Meditation slows AIDS progression

Meditation slows AIDS progression

 

Meditation may slow the worsening of AIDS in just a few weeks, perhaps by affecting the immune system, US researchers reported.

If the findings are borne out in larger studies, it could offer a cheap and pleasant way to help people battle the incurable and often fatal condition, the team at the University of California Los Angeles said on Thursday.

They tested a stress-lowering program called mindfulness meditation, defined as practicing an open and receptive awareness of the present moment, avoiding thinking of the past or worrying about the future. The more often the volunteers meditated, the higher their CD4 T-cell counts - a standard measure of how well the immune system is fighting the AIDS virus. The CD4 counts were measured before and after the two-month programme.

"This study provides the first indication that mindfulness meditation stress-management training can have a direct impact on slowing HIV disease progression," said David Creswell, who led the study.

His team tested 67 HIV-positive adults from the Los Angeles area, 48 of whom did some or all of the meditation. Most were likely to have highly stressful lives, Creswell said.

"The average participant in the study was male, African American, homosexual, unemployed and not on ARV (antiretroviral) medication," they wrote in the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity.

The meditation classes included eight weekly two-hour sessions, a day-long retreat and daily home practice. "The people that were in this class really responded and just really enjoyed the program," Creswell said.

"The mindfulness program is a group-based and low-cost treatment, and if this initial finding is replicated in larger samples, it’s possible that such training can be used as a powerful complementary treatment for HIV disease, alongside medications," he added.

He said it was unclear how the stress-reducing effects of meditation work. It may directly boost CD4 T-cell levels, or suppress the virus, he said.

 

Susan Shumsky in New York City

Greetings,

You are invited to attend the amazing, enlightening events that Dr. Susan Shumsky will facilitate in New York City at the New Life Yoga and Raw Foods Expo, June 11 to 13. Details are below.

Pre-register for her workshop here:
http://www.newlifeexpo.com/expo-pre-reg.php?expo=20

Who Is Susan Shumsky?

Dr. Shumsky, foremost expert in spirituality and pioneer in the field of self-development, has taught yoga and spiritual disciplines for over 40 years. She is the best-selling author of Divine Revelation, Miracle Prayer, How to Hear the Voice of God, Exploring Meditation, Exploring Auras, Exploring Chakras, and Ascension. She spent over 20 years in the ashrams of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, guru of the Beatles and of Deepak Chopra. She spent another 20+ years studying New Thought and metaphysics. She is the founder of Divine Revelation®, a unique system for developing a profound connection with Spirit and for clearly hearing and deciphering the "still small voice" within.

Attend Dr. Shumsky's events at the expo:

"What Yoga Really Is"
Saturday, 1:00 pm, Herald Square Room

What is yoga, and what are its roots and history? Surprisingly, the word yoga comes from the Sanskrit root yuj: "to yoke." Thus yoga means "integration" or "union." However, this is not union of your nose with your knee. It is union of your individual soul with universal Spirit. The roots of yoga are deeply embedded in wisdom of ancient India, in the Bhagavad Gita of Lord Krishna and the Yoga Sutras of the sage Patanjali. Dr. Susan Shumsky, who has practiced yoga and meditation sine 1967, will inspire you to practice true yoga-integration and wholeness of consciousness.

Kumbh Mela--A Spiritual Adventure
Sunday, 5:00 pm, Soho Room, 3rd Floor

Since 2001, Dr. Susan Shumsky has taken tour groups to the Kumbh Mela ("Festival of the Nectar of Immortality") in Allahabad and Haridwar, India. She will present hundreds of stunning photographs so you can visit and experience this awesome event yourself. This amazing workshop includes historic details with inspiring, informative storytelling. Maha Kumbh Mela is a spiritual gathering where saints, seers, sages, and seekers bathe at the auspicious moment—once every 12 years. Holy men and women from Himalayan caves make a rare appearance to bless the people at this extraordinary event. This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for the lucky ones. A staggering 100 million people attended the 2001 Kumbh Mela—the "greatest recorded number of human beings assembled with a common purpose."—Guinness Book of Records. During this awe-inspiring workshop, you will experience this unique, once-in-a-lifetime blessing for yourself, firsthand.

Pre-register for the workshop here:
http://www.newlifeexpo.com/expo-pre-reg.php?expo=20

Where

New Life Expo
New Yorker Hotel
481 8th Avenue at 34th Street
New York, NY 10001
Tel: (516) 897-0900
Website: http://www.newlifeexpo.com.

New Life Expo Show Times
Friday 3:30pm - 10:00pm
Saturday 10:00am - 9:00pm
Sunday 11:00am - 8:00pm

Visit Dr. Shumsky in her booth #213M.

Volunteer

If you would like to volunteer to help at the booth for 4 hours, in exchange for a free pass to the expo, please email divinerevl@aol.com.

Register Now

Pre-register for Dr. Shumsky's workshop here:
http://www.newlifeexpo.com/expo-pre-reg.php?expo=20

,___

Path to super consciousness

Path to super consciousness

 

Practice makes perfect...

I began meditating 52 years ago. Since then I haven’t, to the best of my recollection, missed a single day of practice. No stern-minded self discipline was needed to keep me regularly at it. Meditation is simply the most meaningful activity in my life. I wonder how people live without it.

