We see the balancing act of form and formlessness, yin and yang, science and religion playing out on a societal level, as well as an intrapersonal level. Society debates the value of science vs.
religion as if it is one or the other that has the truth. Einstein was able to hold that both paradigms of awareness could co-exist within one individual. His legacy endures as a human being who was able to be committed to the scientific method while having faith in the mystery of it all.
Decision-making and meditation
Antonio Damasio, a neurosurgeon, had a patient with a brain tumor that needed excision. In order to extract the tumor, he had to sever connections between the prefrontal cortex, where thinking dominates, and the amygdala, an emotional center. This patient was a successful corporate lawyer, who after surgery was able to do well on every type of intelligence testing offered him, yet his life fell apart. He couldn't function at work, lost his job, got divorced and generally could not live a normal life. He went back to Damasio who tested him and couldn't find anything wrong until the surgeon asked him when he could return for another appointment. The corporate lawyer could not make a decision. This led Damasio to understand that proper decision-making was both an emotional and rational process. We have to be able to feel how a thought affects us before we can decide if that thought works for us. No feeling, no decision. Sales people and advertising executives know a lot more about this than the medical profession.
Meditation will enhance our ability to become aware of our internal process, enabling us to notice the feeling and notice the thought while not having them automatically drive each other. In a study titled, "Interoception drives increased rational decision-making in meditators playing the ultimatum game," published by Frontiers in Decision Neuroscience, a group of experienced meditators were better able to regulate their emotional responses compared to a control group of non-meditators when playing a game that involved economic decision making. Functional MRI during the game revealed that the inula was the area of the brain involved in controlling negative emotions. The meditators were more able to decouple negative emotions from their behavior. In other words, meditators are more able to keep their cool.
The implications of this are enormous. The number one killer of teenagers is poor judgment. Imagine what a little meditation could do to enhance the areas of the teenage brain that result in better decision-making. The adult world could also benefit from some enhanced judgment as well.
The fundamental key to all this is self-awareness. Often, I ask patients how they are feeling, right now, in their body. They will usually tell me something like this: "I feel anxious, or tired, or worried, or happy, or stuck, or pain ..." All these descriptions are conceptual and not really descriptions of actual feelings. How do you know you are anxious? You feel a sensation in the body, perhaps the chest, like a pressure, or a constricted feeling, or a heavy sensation, and then the conceptual mind slaps a label on it - "anxious."
Once the label is there, the connection to the actual sensations become less available. We already know what it is, so there is no longer the need to pay so much attention to it. By staying with the actual body sensation and avoiding the temptation to label it, we stay in the present moment. We stay with the actual sensation and we don't think about it as much, or not at all. This brings us into reality and out of fantasy. Our fears and worries tend to recede. If they do arise, we are more apt to see them for what they are, simply thoughts. Now the thoughts arise in a context of feeling the actual sensation. The connection between them is now available to us and we don't need to react from past programming. Now we have a choice, just like the meditators who were able to make better decisions in the money game. Now that's using your inula.
Andrew Rader is an acupuncturist and herbalist who has been in practice for 23 years. He received a BS in biochemistry from U.C. Berkeley in 1982. After working and travelling in Asia, he returned to study Chinese medicine at the American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine in San Francisco and received his Masters degree from ACTCM in 1988. Andrew completed an internship at Beijing College of Traditional Chinese Medicine Fall/Winter 1987/88. In 1990, he became the director of the Haight Ashbury Free Acupuncture Clinic in San Francisco. From 1993 to 1997, he was the staff acupuncturist at the Conant Medical Group, one of the largest AIDS practices in the U.S. He also worked with Dr. John Kaiser, a well-known alternative AIDS specialist. In addition to being an acupuncturist, Andrew is also a hypnotherapist, having studied with Will Goddey, and specializes in smoking cessation. In connection with his love of Chinese medicine, Andrew has followed a Buddhist meditation path since 1982, and has practiced tai chi, qigong and yoga since 1980. Andrew, his wife and family live in the San Geronimo Valley of West Marin, California. Andrew currently practices in Marin county, Calif., and can be reached at:
or freedomfromsmokes.com and qiawareness.com.
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