Why We Meditate examines meditation from the Buddhist and a Western scientific perspective. Daniel Goleman, best known for the classic Emotional Intelligence, provides the deep dive into the world of meditation research while his co-author, Tosknyi Rinpoche, a Buddhist monk in the Tibetan tradition, offers up the Eastern point of view. In each chapter Rinpoche outlines a specific meditation practice and Goleman provides the explanation and benefits of the practice in terms of Western science
The first chapter is devoted to each of the authors detailing how he began his meditative practice.
Chapter two is entitled “Drop It,” and introduces a technique for getting out of our worrying minds. The practice is quite simple: while standing, you raise your arms and let them drop onto your thighs. You exhale a loud, big breath and you drop your awareness from thinking mind into what your body feels. Do this, says Rinpoche, for about five minutes. Goleman’s scientific addendum here is to describe this technique as working on the amygdala, the smoke detector of the brain, which is constantly scanning our environment for threats. A technique like “dropping it” can be quite effective, he notes, in suspending the anxiety-producing exercise of the amygdala by placing our attention not on the future but on the present moment.
Belly-breathing, the third chapter, describes this simple yet effective technique (as well as a few others) in terms unique to the Tibetan yogic physiology, like nadi (channels)and bindu (essences). Goleman uses his part of the chapter to outline the stress response and the distinction between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system. As he points out “studies looking at the impacts of slow breathing on our brain, mind, and body find a strong shift to the parasympathetic mode.” In other words, slow breathing like the belly breath calms the body.
Chapter four discusses a phenomenon with the rather disturbing name “Beautiful Monsters.” BMs (no, not that bm) can best be understood as things like self-criticism and negative self-talk. Rinpoche defines them as “patterns of reaction that are slightly or greatly distorted.” He introduces what he calls the handshake method, which involves befriending these negative parts of our personality. Goleman connects this technique to aspects of Western psychology, specifically detailing how the latest version of Cognitive Behavior Therapy endorses mindfully accepting self-critical or negative thoughts—in essence, befriending them—as opposed to classic CBT approach of challenging thoughts.
Chapter five talks about something Rinpoche dubs “essence love.” He contrasts essence love with expression love. Expression love is directed outwardly: parental love, friendship, romantic love. Essence love is where expression love is born. Essence love is essentially self-love. Goleman connects this concept to the recent research on mindful self-compassion, demonstrating how this capacity is linked with well-being.
Chapter six follows this concept by focusing on compassion for others. The classic Buddhist practice on this is well-known to many, the loving-kindness meditation. Rinpoche reiterates the Dalai Lama’s claim that the way to ensure happiness for yourself is to work for the happiness of others. As Goleman points out, there is now research verifying this claim. The loving-kindness meditation itself has been studied and shown to increase well-being. In addition, an oft-cited experiment verified this concept. Participants in the study were provided a certain sum of money, with one group being commanded to spend it on themselves and another group to spend it on others. Those who spent money on others reported being happier.
Chapter seven, Calm and Clear, presents a discourse on the meditative state of shamata, or calm abiding, and reviews meditative practices that bring about this state. Here Rinpoche presents a lovely image, discussing how the mind begins as a waterfall but with meditation we transform it first to a rushing stream then to a meandering river and final to a placid lake. One of the most helpful pieces of advice I found in the book comes in this chapter, where he encourages meditators to embrace the concept of “short experiences, many times.” They can do this by breaking longer meditation sessions, where we often become distracted and fatigued, into short 3-5 minute sessions with a minute break, allowing us to bring more awareness and freshness into the session. I have been integrating this into my own practice lately with great success and satisfaction. Goleman points to the research, started by Dr. Herbert Benson in the 1970s with his best seller The Relaxation Response, about the stress-reducing benefits of meditation—research that has since been verified by numerous studies.
Chapter eight, A Deeper Look Within, focuses on one of the least commented upon aspects of the practice of meditation, at least in Western discussions of the topic. According to the Buddhist tradition, one of the aims of meditation is to demonstrate the lack of a permanent self—one of the three marks of existence (the other two being suffering and impermanence). As we meditate, we realize we are not our thoughts, which just come and go as we watch them and are always in flux anyway. If we cannot be identified with our mental content, what about identifying ourselves with our body? This is changing even more than our mental nature. But if we are neither our physical or mental selves, what is left. Nothing, actually; or at least nothing substantial.
Goleman connects this rather esoteric sounding view to research demonstrating that in the brains of depressed people during rumination a part known as the default mode network is lit up. By contrast, when we are involved in an activity (and no so focused on ourselves) this part of the brain is relatively quiet. This part of the brain also quiets during meditation (and with psychadelics, but that is another story). Meditation then seems to facilitate a healthier concept of the self, one where we can take ourselves less seriously and live with a little more lightness.
The benefits of meditation for working with tinnitus should be obvious by what has already been written here. The calmness and stress reduction that meditation fosters are invaluable to those of us with tinnitus. Nothing ramps up our tinnitus like stress. And one of the best stress reducing tools is a meditation practice. But it is not enough to have learned to meditate at one time. You need an active practice in order to reap the benefits of meditation. And I think this book can be an aid for someone starting out to develop a practice by explaining the benefits of it in Western scientific terms and by providing some instruction on how to maintain and enrich a practice.
Overall, the book is more geared towards beginning meditators or those just getting their feet wet in the practice. The techniques and terminology discussed will be familiar to long time practitioners. But even I learned a thing or two. Indeed, the practice of “short experiences, many times” has transformed my practice. And while I personally would have preferred a deeper dive into the scientific research--and was hoping for one after hearing an interview with the authors--enough is presented to provide the beginning meditator with the assurance that they are following a path with a good amount of scientific evidence backing it up. And it provides me with a handy reference shall I want to review the more salient studies. Overall, I can recommend this book. I believe meditators at any stage would benefit from it.