“Let us be silent, that we may hear the whispers of the gods.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Speech is of time, silence is of eternity.”
Thomas Carlyle
I’m driving down the freeway, late for an appointment and traveling a bit over the limit. Suddenly I’m aroused from my preoccupations by the sound of a police siren. A glance into the rearview mirror causes a precipitous drop in my gut as I realize that a distinguished member of the California Highway Patrol is pulling me over for speeding.
Instantly, a torrent of physiological responses cascades through my mind and body. My pupils dilate, my heart beats faster and harder, my blood pressure rises, my breathing deepens, and my skin perspires as adrenaline and cortisol are pumped into my circulation. Every cell in my body is shouting, “Fight or flight! Fight or flight! Fight or flight!”
But despite all these urgent internal alarms, I carefully pull over to the shoulder of the highway, put on a deferential smile, and politely attempt to talk my way out of a ticket.
Our ability to react vigorously and decisively when we are at risk has been an essential evolutionary development, and we are hard-wired to initiate a “fight-or-flight” response when we feel threatened. Although it has worked for possums to “play dead” when in danger, the survival of our species has depended upon our skill in fighting when the odds are in our favor and running when they’re not. This capability has been of tremendous importance to the human species at earlier stages of our evolution.
In his 1932 book entitled The Wisdom of the Body, the brilliant physiologist Walter B. Cannon described how the fight-or-flight response is programmed deeply into the oldest parts of our nervous system.1 Ten thousand years ago, a human being confronted by a saber-toothed cat would quickly grab a big stick or run as fast as his legs would carry him. Today there are still situations in which wielding physical power or finding the nearest escape route is adaptive, but these days our primitive defense mechanisms often simply agitate us at times when the fight-or-flight option is inappropriate. At the checkout line of a supermarket, or when our phone call is interminably put on hold, stress responses flood our systems with hormones—yet there’s not a saber-toothed cat anywhere in sight.
Perhaps because genuine physical threats have diminished, contemporary society seems addicted to simulations of danger and risk. Our children stand at video-arcade games for hours at a stretch fighting life-and-death battles, moving only their fingers. Millions of us attend movies featuring fierce violence and devastation. We sit quietly watching images on the screen, yet internally we may be close to panic, with stress hormones coursing through our veins. This frequent but suppressed activation of the fight-or-flight response contributes to a variety of illnesses. Hypertension, insomnia, anxiety, indigestion, irritable-bowel syndrome, and heart disease are just a few of the many health concerns that are linked to chronic stress.
The late Dr. Jonas Salk once wrote that the period of pure Darwinian “survival of the fittest” has largely passed, and that the ability to fight hard or run fast have to a great extent been rendered irrelevant by civilization’s advances.2 But, Salk suggested, if physical strength has become less significant, wisdom has become more important than ever before. We are now in the era of “survival of the wisest,” and we would do well to cultivate our intellectual, emotional, and spiritual capabilities with the same diligence that our ancestors brought to hunting and gathering. This is a distinctly modern perspective, yet I believe the meditation techniques of Ayurveda and other ancient traditions provide some of the most powerful tools for satisfying the very real need that Salk addressed.
Along with the fight-or-flight response, human beings have a built-in ability to reestablish mental and physical equilibrium. This restful-alertness response is also programmed into our nature, and it too confers an evolutionary advantage. After conquering a wild boar in the jungle, our early ancestors were able to retire to a safe place, where they allowed their minds to become quiet and their bodies to relax. But while restoring their energy, they remained alert, ready to respond to the environment if necessary.
Meditation works in much the same way. As a child of the late sixties and early seventies, I was hungry for a natural means of expanding consciousness, and I began daily meditation during my senior year in college. I had visions of great spiritual masters who could travel celestial realms while their bodies remained in a timeless state of suspended animation, and I expected meditation to provide this sort of supernatural effect. But my experiences weren’t at all “flashy.” Instead, I found a sense of genuine calm, a feeling of truly coming home to myself. Though there was no chorus of angels, I quickly began to appreciate the value of centering and replenishing myself, and soon my daily meditations became indispensable.
The following summer, before entering medical school, I participated in a training course that included eight hours a day of silent meditation. The experience left me convinced that exploration of inner space through daily meditation is the most important thing anyone can do to enhance health and well-being.
