Faith-Based and Secular Meditation

Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction

Part 1: A Variety of Forms of Meditation

Chapter 1: Understanding Meditation
Chapter 2: Phases of Meditation Practice and Transcendence
Chapter 3: Research-Studied Benefits and Side Effects of Meditation
Chapter 4: Faith-Based and Secular Meditation
Chapter 5: The Path of Concentrative Meditation: Transcendental Meditation and Other Mantra-Based Forms
Chapter 6: Concentrative Forms of Breath-Based Meditation
Chapter 7: The Path of Insight Meditation: Mindfulness

Part 2: A Clinical Approach to Using Meditation with Clients and Patients

Chapter 8: How I Introduce Clients to Meditation
Chapter 9: Helpful Strategies and Techniques: Before, During, and After Meditation
Chapter 10: Breathing Properly to Promote Optimal Emotional and Behavioral Responses
Chapter 11: Using Affirmations during Meditation: In Sports, Peacetime, and War
Chapter 12: Meditation Strategies to Enhance Sleeping
Chapter 13: Integrating Meditation with Key Elements of Humanistic and Gestalt Therapies
Chapter 14: Integration of Meditation with Trauma-Focused Treatment, Cognitive Behavioral Treatment, and Systematic Desensitization

Part 3: Case Studies: Creative Applications of Meditation Strategies

Chapter 15: Buddhist Gathas and Tactical Meditation to Address Life’s Challenges: Six Case Studies
Chapter 16: Chronic PTSD Following an Automobile Accident: The Faith Factor
Chapter 17: Acute PTSD Related to Arrest, Police Interrogation, and Prolonged Legal Proceedings: Severe Avoidance and Anxiety
Chapter 18: Chronic PTSD and Severe Phobia Related to Military Service in

Part 4: Continuing the Journey

Chapter 19: Meditation and Prayer: A Complementary Relationship
Chapter 20: Enhancing Meditation: Benefits, Challenges, and Signposts
Chapter 21: Meditation Is the Medication

References
Appendix: How I Introduced Michelle to Four Forms of Meditation (Case Study)
Index
About the Author

Ray Monsour Scurfield, DSW, LCSW, ACSW, is professor emeritus of social work, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg. Scurfield is a nationally recognized posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) expert. He was in direct clinical practice at Rivers Psychotherapy Services, Gulfport, Mississippi, and was the clinical consultant to the Biloxi U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Vet Center from 2011 to 2023.

Scurfield was an army social work officer (1967), and he served on one of the Army’s two psychiatric teams for one year (1968-1969) in Vietnam. He had a distinguished 25-year career with the VA, as the first national director of counseling for the VA Vet Center Program (Washington, D.C., 1982); founding director of the Post-Traumatic Stress Treatment Program (PTSTP), American Lake VA Medical Center, Tacoma, WA (1985) – the PTSTP was internationally acclaimed and pioneered cohort admissions and innovative experiential treatment strategies for PTSD (that is, helicopter ride therapy, adventure-based Outward Bound and low and high ropes courses, integrating American Indian healing and warrior-recognition ceremonies, joint therapeutic activities with Soviet veterans of Afghanistan); and founding director, VA National Center for PTSD, Honolulu (1992), establishing treatment centers on Oahu, on the Big Island, and in American Samoa. In the remarks accompanying Scurfield’s 1988 prestigious VA Olin E. Teague award, President Ronald Reagan wrote, “Your achievements in the study and treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder have become landmarks in psychiatry.”

Scurfield was social work faculty, University of Southern Mississippi (1998), and received some 15 awards. He received the 2006 MS Social Worker of the Year award for post-Katrina trauma counseling with students, faculty, and staff; organizational, publication, and education achievements on and off campus; and the 2012 National NASW Lifetime Achievement Award.

Scurfield has written or coedited seven books. The most recent include War Trauma: Lessons Unlearned from Vietnam to Iraq (2006); War Trauma and Its Wake: Expanding the Circle of Healing (2012); and Healing War Trauma: A Handbook of Creative Approaches (2013). His work includes 70+ total publications and 400+ appearances nationwide, including on 60 Minutes, Nightline, NPR, and the PBS documentary Two Decades and a Wake-Up, about co-leading the first therapy group of Vietnam veterans back to Vietnam in 1989. Scurfield also was co-faculty for the first integrated history and mental health university-based study abroad course to Vietnam (2000) that included Vietnam veterans and history students in a collaborative endeavor of social work and history departments.

Scurfield has been meditating since his initiation into basic Transcendental Meditation in 1977 and subsequent advanced Siddhi residential training. His practice is grounded in gestalt, existential, humanistic, cognitive behavioral, and experiential therapies.

