Jon Kabat-Zinn from the Mindfulness in Society conference

I had the pleasure of meeting Jon Kabat Zinn at the conference last week. He did several talks and led a full day practice and dialogue. Here are my 'take aways' from his talks.

'Something is happening and that something is nothing.' Jon was commenting on how the hotel staff must have  seen the group! One day we did a whole lunchtime in silent meditation which must have seemed quite strange from the hotel staff's point of view. What were we all doing? We must be crazy, or in a trance. Even reading my notes, it is easy to see how meditation and its lessons could seem weird, obvious, not particularly significant, only for hippies. As you can imagine, for me, there is an ocean of truth in every bullet.

• MBCT and MBSR courses are a 'lab'. You don't need books. You do the experiments on yourself. You don't ask the experts. You become the scientist of your own body, mind and heart.
• The 8 week course is planting a seed. Nothing may happen for you while you are doing the course. But it might plant a seed. It is important for the teachers not to be attached to the outcome of what happens in the course. It is just about being connected to whatever happens.
• Meditating in a group is important because it is liberating. It is talking about the interior. It normalises what we think - because we know other people are thinking the same. We think we are a mutant and it is only us experiencing these things. Hearing about it from a group - you start to see patterns and your build the capacity to 'hold' these patterns. To see the patterns. You don't need to see it. It is enough to be aware of it.
• There is an idealisation of what mindfulness will become. It is not going to change everything.
• If you can learn to deal with a mind state like boredom, then you can deal with any mind state. The 'curriculum' is whatever bubbles out of the human experience.
• Why do we have to do 45 mins of meditation each day - that is a lot! If you ask a lot, you will get a lot. If you ask for a little, you get a little. In 45 minutes, that is enough to get bored, be in pain, experience the challenge of the human condition. You get all of that to work with in the meditation. Whatever comes up is what is 'on the curriculum'.
• Mindfulness is about paying attention, choosing to pay attention and keep the attention where you want it to be. Meditation is a cultivation tool that you already have. 
• Non-judgement doesn't mean not judging but to be aware of that judgement. We can watch the whole thing. We can hold the whole thing in our attention - including our judgement.
• We are always trying to be someone we are not, to get somewhere, to be someone. Then we will be okay! But we take our minds with us.
• Mindfulness is not a state.
• Be - it is the best education
• Thinking is a narrative, not actuality.
• Mindfulness = heartfulness. Mind and heart are the same words in Pali.
• Relationality is important - it is about us and not now.
• Waiting suggests expectations - so just be. Let go.
• Walking meditation mirrors our mind wandering - we are not trying to get anywhere. We are where we are. Here. Now.
• Sit as if there was no yesterday and as if there is no tomorrow.