Mindfulness begins, ends and is guided throughout by an intention. This intention may be articulated differently by different people, or even by the same person at different times, but it will always and ultimately include the marriage of two factors: wisdom and compassion. Compassion recognizes the experience of suffering and responds with the wish to alleviate it. Wisdom recognizes the causes of suffering and responds with skillful means for bringing it to an end. Compassion moves us and wisdom directs us.
I have been practicing a form of mindfulness meditation, called Vipassana, for over 30 years. In the tradition in which I was trained - in India, Nepal, and North America - students learn how to practice on intensive silent retreats, in austere conditions, meditating from about 4.30 am to about 9.30 pm daily. When, many years into my Vipassana practice, I became aware of professionally delivered, therapeutic programs like Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), I was at once intrigued and skeptical. Was it really possible to learn how to meditate by joining an 8-week group program in the midst of one’s busy life, so full of responsibilities, distractions and hassles? Was it really possible that learning mindfulness under these sorts of conditions could make a meaningful difference for someone in the throws of depression, anxiety, or chronic stress?
Over the course of my professional training with Zindel Segal, one of the primary developers of MBCT, and Patricia Rockman, the founder of the Centre for Mindfulness Studies in Toronto, I began to be persuaded. But what finally made me a believer was seeing firsthand the profound changes enjoyed by participants in the MBCT groups I lead as a faculty member at the Centre for Mindfulness Studies.
In 2019 I introduced a new program at the Centre: Mindfulness-based Skills Development (MBSD). MBSD offers a graduated training in which the discrete skills of meditation - skills like setting and following through on an intention, focusing and re-focusing attention, seeing things just as they are, letting go and letting be, establishing presence, and cultivating compassion - are taught as transferable skills. Just as the resources of strength, flexibility and endurance built up through working out in a gym are available to be drawn on and put to good use beyond the gym, so must the mental and relational skills developed during formal meditation practice translate into here-and-now means for living authentically and well off the cushion.
I offer coaching in mindfulness to individuals and to small groups. I also offer professional mentoring to MBCT facilitators working towards certification under the auspices of the Centre for Mindfulness Studies.