Author Topic: Chill Bill: Clinton turns to the art of Buddhist meditation to relax  (Read 9556 times)

Namdrol

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By Daily Mail Reporter

PUBLISHED: 10:17 GMT, 3 August 2012

Former American president Bill Clinton has taken his exercise regime to spiritual heights - by learning the art of Buddhist meditation to help him relax.

The politician, 65, has recently taken up a healthier life-style including becoming vegan after a string of heart problems over the years.

And in his latest bid to improve his well-being, the Democrat has hired his own personal Buddhist monk to help him learn how to meditate properly.

Radaronline quoted a source as saying: 'Ever since his heart scare, Bill has looked for ways to help him relax.

'He has a hectic life, he travels a lot on business as an ambassador for the U.S. and needs something to keep him sane.

brian

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Re: Chill Bill: Clinton turns to the art of Buddhist meditation to relax
« Reply #1 on: August 06, 2012, 04:52:59 PM »
Chill out Bill, for once something right came into your brains... or mind by chilling out in meditation practice. This is something that will benefit you. It would have been better if the intention/motivation came from wanting to go into Buddhism by a pure motivation of able to release oneself to help other sentient beings rather than for his own good health. The effect would have been greater. I hope the chosen monk who is going to teach him on proper meditation will be able to convey some Dharma to him as well.

yontenjamyang

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Re: Chill Bill: Clinton turns to the art of Buddhist meditation to relax
« Reply #2 on: August 07, 2012, 07:59:01 AM »
Mr Bill Clinton. Good that you are practicing one of the 3 "High Trainings" of Buddhism. The others are Ethics and Wisdom.
If meditation brings relaxation for this life, this body, then think what it can bring to your next life. Control of your mind is the supreme practice.  Ethics or Morality can be practiced with your speech (which you do all the time but also in your ordinary day-to-day speech to others), actions, and your livelihood. Wisdom can be practice with the correct view of the world (or the truth) and also the correct motivation. Do your work to motivate others only and not just the money. Somehow, I am convince that the reason you do speeches is to benefit others.

Lastly, do your meditation by being aware of the mind and the surrounding. With correct effort and concentration.

I hope you do it for others and not just for yourself. One way is to talk about your practice of meditation to others so that they may also experience the peace.

Klein

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Re: Chill Bill: Clinton turns to the art of Buddhist meditation to relax
« Reply #3 on: August 12, 2012, 05:44:06 PM »
I'm happy for Mr. Bill Clinton that he's decided to practise meditation as the benefits are many. Some of the benefits are as follow:

Physiological benefits:
1- It lowers oxygen consumption.
2- It decreases respiratory rate.
3- It increases blood flow and slows the heart rate.
4- Increases exercise tolerance.
5- Leads to a deeper level of physical relaxation.
6- Good for people with high blood pressure.
7- Reduces anxiety attacks by lowering the levels of blood lactate.
8- Decreases muscle tension
9- Helps in chronic diseases like allergies, arthritis etc.
10- Reduces Pre-menstrual Syndrome symptoms.
11- Helps in post-operative healing.
12- Enhances the immune system.
13- Reduces activity of viruses and emotional distress
14- Enhances energy, strength and vigour.
15- Helps with weight loss
16- Reduction of free radicals, less tissue damage
17- Higher skin resistance
18- Drop in cholesterol levels, lowers risk of cardiovascular disease.
19- Improved flow of air to the lungs resulting in easier breathing.
20- Decreases the aging process.
21- Higher levels of DHEAS (Dehydroepiandrosterone)
22- prevented, slowed or controlled pain of chronic diseases
23- Makes you sweat less
24- Cure headaches & migraines
25- Greater Orderliness of Brain Functioning
26- Reduced Need for Medical Care
27- Less energy wasted
28- More inclined to sports, activities
29- Significant relief from asthma
30- improved performance in athletic events
31- Normalizes to your ideal weight
32- harmonizes our endocrine system
33- relaxes our nervous system
34- produce lasting beneficial changes in brain electrical activity
35- Cure infertility (the stresses of infertility can interfere with the release of hormones that regulate ovulation).

