Notes from Jon:

May 2009

Since writing the entry for March, I have been traveling in India, Nepal, Ireland, California and Hawaii, and soon in Europe teaching.

In India, I attended a five-day Mind and Life Dialogue with His Holiness the Dalai Lama on the subject of Attention, Memory, and Mind. If you are interested in what transpired, go to http://www.mindandlife.org/conf09.dharamsala.html. There were blog posts from that meeting which may still be available, and the videos of it will be available at some point. The presentations were very compelling and cutting-edge in terms of the science, and the presenters themselves quite wonderful. A lot of interesting ground was covered on both the science side and the contemplative side regarding our understanding of attention and memory. The areas of overlap and mutual interest were many and marvelously rich. The Dalai Lama was very much engaged and animated throughout the meeting. The next time I saw him was at the Harvard Medical School a few weeks later for a meeting entitled Meditation and Psychotherapy. That meeting was very well attended, and had some wonderful presentations as well.

After Dharamsala, I had the good fortune to spend two weeks in Kathmandu visiting with Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche and Matthieu Ricard and having a bit of retreat time. From there, I traveled to Ireland to participate in the first International Conference on the Spiritual Care of the Living and Dying, sponsored by Riga, Soygal Rinpoche's organization. I met people there who are doing amazing and hugely compassionate work in end of life care in Ireland, in US, and other countries. See http://www.spcare.org/ for further details. I was asked to give a public talk in Dublin before leaving, and was deeply touched by both the turnout and the palpable depth of interest and practice among those who attended: http://www.seminars.ie/seminars/seminar_details.php?event_id=159 .

I met a lot of people who have made mindfulness their life's work. It never ceases to amaze and uplift me.

Another deeply moving experience was visiting with the US Army medical command in Hawaii and, in conjunction with Dr. Elizabeth Stanley of Georgetown University, offering an introductory exposure to mindfulness training to a combination of medical personnel and caregivers, family members and returning troops, in part to address the enormous issues the military is facing regarding PTSD, multiple deployments, suicide, family stress, etc.

May your mindfulness practice continue to grow and flower and nourish your life and work from moment to moment and from day to day.

Jon

March 2009

Befriending the Breath in Stressful Moments

There is no question that the real mindfulness teacher, and the real meditation practice, is life itself. Every moment is an opportunity to realign ourselves with the actuality of what is unfolding, however challenging or mundane, and thereby choose not lose ourselves in our interpretations and stories about what is going on. This is easier than you may think. It is also hugely liberating each time we make even a momentary gesture in that direction. And those moments, those conscious realigning gestures can add up to a different life, a more mindful and emotionally balanced life. Not only that: they can influence your future in ways that may be not only beneficial to you, but transformative. Because if you take care of this moment, now, with kindness and awareness, the next moment will be different because of your having taken care of this one, because of your gesture of sanity, trust, and balance.

It helps if we have allies along the way to remind us of this option when we most feel lost and overwhelmed and forget that we can choose to ground ourselves in the present moment and open to a larger, less deluded and less reactive perspective. There are many, many allies available to us, but one of the most reliable and easily called upon is our own breathing. After all, you can't leave home without it. The invitation here is to befriend this inbreath --- and now this outbreath, in any moment when we may feel lost or overwhelmed or carried away by fear about the future, or dissatisfaction with what we are experiencing. Any moment is a good moment to practice, and best to not wait until the full catastrophe is ripping and roaring. How about befriending the breath in those moments when things are not at their worst? How about this moment? All it takes is bringing your awareness to the sensations in the body that are most vividly associated with this inbreath and this outbreath, either at the belly, or at the nostrils, or anywhere else in your body where you can feel your breath. Even one or two breaths, attended to wholeheartedly in this way, can be grounding and calming, and restore a more balanced perspective. Try it when you are putting your kids to bed, or when you are upset about something that happened, or that you fear might happen. Or even when you are just walking down the street, or sitting in a meeting. See what happens when you trust your breath and give yourself over to feel it, and "riding the waves" of each inbreath and each outbreath unfolding. You may find that you have discovered a new friend, one you can count on when the proverbial stuff is hitting the proverbial fan, especially if you nurture and develop the connection in less stressful moments. And amazingly enough, that friend turns out to be you, in the guise of the breath, and of awareness itself. Why not? What do you have to lose? It doesn't even take any time, just remembering.

