冥想
What is Meditation?
冥想是什么?
scientific insight into the four types of meditation
科学角度洞悉四种冥想类型
This article is an introductory short article on the system of meditation knowledge, which mainly categorizes the current popular types of meditation and analyzes the effects of various types of meditation on the brain from the perspective of Neuro-feedback biology. This article is suitable for beginners of meditation, and, of course, if the reader has some basic knowledge about Neuro-science, as well as EEG feedback, it will help them better understand some of the technical details mentioned in the article.
本文是一篇关于冥想知识体系的入门短篇，文中主要给目前流行的冥想类型归类，并从神经反馈生物学（Neuro-feedback）的角度，逐一分析各类冥想对大脑的影响极其意义。本文适合冥想的初学者阅读，当然，如果阅读者拥有一些关于脑科学（Neuro-science），以及脑电反馈（EEG feedback）的基础知识，将帮助其更好地理解文中提及的一些技术细节。
What exactly is meditation?
冥想到底是什么？
Many people’s impression is that meditation is only called meditation if you meditate in the deep mountains and old forests, or that the brain is empty at once (which is not possible in fact). As a practitioner who has been meditating for many years and has been in the brain machine interface for many years, I think the concept of meditation is actually very broad. Each of us experiences meditation at least every day, even for a few minutes. For example, put headphones on before sleep to savour a favorite song, carefully analyze the melody and rhythm on its different tracks, carefully separate vocals, guitars, bass, and drums, and listen to them over and over again.
Whether it’s when we’re seriously painting, writing, playing, or just carefully cutting a fruit, they’re a meditation exercise, but we don’t realize it yet. Thus, meditation is definitely not equal to not wanting anything, meditation and daydreaming there is a big difference. Simply put, we can think of meditation as a “mind exercise” that uses a certain mode of thinking to influence the brain’s thinking habits and behavior patterns. Numerous studies have shown that this “brain exercise” activates different functional areas of the brain, and that long-term training can make a positive difference to the body and mind.
But for beginners, it all seems too far away and too vague, is there a step-by-step way to slowly understand meditation? Does it have a knowledge system? We can try to start by distinguishing between different types of meditation.
Depending on the genres of meditation, I basically divide them into four categories:
- Concentration meditation
- Mindfulness meditation
- Open-mind meditation
- Relaxation meditation
You may normally hear meditation names that differ from these four types of names, but when you’ve read below and understood their differences, you’ll be able to classify any kind of meditation into one of them. At the same time, I’ll combine some of our experience with the actual testing process to tell you what’s going on in each meditation brain from a bio-feedback perspective. This allows you to understand the purpose of various types of meditation and its effects on the brain in a more scientific way.
许多人印象中只有在深山老林中打坐才叫冥想，又或者让大脑一下子放空（事实上这并不可能做到）。作为一个冥想多年，并在脑机接口多年的从业人士来说，我认为冥想的概念实际上是非常广泛的。我们每个人至少每天都会经历冥想，哪怕只是短短的几分钟。例如在睡眠前塞上耳机细细品味一首喜爱的歌曲，认真地分析它不同音轨上旋律和节奏，细心地把人声、吉他、贝斯、和鼓声分离开来，再不断重复地听。
无论是当我们认真地绘画、书写、弹奏、或只是仔细地削着一个水果，它们都是一种冥想练习，只是我们还没有意识到。由此可见，冥想绝对不等于什么都不想，冥想和做白日梦有着很大区别。简单地说，我们可以把冥想看待成一种“头脑练习”，利用某种思考模式来影响大脑的思维习惯和行动模式。大量的研究表明，这种“头脑练习”能激活脑中不同的功能区域，长期的训练能给人的身心带来积极的改变。
但是对于初学者来讲，这一切似乎都太遥远太模糊了，是否有一种循序渐进方式来慢慢了解冥想呢？它是否存在一个知识体系？我们可以试着从如何区分不同的冥想类型开始。
根据冥想的不同流派，我基本把它们分成以下四类：
- 专注冥想
- 正念冥想
- 开放心灵冥想
- 静心冥想
也许平时你会听到与这四类名称有所区别的冥想名称，但当你阅读完下文，理解了它们各自的区别后，就一定能够将任何一种冥想归类到其中之一。同时，我也会结合我们实际测试过程中的一些经验，从生物反馈（bio-feedback）的角度，告诉你每一种冥想大脑里都在发生了什么。这样你就能以一个更加科学的角度，明白各类冥想的目的和对大脑的影响。
Concentration Meditation
Such meditation is the most common and common, and literally the easiest to understand. There are many different ways of calling this kind of meditation, such as Mantra Meditation, Focus meditation, Anchor Meditation, and so on. In general, this type of meditation is the use of “concentration” as a tool or medium of mind exercises, which is controlled and manipulated in some way to enhance the brain’s ability to control concentration.
