Mindfulness is "paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, nonjudgmentally."
-- John Kabat Zinn
The Monastery and the Microscope: Conversations with the Dalai Lama on Mind, Mindfulness, and the Nature of Reality by
An illuminating record of dialogues between the Dalai Lama and some of today's most prominent scientists, philosophers, and contemplatives In 2013, during a historic six-day meeting at a Tibetan monastery in southern India, the Dalai Lama gathered with leading scientists, philosophers, and monks for in-depth discussions on the nature of reality, consciousness, and the human mind. This eye-opening book presents a record of those spirited and wide-ranging dialogues, featuring contributions from prominent scholars like Richard Davidson, Matthieu Ricard, Tania Singer, and Arthur Zajonc as they address such questions as: Does nature have a nature? Do you need a brain to be conscious? Can we change our minds and brains through meditation? Throughout, the contributors explore the exciting and sometimes surprising commonalities between Western scientific and Tibetan Buddhist methods of perceiving, investigating, and knowing. Part history, part state-of-the-field, part inspiration for the future, this book rigorously and accessibly explores what these two investigative traditions can teach each other, and what that can tell us about ourselves and the world.
The Art and Science of Mindfulness: Integrating Mindfulness into Psychology and the Helping Professions by
Intention is fundamental to any project, endeavor, or journey. Related to intention is the concept of mindfulness -- the awareness that arises through intentionally attending to oneself and others in an open, caring, and nonjudgmental way. Authors Shapiro and Carlson draw from Eastern wisdom and practices as well as Western psychological theory and science to explore why mindful awareness is integral to the therapeutic healing process and to show clinicians how to connect with this deeper awareness. This second edition is an accessible discussion of the fundamentals and also contains new sections describing the latest research on the neuroscience of mindfulness and mechanisms of change. Integrating the art and science of mindfulness to inspire greater well-being in both clinicians and their patients, this volume bridges a gap between therapist and patient, reminding us that we are all human beings wanting health, happiness, and freedom from suffering.
Zen: The Authentic Gate by
Whether a beginner or at the highest level of practice, learn Zen from one of the greatest masters of the twentieth century. Why practice Zen? What sets Zen apart from religion? What are its different practices? These questions, and more, are examined and answered by Zen Master Koun Yamada, whose Dharma heirs include Robert Aitken, Ruben Habito, and David Loy. Through compelling stories and a systematic approach, he guides the reader through creating and sustaining a lifelong practice. Warm and ecumenical in tone, Koun uses the insights of Zen to bring a deeper understanding of faith. Zen: The Authentic Gate is an easy-to-follow guide to creating an effortless and natural practice regardless of background, tradition, or religion.
Contemplative Practices in Action: Spirituality, Meditation, and Health by
This groundbreaking primer illuminates contemplative methods that can improve mental and physical health. * Foreword by renowned author and scholar Huston Smith, subject of the five-part PBS special, The Wisdom of Faith with Huston Smith * Contributions from 13 expert authors * Case studies showing how contemplative practices are being used to cope with modern stress and disorders among groups as diverse as caregivers, pregnant women, people living with HIV, and veterans dealing with PTSD
You Are Here: Discovering the Magic of the Present Moment by
In this book Thich Nhat Hanh, the renowned Zen monk, author, and meditation master, distills the essence of Buddhist thought and practice, emphasizing the power of mindfulness to transform our lives. "Mindfulness is not an evasion or an escape," he explains. "It means being here, present, and totally alive. It is true freedom--and without this freedom, there is no happiness." Based on a retreat that Thich Nhat Hanh led for Westerners, this book offers a range of simple, effective practices for cultivating mindfulness, including awareness of breathing and walking, deep listening, and skillful speech. You Are Here also offers guidance on healing emotional pain and manifesting real love and compassion in our relationships with others. Simple, warm, direct, and startlingly potent, this book reveals the heart of the Buddhist path and helps us to reconnect with the joy and wonder of being alive, regardless of life's changing circumstances. Praise for Thich Nhat Hanh "Among Buddhist leaders influential in the West, Thich Nhat Hanh ranks second only to the Dalai Lama."--New York Times "Thich Nhat Hanh writes with the voice of the Buddha."--Sogyal Rinpoche, author of The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying
