Meditation is a workout for the brain and not only improves brain functioning, but actually makes it grow larger. The Buddha taught such things two-thousand five-hundred years ago and scientists are only now beginning to discover them.

Psychology today is reporting on a study by NeuroImage in which researchers, using a high-resolution MRI, found that certain areas of meditators' brains were larger than non-meditators' brains. The areas of the brain displaying a 'significantly larger volume' were the hippocampal tissue, orbito-frontal tissue, inferior temporal gyrus and the thalamus, all areas of the brain confirmed to be involved with regulating emotion. Buddhists are not surprised, as they have always approached the brain as just another muscle capable of being 'worked out' and developed. However, from the treatment of Alzheimer's, ADHD to anger management, the implications of this study are staggering.

And thus new life is breathed into the free-will vs. determinism argument. For the better part of the last century, the scientific materialists were running away with this argument, but finally free-will has scored, as implicit in these findings is the idea that there is something that directs and controls the brain itself, some BEHAVIOR, which determines, or CAUSES the brain to be a certain way, rather than the materialistic view that the brain (and genes) control behavior. We have arrived at the door of religion, ladies and gentlemen!

The study refutes that idea the brain CAUSES certain behaviors, and implies that the brain is a RESULT of certain behaviors. Since meditation changes the brain, it means that the brain is a result, not a cause. Other studies are starting to show the effect of different behaviors on the brain as well.

So...what exactly IS it that is 'in charge'? WHAT-or WHO-inside this physical body can make the decision to do things to cause the brain to get larger in the first place? What can get us to meditate, if it's not the brain itself? Interesting questions, to be sure.

In addition, the meditation study rejects the ever-increasing tendency of our culture to abdicate personal responsibility, by claiming that our behavior is caused by things out of our control, like our genes or our brain.The reality is that, as the Buddha taught, we can overcome all manner of inner obstacles, from faulty brain chemistry to difficult upbringing to abusive parents. We CAN.

Example: I say that depression is not caused by faulty brain chemistry; depression is the CAUSE of faulty brain chemistry. Interestingly, there are old Orthodox Christian texts that speak of the 'sin of low self-esteem'. 'Sloth', which is physical and emotional apathy, is one of the 'seven deadly sins'. Buddhism sees depression as just another mental formation to become aware of and to let go of, a mental formation which can be a source of a false self, or self-identification.

Obviously, the religious sages were well-ahead of Western science in this regard. Think of the implications to the drug industry. It is completely built on the idea that depression is purely a result of bad chemistry, and that drugs can fix this. (By the way, while I'm pretty much anti-medication for this type of thing, as you can can see, I won't deny that once the brain chemistry has been altered, it will be much tougher for the average person to 'fix' it with meditation alone, and they might not be willing to put in the effort. In such cases I leave open the possibility that medication can at least do some help.)

I say, "Meditate, not medicate!"

"Luders (one of the researchers) suggests, "These [more developed areas] might be the neuronal underpinnings that give meditators' the outstanding ability to regulate their emotions, and allow for well-adjusted responses to whatever life throws their way." The specific correlates of these findings on the microscopic level are not known, leading her to propose the need for further study in order to determine whether it is an increase in the multiplicity of neurons, increased neuronal size or a specific neuroplastic wiring scheme that those who meditate develop, as opposed to those who do not."

The beautiful thing about meditation is that the breath, the most common object of meditation, is not even religious! The breath is not Christian, not Muslim, not Hindu, not Buddhist, not even atheist-it is all of these, and it is none of these. So you don't have to worry about whether 'it's ok' to practice.

So, as they say, "Hurry up and just sit there!"

Happy Sitting!