Training the mind

The Daily Telegraph reports research showing that meditation really does re-wire the brain. It refers specifically to something called Integrative Body Mind Training and I ‘google’ it. Someone has adapted ancient Chinese (probably tai chi-like) techniques, bundled them into a package and is now selling the ‘product’ with the advice that it cannot be learned from books or DVDs: one must pay this teacher to learn it.

I think I know how this process goes. One practices meditation in whatever form one has learnt it (whether from a teacher, books or DVDs) and gradually develops one’s own nuances: for example subtle movements and positions of the hands produce different shades of feeling and attitude. Then one starts teaching this modification and, if one is entrepreneurial, marketing it. There is no kenosis here, no giving away in love. I hope that people will benefit from this training but I also hope that people learn that there is more to life than avoiding stress. There is more to spirituality than simply training (important as it undoubtedly is). Whatever a guru may claim, there are many paths to inner awakening and most of them are free. The temptation to become a guru or teacher of spirituality is a subtle one to be treated with extreme caution, especially if one is thinking of charging people for the privilege of hearing what one has to say.