Meditation and Mindfulness as Methods to Sharpen and Enhance the Brain

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to present the concept and practice of meditation and mindfulness to enhance our mental peace. Meditation is considered one of the ancient methods to sharpen the brain and enhance the brain development. Both meditation and mindfulness have been practiced in the Thai Theravada Buddhism for a long time since the inception of Buddhism in Thailand. Based on scientific experiments conducted by scientists, especially psychologists and neuroscientists, for instances, at UCLA, Harvard and MIT, this paper is supported by the discovery that meditation training has rendered the benefits for a peaceful mind and can prevent the stress and strain, anxiety and depression. Findings of meditation experiments seem to have been supported by the concept of neuroplasticity, which means that the brain can change, and the practice of meditation and mindfulness is the right pathway to cultivate the wisdom. Therefore, the Awakened One or the Enlightened One is the one who has gained the highest spiritual development. In this paper, the author explored the nine factors of meditation and the experiments of western neuroscientists to demonstrate that their findings can support the practice of meditation and mindfulness in Theravada Buddhism and so, the findings of western neuroscientists and the practice of Buddhist meditation can jointly help create the global value in terms of mental peace, stress management, and brain development.