Inside Shamatha Project

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buddhadharma: the practitioners quarterly summer 2011 38

Project participants wear soft skullcaps with electrodes wired to anEEG machine to measure changes in their brain waves. The author isat the far right.

photos: (top) adeline van waning, (bottom) research team


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39 summer 2011 buddhadharma: the practitioners quarterly

When I rst heard o the Shamatha Project, I elt like

some o my deep longings were coming together.

For quite some time I had wanted to participate

in a meditation retreat that lasted several months.Combining this with cognitive and aective neuroscience and

psychological research oered an extra dimension or me as a

psychiatrist, and an opportunity to participate in contempla-

tive history in the making. The ad said, Meditate to advance

sciencebe part o this groundbreaking neuroscience research

project exploring the relationship between meditation and

well-being.

I was selected and in September o 2007 ound mysel sit-

ting in a shrine room with twenty-nine others, surrounded

by colorul thangkas. We were quickly immersed in Buddhist

perspectives and meditation instructions rom the Tibetan

tradition, and within a ew days we were also thrown intothe language and agency o Western sciencemeasuring our

skin resistance and hormone levels, and meditating with EEG

(electroencephalogram) caps on our heads.

The Shamatha Project included two three-month retreats,

with state-o-the-art scientic measures, in a randomized wait-

list control study. This meant that during the rst retreat,

while the research team studied the trainees, measurements

were also done on the members o the control group, who

were not meditating during this period. The members o the

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Inside theShamatha Project

(Opposite) Shambhala Mountain Center in Red Feather Lakes, Colorado,where the Shamatha Project retreats were held.


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control group became the trainees or the second retreat. I wasin this group, with teen other women and ourteen men.

The ongoing project, a joint enterprise o the Santa Bar-

bara Institute or Consciousness Studies, the University o

Caliornia at Davis, and Shambhala Mountain Center, was

initiated by B. Alan Wallace and Cliord Saron. Wallace,

who lived as a Tibetan Buddhist monk or ourteen years and

then studied physics and religious studies, was our meditation

teacher. Saron, a neuroscientist at the UC Davis Center or

Mind and Brain, coordinated the

research team, which consists o

more than thirty interdisciplinaryinvestigators.

Adeline vAn WAning s a psychatrst a

Buhst practtor th nthr-

as, whr sh as shamatha casss

for mta hath profssoas. Sh rcty

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Stus, wrt hr thss o th Shamatha

Projct, a s currty work o a book

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Shamatha Meditation Practices

Shamatha, reerring to meditative quiescence, tranquillity, or

calm meditation, is considered an indispensable oundation

or the cultivation o contemplative insight, or vipashyana.

Shamatha training cultivates relaxation, attentional stability,

and vividness o perception, and can be done in structured

ways that do not demand allegiance to any religious or philo-

sophical belies. These practices thereore lend themselves well

to scientic investigation.

The meditations we practiced were drawn rom the Ther-

avada and Mahayana traditions and involved directing the

attention in three domains: mindulness o the body, withvarious breathing meditations; settling the mind in its natu-

ral state; and shamatha without a sign, or awareness o

awareness. Summarized by Wallace as soothing the body,

settling the mind, and illuminating awareness, these prac-

tices were complemented with the our qualities o the heart

(loving-kindness, compassion, empathetic joy, and equanim-

ity), and tonglen, the Mahayana practice o giving and taking.

The retreats were at the remote Shambhala Mountain Cen-

ter, which rests in a mountain valley o pine orests and alpine

ph o t o s : v ictor Bradford


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meadows in the Colorado Rockies at an elevation o eight

thousand eet. Founded by the late Chgyam Trungpa, it is

part o the international network o Shambhala meditation

centers now led by his son Sakyong Mipham. Summers are

generally dry and sunny at this altitude, but temperatures maydrop below reezing at any time o the yearand so they did

while we were there, down to minus our Fahrenheit, produc-

ing sparkling rows o icicles hanging rom the roos.

Our building had a meditation hall and a room where we

ate our meals, as well as two psychophysiology eld labs, a

gym, and a room used or daily yoga sessions led by one o the

participants. No other people were allowed in the building,

and everyone was committed to silence, which permeated the

entire retreat center and program.

Meditation was our main daily activity, varying rom ve

to ten hours a day or each participant, and it took placein dierent contexts. As a group we had two daily sessions

with Alan Wallace: a thirty-minute session in the morning on

the our qualities o the heart and tonglen, and, at 5 p.m., a

thirty-minute practice period ocusing on one o the shamatha

attention meditations, ollowed by one hour o questions and

answers, sharing, and dharma talk. I loved the contrast to

silence that these lively and inspiring exchanges provided.

