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In addition to developing sati (mindfulness) and samādhi (concentration), this form of meditation is considered conducive to overcoming desire and lust. Along with cemetery contemplations such as the contemplation of the nine stages of decay, this type of meditation is one of the two meditations on "the foul" or "unattractive" (Pāli: asubha). [2]
In meditation everyone most likely experiences two of the five hindrances (Pāli: pañca nīvaraṇāni). They are sloth and torpor (Pāli: thīna-middha), which is half-hearted action with little or no collectedness, and restlessness and worry (uddhacca-kukkucca), which is the inability to calm the mind.
There are several exercises designed to develop mindfulness meditation, which may be aided by guided meditations "to get the hang of it". [9] [70] [note 3] As forms of self-observation and interoception, these methods increase awareness of the body, so they are usually beneficial to people with low self-awareness or low awareness of their bodies or emotional state.
The English meditation is derived from Old French meditacioun, in turn from Latin meditatio from a verb meditari, meaning "to think, contemplate, devise, ponder". [11] [12] In the Catholic tradition, the use of the term meditatio as part of a formal, stepwise process of meditation goes back to at least the 12th-century monk Guigo II, [12] [13] before which the Greek word theoria was used for ...
Electroencephalography has been used for meditation research.. The psychological and physiological effects of meditation have been studied. In recent years, studies of meditation have increasingly involved the use of modern instruments, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging and electroencephalography, which are able to observe brain physiology and neural activity in living subjects ...
In essence, this is a concentration practice, with the three qualities of ardency, alertness, and mindfulness devoted to attaining concentration. Mindfulness keeps the theme of the meditation in mind, alertness observes the theme as it is present to awareness, and also is aware of when the mind has slipped from its theme.
Highlighted region shows the anterior cingulate cortex, a region of the brain shown to be activated during meditation.. Meditation and its effect on brain activity and the central nervous system became a focus of collaborative research in neuroscience, psychology and neurobiology during the latter half of the 20th century.
Even four days of mindfulness meditation training can significantly improve visuo-spatial processing, working memory and executive functioning. [41] [42] However, research has shown mixed results surrounding whether mindfulness effects attentional control directly. Participants did tasks of sustained attention, inhibition, switching, and object ...