the problem

Lord Ganesha, the elephant-headed remover of obstacles, holds a special place in the Hindu pantheon of gods and goddesses. With a pot-belly, multiple arms and adoring mouse for an attendant, he presides over all beginnings and so oversees endless waves of invocations each day from people across India and throughout the world. This day, Ajay, a dignified elderly devotee clambered his way across the temple steps to take his seat in front of Ganesha’s statue. As usual, he began by calling on the lord for protection and then proceeded to meditate. The rich subtropical colors and wafts of sandalwood incense provided a comforting backdrop for practice.

“Focus on his image, focus on his image,” he reminded himself. And as usual, Ajay soon was adrift in his reveries: “His tusks look like curved pencils. Did I make a list for the laundry? Ah, our visit to the zoo. What a time! The lions roared so and I spilled tea on my shirt. But the monkeys—oh my—how they played with us.” From Ganesha to monkey to endless mindscapes across the firmaments: Ajay sat in fine form but his mind did not.

Everyone wants to succeed. In yoga, the outer boroughs of ultimate success—enlightenment—first sway into sight once meditators garner highly focused and stable mental concentration into their everyday experience. However, such a harbinger of real success comes only to a few even though many wish to tread this spiritual path to its heights. Sophisticated meditative approaches such as the yogic traditions of India, China and Tibet clearly map the terrain at the heights of spiritual ascent. But they are recipes that miss the heart of effective complementary medicine, namely feedback. The situation resembles having a doctor across the river shouting instructions to travelers about what to do once they ford the swirling currents. Not much help getting them started and even less help in keeping them on course if they brave the waters with such rickety advice in the first place. 

the fix

In contrast, the tools of modern integrative energy medicine provide much better leverage for the battle with monkey mind. These web pages explain how to harness qigong using acupuncture meridians and microsystems for instantaneous feedback and control of the meditative process. Instead of endlessly wrestling with your mind while trying to control it by willpower, you can learn to adjust the flow of biological energy along meridians and microsystem meridians to achieve a better result in novel time and with ease. The micromeridian meditation detailed here knits together three great streams of yogic practice—Indian, Daoist and Tibetan—and unveils an easier way to link their chakra-, meridian- and space-oriented approaches to higher consciousness.

why the fix works

Advanced yogic practices simply cover more ground than any other technology or human endeavor to date. The chart below contrasts the span of these three yogic paths with Vedic astrology (a traditional Hindu map of higher-level energy systems), traditional eastern medicines (Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine) and modern western medicines. The left axis increases from matter to energy to information. A higher level (more towards the top of the graph) implies a more complex pattern that can transform or control lower level processes. You are likely familiar with the terms "matter" and "energy" from physics and the popular press. The term "information" is used by mathematicians as an abstraction of these physical ideas. Information represents a more fundamental property of nature. Loosely, it corresponds to the consciousness achieved by very advanced yogis and mystics—a state commonly called enlightenment. 

In broad brush, each yogic tradition focuses more on one spatial—and hence neural—aspect (midline – Indian, meridian – Chinese, space – Tibetan). This means that different areas of the brain will light up for different spiritual practices. Modern neuroscience suggests that whole-brain processes (those that integrate activity in multiple areas of the brain) generally relate to higher-level function. Advanced yogic practices aim to cultivate just this state by linking left-brain processes (sequential; referential) with right-brain processes (spatial; physiological; emotional) to garner whole-brain functioning. The result? Emergent—and quite extraordinary—capabilities such as clairvoyance, psychic healing and a raft of other exceptional abilities as documented in the spiritual literature and now being validated with rigorous scientific research.

This just means that successful yogic practice leads one to foundational levels of energy (information; consciousness) where true healing and happiness can occur. Thus, the best medicine for healing the whole person should make use of all the world's wisdom—modern approaches such as western medicine (for acute conditions), traditional eastern medicines (for most chronic conditions) and body-mind-heart-spirit approaches such as traditional yoga.