Mindfulness Meditation

My academic research into the fusion of Vipassana meditation and the Western mindfulness movement (in APA version 6 fomat)

Mindfulness Meditation: Purpose and Relevance

A study by Harvard psychologists which captured 250,000 data points on individuals’ thoughts and feelings during their daily activities using a mobile app, suggests that we human beings spend 46.9 percent of our time in the default mode of mind-wandering, making us unhappy (Killingsworth & Gilbert, 2010, p. 932). This ties in with the teachings of many spiritual and religious traditions to resist mind-wandering in order to be present in the moment, so that we can live a peaceful and harmonious life. Mind-wandering is known in other forms as rumination or catastrophic thoughts which can lead to anxiety and depression. Today, mindfulness is used as a tool to alleviate mind-wandering, relieve psychosomatic symptoms of anxiety and depression (Khusid & Vythilingam, 2016), and to cultivate positive attitudes such as gratitude and acceptance towards unpleasant events. Mindfulness in scientific literature is typically defined as “a form of present-moment attention and awareness that includes two elements: the attention itself and the qualities of the attention” -- qualities that embody the values of openness, nonjudgment, friendliness, curiosity, acceptance, compassion, and kindness (Baer, Crane, Miller, & Kuyken, 2019, p. 102). The goal of mindfulness is to develop a different relationship to our thoughts, feelings, and sensations that is grounded in equanimity.

In my mindfulness practice, I use Vipassana meditation as a tool for mindfulness meditation, which I have practiced for a decade since 2010 with over 1,000 hours of meditation logged. Mindfulness meditation is a form of mental exercise for the mind (Wu et al., 2019), which has its roots in Vipassana meditation (Lutz et al., 2008). Meditation aims to attain an altered state of mind and develop insights into the nature of mind, with mindfulness meditation focusing on “opening awareness to all contents and processes of mind” without “blanking out”, whereas concentrative meditation focuses on a single object of attention (Easterlin & Cardeña, 1998, p. 70), such as mindful listening. Mindfulness meditation aims to observe mental processes with non-judgment so that habits and deep-rooted thought patterns can be uncovered and examined objectively (Easterlin & Cardeña, 1998, p. 71). Developing control of attentional processes is key in developing conscious self-awareness to suspend reactivity from habitual negative patterns and unconscious behaviors, automatic thoughts, and emotions (Easterlin & Cardeña, 1998, p. 71).

Vipassana Meditation

Eastern spiritual approaches to mindfulness such as Vipassana meditation, is defined as a technique that can facilitate spiritual enlightenment (Goldstein & Kornfield, 1987). Vipassana meditation, as taught in the tradition of the late S. N. Goenka is an ancient meditation technique that is over 2,500 years old. Originally developed by Siddharta Gautama the Buddha in India to overcome suffering, it was kept in its original form by a select lineage of monks in Burma (Bar Shalom, 2018, p. 35). The technique is taught in a silent ten-day course — the first three days are dedicated to observation of natural breath through a meditation called Anapana (Bar Shalom, 2018, p. 35). On the fourth day, Vipassana is introduced, which is a body scan meditation that observes pleasant or unpleasant sensations arising and passing in an equanimous manner (Bar Shalom, 2018, p. 35-6). No outside contact is allowed during the course, and old students eat two vegetarian meals daily and one serving of tea in the afternoon, equivalent to a daily sixteen hour intermittent fasting schedule. A typical course schedule is as follows (Hayes, Follette, & Linehan, 2011):

4:00 a.m.  Wake-up 

4:30-6:30 a.m.  Silent meditation 

6:30-8:00 a.m.  Breakfast and personal time (e.g., shower, sleep, walk, etc.) 