The general approach is never out of the picture:
- Choose a focus point for focus
- Focus on this focus
- If the focus starts to drift, take the initiative to detect that you are distracted
- Gradually patiently turn the focus back to focus, so loop, that’s all
Depending on the type of mindfulness meditation, this focus can take many forms, from a specific image or object to an abstract concept, such as breathing. In summary, all meditations involving the selection of an object or behavior as the focus can be classified into this type of meditation.
In the field of neurofeedback, it is easy to distinguish whether a person is focused or not with the help of electroencephalograms (EEGs). In this type of meditation, we focus on some high-frequency EEG signals in the frontal lobe region of the brain, such as High Beta or Gamma. Generally speaking, if the prefrontal lobe produces a large number of high-band brain waves, the human consciousness is in a state of alert concentration. But EE maps of the frontal lobe region alone often fail to determine whether the source of the subject’s concentration of consciousness comes from the inside or outside. In Mandala meditation, for example, practitioners tend to focus on breathing as a focus of meditation, an internally generated focus that is not affected by any external environment or an imaged object.
Therefore, in order to determine the source of concentration, we need to analyze potential changes in other parts of the brain, such as the visual region of the back brain (PZ bit, mainly the visual function area). If we see that the pillow leaf region is in a “Deactivate” state, i.e. with the decrease of High Beta waves and the increase of Alpha 1 (8-10Hz) waves, while the frontal lobe region is active in the high band, then we can roughly analyze that the source of consciousness concentration comes from within.
专注冥想
这类冥想是最为常见和普遍的，字面上也是最容易理解的。这类冥想也有许多不同的叫法，例如曼陀罗冥想（Mantra Meditation）、关注冥想、锚点冥想等等。总的来讲，这类冥想是把“专注力”作为一种头脑练习的工具或媒介，对它进行某种控制和操纵，从而加强大脑对专注力的把控能力。
大致的方法万变不离其中：
- 选择一个专注力投放的聚焦点
- 把专注力投放于这个焦点上
- 如果专注力开始飘忽，主动察觉到自己走神了
- 逐渐耐心地把专注力转回到焦点上，如此循环，仅此而已
根据不同类别的专注力冥想，这个焦点有多种形式，可以是一个具体的形象或物件，也可以是抽象的概念，例如呼吸。总之，所有涉及到选择某个物体或行为作为焦点的冥想都可以归类到这种冥想类型里。
而在神经反馈领域里，我们通过脑电图（EEG）的辅助，很容易就能区分一个人是否处于专注的状态。在这类冥想中，我们主要关注大脑前额叶区域（Frontal Lobe）的一些高频的脑电信号，例如High Beta或Gamma。一般来讲，前额叶如果产生大量的高频段脑波，人的意识则处在一种警觉集中的状态。但是光凭额叶区域的脑电图，我们往往不能判断受试者意识集中的源头是来自内部还是外部的。例如在曼陀罗冥想里，练习者往往是把呼吸作为冥想的焦点，是一种由内产生的专注力，并不受任何外界环境或某个具象物体的影响。
因此，为了判断集中意识的源头，我们需要分析大脑的其它部位的电位变化，例如后脑的视觉区域枕叶区（PZ位，主要是视觉功能区）。如果我们看见枕叶区是处在一个“关闭（Deactivate）”状态，也就是伴随High Beta波减少而Alpha 1（8-10Hz）波的增加，同时额叶区处于高频段激活状态，那么，我们就能大致分析出意识集中的源头是来自内部的。
Mindfulness Meditation
The definition of this category is vague, and it is difficult to say in a word or two what “mindfulness” means.
First, we can look at the general process and patterns of mindfulness meditation. It is a mode of thinking, that is, to pull their own consciousness out, with a third perspective or the state of the viewer, unbound to observe themselves. Observe the changes in your senses and thoughts at every moment. Keep consciousness in the present moment, awareness is also the main means of mindfulness meditation. Finally, mindfulness meditation also emphasizes a “sense of acceptance” such as “acceptance of anything that happens next week” and so on.