Psychological benefits:
36- Builds self-confidence.
37- Increases serotonin level, influences mood and behaviour.
38- Resolve phobias & fears
39- Helps control own thoughts
40- Helps with focus & concentration
41- Increase creativity
42- Increased brain wave coherence.
43- Improved learning ability and memory.
44- Increased feelings of vitality and rejuvenation.
45- Increased emotional stability.
46- improved relationships
47- Mind ages at slower rate
48- Easier to remove bad habits
49- Develops intuition
50- Increased Productivity
51- Improved relations at home & at work
52- Able to see the larger picture in a given situation
53- Helps ignore petty issues
54- Increased ability to solve complex problems
55- Purifies your character
56- Develop will power
57- greater communication between the two brain hemispheres
58- react more quickly and more effectively to a stressful event.
59- increases one’s perceptual ability and motor performance
60- higher intelligence growth rate
61- Increased job satisfaction
62- increase in the capacity for intimate contact with loved ones
63- decrease in potential mental illness
64- Better, more sociable behaviour
65- Less aggressiveness
66- Helps in quitting smoking, alcohol addiction
67- Reduces need and dependency on drugs, pills & pharmaceuticals
68- Need less sleep to recover from sleep deprivation
69- Require less time to fall asleep, helps cure insomnia
70- Increases sense of responsibility
71- Reduces road rage
72- Decrease in restless thinking
73- Decreased tendency to worry
74- Increases listening skills and empathy
75- Helps make more accurate judgements
76- Greater tolerance
77- Gives composure to act in considered & constructive ways
78- Grows a stable, more balanced personality
79- Develops emotional maturity

Spiritual benefits:
80- Helps keep things in perspective
81- Provides peace of mind, happiness
82- Helps you discover your purpose
83- Increased self-actualization.
84- Increased compassion
85- Growing wisdom
86- Deeper understanding of yourself and others
87- Brings body, mind, spirit in harmony
88- Deeper Level of spiritual relaxation
89- Increased acceptance of oneself
90- helps learn forgiveness
91- Changes attitude toward life
92- Creates a deeper relationship with your God
93- Attain enlightenment
94- greater inner-directedness
95- Helps living in the present moment
96- Creates a widening, deepening capacity for love
97- Discovery of the power and consciousness beyond the ego
98- Experience an inner sense of “Assurance or Knowingness”
99- Experience a sense of “Oneness”
100- Increases the synchronicity in your life

Meditation is also completely FREE! It requires no special equipment, and is not complicated to learn. It can be practiced anywhere, at any given moment, and it is not time consuming (15-20 min. per day is good). Best of all, meditation has NO negative side effects. Bottom line, there is nothing but positive to be gained from it! With such a huge list of benefits, the question you should ask yourself is, “why am I not meditating yet?”

brian

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Re: Chill Bill: Clinton turns to the art of Buddhist meditation to relax
« Reply #4 on: August 13, 2012, 03:45:39 PM »
WOW that was some explaination! There are really 'some' benefits from practising meditation really, what i will normally do will be concentrating on my breathing but i find it very hard to concentrate for long periods. I have a very jumpy mind and i believe this is down to practise. i will get over (being unable to focus) it and start gaining 'some' of the benefits you kindly listed up there, Klien. If only everyone realise the benefits of doing daily meditations. It is not only good for our spiritual growth but it is good for our body so i really have to agree with you that there are only benefits rather than negative impact on your life.

Tenzin K

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Re: Chill Bill: Clinton turns to the art of Buddhist meditation to relax
« Reply #5 on: August 15, 2012, 04:35:51 PM »
Seeing a lot of celebrities taking up Buddhism as their way of life. Rejoice for Bill Clinton which he found that Buddhism meditation as a healing for his hectic life.

Some sharing on 7 benefits of Buddhist Meditation :

1. Meditation helps to improve health: Stress Reduction Meditation has shown to reduce stress.  In many studies Mindfulness Meditation also helps reducing anxiety disorders including PTSD and also has been shown to reduce the recurrence of depression in patients (Wikipedia).   Since stress impacts the immune system, meditation indirectly helps to improve overall well-being.

Chronic Pain: Meditation helped to reduce pain by 50 % and maintained this result for over 4 years according to Kabat-Zin. (Clinical Journal of Pain (1986) National Institute of Health (NIH) notes that meditation and relaxation therapies markedly improved ease of low back pain problems, arthritis, and headaches.  (Jama, 276 (4) (1996)

Insomnia: 75 % of insomniacs were able to go to sleep within 20 minutes after meditating. (Jacobs, Harvard Medical – Say Goodnight to Insomnia, Owl Books (1999)

Mental Health: There was 50 % reduction in psychiatric symptoms, 70 % decrease in anxiety in the inner-city group residents that were suffering from chronic pain, anxiety, depression, diabetes and hypertension.  Roth and Creaser, Nurse Practitioner 22 (3) (1997)

2.  Meditation helps to improve your focus (one-pointedness concentration): Buddhist meditation (Anapana Sati – Mindfulness Meditation) helps to improve your focus.  During the meditation, you will learn how to have a one-pointedness concentration on your breath or abdomen rising and falling.   Calming down and focusing your mind on one object allows bringing about more awareness in your daily activities.

3.  Meditation helps to achieve inner peace and serenity (equanimity) Buddhist meditation has shown the immediate effect of greater calmness and serenity. With more meditation, you can expect to have equanimity, the sense of inner peace and balance.   Over 100,000 meditators at S.N. Goenka 10 day retreats experienced equanimity within first 3 days of meditation.  Equanimity is an ability to be a neutral observer and see things as they are and not react to cravings and aversions.

