Originally published in elmundo.es/vida-sana/mente
Mindfulness is on the crest of a wave. We spoke with Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD in molecular biology, about this inner connection.
Mindfulness is on the crest of a wave. It’s being used by everyone from banks, which offer courses to reduce stress and improve their employees’ attention span, to hospitals, schools, prisons, and sports institutions. A few months ago, a report, «Mindful Nation,» was presented to the British Parliament. It compiles scientific evidence of its benefits and recommends implementing the Buddhist-rooted practice in healthcare, education, work, and the justice system. Jon Kabat-Zinn (New York, 1944)
is the one who promoted and catapulted it through the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program, which he launched in 1979 at the University of Massachusetts and which continues to be taught worldwide.
This PhD in Molecular Biology from MIT has come to Spain to promote the new edition of his bestseller, «Living the Crisis Fully» (Kairós), and to talk about mindfulness with doctors, psychologists, teachers, instructors, practitioners, and ZEN readers.
Many Spaniards equate meditation with the act of reflection. What does meditation mean in the context of mindfulness?
It’s not contemplation, nor thinking about a specific topic. We talk about meditation as a way of relating to experience as it unfolds. And that means you’re training your attentional faculties to be in the present moment and less distracted. If you pay attention, you’ll realize that most of the time the mind is in the future, planning or worrying. And when it’s not in the future, it’s in the past, pondering what really happened, who’s to blame… Meanwhile, the present moment, which is the only one in which we can see, smell, taste, love, learn, feel… is squeezed between these two forces. Meditation is about expanding the capacity to inhabit the present and therefore live fully and in the body, because half the time we are in our heads and not in our bodies.
Many believe that all I need to do is clear my mind and then I’ll be in a kind of cosmic consciousness, with a luminous mind. However, the mind is already luminous. Mindfulness tells us that we can escape from that prison of fears and desires that pull us in. It’s not about pushing thoughts away, but rather observing them and letting them stay there, like the remnants of a musical note.
How? By sitting in the lotus position for hours?
You don’t have to sit in a cave for 30 years to achieve enlightenment. What we need is to wake up, because for some reason we humans have become trapped in the past. If you can breathe without difficulty, it’s a miracle. If you can see without difficulty, it’s a miracle. In every way, we’re fine, but we still think we’d be better off if we had more money, got married, got divorced, etc. But the reality is that we only have this moment, the now.
So, are meditation and mindfulness the same thing?
There are many forms of meditation. Self-regulation of attention is one of them. Like intentionally cultivating kindness or forgiveness. It’s a branch of meditative practices that cultivates pure awareness. You can’t achieve it by sitting on the floor and pretending to be a statue. Real meditation happens in this moment. This interview is a meditation. Meditation is an act of loving life, of the mind’s potential to know itself.
How do I know it works?
It works when there’s congruence between our lives and what we do. True meditation is how we live our existence moment by moment. It’s about observing how often we lose our minds, regaining our attention, and starting over.
Is it an appropriate practice for everyone?
It all depends on the instructor’s skills. If someone is suffering from very deep issues (for example, trauma from childhood sexual abuse), is meditation good for them? Maybe not, in the sense that they might be retraumatized. It requires a highly skilled and wise guide to help you emerge from that trauma. No one-size-fits-all formula can be used. More generally, however, is breath awareness good for everyone? Of course. Is body awareness good for everyone? Yes, there’s nothing wrong with that.
You’re concerned that some instructors’ motivation isn’t healing or gaining wisdom, but rather economics. How do you identify a good teacher?
A good indicator is when the instructor is able to see you as a person, not as a patient. Trust is very important. Don’t stop using your discernment if you see them manipulating you, if they say different things to different people, if money is an issue… if it doesn’t seem ethical, get away as quickly as possible. There are many people who claim to be experts in mindfulness because it’s become so popular, but they can’t even spell it.
Let’s talk about children. You say that «childhood is disappearing.» Why?
Partly, it’s technology’s fault. Parents are increasingly busy and stressed, and so are children. They have too many lessons, too many activities, and they’re constantly on the go. Plus, they have access to the internet. We’re facing a new world that’s putting enormous pressure on children and exposing them to things they’re not prepared for. So, on a societal level, we might wonder if we’re being abducted by technologies that are changing our brains, our biology, and even the development of young people.
A Zen master gave you a quote that says, «Never forget the 1,000-year view.» What is the relevance of the long term to your work?
There has never been a better time to discover what it means to be human on this planet. And we are part of it, whether we like it or not. We must take responsibility for what is happening, recognize the potential violence within us, and transform that energy into beauty and creation. A nuclear war or rising sea levels could end it all. Let’s stop fooling around and wake up to know what it means to be a citizen of the Earth.