Naomi Morris wrote an article for the L. A. Times entitled “Fully experiencing the present: a practice for everyone, religious or not.” The article focuses on the pioneering mindfulness work of Jon Kabat-Zinn (featured here on Mindfulness Matters a couple of times). Jon has taught mindfulness through Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction as a secularized practice of training attention. In the article he says,

“I don’t have to use the word ‘spiritual,'” he said. “Part of it is the
power of silence and stillness. And part of that power is the power of
healing that happens when you move from the domain of doing to being.
It’s transformative.”

In fact, there have been rabbis, priests and even an imam who have
taken Kabat-Zinn’s eight-week MBSR training course and told him that it
deepened their experience of their own faiths.

The imam told him the practice was “totally consistent” with Islam,
Kabat-Zinn said. Priests said MBSR reminded them of why they first went
into the seminary and allowed them to transmit their faith more
effectively to their flocks. Kabat-Zinn noted that even Mother Teresa
described her conversations with God as mutual silence.

“Is silence Jewish or Christian or Buddhist? Is awareness Jewish or
Christian?” said Kabat-Zinn. Mindfulness principles are found on every
continent in every culture, he added.”We’re born with this capacity.
It’s about cultivating it.”

Secular doesn’t suggest a dilution of the dharma. It’s intact in MBSR; just not explicit.

Mindfulness, thanks to articles like this, is becoming a household word. MBSR has gone from the original Stress Reduction Clinic at the U Mass Medical Center in 1979 to 200 medical centers worldwide and hundreds of individual practitioners like myself who teach mindfulness in their communities.

Join the revolution!