Tag: mindfulness

Sensei Anthony Stultz is an influential figure in a new school of Buddhism known as the Navayana, or "new vehicle" that has roots primarily in Mahayana Buddhism through Zen, Shin and Tibetan or Vajrayana Buddhism but is unique in that it has returned to the roots of Classical Buddhism's focus on social engagement.

He has been serving as a Buddhist minister and counselor for over twenty years and is an accomplished public speaker on mindfulness practices and liberation teaching.

Sensei Stultz has developed The Four Directions, a new form of intervention that uses the language of psychology to illustrate the dharma teachings of Classical Buddhism.

After completing graduate school at the Episcopal Divinity School and studying Buddhist Philosophy at Harvard University he served as a Chaplain at the Penn State University Hershey Medical Center.

He is the Founder and Director of the Blue Mountain Lotus Society, a non-profit Buddhist organization located in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Sensei Stultz is also an accomplished author of SoulQuest: Zen Lessons for the Journey of Life (2000), The Book of Common Meditation (2003), Free Your Mind (2007), The Invisible Sun (2007), and Mere Buddhism (2008).

He is a contributing author to Engaged Buddhism in the West (2000) as well as Action Dharma (2003). He also runs the Center for Mindfulness Counseling, integrating Eastern and Western counseling techniques.

Jon Kabat-Zinn is Professor of Medicine Emeritus and founding director of the Stress Reduction Clinic and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

Kabat-Zinn was a student of Zen Master Seung Sahn and a founding member of Cambridge Zen Center. His practice of yoga and studies with Buddhist teachers, led him to integrate their teachings with those of Western science.

He teaches mindfulness meditation as a technique to help people cope with stress, anxiety, pain and illness.

Kabat-Zinn was born in 1944, He received his Ph.D. in molecular biology in 1971 from MIT. He is the founder and former Executive Director of the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He is also the founder (1979) and former director of its renowned Stress Reduction Clinic and Professor of Medicine emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

His life work has been largely dedicated to bringing mindfulness into the mainstream of medicine and society. Kabat-Zinn is the author or co-author of scientific papers on mindfulness and its clinical applications. He has written two bestselling books: Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness (Delta, 1991), and Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life (Hyperion, 1994). He co-authored with Myla Kabat-Zinn Everyday Blessings: The Inner Work of Mindful Parenting, (Hyperion, 1997). Other books include Coming to Our Senses (Hyperion, 2005) and his most recent book The Mindful Way Through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness, co-authored with J. Mark G. Williams, John D. Teasdale and Zindel V. Segal (Guilford, 2007).

Kabat-Zinn has made significant contributions to modern health care with his research which focused on mind/body interactions for healing, and on various clinical applications of mindfulness meditation training for people with chronic pain and/or stress-related disorders. Kabat-Zinn began teaching the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) at the Stress Reduction Clinic in 1979. MBSR is an eight week course which combines meditation and Hatha yoga to help patients cope with stress, pain, and illness by using moment-to-moment awareness. Such mindfulness helps participants use their inner resources to achieve good health and well being. Kabat-Zinn and colleagues have studied the effects of practising moment-to-moment awareness on the brain, and how it processes emotions, particularly under stress, and on the immune system.

In 1993, Kabat-Zinn’s work in the Stress Reduction Clinic was featured in Bill Moyers's PBS special Healing and the Mind and in the book by Moyers of the same title. Kabat-Zinn and his colleagues published a research paper demonstrating in a small clinical trial a fourfold effect of the mind on the rate of skin clearing in patients with psoriasis undergoing ultraviolet light therapy. A more recent paper[2] shows positive changes in brain activity, emotional processing under stress, and immune function in people taking an MBSR course in a corporate work setting in a randomized clinical trial.
The core of Jon Kabat-Zinn's teachings can be found in his book, "Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life."

His guided meditation practice CDs are useful to people interested in learning how to meditate and for those looking to deepen their practice. He describes many different types of mindfulness: sitting, standing, lying down, walking and as an integral part of daily lives. One central theme is that meditation is the "adventure of a lifetime."

By presenting meditation to the West as an effective way to cope with the stresses of everyday life, these practice cds can provide relief to many struggling to cope with the frantic pace of urban life.

Jon Kabat-Zinn's meditation CDs draw from multiple spiritual teachings and practices. His work promotes peace, inner reflection, compassion and tolerance.