Weekly Recap

This week I discussed the RAS, which is a structure in your brain that acts like a switch that goes back and forth from your rational brain to your emotional brain.  I also brought up some dietary things that are good for your health like dark chocolate and Omega-3 fatty acids which are found in things like fish and nuts.  I talked about how there is no real supporting research which shows that taking vitamin or mineral supplements contributes to better health, however you should probably go ahead and take a daily multivitamin anyway. There are also three levels of taste buds out there - nontasters, tasters, and supertasters.  Depending on which one you are, it can affect your eating habits which affects your health. The information for this week's posts came  from "The Owner's Manual for the Brain", by Pierce J. Howard.

Taste Buds

Scientists have found three levels of taste bud ability: nontasters, tasters, and supertasters.  Tasters make up about 50% of the population with nontasters and supertasters taking up 25% each.  Supertasters tend to have lower cholesterol and are less obese.  To the supertaster, bitter tastes more bitter, salty more salty, and sweet more sweet.  Ginger, alcohol, carbonated beverages, and chili peppers all create a more intense sensation of burning on the supertasters tongue. They tend to have an advantage against weight gain, some research shows that they find fatty and sugary foods too intense and avoid them.  Nontasters eat a wider variety of foods than the other two groups.  They also have a tendency to eat more hoping that by charging their tongues with quantity they will experience pleasant tastes.  However, quantity does not equal quality, and they should instead over-season their food. To find out which level you are, you first need to get some phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) paper from a local chemical supply store.  Tasting this paper strip will let you know if you can taste something called PROP.  If it just tastes like paper, than you might be a nontaster. If it tastes extremely bitter you are probably a supertaster. Just slightly bitter and you are a taster. To finish, swab your tongue with blue food coloring, then take one small circular reinforcing sticker used for protecting notebook paper holes and place it on the center of your tongue near the tip.  Use a mirror to count the number of papillary bumps (the blue sticks to everything but the bumps).  The more bumps you have, the more of a taster you are.  Nontasters have around five bumps, supertasters can have thirty or more. This information came  from "The Owner's Manual for the Brain", by Pierce J. Howard.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This week I started writing about diet and nutrition topics as far as they affect overall health and brain, just in time for the big meal!  Whereas I don't expect anyone to eat an actual healthy Thanksgiving meal, (I know I sure won't!) hopefully you can adopt some of the advice for all the other non-holiday meals so that you can survive the holidays!  Today's post is about vitamins and supplements.  From 1990 to 1997 spending on vitamin and mineral products more than doubled from about 3 billion to about 6.5 billion.  However, this buying trend is not based on any demonstrable research to back it up.  The research shows meager and uncertain evidence that there are any benefits for using these supplements.  Vitamin users do not live longer or die less frequently from cancer, based on a 13 year study of over ten thousand Americans by Atlanta's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who put out a report in 1993 available at their website www.cdc.gov.   They found no support for the idea that vitamin and mineral supplements can make up for bad eating habits.  Although supplements can help diseases such as rickets and scurvy, there is no conclusive evidence for things such as cancer, osteoporosis, heart disease, longevity or overall well being.  There was a 20 year study in the Lancet Oct, 2 2004 of about 170,000 people at risk of developing gastrointestinal cancers which found that taking antioxidant pills for vitamins A, C, and E showed to be no help in reducing cancer risk.  Basically you should be getting your antioxidants from healthy foods. The real benefits are seen when eating a variety of foods, minimizing fats, eating more fruits, vegetables and complex carbohydrates. The book I'm reading does suggest however that you "hedge your bets" by taking a daily multivitamin.  This information came  from "The Owner's Manual for the Brain", by Pierce J. Howard.

Omega-3 Fatty Acids

Omega-3's can benefit the cardiovascular system and the joints, as well as being used to treat diabetes.  There are also a host of mental problems that the omega-3's help including depression.  They are found naturally in avocados, flax seed, fish, canola oil and nuts.  Omega-3's must stay in balance with omega-6's which Americans have seen a huge increase of in their diets resulting in higher depression rates.  Countries with the highest fish consumption have the lowest depression and suicide rates, and countries with the lowest fish consumption have the highest depression and suicide rates. Lack of omega-3's are also a culprit with postpartum depression as the fetus takes the mothers supply of them. Alcoholism drains supplies of omega-3's, but there has been no research to date regarding the consumption of omega-3 rich foods offsetting the physical effects of excessive alcohol use.  Try to go for unsalted nuts for snacks and meals.  Olive oil should be your number one source of fat, you should make canola oil number two. This information came  from "The Owner's Manual for the Brain", by Pierce J. Howard.

