Buddhist Geek Daniel Thorson recently spoke with Ron Couch on practice and life. More info of Mr. Couch can be found below the video.

Buddhist Geeks - Practice and Life: Ron Crouch

Streamed live on Oct 12, 2013

The following is from Ron Couch's website, Aloha Dharma, in the "About" section.

Who is Ron? 

I am a psychologist living in Hawaii who teaches meditation. I am a new dad (that picture is of me and my little boy), and a pretty ordinary guy. If you met me at a party you wouldn’t think that I teach meditation at all. I’d be the guy eating nachos and drinking a beer - I don’t wear beads or talk in mystical ways – that sort of thing is just tied up with ego anyway. I called this site Aloha Dharma partly because I wanted to emphasize how relaxed and open the teachings can be, you don’t have to be conversant in Pali or have been on a lot of retreats to learn meditation and even become enlightened.

Wait – did he just say enlightened?

Yes – enlightened. I was drawn to my teacher because he openly explained that enlightenment happened to him and how he did it. That practical no-nonsense open spirit informs my teachings too. While in many meditation and contemplative communities it is an unspoken rule that you don’t openly discuss where you are on the path (or even where the teacher is on the path), I am comfortable breaking with this tradition because the benefit is tremendous for students in terms of their confidence and higher expectations.

So what does Ron actually teach?

I teach insight or “Vipassana” meditation. There are several techniques for doing this, but the most useful one is the “noting” technique. Meditation with noting means that the practitioner literally makes a “note,” either silently or aloud, of what they are experiencing in that moment. As the meditator begins to master this practice there are specific states and stages that they go through. These are the insight stages or “nanas” and concentration states “jhanas.” My job as a teacher is to help students navigate through these parts of the path.

Ron’s Bio

I started meditating around 2002 for reasons that I can’t remember. I think I saw some people on TV doing it or read an article about it. I had read a few Buddhist books before this and was really interested in the intellectual aspects of it, but hadn’t really put it into practice. I was living in Alaska, and during the long dark winters there the meditation gave me something to do with my time and helped me to shake off the restlessness of cabin fever. For a number of years (perhaps 3) I continued in a spotty way, just doing it to relax. It worked. I felt better and could handle stress with more ease.

At some point I got involved in a Sri Lankan temple in Washington DC, where I had moved to start college. As a volunteer project I was teaching the monks conversational english, and started taking meditation classes and going to Dharma talks. Getting ever more involved, but not in a purposeful way. It just happened. Eventually I even went to Sri Lanka and meditated in a monastery for a couple of weeks. I learned to meditate by concentrating the mind on the breath to the exclusion of all else.

It was around this time that I began to have more mystical type experiences: lights, exciting feelings running around my body, tingling, tickling sensations around the third eye area… I was hooked! Problem was, I had no idea what was happening. It was just about this time that I moved to Chicago to go to grad school, and lost contact with my monk friends.

For a few years, during breaks from studying and research, I prowled the internet and book stores trying to figure out what was happening to me when I meditated. I was now meditating regularly, and experienced the lights and other fireworks daily. It was like I was living a secret life. Mild-mannered grad student by day, mystical cosmonaut by night. I didn’t share any of this with anyone (who would believe me?) and I was really hungry to know more. To my surprise most of the books I found on meditation had nothing in them about what I was experiencing. Sometimes authors would speak of “light” or other things, but it was impossible to tell if they were speaking metaphorically or if they were referring to my experience. It was pretty disheartening and invalidating. After all, if none of these big name meditation gurus were describing what I experienced, how important could it really be?

Finally I ran across a description of the Jhanas. That sent me into a fit. I found a small number of authors who explained that symptoms like the ones I had were a prelude to entering into “Jhana.” They explained that there are eight Jhanas that meditators access in order and that these are the blissful states that progressively clarify the mind and set the conditions for enlightenment. I read everything I could and became a big fan of Ajahn Brahm, Ayya Khema, Leigh Brasington, Bhante Gunaratana, Tina Rassmussen and Steven Snyder. I still am a big fan. I became convinced that what was happening was that I was getting strong access concentration and that I was beginning to experience a “samadhi nimita” which is the sign that you are about to enter the first jhana. For about three years I tried and tried to get first jhana. I concentrated my butt off. Still, all I got were lights and a few fireworks. No jhana.