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As an experienced practicing psychotherapist, daily meditator, and retired executive director of the National Association of Social Workers, Mississippi Chapter, I highly recommend Dr. Scurfield’s book. Scurfield is an excellent writer and provides easy-to-read and clear instructions for the practice of meditation based on his own extensive meditation practice and the provision of meditation training to his students and clients. This book provides detailed and easy-to-apply instruction for meditation, a truly beneficial practice for anyone experiencing stress or difficulty with daily functioning and/or desiring to deepen their spiritual practice. The explanations of meditation forms (mantra, breath count, mindfulness, and hybrid mantra/breath awareness) and methods (scheduled and as needed) are easy to understand and apply to practice. The discussions of faith-based and secular meditation provide much needed clarity to an often confusing, and sometimes controversial, area of meditation practice. The application to mental health disorders, especially anxiety and PTSD, is clear and easy to understand for both lay persons and professionals. There are case studies to provide clear examples of the methods and process of meditation, also illustrated by quotes from the historical masters of the practice. Overall, this is an excellent book for introduction to the practice as well as for seasoned practitioners, and I highly recommend it. I will use if often in my practice with clients and in presentations.

Janice Sandefur, LCSW, ACSW
Heart Space Counseling & Consulting, LLC
Ocala, Florida

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Faith-Based and Secular Mediation: Everyday and Posttraumatic Applications is a must-read, masterful book that focuses on comparative meditation and on secular and faith-based meditation. The book is thoroughly researched with information about both the positive benefits and side effects of meditation. Case studies, notes, meaningful quotes, and parables provide additional support about the beneficial impact of meditation, supporting healing and analysis of ultimate enforcement, and a review of mantras and breath, which help to relieve suffering. Scurfield shares with us his experiences as a clinician, Vietnam war veteran, professor, and researcher, and considers himself a constant student seeking knowledge. He guides us through different forms of meditation, research studies on meditation, and a range of mental health symptoms, including his unique integration of meditation with cognitive–behavioral therapy as a treatment for PTSD. Although I refer clients to meditation, I now realize the importance of spending time in sessions to explore the purpose of meditation and help the client identify their mantra and discover the breath that fits their needs. For meditation teachers, breath workers, and others, this clinical handbook is a gift to support healing the self.

Sherrill Valdes, LCSW, BCD

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Dr. Scurfield has an astounding amount of clinical experience working with severely traumatized veterans and civilians, including a year on a psychiatric team in Vietnam during what was arguably the worst of times (1968–1969). This book impresses me in so many ways, and high on the list is how touched I am as a psychotherapist for 40+ years by the earnestness with which this man seeks to teach us all, no matter our degree of distress. Reading this book had an interesting side effect: I felt a deep-seated sense of hope and optimism for those of us in the healing arts, grown weary at times, and disenchanted by the proliferation of so-called self-help books. This author comes across as a healer with a desire and willingness to share a lifetime of study and experience in the alleviation of human suffering that manifests through fear, anxiety, and apprehension. The book begins with a thorough and even-handed literature review worthy of a doctoral dissertation. He goes on to describe clinical application of his methods in such detail that even a layperson unfamiliar with meditation can immediately enjoy success in calming the troubled mind. Peppered throughout are positive affirmations, ancient and contemporary. Scurfield’s descriptions of treatment possibilities (mantra, breath related, scripture based) are so vivid that one can imagine oneself right in the room with him, something I hope to do one day myself. This guy is the real deal.

Wendy Saxon, PhD
Licensed Psychotherapist (Ret.)
Forty Fort, Pennsylvania

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Dr. Raymond Scurfield’s magnificent book, Faith-Based and Secular Meditation: Everyday and Posttraumatic Applications (2019), is a must have on the shelf of anyone who meditates, teaches meditation, or is considering learning how to meditate. It is an extraordinary comparative professional and personal critical analysis and ultimate endorsement of meditation, a clinical handbook, and a personal reflection on the benefits of meditation in many of its forms across time, cultures, and secular/spiritual believers. There is no other publication available that addresses the depth and breadth of meditation in such a variety of practices and applications.

Dr. Scurfield’s professional mental health experiences, to include as a Vietnam veteran and as a civilian, (described at the end of this review), coupled with his remarkable clinical experiences in teaching meditation in its different forms to adult clients, and his willingness to share his own professional and personal journey in meditation, plunges the reader into a very personal, remarkable, persuasive and helpful guide to meditation.

The structure and personal perspective of Faith-Based and Secular Meditation: Everyday and Posttraumatic Applications make it very easy to read for beginners or advanced students of meditation. Part One introduces the benefits and potential side effects of meditation, its various forms (including breath-based, mantra, affirmations, and mindfulness) with descriptions, supporting research, and critiques, and discussion of the need for both faith-based and secular meditations to suit individual needs and beliefs. In the latter, he describes the important place that meditation holds in virtually every major faith in the world.