I’ve found that almost everyone can readily experience restful alertness using basic meditation techniques. The process is simply intrinsic to our nature, and all effective meditation and relaxation techniques operate according to similar principles. As thoughts become disengaged from their associated emotions, the mind body physiology is gradually able to reestablish a profound state of inner balance.
Emotions tied to thoughts have a kind of activating charge, for each feeling is a physical sensation associated with an idea. As a result, emotions are experienced in both our minds and bodies, and every idea includes a taste of delight or disappointment, relief or anguish, hope or despair, love or fear. As you recall the birth of a child, for example, you’ll remember not only the physical details, but also the powerful feelings evoked by the event. Or, if you think about the death of a friend or family member, you’ll again see that both information and emotional energy are woven into the memory. This mixing of thoughts and emotions is also present in our desires for the future. If you imagine a vacation you are planning to Hawaii, you will also experience feelings about the journey to paradise. If you need to go to traffic court next week, there will be a quite different emotional flavor to the imagined event.
Each of our thoughts is an impulse of consciousness that expresses both meaning and sound. Someone estimated that human beings have about sixty thousand thoughts each day—but the sad news is that about fifty-nine thousand are the same ones as the day before. Beginning meditators often believe their minds should be absolutely quiet, and their many thoughts frustrate them. But thoughts are the natural expression of a conscious mind. We are all engaged in a continuous internal dialogue, in which the meaning and the associations of one thought trigger the next.
Our minds work something like this:
“I need to pay the phone bill.”
“Tomorrow is my brother Bill’s birthday.”
“What did he get me last year for my birthday?”
“Last year, I was in Hawaii at this time.”
“I wonder what time it is.”
During meditation, a new object of attention is introduced, which temporarily serves to disrupt the progression of one thought to the next. More specifically, this new object of attention is able to engage our attention, but lacks an emotional charge to trigger associations. The object may be a chant, a visual symbol, one’s own breath, or a specific sound or mantra. By interrupting the usual meaningful progression of thoughts, it is possible to slip into the “gap” between our thoughts and experience the field of silence.
According to an integrated mind body model, mind and body are really two aspects of a unified underlying field of intelligence. The mind is a field of ideas and the body is a field of molecules—but both are manifestations of consciousness. If this intimate link between mind and body is really present, we should be able to measure changes in physiological functions during meditation that correspond to the ongoing mental experience. Indeed, over the past forty years many scientists have been intrigued by the remarkable changes that can be observed in experienced meditators.
During the 1950s, research on the Indian holy men known as yogis reported dramatic slowing of breathing rates and complete cessation of muscular activity for hours at a time.3,4 When brain-wave-monitoring technology became widely available in the sixties, experienced meditators showed unique EEG patterns.5,6 I was fascinated by the reports of mystics who could accomplish what seemed like miraculous feats of self-control. Some yogis could slow their breathing to two or three breaths per minute, while others appeared totally serene despite having their hands immersed in ice water.7 I heard dramatic descriptions of yogis who meditated in airtight boxes and showed no signs of harm after hours of oxygen deprivation. Herbert Benson, M.D., a pioneer in meditation research, reported on Buddhist monks capable of raising their body temperatures in near-freezing weather to the point that they were able to heat up and completely dry icy sheets wrapped around them.8
These findings forced many Western scientists to reassess existing paradigms. Up until this time, it had generally been held that our nervous system has two distinct parts: a voluntary component through which we control movements of our muscles, and an involuntary, or autonomic, component to regulate blood pressure, heart rate, temperature, digestion, and other essential bodily processes that occur without conscious attention.
As information on advanced meditation practitioners came to light, neurophysiologists began to recognize that certain bodily functions that usually happen automatically can be brought under conscious control. Although it was initially believed that the ability to influence involuntary functions was exceptional and required years of austere practice, it quickly became apparent in the late sixties through studies on practitioners of transcendental meditation (TM) that any person with a mind has the ability to experience quieter levels of mental activity, accompanied by a state of deep physical relaxation.
