BUDDHIST MEDITATION – How does it actually work?

It is very common that a young girl or a boy gets physically attracted to another person of the opposite sex. Most of this attraction could have been developed due to environmental factors – what they read, what they see, what they hear and so on. But surely there is something that is inherent in our brains that puts one in that state, no matter how much one may try to avoid.

Scientists have seen that there are some preset neural structures in our brains and some chemicals produced as a result, that are the cause of these and such other emotions and desires. (See my book “How does the Mind Work?” Chapter on “Our emotions, beliefs, and free will”)

To put it in a computer lingo, many of our emotions, desires are ‘hardwired’ into our brain at birth. These may get reinforced over a period of time. What the Buddhist form of meditation is doing is to try to erase or alter these pre-wired settings of our brain.

To some extent, even Patanjali’s form of meditation is doing that, though indirectly. But the Buddhist method is more direct and aggressive. It is done by setting up new brain structures that oppose and try to nullify the preset structures.  If not done properly, this exercise could be dangerous.

Why do we cling on to life? One reason is that we have an innate craving to exist forever. Why do we take interest in sense pleasures, especially the stronger ones such as sex? That is because we have a notion of beauty, attractiveness, pleasure and so on. (I am just giving Buddhist logic). All these notions are setup in the brain as preset neural structures (or Cetasikas as Buddhists call it) that get reinforced over a period of time.

What a Buddhist typically does is to repeatedly convince the mind that this body is made up of perishable materials such as earth, water and so on. For this he meditates on a lump of earth, each time telling to himself that his body is nothing but a combination of such perishable materials.

He meditates on a rotten or half burnt corpse to convince that the so called beauty is only skin deep. Inside, it is filth and nothing else. He observes his own emotions. He meditates on them and sees what causes them and how transient they are.

In this way, he tries to set up new neural structures in the brain that oppose or weaken preset structures in the brain by repeated efforts till he reaches a state that the preset structures are overpowered and he is free from their effect.

Once he achieves that state, from then on, he is unperturbed by sense inputs and does not get carried away by them. He overcomes all desires as well as hatred (räga, dvesha), He is no longer lured by anything. He develops a state of equanimity.

This complete freedom from all cravings eventually puts an end to the need for rebirth and the person attains Nirvana – or rather, the Nirvana happens (since there is no person!). That is roughly about how Buddhist Insight meditation works.

Most people are fond of Hata yoga. Though Hata Yoga is not much into Meditation, there are some purely meditative techniques in Hata Yoga as well. In a next series of posts I will touch upon some Hata yoga meditative practices.

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