8:00-11:00 a.m. Silent meditation/instruction 

11:00-1:00 p.m. Lunch, personal time, and meetings with instructor 

1:00-5:00 p.m.  Silent meditation/instruction 

5:00-6:00 p.m.  Tea   

6:00-7:00 p.m.  Silent meditation/instruction 

7:00-8:00 p.m.  Discourse  

8:00-9:00 p.m.  Silent meditation/instruction 

9:00 p.m.  Lights out

After personally completing six ten-day courses over a decade, I realize that meditation requires in-depth, extensive practice before maturity of practice can be achieved. Like two wings of a bird, Vipassana meditation requires both equanimity and self-awareness to work. For self-change to occur through Vipassana meditation, one has to adopt a new attitude: “A person learns a new language and, as we say, gets a new soul. He puts himself into the attitude of those that make use of that language” (Mead, 1934). Equanimity is considered one of the main attitudes of Vipassana meditation and is frequently invoked in Vipassana meditation instructions (Pagis, 2014). Vipassana meditation is based on developing an attitude of equanimity towards the world and the self, and in meditation practice, equanimity is cultivated when one is able to attend to the observation of one's thoughts and sensations in a calm and detached way (Pagis, 2014). 

I log about ten minutes of daily meditation practice on average outside of the meditation center, which is a lot lower than the recommended two hours of daily meditation practice in an urban setting. Over the years, Vipassana has enabled me to retain a sense of hyper self-awareness of my body sensations when I do my body scans, but I personally struggle with maintaining equanimity in an urban environment to discharge my emotions peacefully. Whilst self-awareness comes easily to me, I can achieve a few moments to a few minutes of true equanimity on average during my daily practice. In a ten day retreat, I’d build up my equanimity practice over the first seven days, and typically I can hold my equanimity for about twenty four hours on the seventh or eighth day, before it dips again. 

The practice of cultivating equanimity in a meditation hall environment is easier to maintain and meditation is more conducive in a retreat setting. This explains why monks choose to renounce material wealth and meditate in monasteries to actively cultivate their equanimous states. During a Vipassana retreat, accounts of transformative experiences were recorded in the seventh to the eighth day of the retreat (Pagis, 2014), similar to my equanimity practice in a ten day course:

“I noticed the transformation described above when observing the meditation hall. On the seventh or eighth day of the retreat, a view of the meditation hall revealed a mass of bodies sitting silently one next to the other. Based on my own experience when participating in a ten day retreat, and on reports of other participants, around this stage, equanimity had taken over the self and was no longer mainly “performed.” This was the stage in the retreat in which the surprising and unfamiliar experience of deep inner peace surfaced. Though participants actively attempted to achieve equanimity, when it finally arrived they were taken by surprise. When describing the experience they used words like “amazing,” “never felt before,” or even “unbelievable.”

Critical Review

Studies have explored and demonstrated the mental, emotional and physical benefits of meditation, which include improved emotional states and affect-related psychopathology recovery (Pinniger et al., 2012; Khusid & Vythilingam, 2016). Mindfulness meditation has also been proven to increase emotional well-being (Krygier et al., 2013; Goyal et al., 2014) and to decrease reactivity from stress (Goyal et al., 2014). Neuroscience evidence suggests that long-term meditation practice decreases the intensity of reactive actions from the autonomic nervous system (Vasquez-Rosati et al., 2017), enables higher attunement of neural responses to emotional stimuli (Sobolewski et al., 2011; Taylor et al., 2011), and may also increase cognitive flexibility (Zeidan et al., 2011).

I will focus specifically on the Vipassana meditation technique and adaptations of this technique in the Western mindfulness movement in the critical literature review.

Benefits of Vipassana meditation

Vipassana meditation serves as the foundation for contemporary mindfulness meditation techniques used in clinical interventions such as Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (Kabat-Zinn, 1982; Teasdale et al.,1995; Teasdale et al., 2000; Davidson, 2003; Kabat-Zinn, 2003; Grossman et al., 2004), with clinical training certifications provided by The University of Oxford Mindfulness Centre. The development of greater self-awareness of “interoceptive and exteroceptive sensory stimuli” during Vipassana meditation, such that adaptive responding is facilitated instead of automated non-adaptive reactions, enables more successful management of stress (Hart, 2011; Segal et al., 2002; Kabat-Zinn, 2003). Assessments of Vipassana meditation have provided EEG and event-related potential (ERP) evidence of enhancements in self-awareness and decrease in automated reactive behavior (Cahn & Polich, 2009). A study showed an 8-week MBSR course enhanced attentional focus and improved emotional regulation (Jha et al., 2007).