Chocolate

Research has found that eating chocolate is healthy (see Science News, Mar18, 2000).  Real cocoa contains flavonoids, which is a natural antioxidant.  One 40 gram serving, (about the size of one typical chocolate bar) of pure milk chocolate has about 400 mg of antioxidants, which is about the same amount found in a glass of red wine.  One serving of dark chocolate has more than double the number of antioxidants found in one cup of black tea.  Personally I eat Ghiradelli dark chocolate with a cocoa percentage of 82% which is a little bitter.  The problems with milk chocolate are the associated butter fats and sugar that are also in the bar. Chocolate has caffeine in it, so you might avoid eating it at night.  Chocolate can help in limiting plaque development and it works to relax the inner wall of blood vessels, resulting in improved circulation and reducing the risk of heart disease and stroke.   Apparently chocolate's flavonoids have the same anticoagulant effect as taking a mild aspirin. If you improve your blood circulation, that will have a resultant effect on blood flow to your brain. So eating chocolate is good for your brain! This information came  from "The Owner's Manual for the Brain", by Pierce J. Howard.

Back To The Brain

Way back when I started talking about a structure in the brain called the RAS which is an abbreviation for reticular activation system.  You can read the original article here.  I have just today found another function of the RAS, apparently it also works as a switch between two of the three brains that I described here.  This is switching between the mammalian, or emotional, also called the midbrain, to and away from the cortex.  So this means that it has the ability to effectively shut down your rational thinking brain and turn on your emotional brain and then go back again.  The book I am reading now mentioned a story about a man who had begun experiencing increasing periods of violence and rage.  So he went to the hospital.  They found a tumor putting pressure on his RAS which switched on his emotional brain, causing him to become violent. (They removed the tumor and he returned to a healthy life).  Scientists then experimented on bulls, cats and mice putting in their brains an electronic equivalent of the tumor and they were then able to switch back and forth from violent to peaceful states with the push of a button. The material I read did not say whether or not the functioning of the RAS was under volitional control, I suspect that it isn't, so I wonder what triggers the switch with a healthy RAS?  I also wonder if with training, can you learn to take control of the RAS? I'm fairly sure that one thing which may be triggering it would be the fight or flight response.  Like say you come around a corner to find a hungry bear.  As your brain recognizes it's impending doom, a whole slew of responses course through your body, preparing it for survival, and unfortunately one of the things that happens is that your rational mind gets shut down making it harder to think.  You instead just react.  So the RAS is a very important structure in the brain. This information came  from "The Owner's Manual for the Brain", by Pierce J. Howard.

Weekly Recap

This week saw me looking at various aspects of Buddhism and meditation, from descriptions of reality being like a waterfall, all the way to depictions of heavenly mind states.  These posts have been a reflection of my attempt to understand Buddhist philosophy. Most of what I have learned is what meditation really strives to achieve.  Years of meditation is like polishing a crystal goblet until it is amazingly clear and bright, that is what you are doing with your mind.  I have recently learned about a book called "The Quantum and the Lotus" which is written by an astrophysicist and an ex-scientist turned Buddhist monk, and they apparently discuss how science and Buddhist philosophy agree.  I am really interested in checking into these ideas, so hopefully in the next week or so I will be getting a copy of this book and can write about it on my blog.

States Of Mind

Have you ever thought of your mental state being like an actual place?  Such as when you are in an intense state of joy, it's like for the moment that is where you are living. I know this is kind of a strange idea, but I like to think that your environment is a reflection of your mind, and the two interact.  If you have your own dwelling, you have more than likely decorated it a certain way, which is a reflection of how you think.  It also then influences how you think as you live there.  The book I have been reading describes the Buddhist "Heavenly Abodes".  These are considered to be actual realms that enlightened people achieve. However, before actually dying and going there, you embody the realm in your mind. You have created a mind that reflects the characteristics of a heavenly abode.  In this post I discussed how the brain interacts with the universe to manifest particles out of energy.  Outward reality is a reflection of your inward reality. Improve your mind, and then your world improves.

