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(See
Mindfulness Meditation for a list of local Mindfulness classes.)
(See Mindfulness and Medicine for research
abstracts.)
Mindfulness Meditation
by Jon Kabat-Zinn
Mind/Body Medicine, 1993
When most people hear the word meditation, they often think of
transcendental meditation or similar practices used to evoke the
relaxation response. In these approaches you focus attention on one thing,
usually the sensation of breath leaving and entering your body or a mantra
(a special sound or phrase you repeat silently to yourself). Anything else
that comes into your mind during meditation is seen as a distraction to be
disregarded. These practices can give rise to very deep states of calmness
and stability of attention. They are known as the concentration, or
"one-pointed," type of meditation--what Buddhists call shamatha or samadhi
practices.
Mindfulness is the other major classification of meditation practices,
known as vipassana, or insight meditation. In the practice of mindfulness,
you begin by utilizing one-pointed attention to cultivate calmness and
stability, but then you move beyond that by introducing a wider scope to
the observing, as well as an element of inquiry. When thoughts or feelings
come up in your mind, you don't ignore them or suppress them, nor do you
analyze or judge their content. Rather, you simply note any thoughts as
they occur as best you can and observe them intentionally but
nonjudgmentally, moment by moment, as the
events in the field of your awareness.
Paradoxically, this inclusive noting of thoughts that come and go in your
mind can lead you to feel less caught up in them and give you a deeper
perspective on your reaction to everyday stress and pressures. By
observing your thoughts and emotions as if you had taken a step back from
them, you can see much more clearly what is actually on your mind. You can
see your thoughts arise and recede one after another. You can note the
content of your thoughts, the feelings associated with them, and your
reactions to them. You might become aware of agendas, attachments, likes
and dislikes, and inaccuracies in your
ideas. You can gain insight into what drives you, how you see the world,
who you think you are--insight into your fears and aspirations.
The key to mindfulness is not so much what you choose to focus on but the
quality of the awareness that you bring to each moment. It is very
important that it be nonjudgmental--more of a silent witnessing, a
dispassionate observing, than a running commentary on your inner
experience. Observing without judging, moment by moment, helps you see
what is on your mind
without editing or censoring it, without intellectualizing it or getting
lost in your own incessant thinking.
It is this investigative, discerning observation of whatever comes up in
the present moment that is the hallmark of mindfulness and differentiates
it most from other forms of meditation. The goal of mindfulness is for you
to be more aware, more in touch with life and with whatever is happening
in your own body and mind at the time it is happening--that is, in the
present moment. If you are experiencing a distressing thought or feeling
or actual physical pain in any moment, you resist the impulse to try to
escape the unpleasantness; instead, you attempt to see it clearly as it is
and accept it because it is already present in this moment.
Acceptance, of course, does not mean passivity or resignation. On the
contrary, by fully accepting what each moment offers, you open yourself to
experiencing life much more completely and make it more likely that you
will be able to respond effectively to any situation that presents itself.
Acceptance offers a way to navigate life's ups and downs--what Zorba the
Greek called "the full catastrophe"--with grace, a sense of humor, and
perhaps some understanding of the big picture, what I like to think of as
wisdom.
One way to envision how mindfulness works is to think of the mind as the
surface of a lake or ocean. There are always waves, sometimes big,
sometimes small. Many people think the goal of meditation is to stop the
waves so that the water will be flat, peaceful, and tranquil--but that is
not so. The true spirit of mindfulness practice is illustrated by a poster
someone
once described to me of a 70-ish yogi, Swami Satchidananda, in full white
beard and flowing robes, atop a surfboard and riding the waves off a
Hawaiian beach. The caption read: "You can't stop the waves, but you can
learn to surf."
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