Part Two moves seamlessly into specific meditation strategies and, for clinician readers, how to integrate meditation into humanistic and Gestalt approaches and within trauma-focused treatments (including cognitive behavioral and systematic desensitization interventions). While this section describes specific instructions for therapists to use with clients, this reviewer sees this section as beneficial to non-therapist readers interested in applying these strategies on their own. In short, Dr. Scurfield provides the reader with instructions to practice strategies as one reads, and subsequently after reading. In fact, the reviewer recommends that the book be read in this way: savoring each one of the meditation strategies as it is introduced, taking time to rehearse the strategy and consider how effective it is, and applying preferred strategies. In addition, moving beyond traditional meditation, Dr. Scurfield introduces and recommends the practice of “spot meditation”: short meditations to use in any circumstance, at the onset of anxiety or worry, alone or in the presence of others, to bring calm and return our focus always back to our individual experience of consciousness and to our universal interconnectedness.

Part Three reviews several case studies, weaving various meditations into the treatment plan of several clients with histories of traumatic events and subsequent post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, avoidance, and phobia (e.g., motor vehicle accident, legal system entanglement, and military service-related combat). Selective faith-based meditations or secular based meditations illustrate the choices and adjustments in meditation interventions to best fit the client. The beauty of these case studies lies in the integration of meditation into cognitive behavioral and gestalt-based treatment interventions, demonstrating that meditation is a universal intervention that can be woven into virtually any treatment plan.

Finally, Part Four moves into a reflection on the relationship between meditation and prayer, and the benefits and challenges of practicing meditation on a regular basis. The latter echoes the primary theme reinforced throughout the book: Optimally, meditation should be practiced on a regular basis in its traditional form (alone, approximately the same time and same length of time daily) in order to achieve oneness with the universe, awareness (in its many forms), gratitude, generosity, perspective, and a state of calm.

In addition to the comparative benefits and practical applications of meditation in Faith-Based and Secular Meditation: Everyday and Posttraumatic Applications, two additional elements push this book into outstanding integrative writing. The first is Dr. Scurfield’s inclusion and critical review of an extraordinary number of research articles on all variations of meditation. In this regard, it stands in a class if its own. Second, Dr. Scurfield has assembled many wise Eastern, African, Native Hawaiian, and Western proverbs and metaphors from across the centuries, ranging from The Buddha to the Dalai Lama, Pukui, Fritz Perls, and Yogi Berra, among others. These are interspersed to fit the text and, remarkably, are quoted from their original sources. The inclusion of these powerful original words invites the reader to reflect on each one in a contemplative fashion; to skip over any one is an error of omission. Individually and as a whole, these quotations add rich depth and breadth to the history and practice of meditation across cultures and centuries, and to the reader’s appreciation of the power of contemplative meditation.

Faith-Based and Secular Meditation: Everyday and Posttraumatic Applications strikes me as the culmination of Dr. Scurfield’s lifelong journey which is thriving in part through the practice and teaching of meditation. He has given each reader a bounty of gifts in this book: answering why meditate, how/when/where to meditate, and how meditation shapes and informs his own story. As a reviewer, I find it a masterpiece in writing. As a reader, I found myself engaged (and continuing to engage) in practicing meditation options with which I had not been familiar. As a clinician, I find myself practicing more than one meditation (including spot meditations, a variation new to the reviewer and for which I am very grateful) since finishing the book. And I find myself continuing to recommend, and recommend, and recommend, this book to colleagues, friends, clinicians, and to those reading this review.

To appreciate the perspective on the content, process, and style of this book, the reader would benefit from an introduction to its author. Dr. Ray Scurfield, DSW, LCSW, ACSW, has spent his adult lifetime meditating, and teaching meditation to his clients in his clinical practice. His experience has equipped him not only with academic experience but the value of meditation for civilians experiencing catastrophic and life-changing traumatic events. His authoring/co-editing of seven books on war trauma and 70+ publications have honed his skill sets in writing, integration of materials across a wide range of sources, and capacity to differentiate “quality” research from questionable research findings. This background, coupled with Dr. Scurfield’s remarkable clinical experience in teaching meditation in its different forms to adult clients, and his willingness to share his own professional and personal journey in meditation, plunges the reader into a very personal, remarkable, persuasive, and helpful guide to meditation.

Christiane O’Hara, PhD, FAIS
Psychologist, Atlanta, GA
Advisor, Women Veteran Social Justice Network, Inc.
Fellow, American Institute of Stress

Click here to hear an interview with the book’s author, Raymond Monsour Scurfield, on the NASW Social Work Talks podcast or listen to the interview below!