Jon

February 2009

The Kindness of Others

I was struck by how much I needed the kindness of others to have been able to attend the Inauguration of President Obama on January 20th, where, even in the wind and cold, I basked in the warm and amazing glow of that historic moment, and the equally warm glow of the enormous crowd that was there to bear witness to this remarkable orthogonal rotation in the history of the United States, hopefully sustained and deepened in the coming months and years in our national consciousness and actions. First, there was the kindness of the young Congressman who extended the invitation to attend as his guest. Then the kindness of the sister of a friend who invited me to stay at her house, given that it was virtually impossible to book a hotel room anywhere near Washington DC for those dates, and the kindness of her brother, an old friend, for looking out for me in the first place. Then there was the kindness of those who gave me their blessing to go off and come back with my first-hand account of what they would be watching on TV. And most wondrous of all, the unexpected kindness of the over-stressed ticket agents at the US Airways counter, who somehow managed to get me back where I had to be to resume a teaching engagement when the airport early the morning after seemed to have as many people as the Mall the day before, all of us hoping to get through the endless lines in time to somehow catch our flights. Amazingly, it all worked out, although my mind was busy telling me in a few crisis moments that there was no way it possibly could. So much for mere thinking.

It is a worthy meditation to reflect on how much we may owe our own lives and well-being to the kindness of others in so many different ways... from our parents and our children to our teachers and friends, lovers and spouses, and even people we don't know. It is a sobering reminder of our interconnectedness, and how inaccurate it usually is to think that it is all our own doing. It may sometimes seem that way, but a second look might reveal some of the many ways, both little and big, sometimes even in the briefest of moments, in which the good will and kindness of others, even total strangers, helps our days unfold with greater joy and ease. How can we possible repay them? I would say that we can only do it by expressing our gratitude with as much mindfulness and heartfulness as possible. And beyond that, by remembering to offer the same gift of a little kindness and good will to others in our turn. It costs nothing, but its value is immense. Each gesture to extend kindness to others ensures that the overall "supply" is continually replenished, and with it, our own hearts. Although, when it comes right down to it, I suspect the "supply" of kindheartedness in the world and in ourselves, is actually limitless.

January 2009

I continue to be touched and amazed by the changes we are seeing in this world, and how fast they are coming at us. At times like these, wherever we live on this globe, and whatever we do, it is more important than ever to give ourselves some precious moments of restoration and nurturance, the kind that can only come from a deep silence within oneself, a deep drinking from the well of your own power and beauty, pure awareness grounded in the body and in the heart.

I call this "inhabiting the domain of being." More and more, scientific studies are demonstrating how critical interior silence and stillness in the form of mindfulness practice are for balancing out the huge stresses of our way of life in the 21st Century, to say nothing of the stress associated with the recent economic collapses that are being felt so broadly around the world, and that bring with them a great deal of uncertainty and fear, and of course, the need to respond mindfully rather than react mindlessly. These guided meditation programs are designed to help you befriend yourself in the only moment you will ever have -- this one -- and to enter into and dwell for a time in the domain of being, whatever is going on in your mind or in the world in any given moment or on any given day, and thus restore and strengthen your health and well-being at the level of the mind, the body, and the heart, which I see as one undivided whole. By cultivating mindfulness in a disciplined way, as suggested on these programs, as a radical act of self-compassion and intelligence, you are tapping into your own deepest resources for learning, growing, healing, and transformation, resources that you may not even know you possess, but that emerge as we cultivate the kind attention at the heart of these meditations.

I wish you all the best in your on-going commitment to what is deepest and best and most beautiful in yourself, and your commitment to live life from moment to moment as if it really mattered, with full awareness and kindness toward yourself, others, and the world.

Happy New Year

Jon Kabat-Zinn