So there is an essential difference between mindfulness meditation and focused meditation in the pattern of using concentration, one is to focus on “pulling away” and keeping consciousness in the present, and the other is to “tame” and pull it back when it goes away. Chinese the word
“mindfulness” emphasizes the word “positive” more, with a bit of meaning “being” (living in the present), “just” (viewer’s perspective and acceptance without judgment). The English word for mindfulness, “Mindfulness”, emphasizes a meaning of “mindfulness” or “conscious awareness”.
In mindfulness meditation, we are looking for a “soft focus”, the Theta wave in the EEG band, or more accurately the level of the theta wave in the frontal midline region of the frontal lobe region. In addition, as with the first type of focused meditation, we also have to consider whether the source of the theta wave is internal or external, so we often have to consider factors such as whether the pillow leaf area is activated and whether the high frequency band such as Gamma is reduced.
正念冥想
这一类的定义是比较模糊的，“正念”到底是什么意思，这很难用一两句话就能把它说清楚。
首先，我们可以看看正念冥想大致的流程和模式。它是一种思维模式，就是把自己的意识抽离出来，以一种第三视角或傍观者的状态，不受束缚地观察自己。观察自身每时每刻感官和思绪的变化。保持意识停留在当下，觉知当下也是正念冥想中的主要手段。最后，正念冥想还强调一种“接纳感”，例如“接纳当下周遭发生的任何事情”等等。
所以，正念冥想与专注冥想在利用专注力的模式上有着本质的区别，一种是专注于“抽离感”和保持意识停留于当下；而另一种则是“驯服感”，当它走远了，就把它拉回来。中文里“正念”一词更为强调“正”这一个字，有点“正在”（活在当下）、“公正”（傍观者视角和接纳不加以评判）的含义。而英文正念一词“Mindfulness”，则更加强调了一种“顾及和思考（mindful）”或“有意识的觉知（awareness）”的含义。
在正念冥想中，我们寻找的是一种“柔和的专注力”，也就是脑电图频段中的西塔脑波（Theta），更准确地说是额叶区额中线区域（Frontal midline）的Theta波含量。另外，与第一类专注冥想一样，我们也要考虑Theta波的源头是内在还是外在的，因此，我们经常还要考虑枕叶区是否被激活，Gamma等高频波段是否减少等因素。
Open-Mind Meditation
There are also many different names, such as Compassion Meditation, Self-Loving Meditation, Gratitude Meditation, And Others. In short, this type of meditation is accompanied by a positive emotion during which the practitioner needs to spontaneously produce it and stay in that state as much as possible. Such meditation exercises are also often used for purposes such as self-healing of the mind.
In this type of meditation, from the study of the brain activity of monks who practice all year round, we focus on brain waves in the Gamma band, especially in the right hemisphere of the brain, specifically the activation of the right brain island. We all know that, unlike the logical region of the left brain, the right brain is an emotional and highly emotional area. Therefore, when analyzing emotionally related meditation exercises, the analysis of left and right brain activity becomes more meaningful than the pair.
It is worth mentioning that in some subjects who performed such meditation, they sometimes had a very active left brain, but the subjects stressed that they were trying to get into a positive mood, and when we led the subjects to imagine or recall how they felt about hugging their children or pets, the activity of the right brain increased dramatically and the left brain became calmer. Thus, there is a big difference in brain activity between thinking of an emotion and a feeling.
打开心灵冥想
也有许多不同的叫法，例如像慈悲冥想（Compassion Meditation）、自爱冥想（Self-loving Meditation）、感恩冥想（Gratitude Meditation）、释怀冥想（Forgiveness Meditation）等等。总之，这类冥想是伴随着一种正面的情绪，期间练习者需要主动自发性地产生这种情绪，并尽可能地停留在这种状态里。这类冥想练习也常常被用于身心灵的自我修复等用途。
在这类冥想中，从一常年修行的僧侣脑部活动的研究来看，我们主要关注Gamma频段的脑波，尤其是位于脑右半球的神经活动，具体地讲是右脑岛（The Right Insular）的激活状态。我们都知道，与左脑的逻辑区不同，右脑是情绪和高感性的区域。因此，在分析情绪相关的冥想练习时，左右脑活跃状态的分析比对变得十分有意义。
值得一提的是，在一些进行这类冥想的受试者中看见一种现象，他们有时候左脑会十分活跃，受试者却强调自己在极力进入一种正面的情绪，而当我们引导受试者想像或回想拥抱着自己的孩子或宠物的感受时，右脑的活跃程会急剧增加，反之左脑会变得平静。由此可见，想（thinking of）一种情绪和感受（to feel）一种情绪，大脑活动上有着很大的区别。
Relaxation Meditation
Such meditation is often associated with Zen, such as meditation or transcendental meditation.
