Empathy begins the process of connecting us with others, as we share their emotions. Our own life experience enables us to understand something of the life experience of others. That emotional understanding is the distinction we call empathy: “. . . the capacity to share the feelings of others . . .” “Empathy is a complex capability enabling individuals to…
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Value for Saturday of Week 05 in the season of Dormancy
Being Mindful
Slow down. Be aware of simple things. They are essential building blocks of our lives.
- Mindfulness is to be aware of everything you do every day. Mindfulness is a kind of light that shines upon all your thoughts, all your feelings, all your actions, and all your words. [Thich Nhat Hanh]
- My eyes open to a new day / My beautiful child / Slowly stirring in a bed. [Scott Rogers]
Mindfulness is a desired effect of humility. It is among the deferential virtues but it requires practice. It may be practiced even in times of intense activity. Despite all apparent contradictions, conceivably, a military commander could direct a strike in a mindful state.
Among the religions, Buddhism focuses most clearly on the subject. Buddhist literature on mindfulness conveys a sense of humble but active discipline. Reading these texts is like tasting a fine and complex wine: The palate becomes aware of the competing forces of peace and intense study, followed in no particular order by appreciation, understanding, compassion, empathy, a sense of being integrated and oriented, often called “being centered,” and a lingering aftertaste of gratefulness. A keen sense of awareness is constantly present. The experience is like being enveloped by a benevolent controlling force.
Being mindful focuses the attention, helping the practitioner to move from meditative retreat into an active role in the world. By remaining in a state of mindfulness, we can retain humility and all its component parts and still lead an active and dynamic life, fully engaged and involved.
The peer-reviewed literature and research on mindfulness is vast. Mindfulness enhances working memory capacity, episodic memory performance, brain functional network reconfiguration efficiency, sports performance, creative art-making, and resilience, and holistic well-being. It is employed to ameliorate and address psychiatric disorders, psychosis, addiction, anxiety and depression, stress, difficulties during pregnancy, anxiety and depression after stroke, multiple sclerosis, illness-related fatigue, burnout, hypertension, anorexia nervosa and eating disorders generally, homelessness, PTSD, ADHD, OCD, and episodic migraine. It is useful in conjunction with meditation, self-compassion, psychotherapy, and phenomenology. Researchers are exploring how to “emancipate from its religious context and ally itself fully with psychological science”, and expand the reach of mindfulness programs and practices to everyone.
Real
True Narratives
It is more difficult to teach ignorance to think than to teach an intelligent blind man to see the grandeur of Niagara. I have walked with people whose eyes are full of light, but who see nothing in wood, sea, or sky, nothing in city streets, nothing in books. What a witless masquerade is this seeing! It were better far to sail forever in the night of blindness, with sense and feeling and mind, than to be thus content with the mere act of seeing. They have the sunset, the morning skies, the purple of distant hills, yet their souls voyage through this enchanted world with a barren stare. [Helen Keller, The World I Live In (1907), chapter VIII, “The Five-Sensed World”.]
Book narratives:
- Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, Journey to Mindfulness: The Autobiography of Bhante G. (Wisdom Publications, 2003).
Technical and Analytical Readings
Book narratives:
- Kirk Warren Brown, J. David Creswell & Richard M. Ryan, eds., Handbook of Mindfulness: Theory, Research, and Practice (The Guilford Press, 2015).
- Holly Rogers & Margaret Maytan, Mindfulness for the Next Generation: Helping Emerging Adults Manage Stress and Lead Healthier Lives (Oxford University Press, 2nd Edition, 2019).
- Steven S. Hick, Mindfulness and Social Work (Oxford University Press, 2016).
- Amy L. Baltzell, ed., Mindfulness and Performance (Cambridge University Press, 2016).
- Jon Kabat-Zinn, Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life (Hyperion Books, 2005).
- Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, Eight Mindful Steps to Happiness: Walking the Buddha's Path (Wisdom Publications, 2001).
- Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, Mindfulness in Plain English (Widsom Publications, 2002).
- Myla Kabat-Zinn and Jon Kabat-Zinn, Everyday Blessings: The Inner Work of Mindful Parenting (Hyperion Books, 1997).
- Scott Rogers, Mindful Parenting: Meditations, Verses, & Visualizations for a More Joyful Life (Booklocker.com, 2006).
- Michael Carroll, The Mindful Leader: Ten Principles for Bringing Out the Best In Ourselves and Others (Trumpeter, 2007).
