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Monday, December 6, 2010

Mindfulness Is Meditation

One of the main proponents of mindfulness meditation is Jon Kabat-Zinn. He’s the founding Executive Director of the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Dr. Kabat-Zinn exemplifies the attempt to bring Buddhist principles of mindfulness into the mainstream of Western medicine and society.

The author of such books as Coming to Our Senses: Healing Ourselves and the World Through Mindfulness, Dr. Kabat-Zinn is perhaps the leading proponent of clinical applications of meditation.

His Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program has also been seen as an entry vehicle for bringing Buddhist principles of spiritual growth into the West. That strategy is dubious to my mind.

Stress reduction is a benefit of meditation, not a reason to meditate. Indeed, to my mind the term ‘mindfulness meditation’ is a redundancy, since meditation is mindfulness.

The difference between “Mindfulness Meditation” and methodless meditation is the difference between technique and no-technique, goal and no goal in one’s approach and attitude to bringing awareness and insight into one’s consciousness.

Techniques for stress reduction are clearly beneficial—for example, for people undergoing bone transplantation, or suffering from depression or other emotional disorders. Of course, simply sitting and passively but intently observing the outer and inner movement in the present, especially in nature, has the same effect. Then what is the difference between a meditative technique, and learning the art of meditation without a method? (MORE)

Source: The Costa Rican News

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