In the rst ew weeks Wallace gave guided meditations,

rotating the practice every couple o days. For example, we

were guided in breath meditations that ocused on the tactile

sensations o the breath in the whole body or two or three

days, then two days with ocus in the abdomen, ollowed byanother two days with ocus at the nostrils. Next we did two

days o settling the mind in its natural state, then two days

o awareness o awareness, and back to breath again. Ater

a complete round, a new round ollowed. Later we practiced

more in silence, without guided meditation. In addition, each

o us had a weekly teen-minute interview with Wallace.

Most o us meditated in our rooms, though some shared

a ew sessions a day in the meditation hall. We took care o

all the washing up and cleaning o the building in rotating

work assignments. Going or a crisp walk over the Shambhala

grounds, and hiking through the valley and surrounding moun-

tains could be part o our program, and many o us did this

every day. Another daily event was, in the evening, lling in the

seven-page Daily Experience Questionnaire or the research.

In this questionnaire, specially designed or this retreat, we

logged orms and duration o meditation, health, moods and

eelings, important experiences and insights, and dreams. This

was quite a task, a daily awareness practice in itsel.

Collecting the Scientifc Data

Neuroplasticity, the ability o the brain to orm new connec-

tions between neurons, is astounding. Training in any eld,

such as music or sports, can signicantly alter connections

among neurons and modiy the brain systems devoted to par-

ticular tasks. Recent studies are adding meditation to the list

(Opposite) The author meditates in the shrine room during the retreat.

(LR) Clifford Saron, coordinator of the research team, and B. Alan Wallace,

the project meditation teacher.

Participants gave ten vials of blood for research assessmentsat the start, middle, and end of their three-month retreat.

The scientists hypothesized that threemonths of shamatha training, combined

with cultivation of the four qualitiesof the heart, would result in improvedattentional performance as well as

greater compassion, security, and abilityto regulate negative emotions.

photos: adeline van waning


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o training techniques that can potentially change the brain

in benecial ways. While many meditation studies have been

done with seasoned monks and nuns, the Shamatha Project

is a signicant addition to a growing number o studies on

ordinary people who live active lives in society. The project is

unique in that it uses an exceptionally broad range o measures.The research questions or the project, outlined on the Santa

Barbara Institute website, included the ollowing: What mea-

surable changes in attentional ability occur as a unction o

intensive meditation training? What are the neural correlates

o these changes and the range o their consequences? Is it

true, as Buddhist contemplatives claim, that improvements

in the voluntary control o attention and associated improve-

ments in attention systems in the brain make it easier to rec-

ognize and overcome negative emotions, maintain resilience

in the ace o stress, and improve relationships with other

people? Do the changes persist ater meditation trainees return

rom the retreat experience to the cacophony o everyday lie

in a modern society? The scientists hypothesized that three

months o shamatha training, combined with cultivation o

the our qualities o the heart, would result in improved atten-

tional perormance (vigilance, selectivity, and meta-cognitive

control), as well as greater compassion, security, and ability

to better regulate negative emotions.

Measurements were done at the beginning, middle, and end

o the three-month periods, each time or a period o two days.

The study combined third-person research (looking at objec-

tive measures, rom the outside) with rst-person research

(the way an individual subjectively experiences things as I).

Thesecond-person perspective (someone elses view o the

participant) was represented by Wallaces impressions duringhis weekly interviews with each o us, as well as impressions o

the video-interviewer. In addition, ollow-up interviews with

individuals close to the participants are planned.Quantitative (third-person) measures o the project

included well-known objective paradigms in cognitive and

aective neuroscience, stress and aliation-related biomark-

ers, EEG data, autonomic nervous system physiology, and

the recording o acial expressions o emotion. We were also

hooked up to the EEG machine when we meditated while

listening to Wallaces recorded instructions on breathing medi-

tation, and when practicing compassion and loving-kindnessmeditation according to meditation research protocols.

Blood tests included hormone actors (like oxytocin, associ-

ated with social bonding and attachment) and cytokine IL-6,

giving an indication o immune unction. The stress hormone

cortisol was obtained rom saliva samples. Certain white

blood cells were examined or telomerase, an enzyme essential

or maintaining the ends o chromosomes so DNA replication

can continue. From this research, scientists can investigate

connections between molecular biology and psychology.

There were rst-person components such as sel-reporting,

structured interviews, and daily journaling. First-person expe-

riences or me included what it was like to be lling in lots o

attention and psychology tests, letting mysel be pierced or

vials o blood, spitting saliva into tubes, discussing my per-

sonal experiences on video and audio, and in a diary.

The measures used were, in part, well-known mainstream

tests, which made comparison with other research possible.

But hardly any measures existed to address the potentially

very rened attention that could be cultivated by participants

in three months o intensive practice, so innovative tests had

also been devised.