Big Claims

Apparently according to the Buddhist texts I have been reading, practitioners of meditation after years and years of work result in uprooting all the negative aspects of mind.  Greed, anger, jealousy, envy, all of these types of emotions and thoughts are purified from the brain.  Doesn't that sound incredibly extreme if not downright impossible?  After reading these books over the last several weeks, I think that these claims are possible.  This is seen after the course of years have gone by where you have engaged in the practice of experiencing an emotion like anger and then allowing it to pass without acting upon it.  That and also the basic practice of meditation leading you to a greater understanding of your own mind and emotions.  So these negative aspects are pulled like weeds out of a garden, and the positive aspects are nourished and cultivated.  I had read about a neuroscientist commenting on one of the Buddhist monks that he had studied with a functional MRI unit watching his brain work while he meditated, he said that just by judging the areas of his brain that were lit up, he was probably looking at the happiest man alive.  Benjamin Franklin said that you can wear down a stone to nothing just by dropping it on the ground once a day over the course of many years.

No Self

Buddhism proclaims that there in no self, no you to which things happen.  This is a pretty alien concept for people in the western world to swallow.  But I think I now know what they are trying to describe.  Have you ever been "In The Zone" while using some kind of tool like a tennis racket or a car or a motorcycle, to where you just become one with the tool?  You kinda lose all sense of self and the tool just becomes an extension of you. How did that happen?  Did you somehow lose or alter your identity?  It is this process that Buddhism refers to when they say you have no self.  You become so deeply connected to the world through meditation, that you lose your sense of self.  You actually become the experience you are having.  I use to think it was some kind of bizarre nihilistic viewpoint that only extremists and masochists would adopt.  But with this new understanding of what they are saying, that they are trying to describe your identity as a process instead of a thing, where you are just one with the world, is a much more acceptable understanding of their philosophy. It's really describing how to align yourself and become one with the heart of the river.

Negative Emotions

Meditation has a curious outlook about negative emotions.  The way it goes about dealing with them is to simply accept them and experience them. That can be pretty tricky to do, it is so easy and habitual to become caught up in them. But do you think you could develop the presence of mind to step outside yourself when you are emotional and just sit back and experience what is happening? Doing that definitely takes practice, which I am beginning to cultivate. I might become upset and get caught up in it briefly, but then I have begun to step back and start observing what my brain and body are doing. You shouldn't try to deny or push away what you are feeling, just observe it, become curious. Identifying with your emotions is even in the language, people say "I am angry" not "I'm feeling angry", so you actually become your anger. Buddhism looks at emotions like clouds.  They are ephemeral and they pass you by, so why identify with them? Have you ever done something you regretted because you were emotional? I think everyone has at some point. Wouldn't it be nice to step into a place of control?  I'm not saying it's bad to have negative emotions, I'm saying it's bad to identify with them and get caught up in their drama.  Try to remember to step outside of them and become the silent witness.

Waterfall

I was reading a description of reality in my meditation book that described it as a waterfall instead of a river.  This was because the water arises and then disappears.  It's like it is rushing past a singular point, the present moment, and then it dissolves and is gone.  Everything in your experience does this.  Things arise in awareness and then they disappear. Problems that occur from this is that we often try to grasp or hold on to things that are pleasant only to find them disappearing. So we have to search for the next pleasant thing to try to grasp onto, as if we could establish happiness through a series of pleasant experiences.  True happiness comes from letting go of all of the incessant craving and desiring to control the present moment. Meditation is an excuse to just let go of everything and accept and embrace what you have right now, the present moment.  Just settling into your own breathing is incredibly peaceful.  Becoming aware of it for a few moments each day. It seems like an incredibly simple thing, how could you really enjoy that?  If you were drowning you would know how precious your breath is, but we take it for granted, never taking a moment to be grateful of something that gives us life.  

Investigation

One of the reasons I love meditation so much is because it doesn't pretend to be something it's not.  What I mean by that is that there isn't some great vaulted book of meditation that presents you with all the answers you'll ever need for your life.  Instead it is a system and a process whereby you determine those answers for yourself.  It helps you develop the spirit of investigation.  That's really what you are doing when you meditate.  You pay attention to whatever experience you are having, and you listen to it intently.  It leads you to seek to understand what your mental processes are.  They are unique to you.  What happens when you start experiencing some emotion, what kinds of thoughts does it trigger,  how does it feel, and how does it play out and are you in control?  If not, why not?  If you are, then how do you do it? I think I heard it said once that the people around us know us better than we know ourselves.  Wouldn't that be sad if it were true?  "Know Thyself," was the motto carved in stone on the entrance of the school founded by Greek Philosopher Plato and it was as important then as it is today.  So if this post does anything, I hope it helps you cultivate a curiosity about how your own mind operates.

