Dhyana yoga, the path of meditative being: Psychotherapeutic insights from the east.

Eastern spiritual traditions, including Hindu and other ancient practices, offer pathways to well-being through self-awareness (knowledge), selfless action (karma yoga), and compassion (bhakti yoga). Yogic meditative practices (dhyana yoga) combine ethical behavior, postures, breath control, and meditation to master physiological and psychological processes. These practices require sustained effort (abhyasa) and detachment (vairagya) to overcome ego hindrances. The paper reviews these concepts and connects them to modern psychology and neuroscience, noting that focused attention, open-monitoring, and transcendental meditation show somewhat distinctive neural correlates with brain oscillations and circuits. These approaches may be differentially effective across medical and psychiatric disorders. Gaps in knowledge are identified, and a framework for future research in positive psychology and psychiatry is proposed.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Eastern spiritual traditions offer insights into the mind-body approaches to enhance health and well-being. These insights focus on self-awareness (the path of knowledge), intrinsically motivated and selfless action (karma yoga) and on faith and compassion (Bhakti yoga). Yogic meditative practices (Dhyana yoga), developed by ancient Hindu and other eastern traditions, are effective tools to implement these pathways to well-being. They involve ethical behavior (yama and niyama), bodily postures, breath-related, and/or other meditative approaches for mastery over the physiological and psychological processes within an individual. Meditative practices require practice (abhyasa) as well as detachment (vairagya), so that the 'ego' of being a 'doer' does not become a hindrance in achieving inner transformations. In this paper, we review the eastern concepts on the nature of these techniques of inner well-being, and then place them in the context of emerging insights in psychology on these behavioral practices. Meditative practices include focused attention (FA), open-monitoring (OM) and transcendental meditation (TM) approaches. We outline current emerging neuroscience findings that suggest somewhat distinctive correlates of these mental states with neural oscillations and brain circuits. These approaches may also be differentially effective across medical and psychiatric disorders. We review gaps in knowledge and offer a framework for further research in developing these interventions, especially as applied in the areas of positive psychology and psychiatry.