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| Andrew Newberg Univ of Pennsylvania |
His book "How Enlightenment Changes Your Brain: The New Science of Transformation" describes this in detail.
Newberg has also appeared in the blogposts "How the brain creates mystical experiences" and "What is an "E(e)nlightenment experience?...a new scientific, secular model".
Newberg found that the critical element in producing "enlightenment" was the size of the changes in activity in the frontal and parietal lobes. Typical spiritual practices often give changes of +20% but after they conclude, one is left feeling peaceful and alert, but there is no fundamental change.
If the activity in those two key centers increases more than 20% over typical baseline values, and is followed by a "sudden and substantial decrease" back to baseline activity levels, then an "aha", a "small" enlightenment experience occurs, an "e", with new insights and bliss.
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| Frontal and Parietal Lobes |
If, however, there is an unexpected, dramatic change from over + 20% to - 20%., or a total change of 40% or more, then an "overwhelming" experience, or an "E" occurs with the classical mystical experiences of "All is One" and being "now, now, now" with no sense of a personal self passing through time.
Newberg evaluated many different approaches ranging from Sufi Dhikr/Zhikr to Pentecostal "speaking in tongues", or glossolalia, and Muslim Salat/Salah and found that all produced similar increases in frontal and parietal lobe activity.
As an fMRI requires lying still, it was necessary for Newberg to use Single Proton Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT), in which an IV injection of radioactive tracer is given at the "critical" point in the practice. This tracer then goes to certain specific tissues and and remains there until the scanning is done and a 3-D image produced.
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| SPECT differences with Alzheimers |
This work was partially funded by the Alzheimer's Association to see if it could improve, or maintain cognition levels and produce other fundamental changes.
A simple 8 week, 12 minutes per day practice produced "positive changes in mood, anxiety and other neuropsychological parameters...correlated with cerebral blood flow". The research was published by Moss, et al, in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, Vol 18, pp 48-53, 2012.
Kirtan Kriya is a broadly-used approach for many conditions and situations including breaking negative habits and addictions, creating emotional balance and dealing with stress of all levels and sources.
Describing this approach to some folk with a daughter who had developed serious stress and addiction, coping with ongoing pain from a severe injury, they said that her psychologist had recommended it and it was the only approach that "worked".Despite the attempts by many folk to assign spiritual significance to the sounds, they are just four common phonemes in Sanskrit that are easy to pronounce. Most Sanskrit phonemes are much more difficult to pronounce "correctly".
The video "Kirtan Kriya for Stress, Comprehension, Memory" describes how to use it and ways to increase its complexity.
Newberg's work emphasizes increasing practice complexity to continue to engage several brain regions simultaneously to improve cognition and memory, and produce enlightenment experiences. Without this, the brain turns any practice into a boring routine.
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| Salat practice |
To further increase complexity, the video "Ribhu Gita with Kirtan Kriya Mudras" shows how kirtan kriya can be coordinated with chanting of the Ribhu Gita. This was a favorite nondual text of Ramana Maharshi and is a key element in an upcoming book on updating your brain's software.
More complexity can also be added with a different complex mantra sequence by adding mudras to the famous Gayatri mantra, praised by the Buddha in the Pali Canon and in the Bhagavad Gita as shown in the video "Gayatri Mantra With Mudras". Demonstrating this to a leading Buddhist teacher, he reacted strongly..."Where did you learn that? That is a secret teaching!!".
As these hands are deformed by an accident and a genetic defect, one of the positions cannot be done perfectly. Richard Miller's demonstration is perfect. There are also a few modifications to his version which arose when we were working together.
More complexity comes from coupling the Gayatri mudras with a favorite text, Nirvana Shatakam, discussed in "Happiness Beyond Thought: A Practical Guide to Awakening" (free download link) and chanted with transliterations and translations in the video "Shut Up and Chant" with Rich Doyle.
