Research (11-13-2005)

Meditation may boost Brain Size and Increase mental performance.

Sara Harrise, Ph. D.
Society for Neuroscience.

PO Box 200161
Houston, Texas 77025
713-662-2743
mary@citta101.org

Citta 101 was established in 1998 to provide a teaching presence of Insight Meditation in Houston. The offerings of Citta 101 have developed over time including a variety of courses and training programs, all providing skills for understanding and expanding consciousness.

The word citta, pronounced chitta, is from Pali, the language of the first recorded teachings of the Buddha. Citta is used here instead of the English word 'mind' because trainings offered amplify the ordinary understanding of mind. Citta is better translated as heart/mind.

Teachings focus on the great potential possible in development of mind, including but going beyond an understanding of meditation as a means of improving health, of relaxing, of a method for emptying and stilling the mind, or as a means of achieving altered states of consciousness. Instead meditation is a means of discovering our vast potential and of consciously participating in its unfoldment.

Trainings are designed as needed and appropriate for different circumstances and for either groups or individuals. Diversity is an important element. Programs are appropriate for and enriched by participants of any race, religion, gender, or economic circumstance.

There is a beautiful expression that the Buddha used, the 'pabhassara citta' - the radiant mind, the mind of clear light. He pointed out very clearly that the mind's nature is inherently radiant. Its brightness is not something that we have to produce, rather it is the intrinsic nature of mind, the citta. - Ajahn Amaro in Silent Rain

Why is this site called Citta 101?

Citta with 101 is almost a redundancy but is used to emphasize the fundamental nature of citta, its constancy, containing and permeating all. Citta or mind, radiant mind, clear and knowing, can be seen as the beginning and the end of practice, the beginning point and the goal, the realization we don't need to go someplace outside ourselves to find.

The trainings offered here are quite simple, very basic, but extremely useful if actually applied - a good beginning point for any kind of exploration into meditative practices. Spiritual seekers are encouraged to explore the vast array of practice opportunities in other schools and traditions, always letting one's own experience and resonation determine efficacy and legitimacy. Each exploration brings new understanding of consciousness to one's individual spiritual practice. However, ultimately, the simple practices offered here might be all one would eventually want or need, the place to come home to. It is only in being in immediate relationship to experience that realizing home and interconnectedness is possible.

What is Citta 201 or other higher designation?

There may not really be a higher designation. Citta 101 can be understood as Beginner's Mind, not because it is for beginners but because of the openness and opportunity of 'transformation' in the realization that what is Real does not need transformation, a realization available only to the free and unencumbered mind.

Some might consider Bodhichitta a higher pracitice. Bodhichitta is the quality of mind of a Bodhisattva, one who has chosen to do spiritual practice for the benefit of all beings everywhere, without exception. Any practice offered through teachings offered here becomes a bodhisattva pracitice, when done with this noble intention.