Building a Bigger Brain 
Meditation can build a bigger brain. That's the finding from a group of researchers at UCLA who used high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to scan the brains of people who meditate. A study in the NeuroImage journal claims that certain regions in the brains of long-term meditators were larger than in a similar control group. Specifically, meditators showed significantly larger volumes of the hippocampus and areas within the orbito-frontal cortex, the thalamus and the inferior temporal gyrus--all regions known for regulating positive emotions.

Paul and Ringo Unite to Benefit Meditation Education  
Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr recently performed at Radio City Music Hall for the benefit of the David Lynch Foundation. The foundation provides funding for students to learn to meditate at Transcendental Meditation teaching centers, hospital wellness programs, Boys and Girls Clubs and before- and after-school programs. In the past year, the Foundation has provided funding for students, teachers, and parents to learn to meditate. The Foundation also provides funds for independent research institutions to assess the effects of the program on creativity, intelligence, brain functioning, academic performance, ADHD, anxiety, depression, and substance abuse.

Judy Collins on Meditation 
In her latest book, The Seven T's, singer Judy Collins writes about finding hope and healing through meditation after the devastating loss of her son to suicide. "A daily meditation practice comfortably fit into my life," writes Ms. Collins. "It immediately allowed my whole body and my mind to be balanced, focused and calm. I've been meditating now for about 30 years, so it's really become part of my life. For me, it provides an emotional stability that I really need.

Non-violence in Schools 
Ashley Deans, a physicist and educator with the Canadian Association for Stress-Free Schools claims that a daily meditation practice can reduce behavior issues and academic problems in schools. "Thirty minutes of meditation a day can make a big difference in a student's academic success," says Deans. "Meditation is the single most effective technique for eliminating stress, promoting health and increasing creativity and non-violence."

Pope's Poems Set to Music 
Placido Domingo's new CD entitled, Infinite Love, contains songs inspired by the poems of Pope John Paul II. According to the singer, most of the choices made by the tenor and his composer son, Placido Jr., suggest a state of deep meditation. "Some of the songs," he says, "address the Divine in a personal tone, while others speak about the world and even human beings as the abode of God." Artists Josh Groban, Andrea Bocelli and Vanessa Williams also contributed to the new CD.arly.

As singer-songwriter George Harrison knew, I, me and mine are three simple, but potentially dangerous words. When used glibly--without examination--they are the cause of untold pain and suffering.

A word is actually just a symbol of a concept. It is an attempt by one human being to communicate something to another. Words seem innocent enough, but when they fail to reflect the truth, the consequence is dis-ease. One egregious example is our everyday use of the words I, me and mine. We use these personal pronouns countless times a day to refer to "ourselves" without having established a concrete understanding of who it is we're actually speaking about. Yoga Science, observing this indiscretion of placing the proverbial cart before the horse, questions our lack of specificity and unflinchingly pursues the truth. "Who exactly is this 'I' you habitually refer to? Who are you . . . really? Are you the body, your thoughts, desires, emotions, memories, race, gender, age, religion, place of origin or occupation? Are you a liberal??A conservative? Or are all these ephemeral definitions merely reflections of your own limited understanding of who you are? Who is the real you engaging in life's complex web of relationships?

All this questioning may sound like philosophical silliness, but I assure you it's not. Whenever you forget or deny that you are essentially consciousness (spirit) having a human experience, your actions will further enslave you to the limited and limiting perspective of the ego. That condition of separation from the wisdom of your higher Self will inevitably invite fear, and fear always invites danger.

The ego is one of the major functions of the mind. In Sanskrit the ego is ahamkara--literally meaning the "I-maker." The ahamkara does not manifest only as conceit. The "I-maker" is any thought or belief that defines you as a separate, individual body-mind-sense complex without connection to a higher spiritual core of divine goodness or wisdom. Because the ego can provide only this impoverished perspective, it tries to justify and rejustify its existence by claiming it alone knows the secret and whereabouts of genuine happiness.