As described in the video "Nirvana Shatakam with Mudras", the first quarter of the Gayatri mudras covers fewer syllables than the others, so adaptation is required for the first line of each verse to match Nirvana Shatakam. This is a powerful practice which has been done thousands of times, and deepens the understandings in Nirvana Shatakam.
It feels as if these mudras were intended for Nirvana Shatakam as there are so many "oh, yes" places as practice continues. It truly is the gift that keeps on giving.
i was strongly resistant to chanting and learning Sanskrit. Self-inquiry and "letting go of attachments" produced the "page turning" to no self-referential thoughts, reduced suffering and desires, and persistent, effortless, Presence and Stillness.
However, it manifested that there were understandings of the nondual/Advaitic teachings that could only be accessed by knowing and chanting them as they were created a hundred, a thousand, or several thousand years ago.
Sanskrit encodes, phonically, the "feel" of an understanding so that it can be transmitted accurately as the grammar is so "tight", logical and precise. It is like looking at a painting, and feeling what the painter encoded so many years ago.
The blogpost "Using simple chants meditatively for nondual awakening" and the video "Using simple chants for nondual awakening" are useful for learning how to chant Sanskrit. There are also many chants on my soundcloud channel @ https://soundcloud.com/gary_weber.
Chanting with mudras does not replace the self-inquiry and letting go, but it can deepen the understanding of the realizations that manifest.
Can you give an example in practical terms how to go from + 20% to - 20%., ?
ReplyDeleteHi Anonymous,
DeleteThe key thing to remember is that there is no way to "do" it. As the post stated, it is "unexpected", and it only happens when there is no one there. By the very nature of its being "transcendent", it is beyond the ego/I and any doership, so there is no "practical" approach to guarantee its occurrence.
All that can be "done" is to find a practice that you are strongly drawn to, and do it diligently. It is very important that it be at a level that requires you to be deeply, fully and continuously engaged, which is why the increasing complexity is important.
If you are doing the practice to get the "E" experience, it won't work. There needs to be full engagement without someone to have the goal of getting an experience to tell others about.
It is really all about fully "letting go/surrendering into" the practice.
Trust this is useful.
stillness
Is it possible you have free will and that your will is so utterly free that you have freely chosen to extinguish your own free will? Could these exercises represent the somewhat elaborate task of extinguishing free will via free will?
ReplyDeleteHi David,
DeleteNot possible on many levels. If you read the blogpost "The impossibility of 'free will'...scientifically and logically" or put "free will" in the search box for the blog, which is a Google platform, and look at the 85 blogs where it is discussed, you'll get some idea of how strong and compelling the "no free will" argument is.
you can also go to the youTube playlist "Free, Will Control, Predetermination" @ https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuH37Fyz9VEOnY_lUcblS8aI0hF7oNMj6 to get several videos along the same lines.
The illusion that we have "free will" is arguably the strongest root of the ego/I and it is heavily reinforced by institutions, religions, the judicial system, marketing and social media. Much of the discussion now is "how do we tell them" and "should we tell them" as the repercussions are huge as the blogpost "There's no free will...accept it, attack it, hide it, or ignore it" discusses.
However it is already working its way into the judicial system as several blogposts discuss. It isn't going to go away, any more than the earth is the center of the universe, or that it is flat, went away despite huge efforts by the religions to suppress it.
stillness
Hi Gary, followed the link you provided to the article "How to Deepen your Awakening Practices" and was drawn to the comments section. I noticed something you wrote:
ReplyDelete"The "Big E" won't naturally manifest, nor will so many "small e's", unless you are reaching every place in body-mind. This is a big drawback to many meditative traditions. you can't get there, IME, just by sitting."
i currently lead a quite sedentary life besides cycling to uni and doing the 3 yoga vinyasas mentioned in your book HBT daily accompanied by pranayama, sun salutations and also meditate twice daily for 50-60 mins. i'm drawn to the idea of extending this yoga routine, maybe even to replace one of the sittings - is it necessary? Currently it doesn't feel too physical. i also tried doing the HBT yoga routine more slowly and concentrated today (as mentioned in this article) and it felt good.
you suggest self inquiry can also be added to cycling, swimming, running etc to generate these es?... i might try some of those, but since yoga is already part of 'my' practice could you recommend any routines to further the current routine in HBT?