Then, when I was listening to the Buddhist Geeks Podcast I heard a meditation teacher explain that he knew for certain that “ordinary people can get enlightened… because it happened to me.” He went on to explain that he did it through following the insight meditation techniques and the maps laid out in the progress of insight. The teacher’s name was Kenneth Folk, and I was shocked that he claimed enlightenment. I was also blown away that he did it with a technique I had never even tried. I had heard of vipassana, but hadn’t really given it a sincere try. By this point I felt so stuck in the mud that I was willing to try anything to make progress. I sent Kenneth an email and asked if he would teach me. My first real teacher.

With the guidance of a teacher I learned that along with the jhanas, there was another roadmap of the path to enlightenment called the “nanas”, or stages of insight. While there were eight jhanas, and I couldn’t access the first one, there were sixteen nanas, and by sincerely applying the technique I accessed the first four right away. In addition, I learned that the map didn’t end at the nanas. The first 16 nanas comprised the first section of four larger sections, or “paths”. According this map, also known as the “four path model”, once a person has worked their way through the fourth path, a shift in perception takes place, a deeply profound shift, and this shift is enlightenment. Under the guidance of a teacher, I navigated the traditional insight stages and found that they are real, and the end of the path is real too.

I loves me some meditation research. This new study finds that the more meditation experience a person has greater accuracy of subjective reports, especially those involving introspection of one's own internal processes than non-meditators. Take home: More meditation means greater self-awareness.

Meditation Experience Predicts Introspective Accuracy

Kieran C. R. Fox^1*, Pierre Zakarauskas², Matt Dixon¹, Melissa Ellamil¹, Evan Thompson³, Kalina Christoff^1,2

1 Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, 2 Brain Research Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, 3 Department of Philosophy, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Abstract 

The accuracy of subjective reports, especially those involving introspection of one's own internal processes, remains unclear, and research has demonstrated large individual differences in introspective accuracy. It has been hypothesized that introspective accuracy may be heightened in persons who engage in meditation practices, due to the highly introspective nature of such practices. We undertook a preliminary exploration of this hypothesis, examining introspective accuracy in a cross-section of meditation practitioners (1–15,000 hrs experience). Introspective accuracy was assessed by comparing subjective reports of tactile sensitivity for each of 20 body regions during a ‘body-scanning’ meditation with averaged, objective measures of tactile sensitivity (mean size of body representation area in primary somatosensory cortex; two-point discrimination threshold) as reported in prior research. Expert meditators showed significantly better introspective accuracy than novices; overall meditation experience also significantly predicted individual introspective accuracy. These results suggest that long-term meditators provide more accurate introspective reports than novices.

Full Citation: 
Fox KCR, Zakarauskas P, Dixon M, Ellamil M, Thompson E, et al. (2012) Meditation Experience Predicts Introspective Accuracy. PLoS ONE 7(9): e45370. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0045370

Here is some of the introduction. The whole article is open access, so you can read it online or download the PDF.

Introduction

William James exhorted us more than a century ago, “Introspective observation is what we have to rely on first and foremost and always” [1], but for much of the 20^th century, psychologists did not regard introspective reports as valid data for scientific inquiry. Some contemporary researchers have doubted the very possibility of accurate introspection [2]; others have demonstrated that while introspective reports may be reliable under simple conditions, reliability decreases with increasing demands on central processing resources [3].

Introspection can of course be defined in many ways; here we mean it in the straightforward manner used by James: “The word introspection need hardly be defined – it means, of course, looking into our own minds” [1]. That is, in its simplest form introspection involves “considerations of our own experience… [and] our own internal states” [4].

‘Introspective accuracy’ (IA) can putatively be quantified by a variety of methods that combine introspective reports of subjective, mental phenomena with some objective (neural, physiological, or behavioral) measure of these same phenomena. A subject's IA with respect to a given task or process is the degree to which their introspective reports agree or correlate with such objective measures [3], [5].