Enlightenment

Most of this week I have been helping my parents prepare for the winter by cutting up and splitting several dead trees on their property, so preparing a post for my blog this week has been a real challenge. I have read several things and I also have a couple of DVD's which mention the subject of enlightenment. Have you ever heard about people becoming enlightened?  It almost sounds like some kind of mystical mental state.  Or maybe it is some kind of awareness or special perception, I don't know, the material I have seems to find it hard to describe what it actually is.  I guess it's like a catch-22, we can't tell you what it's like, but you'll know when you get there.  Is there really some deeper truth about reality that years and years of meditation reveals?  The book I'm reading seems to indicate that that is the case.  It does mention seven attributes of enlightenment: mindfulness, effort, investigation, rapture, concentration, tranquility, and equanimity.  It suggests that these are areas of your life/brain that need to be cultivated in order to achieve enlightenment. But I was a little disappointed in these areas, I guess I was expecting something more exciting.  Ok rapture and tranquility would be great, but the other areas just seem pretty plain.  I have often heard, however, that the simplest answer is usually the right one.  They also somewhat fail to describe what a state of enlightenment actually is.  As near as I can tell, it is a point where you have mastered your thoughts and emotions, to the point where you are now in control.  You have also cultivated circuits in your brain that effectively generate bliss.  Who wouldn't want that?  I've also read that it takes approximately ten thousand hours of practice to master anything. At an hour a day that would take approximately 27 years.  That's not so bad to actually achieve enlightenment, is it?

Levels of Practice

The book I'm reading about meditation outlines several levels of practice:  arriving, observation, opening and being. At the level of arriving, you are basically spending your time confronting the five "hindrances" desire, aversion, sloth, restlessness and doubt. Basically these are elemental emotions that stand in the way of a clear awareness and perception.  The book also refers to them as "energies".  Once you begin to become accustomed to working with these emotions, then you reach the second level of practice, observation.  You are a little bit more detached and able to witness whatever you are experiencing without coloring the experience with thoughts of labeling or judgment.  You are really beginning to develop your powers of observation.  Once you have developed these skills, you can use them to go deeper.  You enter the third level, that of opening.  In this level you begin to listen to your heart and it's emotions. It can be fairly painful.  You become familiar with your emotional states and thought patterns, uncovering layers of understanding.  Once you intimately understand the laws that govern the processes of the body and mind, you move into the last level, being.  You become deeply connected to a process of flowing change, the river of time.  Everything is impermanent, things arise in your awareness and then they are gone, like bubbles in a brook.  Everything in your experience does this. Once you realize this, you can let go of trying to grasp things that will only disappear, which leads to suffering.  Those are the basic stages and elements of meditation.

Knots of Energy

Today I was reading my book about Buddhist meditation, and it mentioned that as your practice begins to deepen you may encounter "knots" of energy as feelings of pain in your body. According to the book, these knots are created by suppressing emotions, and generally living your life in an unaware way.  As you become more aware of the energy knots, they tend to untie and relax.  At that point the book says that your energy will flow more easily.  I became interested in this because it presumed that as you were meditating that you were aware of energy flowing through you.  I wrote a post here about how the universe is essentially a big ocean of energy. I also have an interest in practices like Qi Gong and Tai Chi Chuan. Although it has been quite a while since I have practiced either of these, I am familiar with the movements and the feelings of the energy flowing.  It never occurred to me to pay attention to this while meditating, so now I feel excited about the new possibilities.

Big Questions

Have you taken the time to explore and try to answer for yourself the really big questions in life?  Questions like, "Who are we?", "Where do we come from?", "Where are we going?" "What should we do?", "Why is there suffering?", "Is there a way to end suffering, and if so, how?" These types of questions take your focus from the everyday fine details of your life into a bigger picture.  No one can answer these questions for you.  That's kinda like eating your food for you.  You have to arrive at the answers yourself, because these questions are deeply personal.  I would say that insomuch as the various world religions strive to answer these questions, they are really just serving as guideposts pointing in the right direction. In the end, however, you will arrive at your own answers.  That's what wisdom helps you achieve.  Personally, I have a lot of answers for these types of questions, and I can't really settle down to any one singular answer, simply because I love pondering possibilities.  Maybe I'm looking for a better answer, I don't know.  But I do know, that it can be a lot of fun trying to answer these basic questions about the human condition.  There is one idea that I have been toying around with for some time, and that is that it is not necessarily important for a belief to be accurate, what is important is that the belief is effective.  Do you believe that you can have one without the other? I'll give you an example.  I might have the belief that women think I'm sexy.  This also might be completely untrue.  But lets say that I believe it anyway.  Now lets say that holding this belief gives me confidence while talking to women, and because of that I have better interactions with them.  It becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.  Now there is an example of an inaccurate yet effective belief.   Sometimes I apply this to spirituality. I think, is it ever really possible to definitively prove the answers to any of the really big questions?  I think what I'm looking for are the most effective answers.  Does that sound crazy?  Leave me some comments on my blog, I'd love to hear them!