Meditation Works: In the Daoist, Buddhist, and Hindu Traditions by
Meditation is the inward focus of attention in a state of mind where ego-related concerns and critical evaluations are suspended in favor of perceiving a deeper, subtler, and possibly divine flow of consciousness. Usually accompanied by muscle relaxation, it has an overall beneficial and often healing effect. As such, it has made major inroads in Western society, aiding in stress relief, pain management, and various psychiatric conditions. Research in meditation tends to focus on the concrete healing effects of the practice, working either with a single form or using an indeterminate mixture of practices. So far studies work with minimal typologies often poorly defined and tend to neglect historical and cultural aspects. Meditation Works remedies this shortcoming. Based on extensive cultural studies and long years of practice, the author creates a new typology of meditation based on six distinct ways of access to the subconscious. In a special chapter on each type, she then outlines the physiology, worldview, and traditional practice as well as its modern medical adaptations and organizational settings. In each case, she substantiates her presentation with examples from the Daoist, Buddhist, and Hindu traditions. Providing a thorough theoretical framework combined with a comprehensive, analytical overview, the book greatly advances our understanding of meditation.
Five Good Minutes at Work: 100 Mindful Practices by
Five Minutes to a Happier, More Productive Workday Is your workday filled with chaos, stress and, at times, and inability to focus? Do you have mountains of projects ahead of you but no motivation to tackle them? In less time than you would spend on a coffee break, you can fill your workday with calm, balance, and serenity.Five Good Minutes® at Work, the third in the breakawayFive Good Minutes(tm) series, can help you transform your workday from tired and uninspired to engaged and productive in just a few good minutes. Whether sitting at your desk or ducking into the supply closet, you can include these stress-relieving and centering activities into even the busiest schedule. These practices can help you deal with difficult coworkers, tyrannical bosses, impossible deadlines, and more. Your five good minutes each day will reward you with increased productivity, reduced workplace conflict, and a sense of serenity that will start to spread to the rest of your life. Five Good Minutes is a trademark of New Harbinger Publications, Inc.
Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind by
"In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few." So begins this most beloved of all American Zen books. Seldom has such a small handful of words provided a teaching as rich as has this famous opening line of Shunryu Suzuki's classic. In a single stroke, the simple sentence cuts through the pervasive tendency students have of getting so close to Zen as to completely miss what it's all about. An instant teaching on the first page. And that's just the beginning. In the thirty years since its original publication, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind has become one of the great modern Zen classics, much beloved, much re-read, and much recommended as the best first book to read on Zen. Suzuki Roshi presents the basics--from the details of posture and breathing in zazen to the perception of nonduality--in a way that is not only remarkably clear, but that also resonates with the joy of insight from the first to the last page. It's a book to come back to time and time again as an inspiration to practice.
Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness by
Stress. It is everywhere around us. Even worse, it gets inside us: sapping our energy, undermining our health, and making us more vulnerable to anxiety, depression, and disease. Now, based on Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn’s renowned mindfulness-based stress reduction program, this groundbreaking book shows you how to use natural, medically proven methods to soothe and heal your body, mind, and spirit. By using the practices described within, you can learn to manage chronic pain resulting from illness and/or stress related disorders…discover the roles that anger and tension play in heart disease… reduce anxiety and feelings of panic…improve overall quality of life and relationships through mindfulness meditation and mindful yoga. More timely than ever before, Full Catastrophe Living is a book for the young and the old, the well, the ill, and anyone trying to live a healthier and saner life in today’s world.
Don't Just Do Something, Sit There: A Mindfulness Retreat by
Get away from doing and into being with this lively, down-to-earth guide to your own meditation retreat by beloved mindfulness meditation teacher Sylvia Boorstein. Presenting what Jon Kabat-Zinn has called "endearingly personal mindfulness wisdom," she offers a three-day retreat plan accompanied by timeless lessons -- always grounded in real life -- on how anyone can achieve calm, clarity and joy through meditation practices.