Nānā ka maka; ho’olohe ka pepeiao; pa’a ka waha. (Observe with the eyes; listen with the ears; shut the mouth.) Thus one learns.
‘Ōlelo No‘eau no. 2268 (Pukui, 1983, p. 248)*

I am not a sensei or master-level meditator, nor am I a scholarly expert on the topic. I am a longtime mental health clinician (since 1967) and meditator (since 1977). My goals in writing this book are to (a) articulate my experiences, perspectives, and techniques as a provider and meditator; (b) describe how I introduce and apply various forms of meditation with clients; and (c) highlight the impact of meditation on a range of mental health symptoms and issues, to include my unique integration of meditation with gestalt and cognitive–behavioral therapies applied to posttraumatic treatment and healing.

You will see infused throughout this book the influence of my many very memorable life experiences having lived in Asia. First, I was a U.S. Army social work officer on a psychiatric team during the war in South Vietnam (1968–1969). In addition to my military duties, I had many meaningful interactions with the Vietnamese people that enriched and dramatically expanded my worldview. Similarly, while deployed later to Okinawa, Japan (1969–1971), I had numerous interactions with the Okinawan people, with Ryukyu University students, and with the international social work agency where I started a U.S. military–Okinawan youth Big Brother / Big Sister program. I also was privately employed as an intercountry adoption worker for the HOLT Korean Adoption Program while I was stationed with the army on Okinawa.

After my experiences in Asia, I lived in Hawaii three times: as a community social worker on the Big Island with the Queen Liliuokalani Children’s Center (1982–1983); on Oahu as the founding director of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Pacific Island Division (1992–1997), where I promoted interactions with native Hawaiian healers and their beautiful rituals; and in 2010–2011, when I joined my wife who was at Pearl Harbor with the Navy. There I finished writing my two most recent prior books. These years living in Asia and Hawaii stimulated my interest in being exposed to and reading about Asian and Pacific Rim people, culture, art, and philosophy, as well as Native Hawaiian culture and healing.

WHERE IT ALL STARTED: ON THE PLANE TO THE VIETNAM WAR

My personal experience related to trauma, both personal and professional, began when I was a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army in 1968. I boarded the civilian plane that would take me from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia to Seattle and then on to Vietnam. As it happened, a severely disabled Vietnam veteran boarded the plane and sat next to me. He had an eye patch and was walking with the aid of two forearm crutches and two prosthetic legs. I was feeling awkward sitting next to him given that I was headed to Vietnam, but he initiated a conversation that indelibly influenced my life thereafter (Scurfield, 2006a, in press; Scurfield & Tice, 1992).

In our ensuing conversation, he told me he was going home on convalescent leave from the hospital. I remember him saying, “Frankly, sir, I am not looking forward to going home this time. This is my second trip home from the hospital on ‘convalescent leave’ to test out my prostheses. During my first visit, several high school buddies told me, ‘It’s a shame that you had to lose your eye and legs for nothing.’ Sir, that really hurt, hearing them say that to me.” Although I did not know whether his buddies intended to cause harm or offend, I was struck by how clueless some civilians can be about their use of words with veterans (and others) who are wounded or disabled. An awkward silence followed. Later on the flight, this young vet turned to me again, and I remember his words very clearly five decades later: “You know sir, I’m the lucky one. No one else in my foxhole survived.”

I was amazed that this brave young man could look at the positive  side of a horrific event that had left him horribly injured for life. I learned a powerful lesson that day. This vet had the power to channel his thoughts and energies in a positive direction, in spite of the horror that he had experienced. Furthermore, his positive attitude and outlook would fuel his courage and strength to deal with the long, slow road to recovery that lay before him.

This experience and the impermeable lessons learned have fueled my motivation and outlook in working with trauma survivors and led to my refining an integrated approach to trauma treatment, incorporating positive thinking, meditation, and systematic desensitization. In this book, I provide a special emphasis on how I teach and attend to four alternative forms of meditation with clients who present a variety of issues and challenges. The pillars of my meditation practice are grounded in the context of gestalt therapy, cognitive–behavioral therapy (CBT), culturally sensitive treatment, and my own religious and cultural background. I am indebted to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and Transcendental Meditation (TM) for introducing me to meditation in 1978 and being the foundation for my meditation journey. Please note that the TM organization is not an official or unofficial endorser of my book; I do not continue to only practice meditation as I was taught by TM, and I am critical of some aspects of TM.

My Experiences with TM

I remember Maharishi Mahesh Yogi saying (via videotape), in residential Sidhi trainings that I participated in during the late 1970s, that TM facilitated awareness of “an infinite reservoir” deep inside all of us and that this reservoir comprised such qualities as creativity, energy, awareness, and intelligence. I am deeply grateful to TM for helping me along this journey. To illustrate the practice, variability, and possible progression of mantra-based meditation, I briefly describe my experiences in this regard concerning TM here in the preface, and in sections of two chapters: chapter 4, “Faith-Based and Secular Forms of Meditation,” and chapter 5, “The Path of Concentrative Meditation: Transcendental Meditation and Other Mantra-Based Forms.”