4.  Meditation helps to remove suffering (Dukkha – un-satisfactoriness): In Buddhist philosophy suffering (Dukkha un-satisfactoriness) is a result of excessive desire and attachment.   This desire leads to craving of pleasant sensations and aversion of unpleasant sensations.  Meditation allows you to understand, experience and deal with unpleasant situations with  equanimity.

5.  Meditation helps you to live with loving-kindness and compassion: Neuroscience research using Tibetan Buddhist Monks with over 10,000 hours of meditation showed that Loving-Kindness Meditation has profound effects on the brain by developing compassion towards unknown people.  (Richard Davidson). Long-time meditators feel much happier and more compassionate.

6. Meditation helps to bring moment-to-moment awareness (power of now): Meditation helps to cultivate your mind by bringing moment-to-moment awareness and calming down your busy mind.  This can have a broader application to your daily life, make you much happier and allow you to live mindfully.

7.  Meditation helps to achieve Buddhist Enlightenment and Nibbana (Nirvana): Perhaps the overarching goal and benefit of Buddhist meditation is to achieve Buddhist enlightenment and Nibbana (nirvana).  Buddha said that everyone can achieve Enlightenment in this lifetime by understanding Four Noble Truths, meditating and following Eightfold path towards liberation and Nibbana.”

RedLantern

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Re: Chill Bill: Clinton turns to the art of Buddhist meditation to relax
« Reply #6 on: August 18, 2012, 06:39:14 PM »
 
Meditation should be done quietly and focus on only the breathing,when reached one of the most advanced points,the lungs take in oxygen and exhale Co2 and the blood flows throughout the whole body,and how the whole body functions.There are far more advanced stages after that,reaching up till the point (only) Lord Budd ha reached Enlightenment,and by that understanding how the whole universe works.
Bill Clinton, who has been plagued by medical issues for years and only recently turned vegan.He likes to unwind in private classes  as he learns the art of meditation.He loves meditation as it helps him to stay focus and calm.With a hectic lifestyle he needs something to help him stay focused and calm and it is definitely doing him good as he feels fitter and stronger than ever.

Tenzin Malgyur

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Re: Chill Bill: Clinton turns to the art of Buddhist meditation to relax
« Reply #7 on: September 07, 2012, 03:55:01 PM »
Rejoice for Bill Clinton for making a decision to learn meditation to help him relax. This shows that the method used by Buddha Shakyamuni to achieve enlightenment more than 2500 years ago is still useful in these modern day and time. Nowadays people everywhere are pushed to achieve more in a shorter time and this is putting a lot of stress on mind and body. It is no wonder more and more people are turning to the ancient art of meditation to help calm their mind. Hopefully with a calmer mind they can increase their wisdom and have more compassion for others.

dondrup

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Re: Chill Bill: Clinton turns to the art of Buddhist meditation to relax
« Reply #8 on: September 08, 2012, 05:49:59 PM »
It won’t take very long for Bill Clinton (or anyone else who is serious about doing Buddhist Meditations) to discover the efficacies and benefits of practising Buddhist Meditations.  Why is that so?  Well these meditations which were taught by Lord Buddha more than 2,500 years ago had proven to work. They have been and continue to be relevant for people of this time and age.  Bill Clinton was definitely convinced that these meditations can help heal his mind.  Hence he had gone ahead to hire his own personal teacher to guide him on the meditations.

Aurore

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Re: Chill Bill: Clinton turns to the art of Buddhist meditation to relax
« Reply #9 on: September 09, 2012, 06:51:19 AM »
As much as all the benefits are enticing especially the losing weight bit ::), meditation should be used for a higher purpose which is spiritual growth such as cultivating all the good qualities, compassion and wisdom.

These days, many forms of meditative techniques which are defined as secular meditation were introduced that emphasizes on relaxation, self improvement, feel younger and to eliminate stress rather than focusing on spiritual growth. This should not be the main objective of meditation. Going to the beach can release stress and feel relax. It should be much more than all this focus.

buddhalovely

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Re: Chill Bill: Clinton turns to the art of Buddhist meditation to relax
« Reply #10 on: October 27, 2012, 12:02:10 AM »
After his various health scares, Clinton decided to quit his famed omnivore diet of hamburgers, steaks, chicken enchiladas, barbecue and french fries. In 2010, he revealed in an interview with CNN he had become vegan and was living off vegetables, fruit and beans. He confessed that he also allows himself to eat fish.

Bill's interest in spiritual enlightenment has played a part in his life for years, and he has stated that his favorite book is Marcus Aurelius' Meditations. Aurelius was the Roman Emperor from 161–180 AD, and the book is a collection of his personal writings setting forth his ideas in Stoic philosophy. The central theme of Meditations is "to analyze your judgement of self and others and developing a cosmic perspective."

Buddhism is a strong gift, even Bill Clinton knows.