Recent research provides evidence for large inter-individual variability in introspective accuracy, which may be traceable to and predicted by differential grey matter volume in rostrolateral prefrontal cortex (RLPFC)/Brodmann Area (BA) 10 [5]. Individual differences with respect to a given skill invite the question of whether that skill can be ameliorated, and a recent study involving extensive training supports the idea that well-trained subjects can provide accurate and useful introspective reports [6] (though direct improvement of introspection through training has yet to be demonstrated, to our knowledge). Further, RLPFC/BA10, thought to be a key region involved in introspection and metacognitive awareness [7], is amenable to voluntary up- and down-regulation through real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) neurofeedback training [8]. This functional plasticity [8] and structural heterogeneity [5] in frontal regions key to introspection thus provides a possible neural basis for inter-individual differences, and possibly intra-individual enhancements, in introspective accuracy.

In parallel with this renewed interest in introspection, cognitive neuroscience has begun to focus on the family of mental training practices known as ‘meditation’ [9]. Many meditation practices are highly introspective in nature: common techniques direct the meditator's attention toward emotional states, the arising of thoughts, and even the quality and focus of attention itself [10], [12], [13]. This heavy focus on introspection has led to the hypothesis that experienced meditators might possess the capacity for more objective assessment of their own internal states and mental contents (i.e., greater introspective accuracy) [10], [11]. While a recent study examining subjective reports of emotional state alongside objective measures of autonomic arousal found that long-term meditators' introspective reports correlated better with objective measures than did reports from meditation-naïve controls [14], other similar work has shown equivocal results [15], or no differences between meditators and controls [16]. The evidence for enhanced introspective accuracy in long-term meditators, then, remains meager.

One particular meditation technique, vipassana (‘Insight’) meditation (VM), includes paying close attention to the inner experiences (conceptual, emotional, tactile, and visceral) associated with the current state of the body, primarily in order to better develop a non-discursive awareness centered in the present moment [12], [13]. Such practices may involve the meta-representation by the brain of diverse internal bodily responses and states [10], a view supported by a number of neuroimaging studies of VM meditators, as well as subjects engaging in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) courses (at heart a secularized version of VM, with a comparable focus on breath sensations, body awareness, etc. [12]). Neuroimaging has shown that among VM and MBSR meditators the insula, a region whose grey matter volume predicts the accuracy of interoceptive reports [17], exhibits increased cortical thickness [18] and grey matter density [19], as well as increased fMRI blood oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) signal during present-centered awareness [20]. VM and MBSR meditators also show structural and functional augmentations of primary and secondary somatosensory cortices, including increased cortical thickness [18] and fMRI-BOLD signal [20]. Finally, VM meditators show significantly thicker cortex [18] (and in Tibetan Buddhist practitioners, increased grey matter density [22]) in RLPFC/BA10, suggesting enhancement of a region strongly implicated in introspection [5], [7], [8], [45].

Despite this converging evidence that introspection and body-awareness may be heightened in VM/Mindfulness meditators, and despite the extensive body of objective data on tactile sensitivity in humans with which subjective reports could be compared, no study has yet examined the accuracy of introspective reports from a representative cross-sectional group of VM practitioners.

VM provides an ideal means of exploring introspective accuracy: the body-scanning meditation (BSM; vedananupassana) practice within this tradition focuses intensively on awareness of ambient tactile experiences of an entirely subjective nature, varying greatly in quality and intensity. Complementary scientific exploration of tactile sensibility has been extensive in humans, and has likewise shown marked variability in regional sensitivity throughout the body. Correlating subjective with objective measures of tactile sensitivity can thus provide a convenient measure of the extent to which introspective reports agree with what is to be expected from neurophysiological measures.

To explore this idea, we first gathered two sets of well-replicated, objective data on tactile sensitivity from previously published research that involved large samples of adults: (i) psychophysical discrimination and (ii) proportion of cortical area dedicated to various body regions in primary somatosensory cortex (S1).

Secular Buddhist Podcast - Episode 119 :: Shinzen Young :: Meditation, Pain, and Science

Excellent - one of the very cool teachers of Buddhism is Shinzen Young, and he is the guest this week on the Secular Buddhist Podcast, hosted by Ted Meissner. The post includes links to several of Shizen's books and audio books, so check them out at the podcast site.

