How to Start (Restart, or Upgrade) Your Meditation Practice: A Master Class | Jon Kabat-Zinn
Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD, professor of medicine emeritus, discusses the practicalities of starting or deepening a secular meditation practice. He emphasizes being fully present with no agenda, investigating motivations, and letting go of 'the story of me' to live life more fully and authentically.
Deep Dive Analysis
15 Topic Outline
Introduction to Jon Kabat-Zinn and MBSR
Jon Kabat-Zinn's Non-Negotiable Practice: Effortless Discipline
Meditating in Bed and 'Falling Awake'
The Essence of Meditation: Just Being and Awareness
Body Posture and Tuning Your Instrument for Wakefulness
Befriending the Breath and the Boundless Nature of Awareness
The Miraculous and Impermanent Nature of Human Life
Transforming the 'Story of Me' and Cultivating Compassion
The Geopolitical Case for Mindfulness and Global Governance
Life Before Death: Rebooting and Living Fully
The Importance of Motivation and Intention in Practice
Exploring Different Meditation Styles: 'Many Doors, Same Room'
Derek Walcott's 'Love After Love' and Feasting on Life
Embracing Not Knowing and Living with Integrity
Mindfulness as a Societal and Global Transformation
8 Key Concepts
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)
Invented by Jon Kabat-Zinn, MBSR is a secular and replicable eight-week protocol that teaches Buddhist meditation, enabling scientists to study its health benefits in regular people.
Effortless Discipline
This describes Jon Kabat-Zinn's approach to meditation, where it's not a rigid burden but a natural, commonsensical 'love affair' with living life fully, moment by moment, without missing its richness.
Mind Sitting vs. Body Sitting
While physical posture is important as a foundation, 'mind sitting' refers to the interior posture and attitude of opening to and taking up residency in awareness, which is the core of the practice.
Awareness as Boundless Space
Awareness is characterized as having no center or periphery, similar to the boundless spaciousness of the universe. It is our default mode, though often obscured by distractions, thoughts, and emotions.
The 'Story of Me'
This refers to the limited and often limiting narratives we construct about our personal identity, which can imprison us and prevent us from accessing the true, boundless nature of our being.
Papancha
A term for the proliferations of thoughts and emotions in the mind that lack substance, like dreams. Recognizing papancha helps in not getting lost in or personally controlled by these mental phenomena.
Life Before Death
This concept emphasizes the importance of living fully and consciously in the present moment, rather than existing in a state of driven automaticity that overlooks one's own beauty and the richness of life.
Many Doors, Same Room
An analogy used to describe the diverse styles and traditions of meditation. It suggests that while the specific paths or 'doors' may differ, they ultimately lead to the same fundamental experience of awareness and the human heart, the 'room'.
10 Questions Answered
He views his formal meditation as a 'love affair' and an 'effortless discipline,' focusing on living life fully moment by moment, rather than a rigid, burdensome routine.
Yes, Jon Kabat-Zinn, in his late 70s, advocates for meditating in bed, even in the corpse pose, to 'finish the job' of waking up and formally engaging with awareness.
It involves opening to the momentary experience without trying to achieve anything, simply 'being' or 'falling awake,' and taking up residency in awareness, rather than trying to get relaxed or clear the mind.
While body posture is important for embodying wakefulness and dignity (e.g., sitting erect), the 'mind sitting' or interior posture of taking up residency in awareness is ultimately more crucial.
The goal is not to clear the mind, but to investigate the part of you that *knows* the mind is unclear, which is awareness itself. The discipline is noticing when you get sucked into thoughts and returning to awareness.
Befriending the breath sensations is very helpful for beginners, but the attending (the function of awareness) is more important than the object of attention itself.
The 'story of me' refers to the limited narratives we tell ourselves about our identity, which can be imprisoning and prevent us from recognizing the boundless and whole nature of our being.
For MBSR, 45 minutes a day, six days a week, was established to allow time for discomfort or mind states to arise and be worked with. However, for individual practice, the time doesn't matter as much as the love and intention to drop into life and experience being.
Deep motivation is crucial because New Year's resolutions often fade. One should inquire if the motivation is merely self-improvement or a deeper feeling of missing an essential element in life, aiming for greater authenticity.
Jon Kabat-Zinn uses the analogy 'many doors, same room,' suggesting that the specific style (door) is less important than entering the 'room' of the human heart and awareness itself.
17 Actionable Insights
1. Reframe Meditation as Being
Reframe meditation as ‘just being’ or ‘falling awake,’ opening to the actuality of momentary experience without trying to achieve specific outcomes like relaxation or clearing the mind. This approach helps you recognize your inherent awareness rather than striving for something you already possess.
2. Investigate Deep Motivation for Practice
Deeply inquire into your motivation for practice, looking beyond superficial goals like self-improvement or stress reduction to discover a deeper, essential missing element in your life. This helps sustain your practice by connecting it to a profound personal need.
3. Practice Presence with No Agenda
Practice being fully present with no agenda, reveling in being alive and marveling at the actuality of the moment, accepting whatever arises as part of the curriculum. This cultivates a non-judgmental awareness that transforms how you live and relate to others.
4. Translate Practice Off Cushion
Ensure your formal meditation practice translates into daily life, living each moment as if it mattered, showing up fully in all waking moments. This prevents meditation from being a mere burden and integrates awareness into your entire existence.