Thank you as always.
Hi Michael,
DeleteThat sounds like a good, solid practice, with the yoga vinyasas from HBT, some pranayama and sun salutations and two 50 - 60 minutes per day sitting. i wouldn't recommend dropping one of the sittings as two, IME, is so much stronger than one, whether they are done together (with a 10 min walking med between) or one in the morning and one in the evening.
As you have found, doing the HBT yoga routine more slowly and with stronger concentration is much more powerful.
As far as ways to deepen your vinyasas, i would recommend watching the video "Using Yoga Posture Flows for NonDual Awakening" @ https://youtu.be/J9bAXk5VEQI to see how to use the breath to match the length of the opening/inhale and closing/exhale of the individual postures. As you do it more slowly, still keep it matched with the length of the breath.
i was able to generate "e"s routinely when i was running a lot and kept hitting the "runners' high" at about 35 to 40 minutes. The fascinating thing was that when i started sitting, since the brain had learned how to do it, it just transferred that same "e" over to the sitting practice so it arose about the same time. i just sat every time until an "e" happened, however long it took, which was rarely longer than 45 minutes.
Interestingly, the typical, traditional length of sitting in Rinzai Zen sesshins, week-long meditations for most of the day, is 45 minutes with 10 minutes walking, then 45 mins sitting, etc.
Trust this is useful.
stillness
Hi Michael,
DeleteOn your question on adding self-inquiry into your vinyasas, during the vinyasas, IME, there is too much going on with the breath lengths matching the asana and being fully focused on the movement to add self-inquiry.
However, during the holds, it is a great place to use self-inquiry and sequential breath counting on the exhales internally. Something like "what is this?" on the inhale, and then "one" on the exhale, etc.
you can try this as well in your running, cycling or swimming, particularly if you're going up, or down, a steep grade or getting tired or stressed. The self-inquiry/counting can be useful to shift your focus away from having the ego/I come in with its stories about how impossible this is, etc.
stillness
What does this 20% to - 20% dramatic change depends on?
ReplyDeleteWhat do I need to do (with the practice of self inquiry of course) for more of a chance for that to happen?
Hi Anonymous. Don't know if you're the same Anonymous, but the answer to this is given above in the first comment.
Deletestillness
"However, it manifested that there were understandings of the nondual/Advaitic teachings that could only be accessed by knowing and chanting them as they were created a hundred, a thousand, or several thousand years ago.
ReplyDeleteSanskrit encodes, phonically, the "feel" of an understanding so that it can be transmitted accurately as the grammar is so "tight", logical and precise. It is like looking at a painting, and feeling what the painter encoded so many years ago."
Could you expand on this point for us? Is there a type of transmission that occurs through the chanting and mudras? Are these practices really that powerful?
It feels as though there is an intellectual understanding but not the experiential understanding.
Hi Anonymous,
DeleteYes, it is important to develop a "feel" for practices to get some personal, experiential understanding to decide which ones are working and which ones aren't. The blogpost "Feeling your way to nondual awakening" gives some tips on how to develop this.
On chanting and mudras, compare how it "feels" before doing them, and then after doing them. Also break them up so that you chant, but don't use the mudras, and then do the mudras but don't chant. Then try them together.
It is also helpful to compare them to something not in Sanskrit. For example, just sing/chant "a, b, c, d". Then do "a, b, c, d" with the mudras in kirtan kriya. Then sing/chant "saa, taa, naa, maa" without doing the mudras, and then do them with the mudras.
This isn't the format to give a short course on Sanskrit, but it is totally structured around how to produce particular sounds in the most resonant way possible by every way you can imagine to produce a sound in our mouths, tongues, lips and palate.