Studies on newly initiated Westerners practicing a mantra meditation technique showed physiological changes surprisingly similar to those reported in experienced practitioners. Breathing patterns slowed, oxygen consumption fell, the heart pumped less blood, and brain-wave patterns became more coherent.9,10,11 Of greater practical importance were studies showing that, rather than becoming recluses, people practicing meditation became less anxious, more sociable, and more successful in their worldly endeavors.12,13 We have also learned that meditation can be helpful in the treatment of many common health disorders, including hypertension, anxiety, chronic pain, and infertility.14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22 Meditation is now a component of mind body programs around the world.
The basic experience of meditation combines inner awareness with deep physical relaxation. This is very different from sleep, during which we have limited awareness, and from wakefulness, when we are physically active and our awareness is directed outward. In fact, studies have disclosed, there are sufficient distinctions between the physiological profile during meditation and all other known states of awareness that some researchers have suggested meditation represents a completely separate state of consciousness.
From the perspective of Ayurveda and mind body medicine, inner silence is fundamental to balancing, healing, and rejuvenating the physiology. From the silent field of pure potentiality, all energy and creativity springs forth, and the entire manifest creation flows from the silent unified field. Deep within each of us lies the ground state of consciousness, the realm of spirit that connects our individuality with universality. Through the process of meditation, this field of pure awareness can be found in the silent spaces between our thoughts. With the repeated experience of silence, the field of pure potentiality can become an internal reference point of inner stability and self-reference.
There are many different types of meditation for quieting the mind and expanding awareness.23,24 Most techniques seek to focus attention gently on some physical or mental phenomenon, which may be an object, a sound, a thought, or a physiological process. Just by becoming aware of your breathing, for example, you can quiet your thoughts and create a deepening sense of relaxation.
As a first step in learning to meditate, try the simple breathing-awareness technique outlined below:
1. Close your eyes.
2. Gently focus awareness on your respiration. As you inhale and exhale, simply observe your breath.
3. Remain aware of your breathing, without trying to alter it in any way.
4. As you observe your breath, it may vary in speed, rhythm, or depth. It may even seem to stop for a time. Without resisting, calmly observe these changes.
5. At times your attention may drift to a thought passing through your mind, to a physical sensation in your body, or to some distraction in the environment.
6. Whenever you notice that you are not observing your breath, gently bring your attention back to it.
7. Relinquish any expectations you may have during the practice of this technique. If you find yourself being drawn to a particular feeling, mood, or expectation, treat this as you would any other thought. Gently return your awareness to your breath.
8. Continue for twenty minutes, then very slowly open your eyes, returning your attention to the sights and sounds around you.
Primordial sounds are the vibrations of nature that structure the universe. They are the root sounds of every language. We can hear these sounds in the songs of birds, the rushing of streams, the crashing of waves, and in the whispering breezes in the leaves of a tree. According to Ayurveda, listening to primordial sounds restores our sense of connection to the whole and enlivens our inner healing energy.
Primordial sound meditation (PSM) makes use of the seed sounds of the Sanskrit alphabet. These mantras, or vehicles of the mind, are mental vibrations that do not carry meaning. Because they are free of the associations that accompany the words we use in everyday speech, primordial sounds temporarily interrupt the otherwise continuous internal dialogue that progresses from one meaningful idea to another, and allows us to enter the silent space between thoughts.
Primordial sound meditation chooses an individual’s mantra on the basis of Vedic mathematics. According to Ayurveda, each epoch of time has a particular vibratory frequency associated with it. A mantra that reflects the sound of the universe at the time of one’s birth is identified and used in a silent, effortless meditation process. There are approximately one hundred classical mantras from which an individual’s is chosen. The theory is that the sound of the cosmos at the time of one’s birth reflects the vibration of moving from an unmanifest prenatal form to a living, breathing individual. By using this sound, it can serve as a vehicle to bring our awareness from individuality to universality. Simply stated, the mantra is used as a subtle vibration to create a quieting resonance in the mind. With practice, a true experience of silence is achieved.
What evidence is there that using a specifically chosen mantra is more effective than any randomly chosen one? From a scientific standpoint, the answer is—very little. In some studies on meditators, a control group of people who sat quietly with their eyes closed or read religious material generally did not show the same physiological changes as those practicing a specific meditation technique. In one of our recent studies, we taught our control members the Jacobsen progressive relaxation and fewer people stayed with it versus primordial sound meditation.25 Dr. Herbert Benson has suggested that any pleasant, meaningless sound can be used to elicit a relaxation response, but we have decided to continue using an established means of choosing the subtle mental vehicles of the Vedic tradition. We know the traditional mantras work, and we find comfort and inspiration in the fact that they have been used in meditative practice for five thousand years.
