The Brain and Meditation

by Adithya K.

The brain is essential to human life, and when the brain dies, the entire physical body dies along with it.
Even under deep sleep, the brain is active and aware, and able to direct functions as and when
necessary. For example, the brain may create a fearful dream to wake you up if your body is threatened
by danger, such as a lack of oxygen due to a difficulty in breathing. The central function of the human
brain is awareness. Awareness is required to know things like boundaries, size, limits, identifications, and
the sense of self and the sense of the other. Awareness itself has no intrinsic size, boundary limits, or any
other attributes of its own. Awareness is required to know all attributes, but awareness itself can be
nothing but just plain awareness. That is the pure awareness of meditation.

The sense of time, the beginning and the end, the birth and the death, requires memory. Awareness
always precedes memory. Awareness serves as the background, the base for memory, and memory
cannot have any trace of its absolute beginning or final end. This makes awareness feel eternal.

In reality, we experience everything: all the sights, sounds, visions, and smells of life inside the brain.
Everything we feel and see are signals presented inside the brain, from neuron to neuron, in a web of
billions of brain cells. When you look at images of distant stars and galaxies, those pictures are formed
inside us, not outside of us. When you realign your focus on the very background of consciousness
during meditation, you clearly see that all outside images are really inside images.

The sensation 'I am Body' is itself an effort of the brain. Brain is our intimate personal reality, not the body.
The brain is able to conjure up the idea of the body by repeated practice and focus. The brain can easily
convince itself of being anything it wants to be. After all, there is no one else inside you to question it. The
brain is the one that says ?I am this!,? as well as being the final arbitrator of its own validity.

Some may focus on a flower and convince themselves that they have experienced "flower
consciousness." Others go further and convince themselves that they are a great savior, a saint, or a
heroic world leader. Given enough focus and practice, the brain can convince itself of anything, because
the brain is the final judge and jury of our perception of reality. Thus, we all live in different brain worlds of
our own creation, and when those worlds collide, conflict and wars arise.

The feeling of solidity of the body is generated by the brain constantly sending and receiving signals to
and from different organs. The more frequent and stronger the signals, the more solid the body feels.
Mediation is a way to relax the brain and quiet down its constant communication with the body, and it
reduces the frequency of thoughts. As the brain relaxes and creates less noise and activity, the feeling 'I
am the body' starts to dissolve.

Scientists now understand through magnetic resonance imaging testing (functional MRI testing) that the
part of the brain which gives us a sense of location in time and space is less active during intense
meditation. With no sense of location, consciousness loses its boundaries and subjectively feels both
infinite and timeless. The body may seem to completely disappear, leaving only pure consciousness in its
place. That is death of the 'I.' During deep dreamless sleep, the same dissolution of the 'I' happens, but
there is no consciousness to experience it.

The feeling of clutter we often feel inside ourselves is the brain working too hard, thinking too many
thoughts. The pragmatic working brain requires concentration on the utilitarian tasks of life. In meditation,
peace and relaxation rule and the brain doing nothing expands its sense of being into the whole universe.
Only the core, essential life-saving functions of the brain continue during the deepest meditation.

Stress is the brains attempt to drive the body from one situation to another desired situation through the
pathway of time. Thus, if you end desire, the acceptance of 'what is' brings an end to stress and creates
the sensation of eternal timelessness. When the brain uproots its self-created need to do, there is total
relaxation and peace. Finally, the brain is at ease and resting in its own essential being.

Contentment is happiness. Joy is the content of the brain full of energy. Oneness and love come when
the brain stops continuously promoting the sensation of 'I am this.' Bliss flows automatically when the
brain loses any narrow sense of self-identification. What is left is billions of neurons flowering energy in
the brain's primordial form. When the brain perceives no feelings of subject and object, the brain
experiences an indescribable fullness, and emptiness. Devoid of object, yet completely full, the brain
goes deeper than the sensation of 'I am!' There is no what, no which, no how, and no where;...as Hindus
say, "not this, not that."

Some may renounce the ordinary life and sacrifice job, society, and everything that requires effort to
experience the depths of meditation. Reclusive monks and sadhus may prefer to sit in caves rather than
make the brain work more than what they feel is necessary. Those who go deep in meditation often
proclaim to the world that they are "enlightened," but that enlightenment is simply a brain gifted with the
ability to consciously remain at rest. Mediation then becomes their default state, rather than a practice
and effort. The identity dissolution of deep sleep now pervades all their waking hours. Relaxation, peace,
and joy are the natural rewards of continuous meditation.

The brain stresses and pushes the body and society to achieve its goals. It must constantly remember its
goals in order to know what action is needed next to accomplish its agenda through the pathway of time.
The brain may resent the present moment, the ?what is, because it has not yet achieved its victory,
which is not the 'what is' in its present form. When desire drops, so does the goal, the struggle, the
conflict, and the dissatisfaction. With no fight against 'what is,' there is no specific expectation from life, no
agenda, and that ends what Buddha called 'suffering.' That is the end of 'dukkha.' Even after all of this,
however, the brain is still just a brain.