Initiation into TM, Selection of a Mantra, and Controversy

The Maharishi Mahesh Yogi codified an elaborate rationale and practice regarding mantras. For example, only people who paid the initiation fee could join TM, receive personal instruction, and be assigned a personal mantra. Part of the controversy is the perspective that it is inappropriate for any guru or master to “sell” mantras for a fee. A Vipassana meditation retreat, for instance, is by rule only provided for free. You can make a donation at the end if you wish, based on your ability to give—and only as a gift to allow another student the opportunity to have a similar experience. On the other hand, any organization needs a sound financial strategy to grow and support its functions. Charging some kind of fee is a common strategy, along with providing additional offerings at a fee to bring in additional funding.

I was initiated in TM in the late 1970s. I went on to receive several weeks of in-residence advanced Sidhi training. The TM–Sidhi program was the ancient Vedic tradition (Goleman, 1988). The (basic) TM technique is described as allowing your mind to settle down to the source of thought and to experience pure consciousness—what TM describes as a unique state (among all forms of meditation) of “restful alertness.” The TM–Sidhi program provides additional meditation techniques and training to think and act from this most silent and powerful level of the mind.

To Share or Not Share My Secret TM-Assigned Mantra with Others?

I experienced a significant level of stress before deciding in the early 2000s that it was OK, per the principle of transparency, to share my TM-provided mantra with my MSW students and clients interested in meditation. This conflicted with what I had been taught in my TM initiation in 1977 (to never share our mantras with anyone) and what I had continued to believe and practice for over 20 years.

Arguably, the TM practice for initiates to maintain strict secrecy about their assigned personal mantras was necessary to maintain the most powerful impact of our mantra repetition. Frankly, there also was a monetary ramification—generating the flow of new initiates into TM willing to pay the fee (now in the $1,000+ range). This was the only way to receive your secret personal mantra. (The TM organization, throughout the years, also has offered special scholarship programs to various people so that they can receive instruction in TM at significantly reduced or no fees.) Once initiated in TM, you are eligible to pay to participate in additional opportunities, like the residentially based TM–Sidhi program. I did attend TM–Sidhi training for five or six weeks in 1978. It was expensive, intensive—and exhilarating.

TM Practice versus TM the Organization

More than 5 million people worldwide have been initiated into TM (Vidal, 2015). Extremely strong opinions—pro, con, and ambivalent—have evolved over the years about TM and its founder Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. I differentiate between the merits of the practice of mantra-based TM and any issues about the labeling, business, and organizational practices of the estimated $1–2 billion organizational entity called Transcendental Meditation.

I do not offer comprehensive analysis of TM as a form of meditation or of the TM organization. Such would require an entire book. I do highlight salient points and issues grounded in my decades of meditation and in my experiences with students and clients.

Finally, reflective of the positive influence of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi on me, sprinkled throughout this book are my memories of various statements that I remember the Maharishi saying (on videotapes) while I attended several weeks of residential Sidhi training in the late 1970s.

Evolution of My TM Mantra Meditation from Secular to Both Faith-Based and Secular

I meditated twice daily, 20 minutes each session, from 1978 until the later 1990s, exclusively using the TM approach and mantra that had been given to me by my TM teacher. Subsequently, I made significant modifications to my meditating and deviated from official TM organizational “rules” in the practice of TM. In addition to not maintaining strict secrecy about my mantra, I also, at times repeat my mantra out loud, vary the length of time of my meditations (two to 20 minutes), and practice versions of meditation while driving or, under other circumstances, while engaged in action.

Another step in the evolution of my practice occurred several years ago while I was sitting in the Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Delisle, Mississippi. As my mind was wandering, I thought, “Why not do a short meditation while I am sitting here in church, instead of having my wandering thoughts be elsewhere?” Yes, I confess, my concentration can travel many places while I sit in church. I could be distracted by a myriad of thoughts: What are we going to do about eating after Mass? Will Mass be over in time to get back to watch the Saints or Steelers football game on television? Did I remember to record the game? Or any of a wide range of matters that indeed distract me from the true purpose of being at Mass—focusing on the Bible readings, the homily (sermon), Jesus, the many blessings in my life, and so forth. And so I began doing several minutes of my TM mantra meditation at one or more points during Mass. This helped me to settle my mind and refocus on being in church and participating in a worship service.

After a couple of months of meditating several times for short periods during Mass, I was struck by a somewhat discordant thought: “Somehow it just does not seem entirely right that here I am, sitting in a Catholic Mass, and meditating while using a TM Hindu-based Sanskrit mantra.” This thought became increasingly persistent and recurrent over the next few weeks. Finally, at one such moment, I thought, “Why not pick a Christian-based word or words to use as my mantra while I am at church?”