5. Let Go of ‘Story of Me’
Practice letting go of the limiting narratives and ’the story of me’ that constantly run in your mind, recognizing that these constructs imprison you. This allows access to your boundless awareness and a new dimension of humanity.
6. Meditate in Bed
Consider practicing lying down meditation in bed, perhaps in the corpse pose, to formally attend to the body and awareness without needing to jump out of bed. This encourages waking up fully in the moment you arise.
7. Tune Your Instrument Daily
Begin your day by ’tuning your instrument’ (yourself) with meditation, ideally first thing in the morning, before engaging in daily activities. This makes you more functional and present throughout the day.
8. Devote Formal Time to Practice
Dedicate a formal, consistent time to practice, regardless of whether the experience is pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral, understanding there’s no such thing as a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ meditation. This nurtures your connection to mindfulness and builds discipline.
9. Befriend Breath and Body
For beginners, befriend the breath sensations in the body and bring full awareness to the body sitting in a posture of wakefulness and dignity. This provides a stable anchor for attention and helps cultivate presence.
10. Prioritize Attending Over Object
Recognize that the act of ‘attending’ (awareness) is more important than the specific object of attention (e.g., breath in belly or nostrils). This shifts focus to the quality of presence itself.
11. Investigate Awareness’s Boundlessness
Investigate the nature of awareness by trying to find its center or periphery, realizing it is boundless and spacious, like the universe. This helps you recognize your profound interconnectedness and move beyond self-centeredness.
12. Take Responsibility for Emotions
Take responsibility for your emotional reactions instead of blaming others, recognizing when you ’take the bait’ or personalize situations. This empowers you to respond with clarity and kindness rather than being controlled by reactivity.
13. ‘Die’ to Past and Future
Practice ‘dying’ to the figments of imagination, past memories, future worries, and narratives that constantly create mental noise, to fully wake up to being in the body in this present moment. This prevents you from missing out on life by being lost in thought.
14. Recognize Inherent Wholeness
Recognize that you are already whole and beautiful, including all imperfections, rather than striving to become a ‘better person’ through meditation. This understanding fosters self-acceptance and impacts how you interact with the world.
15. Don’t Attach to Meditation Styles
Don’t get caught up in specific meditation styles, teachers, or traditions, recognizing they are all ‘doors to the same room’ of the human heart and awareness. The devotion should be to awareness itself, not to a particular method.
16. Be Mindfulness Activist
Live with integrity and take deeply informed stands, becoming an ‘activist of mindfulness’ to minimize harm and maximize well-being for all. This extends personal practice to contribute to global governance and peace.
17. Be Aware of Not Knowing
Be aware of how much you don’t know, even when you think you do, and remain open to new insights that can challenge your current understanding. This prevents your existing knowledge from blinding you to new possibilities.
10 Key Quotes
If the meditation practice isn't life itself, at least in all waking moments, then I don't think there's much point in keeping your rear end on the cushion for extended periods of time unless it translates off the cushion.
Jon Kabat-Zinn
The most important thing is the interior posture, which includes the attitude of why would I wake up early and I'm a big advocate of starting the day this way, just like we're starting the year with various intentions.
Jon Kabat-Zinn
The problem is access to it because we're so distracted and lost in thought and emotions and, you know, sort of the story of me going on constantly in the mind.
Jon Kabat-Zinn
You're already whole, W-H-O-L-E. No matter what you think is wrong with you, you're perfect, including all the imperfections.
Jon Kabat-Zinn
The idea is not to clear your mind. The part of you that knows that your mind is unclear or agitated or turbulent, investigate that part because that part is called awareness and it's not turbulent or, you know, unclear.
Jon Kabat-Zinn
I went to the woods because I wish to live deliberately to front only the essential facts of life and see if I could not learn what they had to teach and not when I came to die, you know, that moment right before you die, when you really wake up, discover that I hadn't lived.
Henry David Thoreau (quoted by Jon Kabat-Zinn)
Oprah, I had virtually no interest in the question of life after death. I'm interested in the question of whether there's life before death.
Jon Kabat-Zinn
Motivation is everything. So you have to inquire in a certain way, what is my deep motivation for doing this?
Jon Kabat-Zinn
The devotion needs to be to awareness itself. It's completely impersonal.
Jon Kabat-Zinn
Sit, feast on your life.
Derek Walcott (quoted by Jon Kabat-Zinn)
2 Protocols
MBSR Core Practice (as described by Jon Kabat-Zinn)
Jon Kabat-Zinn- Practice for 45 minutes a day.
- Practice six days a week.
- Allow time for boredom, discomfort, anxiety, or ennui to set in, providing opportunities to relate to them wisely through the lens of practice.
Starting a Formal Meditation Practice (as described by Jon Kabat-Zinn)
Jon Kabat-Zinn- Bring full awareness to the body sitting in a posture that embodies wakefulness and dignity (e.g., erect, not falling forward/backward/sideways, with a forward-facing lordotic curve in the spine).
- If sitting on a Zafu, sit on the forward part to naturally tilt the pelvis forward (adjust for body configuration; sitting on a chair is fine if sitting on the floor is difficult).
- Greet the breath and the body, welcoming the 'infinite mystery' of each breath, recognizing that it's always 'this breath' that is important.
- Befriend the breath sensations in the body, keeping in mind that the 'attending' (the function of awareness) is what's most important, not the object of attention itself.
- Recognize that the goal is not to get anywhere else, improve, or become a great meditator, but to simply drop into your life and live it in moments where you're not filling it with doing, but just experiencing being, and opening to what is.