Jon Kabat-Zinn Essays

Jon Kabat-Zinn Essays Jon Kabat-Zinn Essay Jon Kabat-Zinn Essay Jon Kabat-Zinn, in his most recent book: Coming to Our Senses: Healing Ourselves and the Mind Through Mindfulness is an important addition to the concept of self discovery. In an age when more and more people are looking for the all healing â€Å"self help book,† Kabat-Zinn offers a  more serious and scholarly look at the benefits of meditation, motivation, mindfulness and the ability to use them in every day life, not just to avoid stress in one’s life, but to reach a higher plain of understanding that is beyond what society has trained our minds to absorb every day. Kabat-Zinn teaches the reader to retrain their mind and to erase the years of harmful conditioning that many in the West have experienced. Kabat-Zinn brings together the many understandings of the self, not just from the Buddhist definitions but uses Western thinkers as well as cites them in his arguments. Some of his favorite Western sources included Einstein and Henry David Thoreau to name only a few. In the end, a book is most successful when the reader can take away from the work of the author, something of practical use in their life. Coming to Our Senses is one such book. In the areas of conflict  and conflict resolution, empathy, mindfulness, meditation and the authenticity of one’s self, Coming to Our Senses offers a helpful guide and reminder of what one can truly be when they allow their mind to be relaxed, void of any outside factors and to let it roam free from any such impediments. Only then can the self become alive and be allowed to roam free and which will help the individual to reach their full potential in all of the above mentioned categories. One of the most important points that Kabat-Zinn includes in his book is the concept of meditation. He defines meditation as: â€Å"a way of being, or, you could say, a way of seeing, a way of knowing, even a way of loving.†[1] In much of this chapter in meditation, Kabati-Zinn tries to dispel the common myths and misunderstandings about meditation which are so very common in Western thought. The growth of yoga and other alternative ways in which to become mentally and spiritually well, it has made some progress in pealing away the erroneous assumptions about meditation. In the event that the reader is not aware of this recent growth, Kabat-Zinn repeats what meditation is not: â€Å"Meditation is not relaxation spelt differently†¦. Mindfulness is the embrace of any practice, pain, or anguish, or for that matter boredom or impatience of frustration or anxiety or tension in the body†¦Ã¢â‚¬ [2] Kabati-Zinn goes on to try to explain meditation as: â€Å"It is the non- clinging, and therefore the clear perceiving and the willingness to act appropriately within whatever circumstance are arising that constitute this way of being that we are calling meditation.†[3]   Kabati-Zinn repeats that meditation is not just the ability to flip a switch in the brain and somehow, one is in a perpetual state of meditation. This is a simplified and incorrect belief on meditation and one which is perpetuated by the media and the culture of the West. Kabat-Zinn has been credited with trying to bridge the gap between the Western and Eastern thought and through his series of books on meditation and the self, many believe, has come very close in achieving this most lofty goal. My personal experience on meditation, I used to think, was relatively new. In a sense, I was enjoying the benefits of meditation without making a conscious effort to be meditating. This seems to be the reality of many people in America. Americans are now busier now then at any time in history. Despite having more cost and time saving appliances at our disposal than ever before, Americans have used these inventions to actually make people busier today than in the past. This, often times, leads to stress and therefore the need for periods of meditation are that much more important. Even as a teenager, I enjoyed being busy and productive but could not cope with my every day requirements and needs unless, at some time during that day, I was alone with my thoughts. Quiet walks at night, regardless of the weather, in which the events of the day are summed up and reflected upon, was always an essential part of my day. I discovered that those days in which I felt that I did not have the time for such things, I end up being more irritable and made careless decisions in the coming days. The positive effect of meditating on the events of the previous day or week and attempting to group them in a passive and indirect way, completely in tune with the guidelines of meditation, I found to be advantageous in every sense of the word. Therefore, not only is my opinion favorable towards the need for meditation, but I have seen it first hand in my own life and there existed a major difference in the level of happiness that I had when I made a habit of setting aside a portion of the day in which to meditate around my thoughts or more commonly, to just let my mind roam free; completely void of the numerous stimuli which often times, impedes one’s level of happiness in their daily lives. One of the next concepts which Kabat-Zinn covers in his book Coming to Our Senses is the idea of mindfulness. â€Å"Mindfulness meditation is most commonly taught and practiced within the context of Buddhism, its essence is universal†¦ Yet it is no accident that mindfulness comes out of Buddhism, which has as its overriding concerns, the relief of suffering and the dispelling of illusions.