U.S. Marines studying how meditation could make them tougher

"Some people might say these are Eastern-based religious practices but this goes way beyond that," said Jeffery Bearor, the executive deputy of the Marine Corps training and education command at its headquarters in Quantico, Virginia. "This is not tied to any religious practice. This is about mental preparation to better handle stress."

"Public_Domain" said
Reminds me of all the psy-warfare tactics "studied" by the Americans and the Soviets...

"Public_Domain" said
Those who rule the mind, rule the world.

"desertdude" said
So now is a Yoga mat going to be a compulsory part of a marine kit ?

"kilroy" said
Those who rule the mind, rule the world.

Whenever one brings mindfulness and equanimity to ordinary experience, an evolutionary process takes place, consisting of two aspects. One aspect is insight and the other is purification. Let's talk first about what we mean by purification. We all have within us sources of unhappiness. You notice that very quickly when you sit down to meditate. You'll feel just fine and then there will be something that will make your world less than perfect. You get sleepy, or your mind wanders, or this or that emotion comes up, negative tapes start to come up, traumatic memories appear, you feel angry, you want to jump out of your skin, you're running all sorts of fantasies, doing things to divert yourself, you're aware of inner conflicts. We are chock full of sources of unhappiness which are completely foreign to our being. It is not in the nature of consciousness to suffer. However, we have acquired certain limiting forces: cravings and aversions, painful memories, inappropriate yet habitual behavior patterns, and so forth.

When we sit down and do this practice that's all going to come up. So you don't always feel good while doing Vipassana meditation. In fact you might feel lousy. I know, having heard that, some of you may want to leave right now. You say, "I thought meditation is supposed to make a person feel great." Yes, in the long run, but an important aspect of meditation is to sit down and start working through the sources of not feeling great, whatever they may be. You literally eat your way through them, one after another, after another, after another. How? By just being mindful and having equanimity, that's all. Whatever comes up, you'll observe it and you'll do nothing. You'll be very aware and that's all.

Now that may seem trivial at best, stupid at worst. But it is actually quite powerful. Let's say that one of these blockages to happiness comes up as we meditate�a negative tape, a craving, an aversion, an inner conflict, a congealing. If we reject it and say "I don't want you," we're pushing it away. But in order to reject it we have to "touch" it, by pushing on it. If on the other hand we identify with it, buy into it and let it pull us away, then again we've "touched" it. As soon as one touches it, one recharges the energy supply of that negativity. If you try to push it away or you let it pull you, you are identifying with it, touching it. Any touch whatsoever means that this particular negativity is able to 'recharge its individual battery' as it were, from your general pool of your energy. But if we don't touch it then it has to play itself out on its own power source which is quite finite and if we continue to be alert and simply observe, eventually the intrinsic energy source of that negativity dissipates and it goes away forever. It gets worked through.

This process of "watching negativity to death" is called purification. As we work through the blockages to happiness, our intrinsic happiness�the nature of our consciousness which is effortless effulgent joy�becomes evident. If the dirt is cleaned away from the window, the sun that was always there is able to shine through. The spiritual reality which is the nature of ordinary experience is able to shine forth.

"kilroy" said
It would be betrter to teach our leaders to meditate in an effort to better understand the world around them and how we need to work out our problems without having to kill each other.

"Gunnair" said
So now is a Yoga mat going to be a compulsory part of a marine kit ?

"andyt" said
Developing focus is only the beginning stage of mindfulness. You need focus to maintain "choiceless awareness." This develops equanimity as you watch phenomena arise and pass away, arise and pass away. Here's Shinzen Young (I've sat in his retreats) on the subject: The soldiers will still kill when needed, but my guess is that they will be less likely to overstep the bounds like pissing on corpses or killing civilians, and more likely to question the validity of the war they are fighting. That's my hope anyway. Plus a lot less mentally damaged soldiers coming home.

It would be betrter to teach our leaders to meditate in an effort to better understand the world around them and how we need to work out our problems without having to kill each other.

"kilroy" said

I hope you are right in your hope, and thanks for the Shinzen Young quote. I just don't expect the marine corp master sargeants are going to be heavily emphasizing the benefits of effortless effulgent joy. There might be a drive for a more efficient program, less focussed on personal improvement...