Mindfulness in Plain English by
A masterpiece...an extremely skillful offering of kindness, clarity and wisdom to drink from. --Jon Kabat-Zinn
Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life by
In the rush of modern life, we tend to lose touch with the peace that is available in each moment. World-renowned Zen master, spiritual leader, and author Thich Nhat Hanh shows us how to make positive use of the very situations that usually pressure and antagonize us. For him a ringing telephone can be a signal to call us back to our true selves. Dirty dishes, red lights, and traffic jams are spiritual friends on the path to "mindfulness"--the process of keeping our consciousness alive to our present experience and reality. The most profound satisfactions, the deepest feelings of joy and completeness lie as close at hand as our next aware breath and the smile we can form right now. Lucidly and beautifully written, Peace Is Every Step contains commentaries and meditations, personal anecdotes and stories from Nhat Hanh's experiences as a peace activist, teacher, and community leader. It begins where the reader already is--in the kitchen, office, driving a car, walking a part--and shows how deep meditative presence is available now. Nhat Hanh provides exercises to increase our awareness of our own body and mind through conscious breathing, which can bring immediate joy and peace. Nhat Hanh also shows how to be aware of relationships with others and of the world around us, its beauty and also its pollution and injustices. The deceptively simple practices of Peace Is Every Step encourage the reader to work for peace in the world as he or she continues to work on sustaining inner peace by turning the "mindless" into the mindFUL.
Mindfulness for Teens with ADHD: A Skill-Building Workbook to Help You Focus and Succeed by
Get focused, the mindful way! In Mindfulness for Teens with ADHD, a clinical social worker offers powerful skills based in mindfulness and neuroscience to help you succeed in all areas of life--at home, in school, with friends, and beyond! As if being a teen wasn't tough enough, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) can make everyday life even more difficult--from struggling in school to relationship troubles with family and friends. When you just can't focus, life can get lost in the balance. And to make matters worse, you might also feel stressed or have trouble sleeping and eating well. So, how can you gain focus and start feeling better right away? In Mindfulness for Teens with ADHD, a clinical social worker offers fast, easy mindfulness skills to help you successfully navigate all the areas of life, including making good choices, completing tasks, increasing academic success, excelling at sports, driving safely, getting enough sleep, managing stress, and more. By paying attention to the moment, you'll find yourself less distracted and better able to focus on what's going on right now--whether it's an algebra test, a job interview, or an important conversation with a friend. The mindfulness activities in this workbook will also help you build self-awareness and practice self-reflection--key skills to succeeding in life! These skills will help you start feeling more focused, less stressed, and gain confidence in your ability to reach your goals. So, what are you waiting for?
The Mindfulness and Acceptance Workbook for Depression by
What if depression could lead to positive change? Written by acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) cofounder Kirk Strosahl and Patricia Robinson, this revised edition of the best-selling classic,The Mindfulness and Acceptance Workbook for Depression includes updated research on self-compassion, mindfulness, and neuroscience to help you live a more meaningful life. If you suffer from depression, you may feel like you are living under a perpetual raincloud, even when it's sunny outside. If left untreated, clinical depression can damage relationships, cause problems at work, lead to substance abuse, and even make it more difficult to overcome physical illnesses. You may feel too tired and scared to reach out for help, or you may try to avoid your feelings altogether. But you should know that there are little, effective ways you can overcome your depression, one day at a time. This fully revised and updated second edition ofThe Mindfulness and Acceptance Workbook for Depression will show you how changing daily behaviors and practicing new mindfulness skills can literally reshape your brain. Rather than fruitlessly trying to avoid your depression, you'll learn to focus on living a productive life by accepting your feelings. There are hundreds of books that will try to help you overcome or put an end to depression. But what if you could use your depression to change your life for the better? Your symptoms may be signals that something in your life needs to change. Learning to understand and interpret these signals is much more important than ignoring or avoiding them--approaches that only make the situation worse. This workbook uses techniques from acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) to offer a new treatment plan for depression that will help accept your feelings instead of fruitlessly trying to avoid them. This new edition will include skills based on new research and contributions from mindfulness, self-compassion, and neuroscience. Using the skills outlined in this book, you'll be able to work through your depression, experience greater peace and well-being, and go on to create a better life.