Attempting to deliver on its bogus claims, ahamkara takes you on fruitless journeys into the lands of self-absorption and self-gratification. Eavesdrop on the ego's sales pitch (you can if you practice Yoga Science), and you'll hear something like this: "The pleasant is good. It will make you happy. The unpleasant is bad. It will bring you pain. You know what feels good, so let's just do what you want. Who's life is this anyway?"

When the ego rules the mind, I, me and mine remain empty, dark words that allow no Light to shine. Whenever you use phrases like, "I want this, I don't want that" or "I am good, I am bad" in thought or speech--without consulting the intuitive wisdom of your conscience (buddhi)--the misrepresentation of who you are registers in your consciousness as fact. With every repetition, you further constrict your sense of I-ness and assure yourself more physical, mental and emotional dis-ease or pain.

Ignorant of your true higher Self, you wind up re-creating, re-defining, re-defending and re-projecting this illusional identity of I, me and mine in each successive relationship. So effective is this conditioning that the process becomes virtually invisible to you. From the moment you wake up until you go to sleep you are mesmerized by the memories and stories called me. And it doesn't stop there. Our society, culture and language unwittingly conspire to reinforce the collective belief in the validity of your self-created, limited identity. In effect, you become hypnotized into believing that I, me and mine (as personal pronouns) actually relate to something tangible.

When the ego's narrow perspective reigns unchecked, the fiction of separateness becomes a well entrenched habit and eventually, a full blown compulsive state of mind. Viewing every situation through the skewed lens of the "I-maker's" prejudices, you mistakenly identify with a very narrow vision of who you are and what will make you happy. The narrowing of your vision continues until you can no longer look at anything or anyone without wondering how it might or might not benefit me, and eventually, you view most of life through my wants, my judgments and my concerns. This self-righteousness, nurtured by years of unexamined mental conditioning, makes you profoundly insecure and often manifests as anger, prejudice and conflict among family members, races, religions, genders and nations.

Without detachment, discrimination, and discipline, the ego perpetuates the delusion that you are separate from the whole, needy and dependent on something outside you for happiness, health and security. The limited ego is such a dangerous place to construct your life that the yogic sage Shankaracharya, (788-820 AD) wrote, "To live for the physical, mental and sensual pleasures [of the limited ego] is like building a home on quicksand, or trying to cross a stream on the back of a crocodile, believing it to be the trunk of a tree."

But the human ego is not unique in its limited sense of I-ness. Even a bubble identifies with being a bubble, and the physicists tell us that like the human being, the bubble fights to maintain its form as long as possible. This veil of separateness blinds our consciousness to the One that appears as many. But as Albert Einstein intuitively observed, "A human being is a part of the whole, called by us, 'Universe,' a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest--a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a prison, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures . . . and the striving for such achievement is, in itself, a part of liberation and a foundation for inner security."

The good news is that regardless of how long you've suffered from the constraints of an undisciplined ego, you can break free from the ego-cage of I and me and mine--not by annihilating the ego (which is both impossible and ill-advised)--but by learning to expand your sense of I-ness so that you can experience the state of unbounded Life, Liberty and Happiness that lies at the center of your consciousness.

To begin this process of expanding the ego, you must first understand that the ego is a necessary function of the mind; it enables you to function in the world as an individual. Despite what you might have heard, the limited egoic perspective is valid and necessary in many situations. Practical examples abound. For instance, you need a healthy ego to drive an automobile. Without the ego's influence your senses, enthralled by the passing scene, might fail to maintain their attention on driving. The result would be injury, or even death of the body. Whenever the buddhi endorses the suggestion of the ego (as it does when you're driving a car), the proposed action is to be taken because it serves the unity of all life--including that of the ego. Conversely, when the ego's limited perspective conflicts with the intuitive wisdom of the buddhi, the ego's suggestion is to be lovingly rejected, because the best interest of the individual and all "others" would not be served by the proposed action. The Persian mystic poet Rumi aptly describes the yogic path to an increased sense of I-ness this way: "Pilgrimage to the place of the wise is to find escape from the flame of separateness." Teach the ego to expand its identity to encompass the broad and unerring vision of the buddhi, and your reward will be great.

