Imagine what our story would look like if, rather than succumbing to the insistent voices of family or culture, we determined that our vocation was to be a better human. Many, if not most of us, will have run through our lives and never really been here, never really experienced precious moments of mindfulness, asked why, or felt ourselves in the presence of mystery, whether found in the beloved, in nature, in contemplation, in the work of hands, or in whatever venues mystery comes to find us. [James Hollis, What Matters Most: Living a More Considered Life, Gotham / Penguin, 2009, p. 184]
The benefits of a mindfulness practice are personal
and can be quite diverse. Here are some reasons why I practice mindfulness meditation, and why I think you should too:
– To be more aware of your experiences in the present, and when you’re lost in thoughts of the past or future.
– To recognize automatic behaviors, feelings, and judgments; to think and act more deliberately.
– To be more sensitive to your body and its relation to the mind.
– To take greater care about what you take in (food, drink, sights, sounds, media of all kinds).
– To create moments of peace and composure in the midst of anxiety.
– To cultivate a mentality of self-care and compassion.
Below are some passages that introduce the concept of mindfulness meditation. They can be good reminders of basic principles as you begin your practice.
Knowing what you are doing while you are doing it is the essence of mindfulness practice. … This leads directly to new ways of seeing and being in your life because the present moment, whenever it is recognized and honored, reveals a very special, indeed magical power: it is the only time that any of us ever has. [Jon Kabat-Zinn, Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness, 1990, Bantam, 2013, p. 16]
All [mindfulness] involves is cultivating our ability to pay attention in the present moment as we suspend our judging, or at least, as we become aware of how much judging is usually going on within us. … One way to think of this process of transformation is to think of mindfulness as a lens, taking the scattered and reactive energies of your mind and focusing them into a coherent source of energy for living, for problem solving, and for healing.
We routinely and unknowingly waste enormous amounts of energy in reacting automatically and unconsciously to the outside world and to our own inner experiences. Cultivating mindfulness means learning to tap into and focus our own wasted energies. In doing so, we learn to calm down enough to enter and dwell in extended moments of deep well-being and relaxation, of feeling whole and wholly integrated as a person. [Jon Kabat-Zinn, Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness, 1990, Bantam, 2013, p. lx]
Meditation sounds like a practice; it is something you do, something you add to your life. In the beginning it certainly seems this way. … But real meditation isn’t something you do, it’s something you cease to do. It is non-distraction. It is the freedom to notice what is already here. … The question about a good life becomes: What is there to notice, right now, that matters? What’s available to your powers of attention, in this moment, that is important—or even sacred? … There is a freedom to be found here in recognizing what it’s like to be you, what life is actually like in each moment, rather than what you think it’s like, or hope it’s like, or fear it’s like. Meditation is simply noticing what is real, as a matter of experience. [Sam Harris, “A New Year’s Message from Sam (Episode #397),” YouTube, uploaded by Sam Harris, 1 Jan. 2025, 10:00, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itEw0klxBWM]
With mindfulness, we have the capacity to recognize the habit energy every time it manifests. “Hello, my habit energy. I know you are there!” If we just smile to it, it will lose much of its strength. Mindfulness is the energy that allows us to recognize our habit energy and prevent it from dominating us.
Forgetfulness is the opposite. We drink a cup of tea, but we do not know we are drinking a cup of tea. We sit with the person we love, but we don’t know that she is there. We walk, but we are not really walking. We are someplace else, thinking about the past or the future. The horse of our habit energy carrying us along, and we are its captive. We need to stop our horse and reclaim our liberty. We need to shine the light of mindfulness on everything we do, so the darkness of forgetfulness will disappear. [Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation, 1998, Broadway, 1999, p. 25]
We are exposed to invasions of all kinds—images, sounds, smells, touch, ideas—and many of these feed the craving, violence, fear, and despair in us. The Buddha advised us to post a sentinel, namely mindfulness, at each of our sense doors to protect ourselves. Use your Buddha eyes to look at each nutriment you are about to ingest. If you see that it is toxic, refuse to look at it, listen to it, taste it, or touch it. Ingest only what you are certain is safe. [Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation, 1998, Broadway, 1999, p. 34]
Do not lose yourself in the past. Do not lose yourself in the future. Do not get caught in your anger, worries, or fears. Come back to the present moment, and touch life deeply. This is mindfulness. [Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation, 1998, Broadway, 1999, p. 81]
If a particular perception has been labeled “good,” then we try to freeze time right there. We grab onto that particular thought, fondle it, hold it, and we try to keep it from escaping. When that does not work, we go all-out in an effort to repeat the experience that caused the thought. Let us call this mental habit “grasping.”
