Meditation, Mindfulness is Antioxidant for the Mind

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Fully experiencing the present: a practice for everyone, religious or not

'Mindfulness, the heart of Buddhist meditation, is at the core of being able to

live life as if it really matters. It has nothing to do with Buddhism. It has to

do with freedom,' says Jon Kabat-Zinn, developer of a stress reduction system.

http://www.latimes.com/health/la-me-1002-beliefs-meditation-20101002,0,7640124.s\

tory

By Nomi , Special to the Los Angeles Times

October 2, 2010

Molecular biologist and author Jon Kabat-Zinn was a pioneer in applying the

Buddhist concept of mindfulness to Western medicine and secular society. But he

doesn't consider himself a Buddhist.

" Mindfulness, the heart of Buddhist meditation, is at the core of being able to

live life as if it really matters. It has nothing to do with Buddhism. It has to

do with freedom, " Kabat-Zinn said in a telephone interview from Lexington, Mass.

" Mindfulness is so powerful that the fact that it comes out of Buddhism is

irrelevant. "

Kabat-Zinn is the author of the bestsellers " Full Catastrophe Living " and

" Wherever You Go, There You Are. " He is scheduled to speak Wednesday at a breast

cancer awareness event for the G. Komen for the Cure group at UCLA's Royce

Hall.

An emeritus professor of medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical

School, Kabat-Zinn developed the system known as Mindfulness-Based Stress

Reduction (MBSR) and founded the first MBSR clinic at the university's hospital

more than 30 years ago.

At the time, students of integrative medicine like Kabat-Zinn were considered

radical, and meditation was viewed as a subject for religion scholars, not

scientists. But in recent years, studies have shown that meditation can improve

the conditions of patients dealing with diseases from psoriasis to cancer.

Today there are more than 200 medical centers in the United States and abroad

that employ the MBSR model to complement conventional therapies.

Kabat-Zinn is reluctant to use the word " spiritual " to describe the approach to

healthy living that he promotes, characterizing it instead as being " grounded in

common sense. "

" You don't have to have a belief system or faith of one kind or another, " he

said. " It's not in conflict with faith. It's about a profound connection with

the universe … within a faith tradition or outside of any faith tradition. "

Kabat-Zinn's father was an immunologist and chemist, and his mother was a

painter. He believes that early exposure to science and art fostered in him a

recognition that there are " multiple ways of knowing and being in the world. "

When he took up Buddhist meditation in the late 1960s — he was a founding member

of the Cambridge Zen Center — it helped bridge various interests in his life,

including biology, the arts, even politics. And it sparked his research into the

mind-body connection.

Mindfulness, he says, is to be aware of one's own experience as it is happening,

not to be preoccupied with the future, the past or otherwise distracted from the

essence of living. " It's really about paying attention; on purpose, in the

moment and in a non-judgmental way. "

Practices such as meditation, yoga or Eastern martial arts can aid the process,

but mindfulness is fundamentally an " acceptance " or " coming to terms with things

as they are, " not in the sense of passive resignation but active awareness, says

Kabat-Zinn.

" Your life becomes the meditation practice. It's not about sitting on a cushion

in the lotus position, " he said. " The Buddhist emphasis on enlightenment does

not mean there is thunder and lightning and your mind is clarified once and for

all on the mountain top. It is every little moment of letting go. "

Kabat-Zinn says anything resembling religious vocabulary can be anathema to many

people. He prefers to use a vocabulary that doesn't exclude anybody.

" 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 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. "

In 2002, neuroscientist son studied the effect of meditation on

Buddhist monks and found evidence that those who had logged 10,000 hours or more

had different brain structures from those in a control group.

" It's like Lance Armstrong having different muscle fiber than someone who just

rides a bike, " Kabat-Zinn said. He and son later reported findings that

even 15 minutes of meditation three times a week can strengthen the immune

system.

Research into mindfulness meditation dovetails with the new scientific fields of

neuroplasticity, the brain's ability to change physically, and epigenics, how

behavior can affect physiology.

" It's like an antioxidant for the mind, " Kabat-Zinn said, laughing. " We have so

much scientific evidence about how we can participate in our own well-being. "

For those coping with cancer or other serious diseases, Kabat-Zinn said, a

crucial element of mindfulness is to try to lessen attachment to outcomes: " It's

not about how long you live but how well you live, " he said.

And consciously connecting with experience goes beyond any religion or ideology

or even a hectic way of life, he believes.

" It's about people waking up, not being confined by any belief system, " he said.

" Awareness is bigger than a belief system. "

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