Contentment is the fruit of experiencing the truth of your Essential Nature and basing your actions on Its all-encompassing wisdom. By regularly focusing your mind in meditation you can develop the skills of detachment, discrimination and discipline to transcend and transform the ego's short-sightedness. Then, you will enter into a state in which you are present to the joyful and creative Oneness of your higher Self.

To facilitate this process of expanding your I-ness, it is helpful to examine the simple question: Who am I? Be earnest in this endeavor, and one day all questions will simply dissolve into knowing. To hasten that day, remember this: I have a body. I am aware of the body, but I am not the body. I have a mind. I am aware of the mind, but I am not the mind. I have thoughts. I am aware of thoughts, but I am not the thoughts. I have desires. I am aware of desires, but I am not the desires. I have emotions. I am aware of emotions, but I am not the emotions. Who, then, is aware of the body? Who is aware of the mind? Who is aware of the thoughts, desires and emotions? Who is the thinker of every thought? Who is the experiencer of every experience? Who am I?

The efficacy of expanding the ego in order to reach fulfillment has been honored in the tradition of the wedding ring. The ring symbolizes the unity of life experienced through selfless love. It is constructed of two separate halves--joined together to create a new, stronger and beneficial whole. The wedding ring illustrates perfectly that through skillful, discriminating and selfless decision-making--guided by a purified buddhi--two individual egos can expand to experience a more meaningful and rewarding reality. When children are born, new opportunities are presented to further expand the ego by making decisions that benefit an even greater whole.

But in order for the ego to expand, you must encounter the deaths of some attachments the personality holds dear. Every change means the death of one form and the birth of another--one ripe with infinite possibilities. In a very practical manner St. Francis of Assisi lays out a blueprint that teaches how to embrace the small deaths of ego-attachments in order to receive that which is needed.

"Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace," St. Francis prays. "Where there is hatred, let me sow love; Where there is injury, pardon; Where there is doubt, faith; Where there is despair, hope; Where there is darkness, light; Where there is sadness, joy. O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, To be understood as to understand, To be loved as to love; For it is in giving that we receive; It is in pardoning that we are pardoned; It is in the dying [of the separate, individual sense of self] that we are born to eternal life."

As Saint Francis indicates, to evolve to this highest human potential, it is necessary to forsake the urges, appetites and segregating nature of the limited ego. If the ego is to willingly participate in this process, it must begin with some trust--in a teacher, a philosophy, or in its own personal experience that the wisdom of the buddhi is a reliable guide. Trusting the buddhi as it acts in the world, the ego expands its focus to embrace the unity of all life. Then, as inner conflict between the ego and buddhi diminishes, the universe rushes forward in unforeseen ways to help you fulfill the purpose of your life--which cannot be at odds with the welfare of the whole.

When examined through the clear prism of Yoga Science, the meaning of this is profound: problems are the consequence and constant companion of the small "I," and the Supreme "I" is the solution. Acknowledging this truth, twentieth century sage Nisargadatta Maharaj explained his enlightenment this way: "When I realize I am nothing--that is wisdom. When I realize I am everything--that is love. And between these two points I live my life."

Because the ego has forgotten it is only a small part of the Supreme Reality, it has over-reached its valid advisory role and imprisoned you in a fortress of well-established, but inept certitude. To be free you need only purify and expand the ego to serve the wisdom of the Supreme "I," the Atman. Remember, this process of ego-expansion involves no repression or annihilation. You simply need to question the efficacy of the ego's suggestions diligently. Ask the buddhi if the thoughts generated by the ego will lead you to realize your deepest driving desire for Life, Liberty and Happiness or will delay the prospect. This kind of examination will determine which thoughts are to be served and which are to be sacrificed.

Spiritual fulfillment is not an accident. It is an evolutionary imperative. There comes a time when the thirst for freedom motivates every human being to heal the divisions in their consciousness. Then, like the caterpillar leaving the chrysalis as a butterfly, the spiritual seeker will take flight into the divine Light of full potential.