Attaining shamatha is the most naturalor settled that the human mindcan become. It is said to lead to an

experiential realization of the groundstate of the psyche, referred to as thesubstrate, or storehouse consciousness.

Several of the participants shaving their heads at the beginning of their retreat.

photo: unknown


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One example o an innovative

attention test, done while we were

hooked up to an EEG machine (with

eighty-eight equidistant scalp elec-

trodes) was the VCPT, or visual con-

tinuous perormance task. The test,

developed or this project, looked

at directed and sustained attention.

During the test, an elastic measur-

ing belt was applied to the chest to

assess breathing, and the distance

to the computer screen was exactly

recorded. Electrodes on the chest

monitored heart rhythm and elec-

trodes on the let hand measured

skin resistance; a sensor on the index

nger kept an eye on blood pressure.

The test involved seeing an alter-

nately longer or shorter vertical line

on the computer screen. At rst thetask was to click on the shorter one.

Ater a ew brie rounds the distinc-

tion between long and short got

smaller, requiring us to sharpen our

attention. I became aware o how I subtly stressed the muscles

around my eyes and in my shoulders. Later, we were asked to

click on the longer line, ollowed by another round o having

to click on the shorter lines. Although we were told that this

nal round would last longer than the previous ones (it lasted

more than hal an hour), I ound that by then I had lost sense

o time. I also noticed that I got distracted more oten.

Healing the Mind

Alongside this Western science, we were immersed in medita-

tion practices. Wallace says two marvelous things take place

in settling the mind meditation. First, you get to know your

mind, the relative ground o your psyche. You have a ront-row

seatwelcome to yoursel! Second, watching the innate heal-

ing capacity o your mind is a prooundly therapeutic process.

When guiding this practice, Wallace sometimes reerred to

his source texts by the nineteenth-century Dzogchen masters

Lerab Lingpa and Ddjom Lingpa. In the words o LerabLingpa: Whenever you meditate, bear in mind the phrase

without distraction and without grasping and put this into

practice. When maintaining the mind in its natural state,

Lerab Lingpa noted, there may arise sensations such as physi-

cal and mental well-being, a sense o lucid consciousness, and

the appearance o empty orms. He advised that whatever kind

o mental imagery occurred, one should just observe its nature.

Ddjom Lingpa, in describing his students experi-

ences, emphasized intense turbulences such as bodily pains,

bodymind energy shits, craving, compulsiveness, ear, anger,

paranoia, and disorientation. He also described experiences

o clarity, bliss, and nonconceptuality.The deeper you venture into the inner wilderness o the

mind, Wallace explained, the more you encounter all kinds

o unexpected and, at times, deeply troubling memories and

impulses that maniest both psychologically and physically.

The motto is: use your discernment, and i necessary consult

with your teacher. Also, i needed, seek medical help. For

long-term intensive meditation practice one needs some ini-

tial inner stability and groundedness. At the same time, with

the shamatha practices one is also cultivating stability. With

unamiliar meditation experiences the initial advice is to just

watch your mind heal.

For me, this practice o neither grasping at thoughts norbanishing them brings a sense o greater amiliarity with mind

and its contents, and a melting, not only o old neurotic knots,

but o the habitual, amiliar sense o separate sel. By just

observing, amiliar identications are released, and with that

comes the realization that there is only an impermanent, ever-

changing fux o perceptions and reactions, hopes and ears,

thoughts and emotions, habits and motivations, which we

project onto the external world. This melting away o a sense

o separate sel can create anxiety and grasping identication,

Alan Wallace gives a dharma talk followed by discussion with the participants.

photo: adeline van waning


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particularly or Westerners who are conditioned to think o

themselves as separate individuals.

The practice o settling the mind also hones the ability to

observe and tolerate anxietiesto see mental objects or what

they are, without needing to grasp and identiy with them. With

the melting o habitual conditionings, I could be witness many

times to a kind o dissolving and re-arising o sel-consciousness,

to a loosening o my old sel, and to coming back, slightly new.

The cultivation o shamatha is said to lead to an experi-

ential realization o the ground state o the psyche, reerred

to as the substrate, or storehouse consciousness. Contempla-

tives who say they have realized the substrate consciousnessreport that it is imbued with three qualities: bliss, luminosity,

and nonconceptuality. Although most o us still have a long

way to go in deepening our realization, we may experience

glimpses o these qualities.

Attaining shamatha is said to be the most natural or settled

that the human mind can become. This emerges ater going

through the various turbulencesand in some sense having

worked through themwith a mind that is more and more

serene, and has great suppleness and pliancy. While this is

described as a great shit in experience, teachers empha-

size that students should not mistake realizing this relative

ground o the psyche or realizing the ultimate nature o

reality, or which contemplative insight is required.

