Meditation As Medicine

Dr. Dharma Singh Khalsa “shows us how the tremendous power of medical meditation can heal not only the body but also the mind and soul” (Deepak Chopra) in this practical and engaging guide to natural healing. Proven effective by scientific research and presented here by Dr. Dharma Singh Khalsa and Cameron Stauth, the practice of Medical Meditation revolutionizes the healing process. By balancing and regenerating the body's ethereal and physical energies through simple meditations, Medical Meditation unites the mind, body, and spirit into a powerful triad. Each Medical Meditation here has a specific physiological effect, targeting afflictions from arthritis to ulcers to cancer. Dr. Khalsa details the five unique attributes that endow this type of meditation with far more power than standard meditation. The combination of special postures and movements; exact positioning of the hands and fingers; particular mantras; specific breathing patterns; and a unique focus of concentration can change your entire biochemical profile, easing you into a calm, healing state. Practiced in conjunction with conventional or alternative medical treatments, cutting-edge Medical Meditation activates the healing force within you.

Regular meditation practice has a powerful impact on the mind and body, rewiring the brain and bringing us all kinds of benefits: contentment and well-being, resilience and focus, better mental and physical health, and greater empathy and compassion. This wide-ranging anthology brings together pioneering Tibetan Buddhist teachers, scientific researchers, and health professionals to offer fascinating perspectives on the mind and emotions, new studies, and firsthand accounts of how meditation is being applied to great effect in health and social care today. • Sogyal Rinpoche and Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche on how meditation unlocks the mind’s healing power • Jon Kabat-Zinn on the benefits of mindfulness in mainstream health care • Clifford Saron on the Shamatha Project, the most comprehensive study of the effects of meditation ever conducted • Sara Lazar on what happens to our brain when we meditate • Erika Rosenberg on how meditation helps us relate better to our emotions • Dr. Lucio Bizzini, MD, on how Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy is used to treat depression • Ursula Bates on how mindfulness supports terminally ill patients as they approach the end of their lives Plus chapters from other innovators who apply meditation in health care and social work: Dr. Edel Maex, MD; Dr. Cathy Blanc, MD; Rosamund Oliver; and Dr. Frédéric Rosenfeld, MD.

Meditation has been valued in the East for centuries as beneficial to physical, mental, and spiritual health. Now, Western medicine, through research-based studies performed in medical schools, universities, hospitals, and research labs, also is recognizing the efficacy of meditation for improving wellness. This groundbreaking book offers proven benefits of meditation for reducing stress-related ailments, such as cancer, stroke, heart, breathing, digestive, and circulatory problems, hypertension, migraines, depression, anxiety, and addictions; improving brain function and performance; managing pain; and achieving balance. Sant Rajinder Singh, in his keynote article, provides clear and compelling support for the value of meditation for the health of the spirit, upon which the health of the body and mind are based. Noted medical doctors, cancer researchers, psychiatrists, psychologists, chiropractors, brain researchers, neuroscientists, and those involved in alternative medicine have contributed articles rich in evidence supporting meditation as a complementary treatment modality. Meditation as Medication for the Soul is a must-read book for anyone seeking optimum health. Includes meditation instructions for anyone to try.

Mindfulness and yoga are widely said to improve mental and physical health, and booming industries have emerged to teach them as secular techniques. This movement is typically traced to the 1970s, but it actually began a century earlier. Wakoh Shannon Hickey shows that most of those who first advocated meditation for healing were women: leaders of the "Mind Cure" movement, which emerged during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Instructed by Buddhist and Hindu missionaries, many of these women believed that by transforming consciousness, they could also transform oppressive conditions in which they lived. For women - and many African-American men - "Mind Cure" meant not just happiness, but liberation in concrete political, economic, and legal terms. In response to the perceived threat posed by this movement, white male doctors and clergy with elite academic credentials began to channel key Mind Cure methods into "scientific" psychology and medicine. As mental therapeutics became medicalized and commodified, the religious roots of meditation, like the social-justice agendas of early Mind Curers, fell by the wayside. Although characterized as "universal," mindfulness has very specific historical and cultural roots, and is now largely marketed by and accessible to affluent white people. Hickey examines religious dimensions of the Mindfulness movement and clinical research about its effectiveness. By treating stress-related illness individualistically, she argues, the contemporary movement obscures the roles religious communities can play in fostering civil society and personal wellbeing, and diverts attention from systemic factors fueling stress-related illness, including racism, sexism, and poverty.

Osho speaks in many of his talks on health as a more holistic understanding of the “BodyMindSpirit” complex. His depth of insights into what makes a healthy and whole human being plus the many meditation methods he has developed are a vital part of his overall vision and proposal to humanity. Although he never gave a series of talks specifically about health issues, he requested and titled this collection of selected material “From Medication to Meditation” which was subsequently compiled under the supervision of his personal physician. In the foreword, which is a talk by Osho given to the Medical Association in India, he paints his vision of a healthier and more whole future when he says “…every hospital will have a department of meditation. It should happen. Then we will be able to treat man as a whole. The body will be taken care of by the doctors, the mind by the psychologists, and the soul by meditation. “The day the hospitals accept man as a whole, as a totality, and then treat him as such, will be a day of rejoicing for mankind.” - Osho

Adam Weber was working in commercial real estate in New York City, an industry known for serving up stress on a silver platter, when back surgery led to a shocking diagnosis.  Adam, a husband and father of two young children, had multiple sclerosis. A debilitating disease with no cure, MS is aggravated by stress. Soon, Adam was unable to walk without falling. At times, he was unable to eat. Life became a blur of anxiety and depression as he struggled to meet the overwhelming demands of day-to-day life. Until he discovered meditation. In Meditation Not Medicine, Adam simplifies meditation with an easy, practical approach that anyone can follow to get results, even in the most challenging circumstances. Through the daily practice of meditation, Adam was able to calm his mind, reduce his stress, and see improvements in his pain and other symptoms. Now you can too.

In these inspiring teachings on how to open the heart, a contemporary Tibetan Buddhist master shows us how to change our self-centered attitude and develop concern for the well-being of others. He teaches that when we acknowledge our own wish for happiness, we realize that all beings wish for the same. With a broader perspective, we can develop the strength to extend gratitude and kindness first to those we love, and eventually to everyone. In his warm and informal style, Rabjam offers accessible Buddhist teachings that will appeal to anyone who would like to find more meaning in life. Based on classical Tibetan teachings, his commentary is fresh, humorous, and sharply insightful. Here is a modern Tibetan teacher who appreciates the challenges of living in today’s world. The Great Medicine will help contemporary readers draw on ancient teachings to find their way to wisdom, freedom, and joy amid the struggles of real life. For more information about the author, Shechen Rabjam, visit his website at www.shechen.org.

By inviting the Dalai Lama and leading researchers in medicine, psychology, and neuroscience to join in conversation, the Mind & Life Institute set the stage for a fascinating exploration of the healing potential of the human mind. The Mind’s Own Physician presents in its entirety the thirteenth Mind and Life dialogue, a discussion addressing a range of vital questions concerning the science and clinical applications of meditation: How do meditative practices influence pain and human suffering? What role does the brain play in emotional well-being and health? To what extent can our minds actually influence physical disease? Are there important synergies here for transforming health care, and for understanding our own evolutionary limitations as a species? Edited by world-renowned researchers Jon Kabat-Zinn and Richard J. Davidson, this book presents this remarkably dynamic interchange along with intriguing research findings that shed light on the nature of the mind, its capacity to refine itself through training, and its role in physical and emotional health.