Thus, I began to use as my mantra the Latin pronunciation of “Jesus” (yay-zu) during a mass when my mind began to wander. Subsequently, I have been using “Jesus” as my mantra whenever I am in church and want to meditate, and increasingly, I am even using it outside church.

His delight is in the law of the LORD who meditates on it day and night.
Psalm 1:2 (New Heart English Bible)

My journey illustrates how one’s meditation journey might evolve from a “pure” to a more eclectic practice, or to one that is faith-based or secular. I have transitioned from using my TM mantra as having no meaning to using my TM mantra as having a meaning derived from its Vedic origins (described in chapter 5) to then also adopting a form of faith-based mantra meditation.

Of course, you have the option of maintaining a “pure” practice of TM per the TM organization—or a “pure” practice of any other form of meditation. Millions worldwide have done just so. I encourage everyone to keep an open mind about the practice of meditation, to freely explore and continue to discover what is helpful about varying aspects of meditation—both TM and otherwise. You too might find an evolution of your meditation practice in some way.

‘A’ohe pau ka ‘ike i ka hālau ho‘okāhi. (All knowledge is not taught in the same school.) One can learn from many sources.
‘Ōlelo No‘eau no. 203 (Pukui, 1983, p. 24)

TEACHING MEDITATION AS A SOCIAL WORK PROFESSOR AND AS A CLINICAL SOCIAL WORKER

As a social work professor, around the year 2004 I started introducing some instruction about meditation to MSW students in my practice courses at the University of Southern Mississippi. Most of my students were faith-based. That stimulated my thinking about the issues and variances concerning faith-based versus non-faith-based meditation.

I suggest that my clients, if they do not wish to become formally initiated into TM (and pay the substantial initiation fee) or enroll with another meditation organization, select a mantra of their own choosing. I also remind them that they can change their mantra if later they are not comfortable or satisfied continuing with their original mantra. However, they are encouraged to attempt to settle in with a particular mantra once they have had some initial meditation experiences and have at least a preliminary sense that a particular chosen mantra is having a positive impact.

Since 2011 I have increasingly introduced meditation to many private practice clients. This includes clients with everyday issues related to mood, anxiety, and anger; people suffering posttrauma reactions related to civilian and war trauma; and those seeking enhancement in their lives.

I am excited to have arrived at this nexus of meditation with both my personal and professional lives—to the point that I felt compelled to write this book. My advancing age (76 and counting) also added a slight sense of urgency—and hopefully, perspective as well—to my writing about meditation and its practical and creative application with clients and patients.

METTA ALONG THE JOURNEY IN WRITING THIS BOOK

My experiences in trying to authenticate original sources of various quotes and parables led to countless hours of frustration. A few sources did not respond to my queries at all or were quite delayed in responding. Some were rather provincial about their particular swami, guru, or master. Conversely, I discovered a number of wonderfully giving, compassionate, and caring meditation resource people. My path crossed with wonderful folks across the United States, the United Kingdom, Africa, India, and Australia. To illustrate, I will share a response I received from Clare Josa regarding my request to use an excerpt from her Web site (http://www.clarejosa.com) about mindfulness and mindfulness meditation. Clare responded,

Dear Ray. Thank you for getting in touch. And thank you for asking permission. Yes, I confirm that I hold the copyright to the quote in your email and I would be very happy for you to use it in your book. . . . Anything I can do to help make a difference in that way is great. Thank you for the work you do. The world needs you and your message. Happy writing! Namaste,** Clare

Clare’s response epitomizes metta (or loving kindness, a form of mindfulnessmeditation described in chapter 7 and in several case studies) and itsreciprocal effect on both the meditator and on others.

O ka pono ke hana ‘ia iho mai na lani. (Continue to do good until the heavens come down to you.) Blessings come to those who persist in doing good.
‘Ōlelo No‘eau no. 2437 (Pukui, 1983, p. 266)

* Hawaiian proverbs here and throughout are from ‘Ōlelo No’eau: Hawaiian Proverbs & Poetical Sayings, collected, translated, and annotated by Mary Kawena Pukui. Copyright c 1983 Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum. Used with permission from Bishop Museum Press.

** Namaste (and its common variants namaskar, namaskaara, or namaskaram) is one of the various forms of formal traditional greeting mentioned in the [Hindu] Vedas. It “refers to paying homage or showing respect to one another, as is the practice today, when we greet each other. . . . The real meeting between people is the meeting of their minds. When we greet one another with namaste, it means, ‘may our minds meet’, indicated by the folded palms placed before the chest. The bowing down of the head is a gracious form of extending friendship in love, respect, and humility” (Das, 2019).