A long term Vipassana meditation practice yields a few key benefits. In a study, advanced Vipassana meditators (with minimum 3 years’ experience) report higher positive moods than beginning meditators; not ruminating or identifying with negative moods too much, demonstrating that meditation decreases state and trait anxiety (Easterlin & Cardeña, 1998, p. 78). Furthermore, advanced meditators reported greater acceptance of their experience and self-awareness compared to beginners (Easterlin & Cardeña, 1998, p. 77). Greater acceptance, in a long term practice, can be developed into a consistent trait, enabling personal development and greater equanimity in stressful times (Easterlin & Cardeña, 1998, p. 77). These results have clinical implications in fields such as pain management and psychotherapy, where acceptance and awareness are important for therapeutic change (Easterlin & Cardeña, 1998, p. 78).

Increased brain wave activity in Vipassana meditators.

Recent neuroscience and psychophysiological studies have demonstrated changes in neurotransmitter levels, brain wave activity, and activation of neural structures (Lazar, et al., 2000), resulting in increased levels of alertness, relaxation, and focused attention (Hayes, Follette, & Linehan, 2011). Using function magnetic resonance imaging, meditation practice can be shown to activate neural structures (dorsolateral prefrontal and parietal cortices, hippocampal regions, temporal lobe, anterior cingulated cortex, striatum, and pre- and postcentral gyri) involved in attention and the functioning of the autonomic nervous system (Lazar, et al., 2000).

Increased gamma brain waves.

Studies support that electroencephalographic (EEG) gamma activity (30 to 100 Hz) is related to enhanced attention and facilitating neural activation in a meaningful way (Braboszcz, Cahn, Levy, Fernandez, & Delorme, 2017, p. 3; Varela, Lachaux, Rodriguez, & Martinerie, 2001). In this study, state effect increases in gamma spectral power (60–110 Hz) is demonstrated amongst Vipassana meditators compared to control participants and a positive linear correlation was also observed between the length of experience in meditation with a similar gamma range (Braboszcz, Cahn, Levy, Fernandez, & Delorme, 2017, p. 17). In addition, Vipassana practitioners displayed increased posterior 25–45 Hz gamma activity as a trait and state effect of meditation (Berkovich-Ohana, Glicksohn, & Goldstein, 2012). The parieto-occipital increase in high gamma observed in Vipassana meditators indicates a higher attentive state (Braboszcz, Cahn, Levy, Fernandez, & Delorme, 2017, p. 19). Furthermore, given the positive correlation observed between the length of meditation practice and the parieto-occipital high gamma power, it is suggested that neuroplasticity is induced by the meditators’ consistent meditation practice (Braboszcz, Cahn, Levy, Fernandez, & Delorme, 2017, p. 19). These findings suggest that Vipassana meditation enables a brain state of enhanced clarity and decreased automated reactivity (Cahn, Delorme, & Polich, 2012, p. 100).

Increased alpha brain waves.

Increases of alpha power have been observed in tasks requiring selective attention processes or redirection of attention towards internal objects — supporting the hypothesis that alpha power inhibits irrelevant sensory inputs (Cooper, Croft, Dominey, Burgess, & Gruzelier, 2003). EEG studies show higher alpha power in the Vipassana meditators compared to other participants during meditation (Braboszcz, Cahn, Levy, Fernandez, & Delorme, 2017, p. 21; Ingle & Awale, 2018, p. 34). Meditation trait effects displayed in the alpha frequency range by Vipassana meditators could be due to their meditation practice that focuses on increased internalized self-awareness and enhanced inhibitory mechanisms in their brain to combat distracting stimuli (Braboszcz, Cahn, Levy, Fernandez, & Delorme, 2017, p. 21).  In addition, a slowed respiration rate during meditation was observed, which promotes a relaxation response and reduction in stress (Ingle & Awale, 2018, p. 34).

Increased theta brain waves.