The Sanskrit characters themselves basically show you how to make that sound correctly. If extraterrestrials came here after we were gone, and all they could find were the Sanskrit characters, they could deduce how our sounding apparatus was constructed.
stillness
gary
Thanks,
DeleteHow long did the learning of sanskrit take. Obviously it will take as long as it takes and it will vary for everyone, but am interested in how long it took you until you were able to read and recite texts.
Hi Anonymous,
DeleteYes, it will take as long as it takes. It depends strongly on the complexity of the texts you are interested in, how committed and diligent you are, and your general skill in learning languages. If you are drawn to Sanskrit, i would strongly recommend it from many perspectives.
There is an active research program at Penn State demonstrating how much intellectual capacity, cognition and creativity are improved by learning a second language, preferably one with different structure and characters and sounds.
With particular regard to Sanskrit, if you google "Sanskrit as a second language", you'll see that in the UK and Germany (where there are 1200 schools) it is compulsory in some schools and has replaced other second languages.
As far as learning it, the American Sanskrit Institute @ http://www.americansanskrit.com/ is excellent and where i took several courses as well as the CD course. Strongly recommended.
Learn some simple chants first. The blogpost "Using simple chants meditatively for nondual awakening" goes through an excellent background in chanting it and the video "Using simple chants for nondual awakening" can be helpful. There are many chants on my soundcloud channel @ https://soundcloud.com/gary_weber.
It really is the gift that keeps on giving and even learning a simple chant can provide much learning, comfort and healing.
stillness
Gary, how would you recommend using Kirtan Kriya in the context of taking care of addictive behaviors? I have one last addiction, pornography, that I keep returning to.
ReplyDeleteI've tried using a The Work/Sedona combination on and off, but frankly am very disheartened by how I can let go of the feeling and desire successfully in the moment, but then sometimes immediately proceed to access porn anyway.
Hi Anonymous,
DeleteThe blogpost "How the changing brain turns our pleasures into addictions" gives some important background, using the neuroscience and neurochemistry, into how addictions get created by the same mechanisms in everything from social media to porn.
The key is to recognize the mechanisms and then begin to break the cycle and unwind the FOSB-enhanced connections. It is critical to use some "letting go" and "self-inquiry" process to deal with the stories around the addiction, but as you have found, if the addiction is strong, the "letting go" will not be enough, nor will going "cold turkey".
In working with folk with porn addictions, what can help is to go ahead and watch the porn, but don't give yourself any "pleasure" by masturbating. Just watch. This is where Kirtan Kriya comes in.
If the drive to masturbate gets too strong to ignore, just use the Kirtan Kriya with as much complexity as you need to move your focus away.
As the blogpost discusses, you can unwind the layers of FOSB that have been put down to generate the addiction if you unwind the pleasure.
you can break this addiction if you really want to. we're not dealing with heroin here.
Trust this is useful.
stillness
I'm very grateful for your reply. I've studied blog post you mentioned, and found it to be very informative.
DeleteYou're correct that cold turkey hasn't worked. For what ever reason, I get a weekly desire to view porn. Until now, I've only had two failing options: Try to resist and fail eventually, or just fail right away.
I'm working with this third option to disrupt this neural network, watching pornography without a pleasure reinforcement combined with inquiry and letting go.
It's still early days. I'll report back some time.
Gary, I love the work you have been doing here. Please keep at it. This is helping me beyond measure.
DeleteHi vardhanam daga. Great that you are finding the work so useful. There are many different formats and media approaches to this work shown on the website @ www.happiness-beyond-thought.com, all free in some format. stillness
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHi Sergej,
DeleteNot certain what you mean by "freeze response", but kirtan kriya as explained in this post is a very powerful approach to add to self-inquiry to move things forward.
If you read my first book, "Happiness Beyond Thought: A Practical Guide to Awakening", you'll see several different yoga sequences that work with self-inquiry.
If you put "asanas" in the search box in the blog, or in youTube, you'll get many suggestions.
Gary's body is safe, following all of the COVID guidelines and getting the vaccine.
stillness
Sergej