-long retreats. But it doesn’t stop there: come on by for an art show, join our Integral Activism program or learn what it means to be a “responsible consumer.” We also have monthly Writing, Theater, Visual Arts ,and Needlecrafts/Knitting Groups on Sundays to explore those creative pursuits as artists also interested in meditation. Also check out the great articles on the One City Daily Blog. 

Open Class & Meditation Gathering 
Mondays @ Lila Dharma & Yoga Center 
7 – 9 pm 
302 Bowery @ Houston, Buzzer #2 
6 train to Bleecker, F/V, B/D to Broadway/Lafayette. R/W to Prince 
$10/ students & unemployed pay what you can

http://www.theIDproject.com for much more info, including more classes in NYC, art and activism events, downloadable podcasts, ONLINE MAGAZINE, and discussion board 
Visit ITunes to subscribe to free podcast: “INTERDEPENDENCE PROJECT” 
Email: info@theidproject.com with any questions about classes, gatherings, or other events. 

Content Children and Spirituality

New research shows spirituality is a major factor in children’s overall happiness.

A study conducted by the University of British Columbia measured how
a child’s spirituality, and factors like temperament, affect the
child’s sense of well being.

“Our goal was to see whether there’s a relation between spirituality
and happiness,” said Mark Holder, an associate professor of psychology
and the study’s co-author. “We knew going in that there was such a
relation in adults, so we took multiple measures of spirituality and
happiness in children.”

Spirituality accounted for about five percent of happiness in adults, but a surprising 16.5 percent of happiness among children.

“From our perspective, it’s a whopping big effect,” Holder said. “I
expected it to be much less. I thought their spirituality would be too
immature to account for their well-being.”

The study tested 315 children ages 9 to 12.

Next, researchers hope to survey children in a country where Christianity is not prominent and compare the results.

The Power Of Meditation

Most people who meditate will rave about the benefits. People who don’t will dismiss it as hippy rubbish.

Underestimating the technique may mean they’re missing out on a range of benefits to health, mood and attention span, according to research.

One study has found that people who meditate have a better immune response to the flu vaccine than people who don’t. Another looked at 90 cancer patients who did meditation for seven weeks and it was found that those who meditated had 31 per cent lower stress symptoms and 67 per cent less mood disturbance than the ones who did not meditate.

Studies this year suggest that meditation is powerful enough to even “re-circuit” the brain.  Just as we do aerobics to improve muscle shape, meditation tones the grey matter.

Brain scans conducted by researchers at Harvard, Yale, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology reveal that those experienced at meditating boasted increased thickness in parts of the brain that deal with attention and processing sensory input.

The finding agrees with other studies showing that accomplished musicians, athletes and linguists all have thickening in relevant areas of the cortex.

It is also claimed that meditation is helpful for improving asthma and increasing fertility through to reducing the effects of ageing.

So how does it work?

To understand the impact of meditation, experts say we need to understand what meditation actually is. A broad description is that it’s a mental practice in which a person focuses their attention on a particular subject or object, maybe a candle flame, a mantra, breathing patterns, or simply an awareness of being alive.

In Madison, Wisconsin, Dr Richard Davidson carried out studies on Buddhist monks. In one study, he also observed the brains of a group of office workers before and after they did a course of meditation. At the end of the course the workers’ brains seemed to have altered in the way they functioned, they showed greater activity in the left-hand side – a characteristic linked to happiness and enthusiasm.

Dr Davidson told the BBC: “By meditating, you can become happier, you can concentrate more effectively and you can change your brain in ways that support that.” Meditation is said to improve the well-being of everyone, as well as those suffering from depression and mental illness.  Researchers are very excited by this.

One of those researchers is Kathy Sykes, professor of sciences and society at Bristol University in the UK, who visited Kathmandu for instruction with Matthieu Ricard, a Buddhist monk who has been meditating for more than 30 years. She wanted to learn more about meditation and says it helped her cope with the death of her father and she now uses it all the time. It helps her to cope in many situations.

Her father died from cancer about two months before she went to Kathmandu and she had not been able to grieve. Matthieu suggested she focus on unconditional love, and when she thought about that, she thought about her father. She wept and was finally able to let go.

“Meditating and mindfulness now help me get in touch with what really matters, and stop me from worrying,” she says. “It helped me profoundly in handling all my grief around dad’s illness and death. It helps me with almost everything.”

After her visit to Kathmandu, she went to Massachusetts General Hospital in the US, where Dr Herbert Benson, a Harvard Medical School professor, put her through a series of tests.  Doctors measured her resting pulse, muscle tension, respiration and sweat. They then subjected her to some mental arithmetic, her stress levels and all her readings soared.  However, after a short period of meditation, her pulse and breathing dropped below the resting rate. He said that to the extent that any disorder was caused or made worse by stress, achieving a “relaxation response” like this, would counteract that condition.

Sykes said she was recently on a crowded train travelling from London where there was “standing-room only”.

“I’d had a frenzied day, having to think and concentrate hard, speak and plan all day. The train was a nightmare. Packed, noisy, no seats left and truly horrid. I just found a place to sit in the floor, closed my eyes, and allowed all the mad busyness of my brain that day to stop, concentrated on my breathing and found it was a massive relief and escape.”

Meditation and mindfulness have now been approved by the UK clinical watchdog, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, for use with people in the UK who have experienced three or more periods of depression and it is offered by hospitals in cases of chronic or terminal illness to reduce complications ­associated with increased stress, including a depressed immune system.

So, what are you waiting for?  Find yourself a local meditation class, practice using the videos on the website and see just what benefits meditation and mindfulness can offer you.