Morning Star Dhamma dhammametta

one thing at a time

02.03.2026 19:51 — 👍 6 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0

Research on Experienced Buddhist Monks Shows Meditation Increases Brain Signal Complexity and Shifts Neural Dynamics Toward Criticality A recent international study published in Neuroscience of Consciousness examined brain activity in 12 highly experienced Buddhist monks from the Thai Forest Tradition using magnetoencephalography (MEG), a precise method for measuring neural electrical signals. Conducted by researchers from the University of Montreal and Italy’s National Research Council, the study compared two traditional meditation practices: Samatha, which involves focused attention on a single object like the breath to achieve calm and concentration, and Vipassana, an open-monitoring approach that observes sensations, thoughts, and emotions impartially to foster insight and clarity. Contrary to the common beginner's view of meditation as emptying the mind or inducing pure rest, the findings reveal it as an active, dynamic process that heightens brain activity. Both techniques increased the complexity of brain signals compared to rest periods, indicating richer information processing. The research also analyzed neural oscillations, signal complexity, and 'criticality'—a balanced state between order and chaos that optimizes information processing, learning, adaptability, and flexibility in the brain. Notably, while both practices boosted complexity, they did so differently: Samatha led to a more stable, focused configuration, whereas Vipassana brought the brain closer to the ideal critical balance of stability and flexibility. These changes are linked to enhanced attentional mechanisms, better task-switching, information storage, reduced stress, and improved well-being, including lower anxiety and depression symptoms. The study highlights meditation's role in actively engaging the brain rather than suppressing it, providing scientific validation for long-standing meditative traditions through advanced neuroimaging and machine learning analysis.

Research on Experienced Buddhist Monks Shows Meditation Increases Brain Signal Complexity and Shifts Neural Dynamics Toward Criticality

🤖 IA: It's not clickbait ✅
👥 Usuarios: It's not clickbait ✅

#meditation #brainactivity #buddhistmonks

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02.03.2026 00:25 — 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

The understanding that we suffer due to greed, hate & delusion can be a seed of compassion for self and others. In this respect, they can drive the impetus to transmute into wisdom.

01.03.2026 22:09 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Actually just the opposite, non-avoidance, to be aware of every sensation & equanimous. That state of non-sensing/non-feeling is impermanent and not an ultimate goal. Dhamma is not an anesthetic. Life is to be lived.

01.03.2026 08:04 — 👍 15 🔁 3 💬 2 📌 0

Emptiness and Jesus Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? This striking utterance from Jesus left untranslated in Matthew 27:46 is a keystone passage that can bring one r...

morningstardhamma.blogspot.com/2010/02/empt...

01.03.2026 07:31 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Thanks for sharing all that! I don’t think it should have been blocked in another forum.

01.03.2026 07:25 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Probably ok to post your reply here.

01.03.2026 03:59 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Just as a sculptor chips away marble to reveal a masterpiece, may we chip away, greed, hate & delusion, unto #enlightenment.

01.03.2026 03:53 — 👍 9 🔁 1 💬 2 📌 0

Sudhana with Three Elephants

What we see is a reflection of the mind. One person’s sunny, beautiful day is another’s day of gloom. Therefore, may we be compassionate to self and others.

28.02.2026 18:04 — 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Adhipataka Sutta: Like Moths to the Flame

"Adhipataka Sutta: Like Moths to the Flame" (Ud 6.9), translated from the Pali by Andrew Olendzki. Access to Insight (BCBS Edition), 2 November 2013, www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/...

26.02.2026 15:20 — 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

Rushing up but then too far, they miss the point;
Only causing ever newer bonds to grow.
So obsessed are some by what is seen and heard,
They fly just like these moths — straight into the flames.

26.02.2026 15:20 — 👍 6 🔁 3 💬 2 📌 0

We are in this predicament because we have not learned the most important lessons, & have not accepted the most obvious truths.

25.02.2026 16:29 — 👍 10 🔁 3 💬 1 📌 0

It’s easy to underestimate how bound up we might be to sensuality, wanted this, hating that, eating for pleasure, always looking for the next thing.

Equanimity can be freeing.

25.02.2026 04:36 — 👍 6 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Running away, one runs toward something. Not fleeing, may we find stillness.

23.02.2026 05:02 — 👍 9 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0

Zao Gongen

You are bound to be misunderstood, it is unavoidable. May we respond with compassion, not anger or hurt, recognizing that act of misunderstanding as the product of a suffering heart & mind.

22.02.2026 23:18 — 👍 5 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0

The eradication of suffering is not the elimination of pain.

21.02.2026 06:19 — 👍 13 🔁 3 💬 1 📌 0

The gnosis of #Dhamma is this present reality, just as it is.

21.02.2026 05:01 — 👍 4 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0

The gnosis of Dhamma is this present reality, just as it is.

21.02.2026 05:00 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Walk for Peace Buddhist monks arrive in Fort Worth for homecoming celebration Hundreds of people from across the country attend the monks’ welcome festivities in the Historic Stop Six neighborhood.

“They’re not worried about politics or religion, they just care about human beings like all of us.”

#WalkForPeace

fortworthreport.org/2026/02/14/w...

15.02.2026 06:39 — 👍 11 🔁 6 💬 1 📌 0

The #Dhamma is remedial not like an aspirin but more like good exercise.

15.02.2026 01:29 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

As Walk for Peace reaches DC, Buddhist monks share interfaith message with thousands WASHINGTON (RNS) — Dominga Hobbs, who lives in Colombia and lost her husband in the past year, said, ‘I’m here for me, for my family, and to honor the monks for this extraordinary effort. My husband b...

“Your every step carried a message, and that message now lives here with all of us.”

#WalkForPeace

fortworthreport.org/2026/02/10/a...

11.02.2026 06:10 — 👍 20 🔁 7 💬 1 📌 0

Yesterday, I stood outside Christ Church for several hours with thousands of people in 33-degree weather, watching a Buddhist monk who has been walking for 107 days, tell us to brush our teeth.

Not exactly. But sort of.

10.02.2026 14:52 — 👍 21 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0