Mind Clearing: The Key to Mindfulness Mastery by
Mind Clearing (MC) builds on mindfulness approaches, with the ultimate aim of reducing suffering caused by mental, emotional, relationship and spiritual distress, through clearing the mind. This book offers a fresh approach for mental and physical health practitioners wishing to expand their practice and for individuals wanting to improve health and happiness at a fundamental level. The first book to explore Mind Clearing within the context of modern practice, this book looks at its origins, key principles and interpretations to aid understanding of the approach. With examples from practice and clear guidelines on the 'Do's and Don'ts' of Mind Clearing, practitioners and individuals will feel confident in carrying out the approach, and will learn to communicate effectively by dissolving the mind and the projections and fixed attitudes that it represents.
Psychology of Mindfulness by
In our daily attempt to make sense of life and the world, we come to realise that appropriation of life hinges upon our mindfulness. Being alert to how we dwell in the interior and exterior landscapes of our existence may yet turn around the present modes of living into a salutary condition and/or a better direction. And yet, in what sense(s) does "mindfulness" matter to us for genuinely experiencing our mortal time and for (re-)creation of the world? How successfully does "mindfulness" intervene the psycho-somatic experience of predicaments and enable us to better cope with times of distress and suffering? This book is an interdisciplinary collection of studies on mindfulness explored and discussed by the authors from different walks of life, disciplines and interests. It offers a rich set of interventions related to the practice of mindfulness meditations which effectively reduces human predicaments of menstrual-stress, neurosis, loneliness, anxiety, trauma, forgetfulness, and distress over cancer, fear of dying alone, mourning, etc., gathered by the authors through their research, teaching, and practice from the fields of philosophy, psychology, medicine, therapy, social work, education and fine arts. The authors in this volume are thus attuned to the menace of recognisable objectivism and objectification of intrinsically interconnected lives of things, and are seeking, through their studies, ways of overcoming a tyranny of the "I" under a zenith of its objectivism in our cultural climate. Accordingly, this volume includes also three informative essays on the Mahayana Buddhist traditions in India and China, Japanese Sōtō Zen practice of Dōgen, and a comparative study of meditation between the Western and the Eastern traditions of spirituality, so as to shed light on the historical and philosophical backgrounds of mindfulness meditation of the far East. This collection of essays closes with mindfulness as an issue of "interspecies, human-animal relations". In order to find a step beyond the epoch of anthropocentrism, this book will extend our alertness to non-human animals wherein the essential traits of mankind have been repeatedly drawn and appropriated in the history of man. In conclusion, the book will examine new possibilities in the mind of the reader for seeking a way of authentic co-belonging with other species and of building a new ēthos beyond the age of objectivism and anthropocentrism.
Mindfulness Made Simple: An Introduction to Finding Calm Through Mindfulness & Meditation by
Ease Your Anxiety and Find Calm with the Ancient and Popular Practice of Mindfulness A modern practice with ancient roots, mindfulness is widely recognized for its calming, healing, and restorative effects. Mindfulness and meditation can help you relieve stress, regulate your emotions, achieve focus and clarity, strengthen your communication skills, and cultivate an appreciation for what is most important to you. Based on centuries of experience and new techniques in the field of psychology, Mindfulness Made Simple shows how to bring mindfulness and meditation into your daily life. Mindfulness Made Simple offers inspiring and practical guidance, with: Foreword by noted psychologist Elisha Goldstein, Ph.D. Brief history of mindfulness and its growing impact in the present day Step-by-step introduction to your first meditation 5 further meditations and 8 advanced meditations to deepen your practice Simple exercises and journal prompts to support your mindfulness journey Inspirational quotes and tips to help you stay focused and motivated With Mindfulness Made Simple, the full benefits of a soothing and healthy mindfulness practice are only a few simple exercises away.
