“Mindfulness and the Cessation of Suffering” — My Exclusive Interview with Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn at Shambhala Sun Space!
Please check out my conversation with mindfulness pioneer Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn over at Shambhala Sun Space. I’m off now to hear his lecture at UCLA. More to come — stay tuned… Until then, here’s a taste of our conversation:
There’s been just so much growth and development of [your] work.
The challenge as it becomes more popular is to make sure it’s not dumbed down. The original cast of characters all trained with Asian teachers in one tradition or another. Now, we’re one or two generations removed from that and those being trained in this work are just getting it from us or our students. They don’t necessarily have that same original connection. So one of the things we’re bending over backwards to do is define the highest level of practical, Dharmic standards that we can so this things doesn’t devolve into one more cognitive-behavioral intervention tool in your bag of tricks. It’s really an orthogonal tool that has do with a hidden and very profound dimension—if not multiple dimensions—of our humanity that are just not part and parcel of Western thought.
Read the rest here.
