Mudita Journal

Mindfulness Archive

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Mindfulness Explained

June 5, 2003  ·  Category: Mindfulness

[I just posted the following to the psychology discussion group at wetheliving.com. I'll probably clean this up at some point to create a stand-alone essay. For now, here's the raw version.] I've enjoyed reading the conversation between Phil, Andrew, and Damian. I was out of town when the discussion started, but now I'm back in town and caught up, and I'm pleased to answer some of Phil's questions about the nature of mindfulness and how it is practiced. Damian is absolutely right that, at root, mindfulness is simply a matter of being attentive. As Phil notes, however, attention is ...

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How to Meditate

May 7, 2003  ·  Category: Buddhism, Meditation, Mindfulness, Mudita Forum

In recent months, several people have asked me how to get started with meditation. Below is an essay I wrote on the subject for Mudita Forum. If you would like to print out this essay, you'll probably find the printable version of "How to Meditate" more suitable. The purpose of meditation is to strengthen your mind. Most people think of consciousness as something we “just do,” but conscious awareness can be strengthened just as a muscle can be strengthened; and meditation provides a workout for your mind. Through meditation, many people find they can make their attention more stable, strong, and ...

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Mindfulness & Mental Health

May 5, 2003  ·  Category: Mindfulness

A great article on mindfulness from AScribe: Being Mindful Promotes Good Mental Health ROCHESTER, N.Y., April 1 (AScribe Newswire) -- Several major Eastern philosophies stress the importance of mindfulness, but is there really a mental health benefit to being more conscious and more focused on what's happening in the here and now? In the April issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, University of Rochester researchers report that individuals who are mindful are more attuned to their emotions and act in ways that are compatible with their values and interests. Mindfulness, which is an enhanced attention to and awareness of ...

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Buddhism and Awareness

March 30, 2003  ·  Category: Buddhism, Meditation, Mindfulness, Mudita Forum, Objectivism

Our topical discussion of Wake Up to Your Life over at Mudita Forum is going remarkably well. I'm especially impressed by Andrew Schwartz's kickoff essay on Chapter 3 ("Cultivating Attention"), which elegantly lays out a number of ideas to which any Rand admirer worth his weight in dog-eared paperbacks should pay attention. Here's an excerpt: Finally, Buddhism includes a sophisticated psychological understanding of barriers to attention, and, viewing attention as a skill, includes sophisticated tools and methods for dismantling these barriers and achieving greater attention over time. The tradition has a sophisticated conceptualization of how experience leads to complex conditioned habit patterns that ...

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Mudita Forum …Launched

February 7, 2003  ·  Category: Meditation, Mindfulness, Mudita Forum, Web Development

Pressing obligations have prevented me from blogging much this week, but this evening I had the pleasure of launching mudita forum. Here's the welcome message I posted, which gives a preview of things to come: Welcome to Mudita Forum! We currently have 18 members, which is just about the perfect size in my mind, although I'm open to seeing the list grow. I've enjoyed reading your self-introductions, of which I'll be sending out a handful each day over the next few days. I've been discussing the concept for this list with Kirez for more than a year, and I'm ...

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Objectivism and Zen

January 18, 2003  ·  Category: Buddhism, Mindfulness, Objectivism

Paul Hibbert has posted an interesting essay on Objectivism and Zen over at the Sense of Life Objectivists web site. Some good discussion has ensued, and I just posted the following on their bulletin board: Thanks for the intriguing discussion, everyone. I agree with Paul and Ross that Objectivism and (parts of) Buddhism are compatible. Like Paul and Ross, I have personally benefited from Buddhist practices like meditation and mindfulness. In fact, these practices have dramatically increased my ability to be rational during stressful circumstances where I would have otherwise been quite ineffective at marshalling the resources of my ...

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