Meditation gives meaning to everything one does. The Bhagavad Gita says, “To the peace-less person, how is happiness possible?” Inner peace is like lubricating oil: It enables the machinery of our lives to function smoothly. Without mental peace, our emotions and the various demands placed upon us in our lives grind together and create inner stress, leading eventually to a physical or nervous breakdown.

Psychometric studies have shown that meditation produces a healthy ego, that it expands a person’s world view and enables people to cope better with the stresses of life. Meditators, in addition, have shown significant gains in overcoming depression, neurotic behaviour, and feelings of social inadequacy.

Meditation develops concentration, so essential for success in every activity. Often I have found, by meditation-induced concentration, that I can accomplish in an afternoon what others have taken days or even weeks to complete. In three days, some years ago, I wrote melodies for eighteen of Shakespeare’s lyrics in a single day.

Inspiration, which many highly creative people consider out of their hands, can be summoned at will by one-pointed concentration, and by magnetising the flow of thoughts and ideas in meditation. Physical fatigue can be banished also, by putting ourselves in tune with inner abundance, flowing to us from infinity. The deeper this attunement through meditation, the greater the abundance we experience in every aspect of our lives.

It was from a great master of yoga, Paramhansa Yogananda, that I learned the art and science of meditation. I read his Autobiography of a Yogi in 1948, and was so moved that I took the next bus from New York to Los Angeles, where he had his headquarters. The day I met him, he accepted me as a disciple, and I lived with him as a monk for the remaining three-and-a-half years of his life. I have been his disciple ever since.

The path of yoga that he taught was the ancient meditative path of raja yoga. The teachings of raja yoga are the best guide to meditation that I know. They are completely non-sectarian, and can be practised with equal effectiveness by anyone regardless of their religious affiliation. Their goal is super-conscious realisation: the realisation of who and what you are in your highest, spiritual reality. It is, as you can see, a very personal goal for each seeker.

They are for the beginner-meditator who wants an easy-tofollow , self-consistent system based on the practical experience of a great master. They are also for experienced meditators, to bring them to a deeper level in their practice, and to offer them answers to problems they may have encountered in their practices. Third, they are for people who are on a spiritual path but don’t realise the importance of direct spiritual experience. As Paramhansa Yogananda put it, “Meditation is to religion what the laboratory is to science.”

Fourth, they are for people who, without necessarily realising it, seek a deeper meaning in life. Finally, they are for those who, while not ready to take up meditation, desire deeper understanding of the nature of consciousness. I am aware that some people prefer to omit God from any effort at self-improvement, including the practice of meditation. And yet, without aspiration towards some higher reality, one is left meandering mentally. Whether you call that higher reality God, it is infinitely above your normal waking state of awareness. It is, in fact, your own Self, and offers the fulfilment of all your deepest longings.

(Ananda Sangha will hold meditation workshops based on teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda on April 4 in Delhi, Gurgaon, and Noida. Please call 9899014209 or (0124) 405-9550. www.anandaindia.org )

 

Meditation can help cut pain's emotional impact

Meditation can help cut pain’s emotional impact

 

Meditation makes pain less unpleasant and reduce its emotional impact, says a new study.

To reach the conclusion, scientists from The University of Manchester recruited individuals into the study who had a diverse range of experience with meditation, spanning anything from months to decades. It was only the more advanced meditators whose anticipation and experience of pain differed from non-meditators.

The type of meditation practised also varied across individuals, but all included ''mindfulness meditation'' practices, such as those that form the basis of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), recommended for recurrent depression by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) in 2004.

"Meditation is becoming increasingly popular as a way to treat chronic illness such as the pain caused by arthritis," said Dr Christopher Brown, who conducted the research.

The study, to be published in the journal Pain , found that particular areas of the brain were less active as meditators anticipated pain, as induced by a laser device. Those with longer meditation experience (up to 35 years) showed the least anticipation of the laser pain.

Dr Brown, who is based in Manchester's School of Translational Medicine, found that people who meditate also showed unusual activity during anticipation of pain in part of the prefrontal cortex, a brain region known to be involved in controlling attention and thought processes when potential threats are perceived.

He said: "The results of the study confirm how we suspected meditation might affect the brain. Meditation trains the brain to be more present-focused and therefore to spend less time anticipating future negative events. This may be why meditation is effective at reducing the recurrence of depression, which makes chronic pain considerably worse."

 

NO PAIN NO SIGN

 

“All our feelings of pain and pleasure depend upon the attitude of our mind.” – Sri Sai Satcharitra, Ch. XX.

 

For the love of the Buddha, a nobleman’s son became a bhikkhu. He renounced his wealth and comfort and accepted the hardships of a mendicant’s life. He slept on the bare earth: he ate what he got by way of alms. He was happy.

 

One day, he got an attack of rheumatic pain. At first, he treated it with indifference. Days passed by: the pain persisted. He could not walk with ease: at times, he could not meditate properly. He felt miserable. Gone was the joy of life. However hard he tried, he could not recapture his lost peace. His mind became sluggish: he felt nerve tired and weary.

 

One day, as he was out begging alms, he found a little girl playing with her friends. She was a cripple: she had but one leg and hobbled on crutches. She was happy. She shouted and laughed and made merry with other children.

 

Seeing her, the bhikkhu felt ashamed of himself. “This little girl who has only one leg is bright and happy,” he said to himself, “and I, a disciple of the Buddha, despair because of a little pain!” He returned as a new man. The pain no longer trouble him. He was free!