†[4] In this, Kabat-Zinn ties in the usefulness of mindfulness and meditation as it relates to the health and well being of the body and mind. In the introduction, Kabat-Zinn reminds the reader: â€Å"The journey towards health and sanity is nothing less than an invitation to wake up to the fullness of our lives as if they actually mattered.†[5] In a day when the cost of health care is skyrocketing and drug companies are charging insane amounts on single prescription doses; so much to the degree that often times, people have to chose between eating that day or taking one of the do zens of medications that their doctor has prescribed for them; not only for a month but many times, for the rest of their lives and as a result, placing the individual in a perpetual state of fiscal, mental and physical dependence upon an outside source other than one’s own mind. Kabat-Zinn teaches that through the preventative measure of defeating stress and in the pursuit of a deeper understanding of one’s own self, many of these diseases can be avoided. In each of the eight major sections of the Coming to Our Senses, Kabat-Zinn explores the many different areas of one’s ability to heal oneself. The power of the mind and the advantages of it being in a continued restful state, according to Kabat-Zinn, are advantageous on many different levels. In the spirit of this, Kabat-Zinn has developed an eight week program in which many of these issues are tackled. In 1979 I started a Stress Reduction Clinic. Thinking back to that era, I ask myself now, What stress? so much has our world changed since then, so much has the pace of life increased and the vagaries and dangers of the world come to our doorstep as never before. If looking squarely at our personal situation and circumstances and finding novel and imaginative ways to work with them in the service of health and healing was important then, it is infinitely more important and urgent now, inhabiting as we do a world that has been thrown into heightened chaos and speed in the unfolding of events, even as it has become far more interconnected and smaller.†[6] Its main focus is stress, the individual being able to identify it and to avoid its physical and mental dangers that stress can lead to in the individual. Kabat-Zinn also writes: â€Å"Thich Nhat Hanh, the Vietnamese Zen master, mindfulness teacher, poet, and peace activist, aptly points out that one reason we might want to pra ctice mindfulness is that most of the time we are unwittingly practicing its opposite. Every time we get angry we get better at being angry and reinforce the anger habit. When it is really bad, we say we see red, which means we dont see accurately what is happening at all, and so, in that moment, you could say we have lost our mind. Every time we become self-absorbed, we get better at becoming self-absorbed and going unconscious.†[7] This moves into the practical use of being mindful of one’s own self. This will become truer, I feel, once I get older but it is a well established fact that stress leads to a wearing down of the body and as a result, makes the individual more suspect able to sickness and disease. This is an opinion of Kabat-Zinn to which I completely concur with as I have experienced such events in my own life and as a result, with the help of Coming to Our Senses, is more likely to identify these stressors in my life and their effects upon my own life. One example of this would be the time in which I was studying for my finals during on particular semester. I had made the mistake of many of my classmates in the fact that the knowledge that the final would be comprehensive was told to us a full month before the final was to be administered. I had been careless in my preparation for these examinations and had not used my time wisely or effectively. As a result, and which millions of college students from around the world have experienced as well, I was stressed out and rushed during that last week leading up to finals.   I was worried about the marks that I would receive in these classes; all of which were difficult classes which did not deal with my subjects of familiarity. As a result, during that last week, I was short tempered, was prone to anger and did not have a complete control of my emotions and senses. However, what would be a more lasting effect would be the average marks which I received on my exams as well as being physically and mentally run down by the time the process was complete. I did not have a heart attack or suffer a mental breakdown; two of the more serious results of an overstressed life, but by the end of final’s week, and perhaps even in the middle of my exams, I felt sick and run down. I had experienced high levels of stress in my life which affected my sleep pattern. This in turn, affected my mental and physical state which resulted in receiving only average marks on my exam. This did not stop the worry and st ress in my life but perpetuated it as I now began to worry about how these low grades would impede my future academic career and if it would help to set the course for a less than stellar academic career. Within this experience, there are obvious elements of responsibility and the importance of planning but there will also occur in one’s own life, elements of stress which came about from no fault of the individual. In those instances as well as in situations which could have been avoided, being in touch with one’s mindfulness and knowing the role that it plays in one’s life, is not only helpful, but essential according to Kabat-Zinn, if the individual wishes to remain mentally and physically stable. Another main point of Coming to Our Senses by Jon Kabat-Zinn is the idea that successful meditation and mindfulness is not an easy process which many believe to be so. This is an all important process which requires constant attention and effort on the part of the individual. If the book could be summed up in three words, they would have to be: â€Å"Stop, look and listen!