Though only for a moment a discerning person associates with a wise man, quickly he comprehends the Truth, just as the tongue tastes the flavor of the soup.
The Buddha (Buddharakkhita, 2013, Dhp V, verse 65, p. 37)

My personal and professional experiences do not in any way permit me to believe, or claim, that I even approach being a master meditator. My writing is most suited to offer practical and creative guidance in the earlier, and possibly the middle, stages of a journey along a path that might eventually lead to increasing levels of transcendent experiences. In this book, I offer creative and practical meditation strategies to enhance regular meditation practice, cope with everyday matters, and navigate posttraumatic issues. I also address the special conditions some of our clients and patients with disabilities face and recommend accommodations for those with physical and emotional conditions that prevent them from fulfilling “ideal” meditation practices. Please accept that this writing is derived from my personal and professional experiences, and trust your own understanding and practice.

PART 1: A VARIETY OF FORMS OF MEDITATION

This book does not address a wide number of meditation forms in a survey-style format. Instead, in part 1, I address key features of four primary meditation strategies: mantra meditation, breath-count meditation, various forms of mindfulness meditation (including breath awareness meditation), and a hybrid form of mantra–breath awareness meditation. I discuss how these strategies can be applied in “strategic” or “dedicated” meditation (that is, meditation that occurs at regular, scheduled times) and “spot” or “tactical” meditation (that is, meditation that is used as needed throughout the day). Furthermore, I elaborate on the similarities and differences between faithbased and secular or non-faith-based forms of meditation. Also, I demonstrate how alternative forms of meditation can be taught and practiced as either faith-based or secular.

PART 2: A CLINICAL APPROACH TO USING MEDITATION WITH CLIENTS AND PATIENTS

In part 2, I discuss how I introduce clients to the practice and application of meditation to address a range of troubling mental health symptoms and life challenges. Specific techniques and strategies to enhance one’s preparation before, during, and after meditation sessions are also provided. In addition, relevant to my extensive background in trauma-related clinical interventions, I describe in detail an innovative intervention that I have developed to apply meditation to the treatment of PTSD. This approach integrates meditation with gestalt therapy, CBT, and systematic desensitization.

PART 3: CASE STUDIES: CREATIVE APPLICATIONS OF MEDITATION STRATEGIES

My experience using meditation strategies with clients is presented in several cases studies in part 3. This includes six case studies of clients who use two or more forms of meditation to address a range of life challenges and one case study of my meditating with a client during a session. The types of challenges clients have coped with using meditation include the following: a busy business man with severe anxiety over getting to various weekly work appointments in a timely manner; an employee stuck in unpleasant work meetings; an Afghanistan War veteran manifesting anger issues at work and at home; and a woman whose severe anxiety presents serious issues when she shops at a crowded market. In addition, there are three more in-depth case studies applying meditation strategies with people struggling with PTSD: one from an auto accident, another from an arrest and interrogation by the police, and another from experiences while deployed in the Iraq War.

PART 4: CONTINUING THE JOURNEY

I close the book with three chapters. The first is a discussion of the relationship between meditation and prayer—a most important issue for many faith-based clients who are considering learning how to meditate. The second chapter is a discussion of important points to consider as we continue our respective meditation and life journeys. This includes appreciation of widely reported subjective benefits about meditation that are not necessarily reflected in the research literature: for example, using parables as signposts to help guide us along our journeys, and having guidance on “checking” or fine-tuning our meditation practice. The final chapter offers one of the most powerful metaphors I am familiar with, “Sap and Flower” by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of TM. This metaphor uniquely and eloquently enhances our consciousness about the interconnectedness and life force among all living creatures, plant life, and our planet.

PROVIDERS’ LEVEL OF MEDITATION COMPETENCE AND IMPLICATIONS

I would be remiss not to mention concern if people in positions of authority, such as health and mental health providers, attempt to teach beyond their meditation level of competence. Receiving inadequate or flawed guidance about meditation can lead clients to incorrect meditation practice or minimal positive benefits. It can generate a false, if not negative, impression about what meditation has to offer. Personal familiarity alone does not necessarily equate to sufficient skills to teach meditation to others. Furthermore, my clinical experience is that a client may not “fit” well with one particular form of meditation and hence may need guidance about alternative forms of meditation to consider. The provider’s level of meditation experience is quite important for several related reasons. Don’t we as providers have an ethical obligation to be honest with ourselves and our clients as to the extent and limitations of our own expertise regarding meditation, its application to clinical issues, and the challenges facing our clients and patients? After all, how can we teach well that which we do not know well? In the words of the Buddha, “One should do what one teaches others to do. If one would train others, one should be well-controlled oneself. Difficult, indeed, is self-control.” It is incumbent that we have at least some familiarity with key literature findings regarding meditation benefits and possible side effects and at least some personal familiarity with the practice of meditation. Clients should be encouraged to do their homework and inquire specifically about the nature and extent of the meditation knowledge of the person who is leading them on this journey into the practice of meditation. If readers glean only one thing from this book, I hope it is that an intellectual or “book learning” understanding of meditation is totally insufficient for true understanding and appreciation of what meditation is and does. And whatever level of meditation experience we have can be something well worth sharing with fellow and sister providers, clients, and patients.

