This book is a rhapsody in eight parts on the transformative power of mindfulness in our personal lives and in our lives as individuals embedded in the larger world. Dr. Kabat-Zinn describes how, through paying attention, by both literally and metaphorically coming to our senses, we can live our lives much more as if they really mattered and realize, in ways both little and big, the full extent of our potential as human beings. He reminds us that living in this way is the adventure of a lifetime, and that it is both tremendously freeing and profoundly healing to be present in the only moments in which we ever have to live. He explains that meditation is not what you think, whatever you think it is, all puns intended, and that in our ADD (attention deficit disorder) society, the power of training ourselves to pay attention wisely and effectively in the face of chronic “dis-ease” and disease is no longer a luxury but an absolute necessity for our emotional, physical, and spiritual health, again, as individuals and as a society.
This book builds on Jon’s previous work, and extends the reader’s practical understanding of how to implement the practice of mindfulness meditation in meaningful ways in his, her, or their life. It offers an entirely new level of both understanding and practice. Through personal stories of his own early experiences with meditation and meditation teachers, through the use of extraordinary poetry, through simple explanations of the science of the mind/body connection set in the context of the history of the universe and of the evolution of life and of our species, and through describing the roots of mindfulness in the Buddhist tradition and how mindfulness is not exclusively Buddhist, but a universal pathway to sanity and well-being, Jon paints a comprehensive and compelling picture of our true potential as a species for healing our own destructive tendencies and for living more meaningful lives of deep satisfaction, well-being, and happiness through cultivating and embodying what is already deepest and best in ourselves, starting always and in each moment from where we are now – with huge acceptance and loving kindness toward ourselves, whatever our circumstances.
Formal and informal mindfulness practices making use of all our senses – the five traditional ones and others – including the mind itself and its capacity for awareness, are described in great detail with simple and practical suggestions all along the way for implementing their embodiment in our everyday lives through seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, and knowing what is being experienced in any moment. An entire section describes the science of the mind/body connection and the results of a number of studies from Dr. Kabat-Zinn’s work in the Stress Reduction Clinic that show the effects of mindfulness and mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) on our potential for healing and for not only coping, but even thriving in the face of chronic levels of stress, as well as working with chronic medical conditions, physical and emotional pain, and disease. Other sections describe in deeply personal as well as universal terms, various aspects of the challenges we face in coming to our senses in this time-accelerated world of perpetual distraction and multi-tasking, the potential for mindfulness and what has been learned in mind/body medicine over the past forty-plus years to diagnose, treat, and effectively heal the body politic as well as the body, and how all this fits into a comprehensive view of our small planet and its fragility and how important the refining of our species’ innate capacity for wisdom and compassion is to its short and long-term health, and our own. The book maintains a light and humorful tone throughout, consistent with the suggestion that mindfulness itself is a way of being, and a way of seeing, one that is far too important and serious for us to take too seriously without a huge dose of lightheartedness and an appreciation for our own pratfalls and self-induced delusions, especially about who we are and where we are going when we forget our deeper nature and drift far from it in both our minds and our lives.