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Comment by lobo_tuerto | Hacker News Reader

I wonder if these new discoveries about the microbiome can explain why on disciplines like Zen meditation (Zazen), one has to focus her mind on a point at the gut level.

Could these techniques somehow be aware of the gut-mind connection?

https://www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and-conditions/the-g...

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Just an info: Focusing mind at the gut level is not specific to Zen meditation but is instead part of Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga_Sutras_of_Patanjali) from which all these techniques are derived from. Specifically it is focusing on the 7 centres of energy called Chakras. The gut level thing you talk about is called the Manipura in Sanskrit or the Solar Plexus Chakra in English transliteration.

I've read that the microbiome can and does influence our sense of taste, altering it in such a way that the foods that certain species of bacteria prefer to metabolize end up tasting better. Although I've anecdotally found this to be true, I think it is commonly accepted that the gut affects the mind whether the conscious self is aware of it or not. A lot of the mindful meditation I've practiced doesn't have the goal of making the mind quiet. Quite the opposite, it is a technique to quiet conscious thinking that takes effort so that one can be more aware of thoughts that seemingly arise out of nowhere...like when you're stuck with a difficult problem only to have a solution pop into your head over the weekend while going out for a run, without any conscious effort

Your gut contains the second largest collection of neurons in your body, and has a large influence on our behaviour...

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/gut-second-brain/

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