Secular Buddhist Podcast Episode 119 :: Shinzen Young :: Meditation, Pain, and Science

Categories: The Secular Buddhist Podcast

by Ted Meissner

May 27, 2012

Shinzen Young

Shinzen Young joins us to speak about meditation, pain relief, and science.

We encounter this practice in so many ways. Often through suffering. Sometimes through disciplines like the martial arts, or from an interest in fixing some issues we’re having with concentration. And sometimes, we come to it through a fascination with a culture that holds more interest to us than the one into which we’ve been born.

However we get here, it’s what we do with this teaching that allows it to truly come to fruition. That path may be particularly religious, or not. It may even be a fairly secular approach, but taking new expression within the context of a traditional framework. Things are not always as they seem; we should continue to question, and we should consider that our first impressions may not always prove to be quite as constrained as our minds may be.

Shinzen Young became fascinated with Asian culture while a teenager in Los Angeles. Later he enrolled in a Ph.D. program in Buddhist Studies at the University of Wisconsin. Eventually, he went to Asia and did extensive training in each of the three major Buddhist traditions: Vajrayana, Zen and Vipassana. Upon returning to the United States, his academic interests shifted to the burgeoning dialogue between Eastern meditation and Western science. Shinzen is known for his innovative “interactive, algorithmic approach” to mindfulness, a system specifically designed for use in pain management, recovery support, and as an adjunct to psychotherapy. He leads meditation retreats throughout North America and has helped establish numerous mindfulness centers and programs. He also consults widely on meditation-related research, in both the clinical and the basic science domains. Special thanks to Emily Barrett from the Home Practice Program for her help in coordinating today’s interview.

So, sit back, relax, and have a nice vanilla frappuccino.

Podcast: Download

:: Discuss this episode ::

Quotes

“If you can’t be disciplined, be clever.” — Shinzen Young

Web Links

• Basic Mindfulness
• Shinzen Young
• Videos of Shinzen
• Interviews with Shinzen

Music for This Episode

Chikuzen Shakuhachi Series

The music heard in the middle of the podcast is from the Chikuzen Shakuhachi Series, Volume 1, courtesy of Tai Hei Shakuhachi. The tracks used in this episode are:

• Track 6 :: Esashi Oiwake

Al Kaszniak: Empathy & Compassion: Contemplative and Neuroscience Perspectives

Al Kaszniak, Ph.D., is currently Head of the Department of Psychology, Director of Clinical Neuropsychology, Director of the Arizona Alzheimer's Consortium Education Core, and a professor in the departments of psychology, neurology, and psychiatry at The University of Arizona. His work has focused on the neuropsychology of Alzheimer's disease and other age-related neurological disorders, memory self-monitoring, the biological bases of emotion, and emotion response and regulation in long-term Zen and Vipassana meditators. He is a co-founder and frequent guest at Upaya Zen Center's Zen Brain conference, co-created with Roshi Joan Halifax.


From his faculty page at the U of A:

RESEARCH FOCI

My research program is aimed at increasing our understanding of human brain systems involved in both cognition and emotion. Specifically, my laboratory and clinic research currently involves four different, although related, domains of interest: (1) Neuropsychological aspects of aging; (2) Neuropsychological aspects of age-related disorders of the central nervous system; (3) The neuropsychology of consciousness and self-awareness; and (4) Emotion.

Neuropsychological aspects of aging:

This research has focused upon age-related changes in explicit and implicit memory, and upon metamemory (self-awareness of one's own memory functioning and abilities), particularly in relation to differential contributions of frontal-subcortical vs. hippocampal system functioning.

Neuropsychological aspects of age-related disorders of the CNS:

This research has focused upon characterizing the nature of memory and language impairments in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, upon neuroradiologic and electrophysiologic correlates of these impairments, and upon the clinical assessment and management of dementing illness. Recent studies explored the electrophysiological correlates of masked repetition priming in Alzheimer's disease, examined the predictive validity of neuropsychological approaches to the differentiation of dementia and depression in older age, studied the psychophysiology of emotion in Alzheimer's disease, and evaluated the efficacy of innovative residential programs for the care of persons with Alzheimer's disease.