Weekly Recap

This week I spoke about the benefits of meditation, things like improved focus and concentration.  But I think it also deepens your connection with reality, which is what this blog is all about.  I spent a little time exploring commonalities between science and Buddhism, things like our experience of reality being an illusion.  That is really an alien idea, and although I know that there is a lot of evidence to back it up, it's still hard to swallow.  Mostly what I get from that idea is that there is more to experience than what you are or can now.  If you train your mind, you can improve/increase/enhance your awareness.  I talked about living life in the present moment and just taking one day at a time.  This has the effect of simplifying your life.  Just focus on where you are at right now, and you will improve your chances of dealing with whatever problems you are faced with.  Although the mind loves to escape to the past or future, you are not a time traveler. You can only live right now. I also gave instruction for meditation, basically you want to stop thinking and just be aware. It's pretty hard at first to stop having thoughts.  But this is the goal, to silence the mind.  You don't want to get upset or struggle with your thoughts, just acknowledge them, let them pass and return your focus to your breathing.  So I'm really excited about meditation and improving my own practice.  I'm now meditating for 45 minutes. The more time you put in, the better you get.

Buddhist Structures

Like I said, Earlier this week I received several new books about meditation and Buddhism.  I have been reading the first book everyday, but have not written anything out of it until now.  The book essentially describes different practices and mindsets to achieve, beyond just focusing your awareness on your breath.  You could essentially look at each of these practices as creating over time new structures in your brain to support a specific mindset intended to do things like cultivating peace and tranquility of mind. These practices work in tandem with the Buddhist philosophy of karma, where you take an action now, and benefit from it in the future.  I have written in the past about your mind being like a garden, and meditation takes full advantage of this property.  This really is one of the main themes of my blog, that you can create structures in your brain that are beneficial.  I have discussed some easier ways of doing this, like hypnosis and the software Neuroprogrammer.  Those are as easy as they are effective.  But I think that if you go the extra mile and take on meditation, that you will reap rewards that are reflective of the effort you put in.  For example, I don't believe that there are any shortcuts you can take that will give you an increased ability of concentration and focus.  You may think that coffee achieves this, but I'm here to tell you that it will not help you ignore all the surrounding distracting noises in your environment as you focus on what you are doing.  Meditation trains the mind and as a result it becomes more efficient.  This is the best place to start in your life. If you improve your mind, then your outward external world begins to improve also.  It all starts with and comes back to your brain.  If you want to improve your life, start with your brain.

The Present Moment

More often than not, we spend time thinking about the past or the future, rarely experiencing the present moment.  Few people are content with what they have now.  Instead we while away the hours with thoughts and plans of what we want to happen in the future.  Or we are lost reminiscing about the past, and how it used to be better.  I think it's sad that most people spend the bulk of their lives dreaming and fantasizing about the future or the past. You're missing who and where you are right now!  How often do you eat a meal and instead of paying attention to the food you are eating, you are talking or thinking about something else.  I can't express how wonderful it is to eat slowly and deliberately, savoring each bite. Your whole life should be like this!  Meditation helps you focus and experience what is happening right now. What is more important than right now?  It's the only thing that never leaves you.  You can't argue with it, the whole universe has conspired to bring it about.  Embrace the present moment.

How To Meditate

On a side note, I just wanted to mention a synchronicity that occurred today.  I received my latest issue of Scientific American Mind today, and in it was an article about science and Buddhism!  The article spoke of how the Dalai Lama spoke at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience.  He said that "meditating is hard work, and if neuroscientists could find a way to create the same outcome I get from meditating, I would be an eager volunteer".  The article then went on to describe how scientists are working on just that.  