What actually happens when one sits to meditate? Although each experience of meditation has its own flavor, mine tend to follow a general pattern. When I first close my eyes and introduce the mantra, a continuous stream of thoughts traffic is usually present, most often about a situation that is prominent in my life at that moment. Gradually my thoughts become fainter and blend together, as if I were watching a dream. Then, finally, thoughts seem to melt away entirely, yet awareness remains. While in this silent place, time and space are transcended, only to be reintroduced when I emerge from the internal silence. I may dip in and out of this state until it is time to resume the activities of my life. But I always feel a centering and a deep sense of rejuvenation as I reenter the world of activity.
Although taking time each day to access the inner field of silence and creativity is profoundly rewarding, the true value of meditation is not in the practice alone, but also in the benefits that it brings to everyday life. When we integrate meditation into our daily routine, the experience of silence begins to permeate our lives even outside of meditation. The expanded, nonlocal, blissful field we contact during the practice becomes established as an internal reference point. When you’ve begun meditating regularly, you’re very likely to find that all your activities are performed with more awareness, balance, and joy. You’ll be insulated from the hysteria of modern life, because on the level of your own experience you’ll understand that your essential nature is silence.
Once you’ve learned to enter the gap between your thoughts, you can begin using mental imagery to activate attention and intention at subtle levels, and to energize the deepest healing processes of your body. Some examples of mental imagery are provided below. Before making use of them, it’s best to spend about ten minutes in breathing-awareness or a mantra meditation technique. Then the texts of these inner journeys should be read with a slow, soothing intonation. You can record your own voice, or ask a trusted friend to read to you.
Following each imaging experience, remain in a relaxed state for five minutes before opening your eyes.
This guided meditation provides the experience of going beyond our senses to embrace the timeless expansiveness of creation.
Imagine yourself lying atop a mountain on a clear, warm, moonless summer’s night, gazing into the heavens. Your awareness begins expanding to fill the celestial sky. You begin traveling away from the earth as gravity releases its hold. You briefly glance back to see our beautiful blue planet diminishing to a tiny point of reflected light. As you expand outward across the solar system, you traverse the paths of the outer planets and soon the sun becomes just another star in the sky. You continue moving through the vast intergalactic space as you travel beyond the Milky Way galaxy with its millions of stars twinkling like fireflies on a summer night. Continuing to encompass more of the universe, you see other star clusters and nebulae as faint sparkles of light in the vast black sea of space. Eventually your awareness is filled with the cosmos and the cosmos is filled with your awareness.
Now, focus on the dimmest speck of light across the vast expanse of space and allow it to guide you across the universe as you retrace the path toward your home galaxy. As the light of the sun gradually glows brighter, you again see our azure planet floating in the blackness. Follow the path of a beam of light, back to your present space and time on earth. Now trace a light ray as it enters your eye and is absorbed by a vision cell in your retina. Follow a single photon as it moves through the cell membrane, through the watery bag of proteins, past the nucleus with its coiled genetic code, into a single molecule. Continue diving deeper into an atom as you cross a vibrating charged electron cloud. Penetrate the vast emptiness between the outer electrons and the minute, dense atomic nucleus made of protons and neutrons. You have now entered the shadowy zone between matter and energy. As you enter the subatomic realm, all illusion of solidity surrenders to evanescent bursts of energy. You find yourself once again in a boundless empty space glimpsing tiny flashes of light in a black sea of universal potential. Not only have matter and energy dissolved, but space and time as well.26
You now have direct experience of the Vedic verse:
“As is the individual, so is the universe.
As is the human body, so is the cosmic body.
As is the human mind, so is the cosmic mind.
As is the microcosm, so is the macrocosm.”
What are the lessons of this exercise? If you allowed yourself to take this journey then it should be apparent that the reality you created was within your own awareness. Through memories and imaginations we create the substance of our lives, all the while believing that the quantum soup we interpret as “real” is immutable. The “solid” world of our senses, composed of molecules and atoms, is mostly emptiness. But paradoxically, this “emptiness” is actually full with the potential to create the infinite forms and phenomena of the universe.