Neuropsychology of self-awareness:

This research has focused upon self-awareness of memory and other cognitive deficits in Alzheimer's disease, and upon neuroimaging correlates of memory self-monitoring in healthy younger and older adults. Recent studies have involved examination of structural (MRI) and functional (fMRI) brain imaging correlates of performance on feeling-of-knowing and tip-of-the tongue tasks, and the behavioral consequences (e.g., accident risk) of impaired self-awareness of deficit.

Brain systems and individual variability in emotion and emotion regulation:

This research has evaluated emotional cue (e.g., facial expression, visual emotional scenes) comprehension in Alzheimer's disease, in patients with select focal cortical lesions, and in patients with particular psychiatric conditions (e.g., alexithymia), and psychophysiological response to emotional stimuli in these groups as well as healthy younger and older adults. In addition, the laboratory is currently studying dissociations between emotional experience, expression (e.g., facial EMG) and autonomic physiology (e.g, skin conductance response) in persons with structural damage to frontal regions (e.g., orbitomedial versus dorsolateral lesion location), and is examining emotion-related startle potentiation in healthy younger and older adults and those with Alzheimer's disease.

Empathy & Compassion: Contemplative and Neuroscience Perspectives

Professor Al Kaszniak's talk to the UA Psychology Department (not to AMRIG) on 4/2/10.

Part One:




Part Two:




Part Three:




Part Four:




Part Five:




Part Six:




Part Seven:

Shinzen Young at the University of Arizona in 2009

The U of A hosts a small group called the Arizona Meditation Research Interest Group (AMRIG) organized around Al Kaszniak, a psychologist at the University who has done a lot of work with meditation and spiritual aspects of health. The AMRIG has hosted a series of speakers over the 3 years of their existence, with Sharon Salzberg coming next month.

The very first one, from 2009, featured a five hour lecture by Shinzen Young - there is a bit over an hour of audio available for download. What they have included (as I am listening) seems to be the teaching parts and not the experiential parts.

Shinzen_Part_One.WMA
Download
11/01/2009-- First part of the audio for Shinzen Young's four hour lecture.

Shinzen_Part_Two.WMA
Download
11/01/2009-- Second part of the audio for Shinzen Young's four hour lecture.

Shinzen_Part_Three.WMA
Download
11/01/2009-- Third part of the audio for Shinzen Young's four hour lecture.

Shinzen_Part_Four.WMA
Download
11/01/2009-- Fourth part of the audio for Shinzen Young's four hour lecture.

Shinzen_Part_Five.WMA
Download
11/01/2009-- Fifth part of the audio for Shinzen Young's four hour lecture.

Meditation program based in Buddhist practice helps reduce violence at Alabama prison

Meditation programs should be available in every prison - and this little article shows that it works to reduce inmate violence, as well as teaching them some good skills (especially for the men who will get out one day and need to reintegrate into society).

Meditation program helps reduce violence AL prison

BESSEMER, Ala. (AP) — Deep inside an overcrowded prison with a reputation for mayhem, convicted killers, robbers and rapists gather in a small room. Eyes closed, they sit silently with their thoughts and consciences.

Their everyday life is just outside in the hall — a cacophony of clanging steel doors, yelling and feet shuffling along cold concrete floors. The noise never really ends; peace is at a premium in Alabama's toughest lockup.

Despite a history of violence at the William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility, which is named for a slain corrections officer, the prison outside Birmingham has become the model for a meditation program that officials say helps inmates learn the self control and social skills they never got in the outside world.

Warden Gary Hetzel doesn't fully understand how the program called Vipassana (which is pronounced vuh-'POSH-uh-nuh) can transform violent inmates into calm men using contemplative Buddhist practices.

But Hetzel knows one thing.

"It works. We see a difference in the men and in the prison. It's calmer," he said of the course that about 10 percent of the prison's inmates have completed.

The word Vipassana means "to see things as they really are," which is also the goal of the intense 10-day program using the meditative technique that dates back 2,500 years.

Vipassana courses are held four times a year in a prison gymnasium, where as many as 40 inmates meditate 10 hours a day. Most sit on cushions on the floor, while a few use chairs.