But real freedom is not experienced with a stroke of a pen or a change in the political landscape. Real freedom comes about only when you face the fact that the narrow, familiar and attractive suggestions of the ego are just that--suggestions--and that when those suggestions do not meet the divine standard of the buddhi, they must be set aside willingly and joyously.

As your meditation practice deepens and the personality learns to conform to the perfect wisdom of a purified buddhi, your small sense of I-ness automatically expands to include all of life. Expanding the ego in this way brings about the ultimate liberation--the freedom to act wisely, non-injuriously, fearlessly, spontaneously, creatively, generously, trustingly, compassionately and truthfully--no matter what. Just as the river flows into and becomes the ocean, your ego will expand into the bliss-filled ocean of superconscious wisdom and you will know shanti--the peace that passes all understanding, resolves all conflict and banishes all fear.

Leonard is a philosopher, educator, author and founder of the American Meditation Institute.

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My Ego and My HEART ATTACK 
ANITA BUROCK STOTTS, M.D.

My ego, ahamkara, and I have been trying to sell our house. Given the sluggish state of the real estate market, the process has been slow. It is, however, proving to be a great teaching, and like the exercises a pianist must execute before playing a gorgeous sonata, the experience serves as necessary and valuable preparation for the greater work I know must occur in the future. I try to explain the beauty of the experience to ahamkara, but she, poor dear, still struggles at times.

During the time I was considering putting our charming house on the market, ahamkara, predictably, became sentimental. She tearfully reminded me of our fondness for the house. "We had many good times there," she sniffled, "and don't forget, our daughter grew into womanhood in that house. Think of the care and joy that went into decorating," she implored me. "We have friends there. We love to walk in our village. We feel so safe and secure in that house!" Then it became clear to me that in addition to her nostalgia, ahamkara was terrified of losing her home. Who would we be without our house?

My attempts to soothe ahamkara have been only a partial success. I remind her that we are married to John now and are comfortably living in his house. I point out all the sound financial and time-management reasons to sell. I promise her that by sacrificing our attachments, we will gain knowledge, feel liberated and joyful and be closer to knowing who we really are.

But all these factors merely set the stage for a far more compelling argument.

Last November, to my surprise, I experienced an atypical heart attack while on the job. My blood vessels went into spasm in reaction to the fragrance worn by a nurse. It would be overly dramatic to call my adventure a near-death experience, but as a physician I was aware of the possibility I would be asked to leave my body. As the process unfolded, I was able to watch the functions of my mind at work, and was keenly aware that Someone was doing the watching. Manas (senses) was very busy collecting information about my medical condition. Chitta (unconscious) scrolled through the storehouse of personal and professional memories regarding heart disease, procedures, and loss. Buddhi (conscience) had already decided that the shreya (my highest good) was acceptance and optimism. Meanwhile, ahamkara thrashed about like a frantic bird in a cage-desperate to maintain her identity as the resident of a human body, yet powerless. Throughout it all, it was the cumulative power of my meditation practice (sadhana) and the reliable friends gained as a result: mantra, pranayama, (yogic breathing) and shraddha (faith), that enabled me to calm ahamkara at that time.

Even before receiving pharmaceuticals I was relaxed and felt ready for anything. Lying on that table, I had no floating-above-my-body near-death experience. Rather, I felt peace, joy and a Oneness. I was still aware of my body and emotions, but had expanded to be united with all the helpful people in the room, with all my friends and family, with all creatures and with the entire Universe. I knew that I did not need to leave my body to be in Heaven. I was already there.

Since the heart attack my life has changed profoundly. The experience provided a vivid reminder that I am not simply my body. I am much more. While treasuring this expansion of consciousness, I also learn a little more every day about who I really am. And ahamkara has collaborated in this effort. She does enjoy a project. So, I let her be in charge of doctor's appointments, insurance issues, medication and cardiac rehab. While she busily, and sometimes bossily, goes about her business, I continue my great journey inward to the Center of Being, and outward towards All that Exists. The next time she worries about selling the house, I will remind her that together we not only survived but transcended a heart attack, so a real estate transaction should be a piece of cake!