Heading Home

During the last ew days o the retreat we gradually prepared

or our return to the cacophony o everyday lie with more

talking and exchanges. I was impressed at how in silence

we had developed specic languages in which riendship

could fourish.These were also the days when researchers and partici-

pants shared their excitement, relie, and curiosity. In our

nal meeting with the science team members there was a

sense o climax as they explained the setup and the hows

and whys o the measurements, and we could at last get

answers to our questions.

In addition to the technicalities, we were told that the real

assessment o what this retreat brought us would ultimately

be refected in the rest o our lives.

Participants climb the steps to the Great Stupa of Dharmakayaat Shambhala Mountain Center.


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Five months ater inishing the retreat each participant

received a laptop at home in order to do ollow-up measure-

ments, repeating a number o the assessments we had done

during retreat. We were sent a laptop again around the eigh-

teen-month mark or another round o ollow-up testing.

Since the retreat, ourteen o the seventy participants rom

the two groups have continued ull-time shamatha, ranging

rom several months to a year immediately ater the Shamatha

Project retreat, and nine o the project participants are now in

ull-time retreat. Most o us have

continued shamatha meditations

at home, albeit or ewer hours a

day than during retreat.

The Findings

What will come out o this huge

collection o data and research?

Some results have been published,

and many reports are being pre-pared that will be presented in

coming months and years. So ar,

the indings demonstrate wide-

ranging beneits o the retreat

experience or participants. Cli-

ord Saron, the neuroscientist who

led the Shamatha Project research

team, reported to the Dalai Lama in 2009 during the eigh-

teenth Mind and Lie conerence that initial ndings demon-

strated improvements in our adaptive psychological qualities,

perceptual and attention-related skills, improvements in inhib-iting our habitual responses, and decreased mind-wandering.

Also, changes in the emotional response to the perception o

human suering were ound, as well as changes in biomark-

ers associated with cellular repair. Psychological sel-reporting

(rst-person view), according to Sarons ndings, indicated that

intensive meditation training had enhanced our mindulness,

ego resiliency, empathy, openness to experience, conscientious-

ness, and psychological well-being, while reducing our attach-

ment-related avoidance, general anxiety and neuroticism, and

diculties in regulating emotions. Further data analyses will

make clear how these subjective sel-reported improvements

relate with objective indicators o attention and health-relatedphysiology.

According to Wallace, Although only a raction o the

terabytes o data gathered in this study has been analyzed,

there is clear evidence that this three-month training resulted

in a decrease in afictive attachment, anxiety, diculties in

emotion regulation, and neuroticism, and an increase in mind-

ulness, conscientiousness, empathic concern, dispositional

positive emotions, and general well-being.

A number o articles on ndings rom the research have

recently been published in international journals, and a lot

is in the pipeline. Results o the VCPT lines test indicate that

meditation training produced improvements in visual discrimi-

nation that were linked to increases in perceptual sensitivity

and improved vigilance during sustained visual attention.

A 2010 report by Katherine MacLean, lead author or this

research, suggests that perceptual improvements can acilitate

the sustaining o voluntary attention. And the post-doctoral

scholar Tonya Jacobs was lead author on an article published

last year that linked, or the rst time,

meditation and positive psychological

change with telomerase activity. The

data shows that telomerase activity

was signiicantly greater in retreat

participants than in controls at the

end o the retreatthis coincided with

a decrease in measurements o neu-

roticism, and increases in measures

o mindulness, purpose in lie, and

perceived control. Another study,published this year by lead author

Baljinder Sahdra, showed that partici-

pants became better at response inhi-

bition. This kind o restraint seems

to be an important actor in healthy

emotion regulation. Improvements in

this ability were linked to better adap-

tive psychological unction that participants reported over the

course o the training.

The Shamatha Project has become an internationally infu-

ential study, and its ndings will contribute to ne-tuning andocusing uture projects. Shamatha research is continuing at

a contemplative training acility Wallace has established in

Thailand at the Phuket International Academy, and he is in

the process o creating multiple contemplative observatories

around the world where people can meditate or months or

years on end. Meanwhile, Saron and his team remain dedi-

cated to understanding rom an interdisciplinary perspective

the dimensions o change the project has chronicled and how

the experience has aected the participants over the past three

years, a daunting task scientically and in terms o unding.

Looking back, these have been very special months in my

lie, and Im deeply grateul to those who made it possible.

Experiencing the suchness o being in meditation while

simultaneously being measured through was a great git

there was no place to hide, nothing to win or lose; all I could

do was just be. From a purely contemplative perspective, the

measurements created some distraction. However, its gratiy-

ing to know that the experience was part o a broader engage-

ment that may have important consequences or meditators,

and or our understanding o the role o meditation in ones

overall health and well-being.

photos opposite and above: adeline van waning

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