It is also a kind of meditation that is often misinterpreted, and many people think that meditation can be like magic, let the mind disappear, let the brain suddenly into a state of emptiness. Of course, this is the ideal state that meditation seeks, but from a physiological science point of view, this state is not simply a cessation of brain activity. In this type of meditation, the subject’s entire brain enters a synchronized state of Alpha 1 (8-10Hz) in a certain Alpha band. The activity of the DMN, Default Mode Network is reduced accordingly, especially DMN activity in the left hemisphere.
Getting there is not easy and takes years of practice, but from the experience of many practitioners, focused classes and mindfulness meditation are often the first steps towards this experience. Scientifically, it makes sense, because in the first two meditation exercises, we saw alpha 1 brain waves, but it existed in different regions. If, through training, some ability to activate Alpha 1 brain waves is mastered, any part of the brain could theoretically be regulated to this band.
It is worth mentioning that Alpha 1 is a very special band from a physical point of view, which is very close to the frequency of the first Schumann Resonance (7.83-8Hz). Interestingly, this frequency has long been thought of as the vibrational frequency of nature and is often compared to “the brain wave of the earth”.
静心冥想
这类冥想往往和禅宗联系在一起，例如禅修冥想（Zen Meditation）或超越冥想（Transcendental Meditation）。
这也是常常被人们错误解读的一种冥想，许多人认为禅修能像魔法一般，让脑海中的思绪消失，让大脑一下子进入一种空空如也的状态。当然，这是禅修所追求的最理想状态，但是从生理学科学的角度来看，这种状态并不是单纯的脑部活动的停止。在这类冥想中，受试者整个大脑会进入某一段Alpha频段，Alpha 1(8-10Hz)，的同步状态。而默认模式网络（DMN，Default Mode Network）的活动也会相应减少，尤其是在左半球的DMN活动。
要达到这种状态并不容易，需要多年的练习，但是从许多练习者的经验来看，专注类和正念冥想往往是通往这种体验的第一步。从科学角度来讲是说的通的，因为在头两种冥想练习里，我们都看见Alpha 1脑波的踪影，只是它存在于不同的区域。如果通过训练，掌握了某种激活Alpha 1脑波的能力，理论上可以把大脑任意部位调节到这种波段。
值得一提的是，从物理学角度来看Alpha 1是一种很特别的波段，它与第一段舒曼共振（Schumann Resonance，7.83-8Hz）的频率十分接近。有趣的是，一直以来这种频率被认为是大自然的振动频率，常常被比作“地球的脑波”。
In actual meditation exercises
实际的冥想练习中
In fact, we don’t need to care too much about what type it belongs to in actual meditation exercises, we just need to know what the purpose of training is and what the implications for the brain are. We should choose meditation that suits us and practice according to our needs.
We can combine the techniques of different types of meditation to solve the pain points in the life scene. We don’t need to experience all the types of meditation, let alone the ultimate goal of epiphany, as long as it helps us solve the problems of the moment.
All in all, no matter what type of meditation exercise you choose and what special activities and states your brain experiences, all types of meditation are doing the same thing, which is increasing self-awareness. The use of biofeedback technology allows us to better measure the extent of this self-awareness, some of the smaller details of the change can be detected. Consciousness could not have been seen and touched, but now we have a navigator that allows us to find our way forward on the journey of self-awareness.
I hope you will learn more about meditation after reading this essay, and I hope it will help you in your future meditation training.
其实我们在实际的冥想练习中并不需要太在意它到底属于哪一类型，只需要知道训练目的和对大脑影响的意义何在即可。我们应该选择适合自己的冥想，根据需求来进行练习。
我们可以把不同冥想类型的技巧融会贯通，解决生活场景里的痛点即可。我们不需要体验全部的冥想类型，更不要强求什么顿悟的终极目标，对于现代人来讲，只要它能帮助我们解决当下的问题就行了。
总而言之，无论你选择哪种类型的冥想练习，大脑中经历了哪些特殊活动和状态，所有类型的冥想都在做着同一件事情，就是增加自我意识（Self-awareness）的提升。而采用生物反馈技术能让我们更好地丈量这种自我意识提升的程度，一些更为细小的细节变化都可以察觉得到。意识本来看不见摸也不着，但现在我们拥有了一个导航器，让我们在自我觉知的探索之旅上找到前行的方向。
希望你在阅读完这一篇短文后，对冥想有了进一步的了解，也希望它能在你今后的冥想训练中起到帮助。