Psychology of Meditation by
Our understanding of the nature and applications of meditation, especially mindfulness meditation, has been expanding almost as rapidly as the empirical evidence from neuroscience and intervention studies that have become available in the research literature. Meditation is centuries old and prevalent in almost all ancient cultures in one form or another. Initially, people in the West were enamoured by its spiritual promise of personal transformation, but now a larger portion is attracted to mindfulness meditation (Vipassana or insight meditation) because of the promise of enhanced physical and mental well-being. Indeed, research shows that engaging in a daily practice of meditation for 20 to 30 minutes a day over 8 weeks produces new neural networks in the brain, attesting to observable calmness and clarity of perception. This book brings together a diverse group of experts who collectively provide a nuanced view of meditation from a variety of perspectives. This book offers a single-source authoritative guide to an ancient practice that is coming into its own in the Western world.
INtheFLOW : Taking Mindfulness to Work: the Power of Noticing the Small Stuff by 
Mindfulness at Work: Flourishing in the Workplace by 
Meditating Selflessly: Practical Neural Zen by
This is not the usual kind of self-help book. Indeed, its major premise heeds a Zen master's advice to be less self-centered. Yes, it is one more book of words about Zen, as the author concedes, yet this book explains meditative practices from the perspective of a neural Zen. The latest findings in brain research inform its suggestions. In Meditating Selflessly, James Austin--Zen practitioner, neurologist, and author of three acclaimed books on Zen and neuroscience--guides readers toward that open awareness already awaiting them on the cushion and in the natural world. Austin offers concrete advice--often in a simplified question-and-answer format--about different ways to meditate. He clarifies both the concentrative and receptive styles of meditation. Having emphasized that top-down and bottom-up forms of attention are complementary, he then explains how long-term meditators can become increasingly selfless when they cultivate both styles of attention in a balanced manner. This, Austin explains, is because our networks of attention are normally engaged in an inverse, reciprocal, seesaw relationship with the different regions that represent our autobiographical self. Drawing widely from the exciting new field of contemplative neuroscience, Austin helps resolve an ancient paradox: why both insight wisdom and selflessness arise simultaneously during enlightened states of consciousness.
Conquest of Mind: Take Charge of Your Thoughts and Reshape Your Life Through Meditation by
Easwaran takes the timeless teachings of the Buddha and other mystics and shows how we can train the mind not just during meditation but throughout the day. Feeling trapped by unwanted thoughts and emotions can seem an inevitable part of life. But Easwaran, who taught meditation for nearly forty years, shows a way to break free. Just as a fitness routine can create a strong, supple body, spiritual disciplines can shape a secure personality and a resilient, loving mind. Writing as an experienced, friendly coach, Easwaran takes the timeless teachings of the Buddha and other mystics and shows how we can train the mind not just during meditation but throughout the day. Working with difficult colleagues, choosing what to eat, and listening to a child's needs are all opportunities to try out different, wiser responses. Easwaran shows how training the mind is a glorious challenge - one that brings joy and purpose to life.
The practice of mindfulness meditation is becoming popular in schools, in corporations and even on Capitol Hill. Correspondent Lucky Severson speaks with mindfulness teacher Jon Kabat-Zinn and Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan about how this Buddhist practice can help ease anxiety and promote compassion. 8:48 min.
The ancient Buddhist meditation of mindfulness has become a popular tool in psychotherapy over the last decade. After introducing the audience to the history of mindfulness, Dr. Gehart creates experiences through breathing and eating meditations. The viewer is peacefully inducted into the mindfulness meditation. 41:33 min.
Is meditation the key to fostering a happier, more productive workplace? New York Times reporter David Gelles investigates this claim and compares notes with a neuroscientist who specializes in the effect of meditation on the brain, Christopher Moore. 58:19 min.