YOGA

It is necessary to mention that I do not attend to yoga in this book. This absence should not be construed as my relegating yoga to a lesser place of importance than the forms of meditation that I do describe. Rather, it reflects my personal absence of experience with yoga and my intent not to make this a book that touches lightly on many different forms of meditation with which I have little or no personal or professional experience or expertise. Yoga is ancient, with roots dating back several thousand years.* The practices of yoga are quite varied and include concentrative forms of meditation and attempts to alter basic “involuntary” physiological processes, such as blood flow, digestive activity, heart rate, and breathing. Particularly relevant to this book, breath control, or pranayama, is a major component of yoga, and mantra forms of meditation are common in yoga. There are many wonderful articles and books that describe yoga, for example, Lee (2004), which I quote several times (see also Chase, 2016; Desikachar, 1999; Lyengar, 1995; Satchidananda, 2012). These works are a good starting point for those who might want to read more about yoga before deciding on possibly participating or as a supplement to a guided yoga experience.

MY OVERALL STRATEGY IN TEACHING AND APPLYING MEDITATION WITH CLIENTS

As mentioned earlier, I offer clients the opportunity to be introduced to the four primary meditation strategies with which I have most personal familiarity. This selective approach allows clients to begin, or restart, their meditation with some awareness of and initial choice among one or more alternative meditation strategies. And I encourage clients to read about various meditation strategies and check out various meditation mobile phone apps (several highly rated apps are recommended) that are available at no or very low cost. The client can choose to select (or not) one or more of the four varieties of meditation that I introduce them to and to settle into an initial daily (or less frequent) practice. This helps clients discover for themselves what might work well in dealing with various life challenges. Of course, it is also the client’s choice to test out other meditation approaches. An example of this process is laid out in the Appendix, a detailed case study in which I introduce Michelle, a client with severe PTSD, to four varieties of meditation. Readers are encouraged to read this appendix to understand the actual wording and guidance that I provide, as illustrated in the back-and-forth narrative dyad between me and Michelle.

MEDITATION FOR CHILDREN

This book is about the practice of meditation by adults. However, it is important to note that various forms of meditation are remarkably relevant and applicable to children of varying ages. There are many videos, books, journal articles, research studies, mobile apps, and Web sites that offer guidance in applying the teaching of meditation to children (and youths) of various ages, and there is a growing presence of school-based meditation programs. Hence, in several chapters I briefly elaborate on meditating with children in regard to the state of the research, mantra, breath, mindfulness, and guided meditations.

SO MANY CHOICES, SO LITTLE TIME

To run is not necessarily to arrive.
African Proverb (Afrikanheritage.com, 2015)

Finally, as mentioned earlier, the intent of this book is to offer in-depth description of four forms of meditation that I practice and teach to clients— and not to take a survey approach of the entire meditation landscape. I take this approach partly because it can be so easy to continue to search and search, finding seemingly innumerable iterations of meditation.

It can be tempting to move from one form of meditation to the next, enjoying the initial rush of something new, striving to taste the latest discovery of an ancient way. Frankly, it can seem like an endless, bountiful buffet. So much to choose from, and yet seemingly so little time to stop, focus, chew, and truly savor. My method encourages clients to explore four forms sufficiently and then choose to focus on a particular approach for a sustained period.

As their meditation journeys unfold and develop, clients always have the opportunity to learn, both experientially and cognitively, about other forms of meditation practice.

Rather than attempting to try one form of meditation after another, after another, after another, it is quite important to strike a balance in encouraging clients to explore sufficiently, yet not to encourage the changing of one’s meditation practice too much or to have too many foci in one’s meditation practice.

Such an approach can lead to never reaping the maximum benefits that can come only with eventually settling on a path and sticking to it for the longer journey. Indeed, among some traditional forms of meditation, there is a common viewpoint that one should never change once a (meditation) path has been chosen. There is wisdom in the saying, “There are many paths up the mountain. Perseverance on one alone will bring the aspirant to the top faster than if he were to spread his energies in exploring all the alternative paths” (Guest guest, 2004).

And so, our journey begins.

* “The word Yoga means to yoke or link the individual mind to the larger universe. It also means discipline. All forms of Yoga incorporate meditation, and all forms of meditation incorporate Yoga” (Simpkins & Simpkins, 2009, p. 20). Naranjo and Ornstein (1971) provide a succinct overview of the variety of yogic practices.