When we enter the cosmic core, space and time lose their grip and we experience the beginning of the universe. The timeless womb of creation is present at every moment, engendering the world, but never surrendering its eternal, infinite potentiality. This field of pure intelligence is the source of the universe and the source of our individual minds.
In this visualization, you’re encouraged to experience your connection to the universe with your heart, rather than with your intellect.
We will begin this journey to the heart of creation by traveling to a place that carries a special meaning for you. Envision a beautiful, natural environment that is safe and nurturing. It may be a lush beach on a tropical island, a natural hot springs deep in an old growth forest, or a pine-covered mountaintop with expansive views. Find your sacred place, spread a soft blanket on the ground, and make yourself comfortable, lying on your back, looking into the beautiful blue, sunny sky. As the sounds of birds warbling and the soft, warm breeze whispering through the trees fade into the background, close your eyes and allow the golden warmth of the sun to embrace and suffuse you. Feel the tension melting out of your body and allow the healing energy of nature to ease and comfort you. With each breath, release your fears and hurts, allowing them to evaporate in the purity of your nurturing, accepting surroundings.
Now envision the face of a loving celestial being coming before you, filled with tenderness, compassion, and forgiveness. Love and acceptance flow from the eyes of this being into your heart, bathing away your fears and pains. As you gaze into this angelic face you notice that it embodies other faces of people with whom you have shared true love. You may see a devoted parent, or a kind grandparent gazing into your eyes with unconditional acceptance. A childhood sweetheart smiles at you with the innocence of youthful love. A teacher or spiritual guide shares his compassion and deep knowingness with you. A spouse or lover honors your essence with his unwavering affection and appreciation. A child gazes into your eyes with trust and gratitude for your caring and commitment. Your dear friends express their unqualified appreciation of you.
Each of the faces offers love and forgiveness. As their healing energy permeates your heart, allow it to fill your being and radiate from you to all around you. The pain, grief, sadness, and fear that you have been carrying melts away and you feel increasingly light as your heart flows in love and gratitude. Surrounded by the caring people in your life, you realize that the love that unites your hearts is the same sacred essence expressing itself in various guises. The universe was created from love and the only real force on earth is the love we share with those around us. You have tasted the realm of spirit—this is wholeness—this is holy.
You probably found that this visualization had a different effect on you than the first exercise. This was a journey of the heart, which by its nature wants to overcome all boundaries and experience unity. Love is the sweetest essence of life. Although extremely delicate, love is invincible and imperishable for it is the vital force of the universe. In the Vedic tradition, spiritual seekers can be enlightened through knowledge or through devotion. This exercise provides a glimpse of the liberating and enlightening wisdom of the heart.
When you begin to own this knowledge, nothing in your environment can feel threatening to you. As a result, any fear of loss or separation will loosen its hold, and an unbroken flow of love and awareness will strengthen, inspire, and illuminate you.
As we’ve discussed earlier, Ayurveda teaches that the fundamental cause of all suffering and illness can be expressed in just two words: object referral. If we choose to identify ourselves with objects—people, possessions, or emblems of status—we will eventually experience loss and pain as a consequence.
Self-referral, in contrast, is identification with the field of pure potentiality, the realm of silence and of spirit. Meditation allows us to experience directly the inner silence that is the ultimate source of all creativity and fulfillment. By devoting some time each day to meditation, we can reestablish contact with the underlying ground state of existence. This experience of inner silence connects each individual self with the infinite, immortal, cosmic intelligence. Directly experiencing the state of pure potentiality opens our individual awareness to universal awareness. By taking time to enter the gap between our thoughts—to settle into the silent ground state of existence—we can infuse all of our desires and intentions with the irresistible power of nature.
If you’re accustomed to a fast-paced, tightly scheduled lifestyle, it may seem that meditating is simply “doing nothing” for an hour each day—and there is even some truth to this. While you’re meditating, you’re of no use to your friends or your family or your career. But when you arise from meditation refreshed, energized, centered, and creatively focused, you can become a powerful, beneficial force for yourself and everyone you encounter. Of all the mind body approaches discussed in this book, daily meditation is foremost.