Synchronization of new information between the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex happens primarily in the theta band (Jones & Wilson, 2005). Theta waves are known as an “essential temporal organizer,” helping memory orientation (Buzsáki, 2005). Magnetoencephalography (MEG) findings show a higher theta band degree in the right hippocampus of Vipassana meditators, indicating that Vipassana meditators have more link connectivity from the right hippocampus to the rest of the brain network and that same connectivity is found to increase during meditation, compared to the control group (Lardone et al., 2018, p. 6). Findings further indicate that meditation might have functional effects on prospective and spatial memories, could be used as a non-pharmacological intervention in hippocampal injuries, and able to induce neuroplasticity (Lardone et al., 2018, p. 6).

Research limitations

Few studies have examined the effects of meditation on positive emotions, and studies published to date have yielded conflicting findings (Wu et al., 2019). The effects of meditation on emotion-cognition interactions also remain unclear (Wu et al., 2019). Gamma wave research literature indicate research methodology differences in using EEG to measure gamma waves, as electromyography signals affect gamma activity and EEG gamma waves can disappear with temporary muscle paralysis (Whitham et al., 2007), rendering unreliable results. As mindfulness is still a growing field, very few longitudinal studies currently exist, control groups are too randomized (there is limited replication of studies), causing significant variability in study design. Factors affecting different study designs in mindfulness include definition of the meditative phase state, the type of meditation explored, and data analysis methodology.

Considerations

Vipassana as a meditation practice can be very austere and challenging for beginners to take on. Below are considerations on amplifying the benefits of mindfulness meditation beyond Vipassana and risks to consider when undertaking meditation.

Amplifying Benefits

Brief mindfulness meditation can be a more palatable starting point for individuals that are unable or unwilling to commit to a ten day Vipassana course. Beginners to meditation may therefore benefit from very small doses of meditation training. A single ten minute mindfulness exercise (Erisman & Roemer, 2010) or a fifteen minute focused-breathing meditation (Arch & Craske, 2006) could immediately decrease the intensity and negativity of emotional responses. This is anecdotal evidence that individuals may benefit from small, quick doses of mindfulness meditation.

Risks

For clinical populations suffering from severe anxiety or depression, it is advised to seek professional mental health help before embarking on a Vipassana course or any mindfulness meditation. Mindfulness programs also need tailor their curriculum based on the appropriate cultural contexts and type of meditator demographic they are working with. For example, working with an experienced meditator that has practiced meditation for a decade is very different from carrying out a ten minute mindfulness session for beginners.

Conclusion

To close, I will end with a quote by Dr. Paul R. Fleischman, a Yale psychiatrist and Vipassana meditation teacher (Bar Shalom, 2018, p. 37):

“What Vipassana reveals is an increasingly subtle level, where thousands of sensations are signaling throughout our bodies continuously. At the level of covert, unconscious thought behavior, we are continuously impelled to respond as if these biochemical clouds of molecular events in our bodies were ourselves. Vipassana meditation enables us to experience the deep vibratory substrate of unconscious mental clinging or aversion to physical events in the body, and to elevate these reactions into consciousness. Through this process, the meditator can transform primitive somatic self-identifications that might have led to suffering, into awareness and free choice. The long silent hours of a Vipassana meditation course bring to the surface of the mind its previously repressed and hidden contents. The result is a deep exposure of one’s personal history, one’s inner life. The healer will find deepened self-knowledge as a result, and deeper empathy with the suffering of others. I know of no greater humanizer than exposure to our own life story in the unexpurgated edition. Another benefit for healers is greater respect for the multiplicity of healing modalities. Instead of needing to defend one’s own discipline against others—psychiatry is right, acupuncture is wrong; chiropractic is right, yoga is wrong—one can appreciate how thought, feeling, judgment, choice and action are the common cause of suffering and the common way out. The walls of our own world are built by how we think, how we act, how we give.”

References

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Zeidan, F., Martucci, K. T., Kraft, R. A., Gordon, N. S., McHaffie, J. G., & Coghill, R. C. (2011). Brain mechanisms supporting the modulation of pain by mindfulness meditation. Journal of Neuroscience, 31(14), 5540-5548. doi:10.1523/jneurosci.5791-10.2011