New research from University of California Davis, conducted on meditators at the Shambhala Mountain Center under the guidance of Buddhist scholar, author and teacher B. Alan Wallace. Wallace is a practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism, so the test subjects were most likely practicing a Tibetan influenced form of meditation.
“The take-home message from this work is not that meditation directly increases telomerase activity and therefore a person’s health and longevity,” Saron said. “Rather, meditation may improve a person’s psychological well-being and in turn these changes are related to telomerase activity in immune cells, which has the potential to promote longevity in those cells. Activities that increase a person’s sense of well-being may have a profound effect on the most fundamental aspects of their physiology.”
Science Daily: Psychological changes from meditation training linked to cellular health
(Thanks Cedr
This is part of B. Alan Wallace’s Shamatha Project, where he does 8-month-long retreats with Shamatha meditation (also known as one-pointed concentration or calm-abiding meditation). Wallace is part of a school of thought that aims for perfection of this kind of meditation with the goal of being able to sit for 4 continuous hours in deep absorption (i.e. no thoughts whatsoever arising).
There are some great interviews with Wallace on the Buddhist Geeks’ podcast that my friend hosts:
http://www.buddhistgeeks.com/author/alanwallace/