The courses begin with three days of breathing exercises — the prisoners learn to focus on bodily sensations so intently they feel the exhalations on their upper lip. Students are required to not speak to each other.

Outside volunteers guide their way, along with recordings of chanting and instructions.

On Day 4, students are told to begin letting their deepest thoughts percolate up through their consciousness so they can sense the effects on the body, like tension or anger. The ultimate goal is to learn not to react to those sensations.

Students are forced to grapple with their innermost selves. Some men are brought to tears; a few have thrown up. It's not unusual for half of the students or more to quit or be sent back to the prison population for disobeying the rules.

Those who finish come out changed, prison officials say.

Convicted murderer Grady Bankhead said the hours of meditation forced him to accept responsibility for his crime and helped him find inner peace. Bankhead, who's serving life without parole, radiates calm.

"I've been here for 25 years and this statement is going to sound crazy, but I consider myself the luckiest man in the world," Bankhead, 60, said last month after the latest course at Donaldson.

For Ronald McKeithen, Vipassana became a tool for controlling his actions.

"I had a lot of anger issues, and this has given me a way to deal with it," said McKeithen, 48, serving life without parole for robbery. Eyes shut, his face is relaxed during a weekly meditation session for prisoners who finish the program.

Vipassana courses have been taught in Indian prisons for decades and began in 2002 at Donaldson. The program was temporarily shut down over concerns among some Christians that Vipassana was some sort of evangelical Buddhism — it's not, teachers and prisoners insist — but it restarted in 2006.

"It's medicine for the mind," said Timothy Lewis, 45, serving life without parole for robbery and assault.

About 380 state inmates have completed a Vipassana course, said Dr. Ronald Cavanaugh, who brought the program to Donaldson while working there and is now treatment director for the Alabama Department of Corrections. It took him three years to convince administrators to allow the program and to find the space for it.

A Department of Corrections study of about 100 inmates who completed the program and were still in custody in late 2007 found they had 20 percent fewer disciplinary actions after the course, Cavanaugh said.

"The goal of Vipassana is to change one's relationship to thoughts instead of changing the content of the thoughts," said Cavanaugh. "You don't need to act or react to thoughts. You can just observe them."

Vipassana courses have been taught at a few other lockups in California, Massachusetts and Washington, but ended for reasons including space limitations, security concerns and funding. Donaldson is currently the only U.S. prison with the courses, but advocates are trying to get others interested, said Harry Snyder of the Vipassana Prison Trust. The trust pays for volunteers to travel to the prison and conduct courses.

John Gannon, executive director of the International Association for Correctional and Forensic Psychology, said he applauds Alabama's efforts.

"Anything that helps to reduce impulsivity is likely to reduce recidivism ... and that's what the process is about as I understand it," said Gannon, of Pismo Beach, Calif.

Baptists far outnumber Buddhists in Alabama, and state corrections officials deserve credit for their willingness to try the program, said Jenny Phillips, a Massachusetts psychotherapist who introduced Cavanaugh to Vipassana meditation.

Phillips wrote a book and produced a documentary movie about the Donaldson program called "The Dhamma Brothers," which incorporates the Indian word that refers to the concept in Vipassana of gaining happiness through doing good for others. It's an older, alternate spelling of the word "dharma," which is used more often in popular culture.

"You can feel the energy when another Dhamma brother passes by you," said Bankhead, an inmate leader of the program. "You can relax. It's one person calming five or six."

While the warden said Vipassana helps officers and administrators keep a lid on Donaldson, the lockup is still considered the state's roughest. It's the last stop for inmates with behavior problems, and more than one-third of its approximately 1,500 prisoners are either serving sentences of life without parole or are on death row.

A judge is currently considering a prisoner lawsuit that claims Donaldson is so crowded and violent it violates inmates' constitutional rights. State officials don't deny that Donaldson has problems, but they dispute that the lockup is unconstitutionally harsh.

An organization for corrections officers has taken the unusual step of siding with the inmates by agreeing with some of their claims about Donaldson, but no trial date is set.

Tags: meditation, inmates, violence, vipassana, dharma, Buddhism, prison, Alabama, William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility