Shinzen Young: The Essenece of Mindfulness Meditation
Feb 27th, 2012 | Category: Mindfulness LecturesShinzen Young
The Essence of Mindfulness Meditation
Google Tech Talk
January 28, 2010
ABSTRACT
Presented by Shinzen Young.
The purpose of this talk is threefold: (1) to describe how senior adepts use mindfulness to reduce suffering and gain insight into selfhood and emotions. (2) To point out how the method they use in many ways parallels what scientists do when confronted with a complex and inscrutable system in nature. (3) To discuss how this fundamental parallelism between the two endeavors can become the basis for a productive collaboration in the future.
Bio: Shinzen Young became fascinated with Asian culture while a teenager in Los Angeles. Later he enrolled in the Ph.D. program in Buddhist Studies at the University of Wisconsin. Eventually, he went to Asia and did extensive training in each of the three major Buddhist meditative traditions: Vajrayana, Zen, and Vipassana. Upon returning to the United States, his intellectual interests shifted to the burgeoning dialogue between Eastern internal science and Western technological science. In recognition of his
original contributions to that dialogue, the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology has awarded him an honorary doctorate. Shinzen’s innovative techniques for pain management derived from two sources: The first is his personal experience dealing with discomfort during intense periods of meditation in Asia, and during shamanic ceremonies with tribal cultures. The second is some three decades of experience in coaching people through a wide spectrum of chronic and acute pain challenges. Shinzen leads meditation retreats in the mindfulness tradition throughout North America, and has helped establish several centers and programs.
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This book is issued in the deep cotiicnvon that the systematic cultivation of Right Mindfulness, as taught by the Buddha in his Discourse on Satipatthana, still provides the most simple and direct, the most thorough and effective method for training and developing the mind for its daily tasks and problems as well as for its highest aim: mind’s own unshakable deliverance from Greed, Hatred and Delusion. So opens this humble mastepiece of a book written with great depth, extraordinary knowledge, profound humanity, and in a style that is simple and direct. If the reader is looking for The definitive book on how to correctly practice meditation in all its subtle detail, be he Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Sufi-Muslim, Taoist, or even Buddhist, this is that book. Period.The heart of the book takes place in the six opening chapters wherein the great German scholar monk, Nyanaponika Thera, opens petal by petal the immense scope of the Buddha’s Way of Mindfulness for those seeking instruction on how to obtain insight and wisdom in this lifetime. Each chapter builds up to the next, explaining and further elucidating the subtle insights which make up the Buddha’s far-reaching and incomparable teachings.For the experienced meditator who has never practiced Vipassana meditation, this book will open your eyes to the vast landscape of emptiness which you have been seeking all these years. For the uninitiated seeker taking his first steps in the art of meditation, it will be a valued primer in the art of true mental training. Practicing real mindfulness in one’s everyday activities is not an easy endeavor. It takes constant application and sustained effort on the part of the practitioner in order to obtain the real benefits of the practice. This is the reality of mindfulness practice which one would do best to realize and heed if he is truly seeking the peace of mind that this method of training will provide.The chapter on Mindfulness and Clear Comprehension will supply the experienced practitioner with a treasure trove of insight and practical instruction rarely seen in published form. It will answer questions and provide clear and valuable insructions in the true intent of mindfulness practice, which is the cessation of suffering. If one can successfully put to use the information contained in this one chapter, it will truly revolutionize one’s life. The age-old religious injunctions of renunciation and detachment will no longer be the rarefied arena of those who devote their whole lives to the religious life. It will be obtainable to any person who can maintain this discipline.The chapter on Anapana-sati, or Mindfulness of Breathing, may furnish one who has never tried this method of meditation with an experience of such tranquility that he has never before obtained. Success in this half of the two part method of Vipassana meditation will lead to a deepening of one’s ability in concentration which in turn will lead to success in being able to accomplish entry into the Jhanas, or the meditative absorptions. And from this advanced point the goal of every meditator’s dream the mind’s liberation lies palpably before him through the development of insight, if he will but continue to keep putting one foot in front of the other.For anyone unfamiliar with the Satipatthana method originally expoused by the Buddha, this book will help to clarify its eminently intelligent approach, first through the cultivation in the practitioner of the ability to concentrate and then through the development of insight into the true nature of the world and one’s consciousness resulting in liberation of the individual mind. With a clear comprehension of the major aspects of the Buddha’s thought the Three Characteristics of Existence consisting of Anicca or Impermanence, Dukkha or Dissatisfaction, and Anatta or No-Self and a cultivation within the mind of the reality of these three characteristics, which represent the world’s true nature, any dedicated practitioner can achieve liberation and true peace of mind.
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