Over on the other side of the mind lies the box labeled “bad.” When we perceive something “bad,” we try to push it away. We try to deny it, reject it, and get rid of it any way we can. We fight against our own experience. We run from pieces of ourselves. Let us call this mental habit “rejecting.” Between these two reactions lies the “neutral” box. Here we place the experiences that are neither good nor bad. They are tepid, neutral, uninteresting. We pack experience away in the neutral box so that we can ignore it and thus return our attention to where the action is, namely, our endless round of desire and aversion. So this “neutral” category of experience gets robbed of its fair share of our attention. Let us call this mental habit “ignoring.” The direct result of all this lunacy is a perpetual treadmill race to nowhere, endlessly pounding after pleasure, endlessly fleeing from pain, and endlessly ignoring 90 percent of our experience. Then we wonder why life tastes so flat. …
You can learn to control your mind, to step outside of the endless cycle of desire and aversion. You can learn not to want what you want, to recognize desires but not be controlled by them. [Bhante Gunaratana, Mindfulness in Plain English, 1991, Wisdom Publications, 2014, pp. 4, 6]
Mindfulness is nonjudgmental observation. … One simply takes a balanced interest in things exactly as they are in their natural states. …
You can’t examine something fully if you are busy rejecting its existence. Whatever experience we may be having, mindfulness just accepts it. It is simply another of life’s occurrences, just another thing to be aware of. No pride, no shame, nothing personal at stake—what is there is there.
Mindfulness is an impartial watchfulness. It does not take sides. … There is no clinging to the pleasant, no fleeing from the unpleasant. Mindfulness treats all experiences equally, all thoughts equally, all feelings equally. …
Mindfulness is present-moment awareness. …
Mindfulness is awareness of change. It is observing the passing flow of experience. It is watching things as they are changing. It is seeing the birth, growth, and maturity of all phenomena. …
Mindfulness is the observance of the basic nature of each passing phenomena. It is watching the thing arising and passing away. It is seeing how that thing makes us feel and how we react to it. It is observing how it affects others. In mindfulness, one is an unbiased observer whose sole job is to keep track of the constantly passing show of the universe within. [Bhante Gunaratana, Mindfulness in Plain English, 1991, Wisdom Publications, 2014, pp. 133-136]
[A]cceptance is the essence of mindfulness. If we want to grow in mindfulness, we must accept what mindfulness finds. It may be boredom, irritation, or fear. It may be weakness, inadequacy, or faults. Whatever it is, that is the way we are. That is what is real. [Bhante Gunaratana, Mindfulness in Plain English, 1991, Wisdom Publications, 2014, p. 148]
The most important moment in meditation is the instant you leave the cushion. When your practice session is over, you can jump up and drop the whole thing, or you can bring those skills with you into the rest of your activities. [Bhante Gunaratana, Mindfulness in Plain English, 1991, Wisdom Publications, 2014, p. 152]
Life itself is the meditation practice. [John Kabat-Zinn, “Where Is This All Going, and What’s Love Got to Do With It?” YouTube, uploaded by Mind & Life Institute, 25 April 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzgMnn4Redk]
Before you begin your mindfulness practice, remember to use the tools of effective habit formation to help you get started and stay consistent. You can record your experiences in your Knowledge Management System, everything from the resources you learn from to the insights you have as you practice.
As you approach mindfulness meditation, it’s important to have a balance of theory and practice. Just as a science course has lectures to cover important information and laboratory periods to experiment, you should both learn about mindfulness, and train yourself to be mindful.
For an introduction to the practice of meditation, listen to this three minute instruction from the book The Mind Illuminated.
Here is a similar brief intro (in writing) from Mindful.org.
Here is an introduction to mindfulness and a brief guided meditation from Sam Harris.
These resources present the core of the meditation practice and can sustain a beginner for quite some time.
It’s helpful to explore varied sources of theory, as there are many traditions and techniques to draw from. Some sources will better suit your needs and tastes than others.
I’ve found books to be the most helpful medium, as they often contain the most carefully crafted and thorough explanations of mindfulness and its practice. The following are a few I recommend:
– Mindfulness for Beginners: Reclaiming the Present Moment and Your Life, by Jon Kabat-Zinn (Amazon) (pdf preview)
– Mindfulness in Plain English, by Bhante Gunaratana (Amazon) (full pdf)
– The Mind Illuminated, by John Yates, Matthew Immergut, and Jeremy Graves (Amazon) (YouTube audio)
– The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation, by Thich Nhat Hanh (Amazon) (full pdf)
– Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life, by Jon Kabat-Zinn (Amazon) (full pdf)
– How to Meditate: A Practical Guide to Making Friends with Your Mind, by Pema Chodron (Amazon) (full pdf)
There are also plenty of good meditation apps that offer a steady progression of theory and guided practice. Here are a few that I’ve sampled:
– Waking Up (“How is Waking Up different?“)
Footnotes: