About the Series
Why Mindfulness Meditation?
Mindfulness meditation is often spoken of as the heart of Buddhist meditation. Simply put, it is a method for paying attention in your life, on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally. This is easy to say, not so easy to do. It has been known for centuries in the meditative traditions that the sustained practice of mindfulness meditation can have profoundly healing and transformative effects in one's life. The value of mindfulness in the lives of mainstream Americans has been documented by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn's work since 1979 in the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, the oldest and largest hospital-based stress reduction clinic in the world. The clinic was prominently featured in the 1993 PBS special, HEALING AND THE MIND, WITH BILL MOYERS.
The power of mindfulness lies in cultivating it intentionally in your life through practice. There are two ways to do this:
- Through formal meditation practice, by carving out some time each day to be by yourself
and drop into an inward silence and stillness. That is what these Mindfulness Meditation Practice
CDs and Tapes are for. With them, you can learn to enter and dwell in deep states of relaxation and
well-being, and also embrace and learn from the full range of mind and body conditions we all
experience as human beings, including pain in all its various forms, worry, anxiety, tension,
impatience, anger, grief, sadness, loneliness, anguish, even despair.
- By remembering to bring a spacious, moment-to-moment, non-judgmental awareness to every situation you find yourself in during your day, and to every aspect of what you find yourself doing. This is called informal mindfulness practice. It is much easier to do this when you are also practicing formally on a regular basis, every day if at all possible.
The most important thing to remember about meditation is that it is about paying attention non-judgmentally in the present moment. We emphasize the present moment because that is the only time any of us are alive. The past is over, the future hasn't happened yet, and the only way we can effectively influence the future is by living fully and consciously in the moments in which we are actually alive, which is always NOW.
But we all know from direct experience that our minds love to spend time in the past, reminiscing, and in the future, planning and worrying. So a certain amount of inner discipline is necessary to encourage the mind to dwell in this moment, however it is, because it is always finding something else to go off to and preoccupy itself with. The MINDFULNESS MEDITATION PRACTICE PROGRAMS can provide the guidance, framework, and reminders necessary to keep mind and body focused in the present moment, "beneath" the seemingly endless stream of thinking that passes through the mind. By using the CDs or tapes on a regular basis, we cultivate greater mindfulness in our lives beyond the times of formal practice. This is an on-going learning process in which your own life and your awareness become your most reliable teachers.
The word "practice" here means something quite different from a "rehearsal" or getting better at something by practicing it (even though that does happen). In the meditative sense, "practice" means embodying mindfulness as best you can right here, right now, in this moment, without any sense of striving for a result or outcome other than to be fully awake, fully present, and without judging yourself in terms of "performance." To come to practice in this way may involve a huge attitudinal change, since almost everything we do is done to get something out of it, or to get someplace, to make "progress" in some way or other. This makes the practice of mindfulness somewhat paradoxical. Effort is required, but it has to be the right kind of effort, an effort that goes beyond striving. The various programs keep reminding you of that as part of their guidance.
There are three series of Mindfulness Meditation Practice Programs:
Series 1:
CDs: 4 CD set, sold only as a complete set $30.00
Tapes: Two tape set, sold only as a complete set $20.00
Series 2:
CDs: 4 CD set, sold only as a complete set $30.00
Tapes: Five tape set, sold only as a complete set $35.00
Series 3:
CDs: 4 CD set, sold only as a complete set $30.00