This Old Shoe
By Linda Johnsen

Swami Rama was a huge celebrity in the late 1970s. He had allowed scientific researchers to perform a series of experiments on him, during which he conclusively demonstrated that advanced yogis could control their inner states to a degree previously unimaginable in the Western world. Now each time he walked down the halls of his yoga center in Illinois, visitors from around the world rushed after him, hoping to speak with this extraordinary adept.

I ran in the opposite direction, usually ducking into one of the classrooms or even the women's bathroom when I saw him coming. I was intellectually drawn to the flame of yogic knowledge, but I had difficulty taking the heat of the living presence of an authentic yoga master. I had read that these great teachers would shatter my ego in order to drive me to enlightenment. While I was pretty sure I wanted to be enlightened, I was also rather attached to my ego. And most of the encounters I did have with Swami Rama were uncomfortably ego-challenging. He seemed to take delight in embarrassing me in front of my friends at the center. He would scold me for things I hadn't done, and whenever I tried to show off the scant knowledge of the Indian tradition I'd gleaned so far, he would mock me mercilessly.

Finally one day when he noticed me swerving to avoid him, Swamiji followed me into the side room where I was trying to hide. Inviting me to sit down, he pulled up a chair directly in front of me and stared right into my eyes. "Why are you afraid of me?" he demanded.

I was so intimidated, if there had been a trap door in the floor I would gladly have leapt through it. Barely able to meet his gaze, I stammered, "Because, because you'll destroy my ego."

He swatted his hand through the air in disgust. "You need your ego! If you didn't have an ego you would be a madwoman!" That fiery demeanor of his softened slightly. "Use your ego like an old shoe. Wear it when you need it. When you don't need it, take it off."

In that moment, I suddenly realized so much about yoga that I had never properly understood before. For one thing, I had somehow mistakenly always assumed the ego is evil. It makes us believe we're separate from God, I had reasoned. It makes us selfish and turns us against each other. But Swami Rama was nothing if not practical. He was pointing out what should have been obvious: we can't function without an ego.

At the medical center where I worked, we treated a number of severely mentally disturbed patients. They had difficulty distinguishing the border between their own thought processes and external reality. Without a stable, balanced ego, they experienced the world as a threatening sea of fragmented events through which they were unable to navigate. We need a healthy ego or we can become useless to ourselves and others.

To Swamiji, the ego wasn't evil-it was a tool. With a healthy, properly directed ego we can actively engage in a yogic lifestyle, consciously fulfill our responsibilities, and effectively serve others. Ironically, in order to serve selflessly, there has to be a "self" doing the serving! The ego is a fundamental part of an active, integrated personality. When the ego weakens, we become neurotic. When it breaks, we become psychotic, "If you didn't have an ego, you would be a madwoman."

The ego is not the problem. It's egotism that causes havoc in our lives. An over-inflated ego limits our ability to see the divine in each other. Instead we perceive ourselves as fundamentally superior, as invariably right while others are always wrong, as righteous while others are innately less moral, and as deserving while others suffer because they've got it coming. We respect our own opinions, our own talents, our own potential, more than that of others. We raise our value in our own eyes by devaluing others.

Reverse egotism, the sense that "I'm not good enough," or "I'm the most awful-unworthy-stupid-unattractive-unsuccessful person in the world" is just as bad. We're still caught in a maelstrom of preoccupation with ourselves. Our negative self-judgment excuses our failures and undermines our efforts. When we think too much of ourselves, or when we lack self esteem, our ego is not operating in a healthy manner. We are sabotaging our spiritual growth.

The Master Example Swami Rama was an amazing example of a healthy ego at work. He would sweep into a room with the charisma of a movie star, and command an audience like a king. He had the most reason to be egotistical of anyone I knew; after all, he commonly displayed yogic abilities that were practically superhuman. Yet he refused to take credit for his successes. He always insisted anything of value he brought to the West was a gift from the sages with whom he had studied in the Himalayas. "I am just the messenger," he would insist. He wouldn't allow people to put up photos of him in the yoga centers he founded, and when he caught anyone speaking of him in an overly idealized way he'd come down on them hard, sometimes even expelling them from the community.

Those of us who knew him in the 70s and 80s are well aware that much of the best in the holistic health movement today originated with Swami Rama. His books, his training programs, the scientific experiments he participated in, all played an enormous role in changing America's ideas about health and wellness. Yet he deliberately erased himself from history, like a man with a broom sweeping away his footprints behind him. Egotism makes us crave credit and acknowledgment. Swamiji seemed only to want to serve his spiritual masters and us, and be forgotten.

Usually when great saints and sages die in India, their bodies are preserved in mausoleums called samadhi shrines, and for centuries afterwards pilgrims come to pay their respects. Before Swami Rama died in India in November 1996, he instructed his students to burn his body instead and scatter the ashes. His plans for a small cremation ceremony were ruined however when thousands of yogis came streaming down out of the mountains to honor his memory.

What I saw in Swami Rama was that a man can have a strong ego and genuine humility at the same time. With his powerful, dynamic personality he was able to help initiate a world wide yoga movement, help shape the holistic wellness movement, and found an enormous hospital city in the Himalayan foothills to serve the desperately poor in North India. Yet in all the years I knew him, I never saw him take pleasure in the awards he received, or bask in the adulation of his disciples. He was so genuinely strong he didn't need our praise in order to feel good about himself.

Nor did Swami Rama distinguish between serving others and thoroughly enjoying himself. He was clearly having the most fun when he was engaged in his service projects. He would announce he wanted a new house to live in, and all his students would come running to help build it. He'd live in it for a week, and then-as he'd obviously been planning all along-would give it to a family that needed housing. His ego was the face he wore when he wanted to get something done. When the project was complete he would sit down in meditation, absorbed in the deepest states of samadhi, and his ego vanished completely, removed for a few hours like an old shoe.

Lessons Learned Swami Rama wanted us to have the strength we need to cope with the practical concerns of daily life, and that meant having a strong ego. He urged us to walk through the world like presidents and CEOs, getting done what needs to be done. He wanted us to be masters, not slaves, especially not slaves to our egotism. If a brahmin priest visiting the ashram considered himself too pure to eat off the plates the rest of us ate from, Swamiji would send him to the kitchen to wash the ashram dishes. If other students, like myself, preferred to work behind the scenes, finding our comfort zone in quietly supporting the professional teachers at the center, Swamiji would force us to get up in front of an audience and teach, ourselves. Neither too much nor too little ego was acceptable. Balance was always his goal.

Over the years I've learned that when you reach that state of ego balance, the ego gets out of the way. It's like learning to balance on a bicycle-first you struggle to stay on the bike, then you find that point of equipoise and bicycling becomes completely effortless. When the ego is functioning perfectly it doesn't call attention to itself. It simply allows spirit to operate through it. Then you begin to live creatively and effectively.

The key Swami Rama offered me, sitting across from me that morning in the yoga center, was this: You are not your ego any more than you are your pair of sneakers. Your real self is the Atman or immortal dweller within. That shining being operates through your body and personality like the body uses a change of clothes. If you have a healthy attitude, your ego will serve you well. If you want to see what a truly healthy ego looks like, spend time with authentic spiritual masters. They model for us what spirit looks like when it uses an ego properly.

Ultimately your own self is the same Self that dwells in every other living thing. "The sage sees himself in all beings and all beings in himself," the yoga texts explain. When we get out of balance, our ego clashes with everyone else's. When we're in balance, we start seeing others as fellow spiritual beings, reflections of the One Being like we are ourselves. When the ego is most healthy it's as if it's transparent, as if it isn't there at all. That's when we finally reach spiritual adulthood, when our egos don't need to be disciplined or babied anymore.

During meditation we take off our ego and wade out into the ocean of pure Self awareness. But when it comes time to deal with our jobs, our family, our world, it's good to know that a healthy ego is there waiting for us to slip it back on, like a well-fitting pair of comfortable and serviceable old shoes.

Linda Johnsen, M.S. is a regular contributor to Transformation and is the author of "Lost Masters: The Sages of Ancient Greece," and seven other books on spiritual life currently available at the AMI bookstore.

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