Books by Thich Nhat Hanh on mindfulness:
- Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness In Everyday Life (Bantom, 1992).
- The Blooming of a Lotus: Guided Meditation for Achieving the Miracle of Mindfulness (Beacon Press, 2009).
- Answers from the Heart: Practical Responses to Life’s Burning Questions (Parallax Press, 2009).
- Mindful Movements: Ten Exercises for Well-Being (Parallax Press, 2008).
- Happiness: Essential Mindfulness Practices (Parallax Press, 2009).
- Transformation and Healing: Sutra on the Four Establishments of Mindfulness (Parallax Press, 2006).
- Touching the Earth: 46 Guided Meditations for Mindfulness Practice (Parallax Press, 2008).
- Planting Seeds: Practicing Mindfulness with Children (Parallax Press, 2011).
- For a Future to Be Possible: Buddhist Ethics for Everyday Life (Parallax Press, 2007).
Photographs
Documentary and Educational Films
Imaginary
Fictional Narratives
Poetry
- Pablo Neruda, “A lemon”
Music: Composers, artists, and major works
In 1944, the French composer Olivier Messiaen completed his two-hour, twenty-part set of pieces for solo piano, entitled “Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus” (approx. 116-127’) (recordings), which translates roughly as "twenty contemplations on the infant Jesus." The work “is a cycle of 20 movements, all based on the idea of contemplations upon the infant Jesus. Familiar figures from the nativity take their turns to gaze upon the child, and there are also contemplations from more abstract sources such as silence, time and the spirit of joy.” Messiaen composed the work shortly after being liberated from a Nazi prisoner-of-war camp, where he had “clung fiercely to a little bag of miniature scores that served as consolation when (he) suffered”. Top performances on disc are by Loriod (Messiaen's wife) in 1956, Peter Serkin in 1975, Béroff in 1987, Austbö in 1994, MacGregor in 1996, Aimard in 2000, Helmchen in 2019, Chamayou in 2022, and Hyldig in 2023.
Other works:
- Pēteris Vasks, Vientuļais eņģelis (Lonely Angel) (meditation for violin & string orchestra) (1999) (approx. 13-16’)
New Age music is a promising idea that seems to have gone horribly awry. Most compositions in this genre are formulaic, many of them resorting, after a few seemingly contemplative introductory bars, to percussive dominance that is hardly distinguishable from casual dance music. Perhaps because the genre has not gained respect, many performers of New Age music lack the skill of top-drawer musicians, reminding one of Groucho Marx's classic retort: "I've been thrown out of better places than this." Exceptions include the works of a group known as Dead Can Dance (Brendan Perry, Lisa Gerrard and others); some of Lisa Gerrard's solo work, including her ethereal “The Mirror Pool” album (1995) (68’). Here are links to the group’s playlists and releases.
Other worthwhile New Age albums include:
- Steven Halpern, “ADHD MIndful Music for Enhanced Focus” (2019) (69’)
- Steven Halpern, “Ocean Suite” (2003) (77’)
- Tony Scott, “Music for Zen Meditation” (1964) (44’)
- Tony Scott, “Music for Yoga Meditation” (1967) (38’)
Other albums:
- Ivo Perelman, Matthew Shipp & Joe Morris, “Shamanism” (2020) (50’): “The stimulating repartee brims with a primal soulfulness which marks most of the album. . . . Shamanism is sacred music but not in the traditional sense of the word.”
- Maya Magub, “Canons” album (2022) (66’), consists of works by Telemann (six canonic sonatas) and Mozart (canons & puzzle canons). “With the new technology, the canonic players didn’t have to be in the same location, and with the ability to do playback, each voice could perfect itself. The recording process was slower, as files travelled the world to have each voice added. Ms. Magub said the process became truly creative, with performers having more time to consider the music and recording process. She recalls emails about adding ‘alternating trills’ at a cadence point and discussions on tempo preferences. There was time, finally, to really listen to each player’s performance and consider how one’s own voice would fit in. In the end, 5 musicians from Europe and America came together (figuratively) to make this recording.”
- Thomas Åberg, “Legends in the Garden” (2012) (73’) consists of Åberg’s organ works. “The Legends are meditations written as dialogues between the composer/organist and composer/audience.”
A sect of Tibetan monks practices a unique style of chant.
Music: songs and other short pieces
- Nawang Khechog, “With Mindfulness and Wisdom”