In order to meditate you need to sit down, so it helps to have a cushion of some sort. They sell specific meditation cushions called zafus.  When I started out I just used a reading wedge pillow that I had, and it was ok. Now I have a zafu and it is much better, because it is more comfortable. So you sit down, close your eyes, and you can touch your thumb and index finger of your non-dominant hand together to form an anchor. This will help you re-enter the meditative state over time.  Begin by focusing your attention on your body, just feel the overall comfort of it. Then bring your awareness to your breath.  It helps to have a timer of some sort so that you know when to quit. I just use a simple digital kitchen timer.  Right now I am meditating for a half an hour, my manual suggests at least 45 minutes. So you are focusing on your breath. When a thought pops into your mind, try to become aware of the fact that you are thinking, and then bring your awareness back to your body and breath.  My manual says that it is like walking on a tightrope.  Every time you begin thinking it is like falling off of the tightrope, but then once you catch yourself, there is always a new tightrope to begin walking on again.  So you do this over and over, working to quiet the mind down and strengthen your focus on one object, that of your breath. It can be a lot of frustrating work in the beginning, but don't beat yourself up, it is totally natural to have a busy mind when you first start out.  Each day you get a little bit better. But you can't do that until you start, so start meditating!

Science and Buddhism

This is going to be a strange post.  When I started this blog, I didn't expect it to lead me here.  But here I am.  The last few weeks I have been re-reading my manual on meditation.  When I first began my meditation practice, I basically cut out all of the Buddhism philosophy, and just worked with the essentials of how to meditate.  I have never really been a religious person, although in my later years I began to acknowledge the existence of spirituality, basically being led there by what I knew about quantum physics and other events of my life.  So I considered myself to be spiritual, but not religious.  So like I said the last few weeks I have begun exploring the philosophy and wisdom of Buddhism and have been astounded at how much science agrees with what it is saying.  I started this blog because my intuition told me that there is a unifying, guiding principle underlying nature and the very fabric of the universe, and I wanted to explore what science had to say about it, so that I could align myself with "The Heart of the River".  So it initially was all about the relationships between the mind, brain and quantum realities.  So the last couple of months has seen me pouring over literature dealing with these ideas.  So when I started to see all these connections between Buddhism and science, and self improvement in general for that matter, needless to say I have become very interested in what else Buddhism has to say.  For one thing, Buddhism says that our experience of reality is an illusion. Here is a post that describes how the brain creates a representation of reality. Here is a post that describes a theory that the universe is in fact a great big hologram composed of waves of energy. Here is a post describing how the brain does calculations to translate wave forms into images. So that should cover the whole illusion principle.  Buddhism says that in order to have an accurate awareness, you need to train the mind with meditation. You can read this post to see how training the mind will alter the structure of the brain. Also Buddhism believes in Karma or a law of cause and effect.  Physics definitely believes in cause and effect. It is also seen as wisdom elsewhere like "You reap what you sow".  The self improvement industry believes in this such as in Stephen Covey's "The seven habits of highly effective people" with how virtues and / or morals lead to a strong character. Here is a post that describes the effects of Karma seen by carrying bad habits. Just today I received three books in the mail about meditation and Buddhism, so I will probably write more about this topic this week.

My Practice

I began meditating a little over two years ago, and of course like anything else, when I started I didn't know what I was doing.  I had bought a course that explained what to do, but I added some elements of my own into the mix. (I gave a link to this course in this post).  When I first started I would listen to music while I meditated.  I had purchased an iMusic selection that had mentioned meditation as one of it's uses. So I would play that while meditating.  This made it more difficult to perform the meditation, because the music would inevitably cause my mind to be busy.  I had purchased a DVD featuring the Dalai Lama talking about happiness. In it, he talked briefly about meditating and said how important it was to have silence.  That was all it took for me, and I got rid of the music.  At first I found this to be more difficult, when I was expecting it to be easier.  I found it very hard at first to avoid becoming bored with the silence.  But then, gradually I began to discover deepening levels of peace.  Of course not every day is great or perfect.  There are days where your mind is just racing with thoughts and seems to be out of control.  I still have days like that.  But then there are days where you are able to tap into these profoundly deep levels of peace and stillness that cannot be described but only experienced.  Those are the moments I strive for.  They are profound because even though there is the silence, you begin to become aware of a rhythm in nature and you feel a connection with it. All of that takes time, however, it can be very difficult and frustrating in the beginning.  It seems like your brain is in control instead of you.  But if you just stick to the practice, and continue to bring your attention back to your breath, away from your thoughts, your mind will eventually quiet down. Then you are simply aware and connected.  What is more beautiful than that?