Dahn Yoga
The lights are dimmed, and Kitaro’s music enchantingly rises up. The instructor softly whispers, “Now, sit in the half-lotus posture with your hands on your knees, close your eyes and connect your energy line.” I smile to myself because Ji-gam meditation is next—a 10 minute treat of complete silence.
Although Ji-gam meditation has always been my favorite part of Dahnhak practice, I must say that the ability to immediately empty the mind does not come overnight. For new members, Ji-gam meditation can be as hard as sitting on a bed of needles. Millions of thoughts accompanied with a spectrum of emotions can be running through your head at the speed of light. Focusing on your Dahn-jon might seem like an impossible feat with thoughts returning again and again. Your mind is a stage and there’s always something on it.
In fact considering the brain’s inner workings, it is no surprise that most beginners encounter difficulty during meditation. Living in today’s society, our brains are trained to be constantly working at every waking moment, regardless of whether the task is to attend to external stimuli or internal emotions, to plan actions for the next minute or recall earlier pieces of information. In acute contrast meditation—the ancient practice that many world cultures and religions have maintained for centuries—asks your brain not to respond to any information and stay in the present. In this view the daily practice of meditation is essentially an opportunity to re-train our waking brains to stop. And stand still.
Ilchi Lee
A Study on Meditation
The good news is that scientists are beginning to produce concrete evidence of the long-term effects of meditation in the brain. One particularly exciting study with Tibetan monks was conducted by researchers at the W.M. Keck Laboratory for Functional Brain Imaging and Behavior at University of Wisconsin . Researchers were able to translate the mental experiences of various states of awareness into biological neural activities. The question this study asked was: How does meditation change our brains?
In this study lead by Dr. Davidson, the participants were Dalai Lama’s eight most accomplished practitioners—Buddhist practitioners who had undergone training in the Tibetan Nyingmapa and Kagyupa traditions of meditation for an estimated 10,000 to 50,000 hours, over time periods of 15 to 40 years. The monks’ neural activity were measured with the electroencephalograph (EEG), which records the spatial-temporal profile of their brain waves, and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which reveals the areas in the brain that show the highest metabolic activities. Data from the monks were compared to those of 10 college student volunteers with no previous meditation experience. They were tested after one week of meditation training.
For the EEG tests, the monks and volunteers were fitted with a net of 256 electrical sensors and asked to meditate for short periods. The sensors picked up detectable bursts of electrical activity produced by contemplation and other mental activity as large groupings of neurons sent messages to each other. The study was especially interested in measuring gamma waves, which are important electrical brain impulses with the high-frequency.
Both groups were asked to meditate on “unconditional compassion.” In Buddhist teaching this is described as a state of “unrestricted readiness and availability to help living beings.” It is at the heart of the Dalai Lama’s teaching. The researchers chose that focus because it does not require concentrating on particular objects or images, and instead cultivates a transformed state of being.
The results show that meditation activated the brains of the trained monks in significantly different ways from those of the volunteers. First and most importantly, the electrodes picked up much greater activation of fast-moving and unusually powerful gamma waves in the monks. The volunteers did show a slight increase in gamma wave activity while meditating, but the intensity of the gamma waves that some of the monks produced were much more powerful than any previously reported.
The amplitude of gamma waves is comparable to an index showing the overall power of the brain—the intensity of neural activity at a given time. In other words, if a normal person’s brain is like a 60 watt light bulb, the monks’ brains would be closer to 300 watts! Although there is always a fine line between well controlled scientific findings and their implication in real life practice, it is tempting to believe that one could more easily achieve or actualize his goals and ideas with 300 watts instead of 60. Secondly, the movement of these waves throughout the brain was far better organized and coordinated in the monks than in the students, suggesting that the monks’ brains seem to work in a more efficient and focused way as compared to the meditation novices.
Results from fMRI tests on the monks showed that brain activity was especially intense in the left prefrontal area. This finding is consistent with previous studies that pinpoint the left prefrontal cortex as associated with happiness and positive thoughts and emotions. In other words, it suggests that the monks were experiencing a deep sense of contentment while meditating.
A New Meaning to Power Brain
In summary, the take home message is that meditation recharges the brain. What is more, the recharging effect of meditation seems to produce permanent changes to the working of the brain in long-term practitioners, as revealed by the powerful gamma waves and higher metabolic activities in the prefrontal area in the monks. The implication is that the trained brain, functions in a way that is much more focused, efficient, joyful, and positive as compared to a non-trained one.
At the end of Dahn class we proudly shout “Productive, Peaceful, Creative Power Brain!” It may very well be that a “power brain” is exactly what you are becoming, as you continue to practice day after day. In time your brain will be powered up just like those of these monks, and you will be able to create a state of complete concentration and peace at any time and place you desire.
Glossary for Brain Research
Electro-encephalo-graphy, which literally breaks down into electrodes-head-graphing (EEG), provides a continuous recording of overall brain activity. Neural activity is actually a bunch of electrochemical processes. Neurons firing in groups produce electrical potentials large enough to be detected by electrodes placed on the scalp. Different recorded patterns of this electrical activity indicate various states of mind (e.g. relaxed a-wave, excited or anxious b-wave, or deep sleep d-wave).
Magnetic resonance imaging or MRI is an imaging technique that exploits the magnetic properties of organic tissues. When a strong magnetic field is applied, the orientation of certain atoms (i.e. hydrogen) in the tissue can be altered. When the magnetic field is removed, the atoms will gradually return back to a randomly distributed orientation. This process of transition will generate small magnetic fields that can be measured by sensitive detectors, and can be mapped out in a three dimensional space. MRI scans have been used clinically to detect structural abnormality in the brain such as tumors or lesions, given that the hydrogen density in tumor tissues or in the loci of lesions is different from that of normal healthy tissues.
Dahn Yoga
Functional magnetic resonance imaging or fMRI, is one of the most prominent brain imaging techniques based on MRI. This technique measures changes in the blood flow in the brain while the subject is engaged in a cognitive task. With excellent spatial resolution, it allows researchers to identify brain regions that are active during given tasks, and to test the functions of those regions.
Sarina H.L. Chien, PhD, is the Director of Positive Thinking, Radiant Living, LLC. She is currently staying in Cimarron , New Mexico , USA , and teaching Dahn at a senior center.