† as these are repeated in Coming to Our Senses.   Successful meditation, despite there existing more knowledge on the subject than ever before in the West, is met with more hurdles and challenges than ever before as there are more stressors and competitors for an individual’s time than ever before. In one of the most important and insightful passages in the book, Kabat-Zinn gives what may seem to be a simple recipe for contentment but is really a profound statement and one which many people will try but fail to truly achieve: â€Å"So, from the point of view of awareness, any state of mind is a med itative state. Anger or sadness is just as interesting and useful and valid to look into as enthusiasm or delight, and far more valuable than a blank mind, a mind that is insensate, out of touch. Anger, fear, terror, sadness, resentment, impatience, enthusiasm, delight, confusion, disgust, contempt, envy, rage, lust, even dullness, doubt, and torpor, in fact all mind states and body states are occasions to know ourselves better if we can stop, look, and listen, in other words, if we can come to our senses and be intimate with what presents itself in awareness in any and every moment.†[8] When this is realized and understood, the individual possesses a profound advantage over his neighbor who does not realize that often times, people are their worst enemy. When one is able to listen to one’s own self to a greater degree, than that same individual cannot help but listen to others more deeply in the process. This is very helpful in conflict and conflict resolution. Often times, disputes between individuals or even entire countries, can come from an inability or unwillingness to fully listen to the other side. All over the world, disputes are beginning and often times, will have lasting effects, all because the individuals involved were not willing to listen to the other side. Kabat-Zinn, when talking about the importance of mindfulness, states: â€Å"By the same token, it has an equal capacity to influence the larger world within which we are seamlessly embedded, including our family, our work, the society as a whole and how we see ourselves as a people, what I am calling the body politic, and the body of the world, of all of us together on this planet. And all this can come about through your own experience of the practice of mi ndfulness by virtue of that much embedded ness and the reciprocal relationships between inner and outer, and between being and doing.†[9] It is important and many would say, self-evident that one recognizes the importance that mindfulness has, not only with then individuals involved, but in relation to the conflicts which currently plague the world. In the same way, one who implements these practices into their own daily lives, will have a greater sense of empathy towards others. Kabat-Zinn states: â€Å"See if you can give yourself gifts that may be true blessings, such as self-acceptance, or some time each day with no purpose. Practice feeling deserving enough to accept these gifts without obligation-to simply receive from yourself, and from the universe.[10] In this sense, people who respect themselves more, cannot help but respect others in the process. This also ties into the need for meditation as only in those quiet and personal times of soul searching can one free their minds in order to concentrate on their relationship with themselves and others. Through self evaluation, one can then be more readily available to possess empathy for others. Those who know nothing of themselves and their senses, cannot hope to learn and communicate the hurts of others in any consistent and successful way. This, at least, has been my exp erience. Stress and an individual’s inability to know one’s self, is at the root of many problems, both mentally and physically, internally and externally, within a community and the world. Stress leads to a disconnect from the senses as well as the inability to listen to the needs of one’s own mind and body. Kabat- Zinn writes in Coming to Our Senses as a fitting summation: â€Å"But for the particular exploration we will be undertaking together in these pages and in our lives, I find it is both useful and illuminating to draw upon the work of those special people on our planet who devote themselves to the language of the mind and heart that we call poetry.†[11] In the same way some of the great navigators explored the world or how scientists explore aspects of this world which will forever remain a mystery to the lay observer, it is thus, equally important for the individual to explore their own mind through meditation and mindfulness. This will not occur overnig ht and the process is much more arduous than popular culture may lead the individual to believe. However, Kabat-Zinn believes, that those who seek the truth within their own mind and who implement mind-body therapies within their own lives, will not only have an advantage over those who do not, but will be able to communicate on a higher plane with those who practice similar techniques and thus,   will come to a deeper understanding of one’s own self as the true ability of each individual’s five separate senses. In order to achieve this, constant and consistent effort on the part of the individual is required. However, Kabat-Zinn believes that the effort is easily worth the reward.