Insight Meditation

Mindfulness meditation is being used in healthcare, corporations, schools, and even in parenting. Locally, people are meeting to sit together and practice insight meditation, which includes mindfulness. I asked two local meditation teachers about their meditation group and their practice: Lori Wong of Insight Meditation Central Valley, and Dorbea Cary, LCSW who facilitates a meditation group at The Yoga Center in Stockton, CA.

What is insight meditation?

Lori: “The purpose of this type of meditation is to have insights into the three characteristics taught by the Buddha that can lead to the end of suffering. These three characteristics are: anicca (impermanence), dukkha (unsatisfactoriness), and anatta (not-self).”

“One way we suffer is that we identify with our things (I am my job) or we believe we own something (my partner) or we cling to an identity of who we are (I am a Warriors fan) and when those things we identify with change or when our roles change, we can experience a lot of suffering. The goal is to realize these insights so we no longer look for happiness in these changing things.”

What brought you to meditation?

Dorbea: “A number of years ago I was diagnosed with celiac disease. It can be aggravated by stress, so I decided that I needed to change the way I was relating to stressors in my life. I began getting very serious about my practice. I discovered that not only was meditation great for reducing stress, but I also found I was feeling a lot more joyful and it brought a lot of happiness into my life.”

What is the goal of your meditation group?

Lori: “In 2009, I decided it was time to start a group. The vision behind it was to have a community here in the central valley like the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, CA, and people living here could experience a place to practice and to have a community like IMC. We offer everything on a dana basis (donation) making it as accessible as we can to people who want to come.”

Dorbea: “We’ve been meeting in Stockton for about two years and my vision for the group is that it’s a group where people who are interested in sustaining a meditation practice can come for support and encouragement. Mindfulness isn’t a quick fix. It’s something that takes time to develop. It was hard for me to maintain motivation on my own at home. This meditation group is a place where people can come on a weekly basis and support each other in maintaining their mindfulness practice.”

Where did mindfulness originate? Can you give me one example of a study in which the benefits of mindfulness has been seen?

Lori: “In a secular context, mindfulness, as most people know it, developed out of an 8-week program developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn to reduce stress and manage chronic pain. Jon’s program was run out of the basement of the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, where the doctors would send patients they couldn’t treat with traditional medicine. He taught them mindfulness practices which actually helped in reducing stress and chronic pain for this population.”

Dorbea: “Jon Kabat Zinn’s program is one of the most heavily researched programs on the positive benefits of mindfulness. Since then the research has just exploded. There was a Harvard study that showed how the gray matter concentration in the hippocampus (the part of the brain associated with self-awareness and compassion) increased for people after just an 8-week mindfulness course. At the same time the gray matter concentration in the amygdala (the part of the brain associated with stress and anxiety) decreased.”

What would you say to someone who’s interested in the meditation group but who’s uncertain of attending because they’re not Buddhist?

Dorbea: “Mindfulness practice was developed over 2600 years ago by the Buddha, but it’s a practice that can be done by anyone. The mindfulness I teach is a secular mindfulness. It’s not about following a particular religious ideology. It’s about being able to become aware of what you’re sensing and experiencing moment to moment.”

Lori: “I think anyone can come. You don’t have to ascribe to Buddhism. The Buddha actually didn’t teach anything about metaphysics or about not accepting other religions. His teaching is about suffering and how to be free of it. It’s very pragmatic. Anyone who wants to find some way to be caught in less suffering or less stress is certainly welcome to come, and can derive a lot of benefit.”

Meditation can be beneficial for our mental and physical health, but is not a panacea. Meditation may have harmful effects on some people, which is why it’s important to have trained teachers and instructors. The reason for practicing differs from person to person. Some practitioners meditate for relief from stress, while for many, they consider the practice part of their path towards liberation from suffering.

Practicing meditation: It’s time for you to sit, meditate, and look inward now. You might feel fidgety at first. Your shirt might be touching you in a way that you disapprove of (it sounds silly, but it happens). You tug on your shirt and fix that. Okay, now you’re here with the teacher guiding you. As you meditate, your mind wanders off plenty of times, and that’s just normal. That’s what minds do. You gently bring your mind back to paying attention to your breath. You’re training your mind to settle and to pay attention in a specific way. This training allows your mind to develop insights into your behavior and how you relate to the world, as well as to see the nature of your experience. The end of the session is signaled by three resonate rings of a meditation bell, calling you back to this moment.