Yesterday, Benedict Carey wrote in the NY Times about new developments in mental health and what is becoming an increasingly popular psychotherapy technique, mindfulness meditation. A summary of the practice is described below.
Mindfulness meditation is easy to describe. Sit in a comfortable position, eyes closed, preferably with the back upright and unsupported. Relax and take note of body sensations, sounds and moods. Notice them without judgment. Let the mind settle into the rhythm of breathing. If it wanders (and it will), gently redirect attention to the breath. Stay with it for at least 10 minutes.
After mastering control of attention, some therapists say, a person can turn, mentally, to face a threatening or troubling thought -- about, say, a strained relationship with a parent -- and learn simply to endure the anger or sadness and let it pass, without lapsing into rumination or trying to change the feeling, a move that often backfires.
You can read more about this approach in the Mindfulness-based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy article from Wikipedia, here. Carey's article follows closely behind another recent NY Times column by David Brooks entitled The Neural Buddhists, which argues that among other things, science is moving a direction that is more consistent with Buddhism than reductionist 'militant materialism' where our thought processes and cognition are merely representations of chemical and electrical activity in our central nervous system.
Perhaps the crux of what Brooks is getting at is best summarized in Sharon Begley's book Train your Mind, Change Your Brain where she argues that not only do neurophysiological states produces mental states, but that mental states can also work backwards and act on the brain and CNS itself. A parallel example would be a computer whose hardware executes a software program, only to have that program then change the silicon substrate of the CPU.
For an excellent, albeit long, review of the science of the mind and its overlap with one form of Buddhism, Zen and Brain by James Austin, is a must read. Austin argues that rigorous meditation practice literally removes or forms new neural pathways in the mind and body as you continue to regularly sit in zazen, which is a very old yoga position central to Zen. If you are an engineering or science inclined individual looking for non-pharmaceutical approaches to depression and anxiety, this book may be a reasonable place to start for 10,000 foot view of the subject.
Finally, John Safran provides a hilarious and irreverent view of Rinzai Zen. The remaining 3:30 of Part 2 is here. [11/2009 update: you'll have to buy the dvd for the video now, sorry; also, recommending this great book from Brad Warner for an accessible summary of Soto Zen]