Book Review: New World Mindfulness:
From the Founding Fathers, Emerson, and Thoreau to Your Personal Practice by
Donald McCown and Marc S. Micozzi, M.D.
Ph D. (Healing Arts Press 2012)
This book impressed me. It contains a history of the
influence of Eastern thought in America and a history of the development of
mindfulness practice here from the American Transcendentalists to psychologist
William James to the Eastern mysticism wave of the 60’s to the applications of
mindfulness practice in mental health and stress reduction strategies. It also
contains some useful instructions for exploring mindfulness either as a
traditional quest for enlightenment or in terms of integral health. Emerson,
Thoreau, James, Alan Watts, and Jon Kabat-Zinn are the “heroes” of this book.
It chronicles an American tradition (of sorts) of mindfulness practice. The
transcendentalists were, of course, influenced by their study of Eastern
traditions but they also reveled in the mindful experience of nature and sought
to understand their own experiences in a deeply contemplative way.
In the nineteenth century the Transcendentalists with their
journal, Dial, featured translations
of Hindu, Buddhist, Confucian, and Sufi texts. Various utopian communities of
the time were also influenced by Eastern thought. Emerson and Thoreau
contemplated nature and tied their real life experiences to some of the tenets
of Eastern thought. The authors speak of a “perennial American pragmatism” that
imbues these contemplatives. William James was strongly influenced by Emerson,
who he knew in childhood as he was a friend of his father, Henry James. James
is known as the “father of psychology” and indeed psychologists and
psychoanalysts made up much of the students of Eastern mysticism from the late
nineteenth century onward. In the late nineteenth century Buddhism aroused
interest as Sir Edwin Arnold, Madame Blavatsky, Colonel Henry Olcott and the
Theosophical society, Theravadin monk Anagarika Dharmapala, and Zen Master
Soyen Shaku appeared as conveyors and enthusiasts of the traditions. The
Parliament of World Religions in 1893 was all the buzz. Shaku’s student and
translator, D.T. Suzuki would later become a chief interpreter of Zen for the
West. The authors note that the appeal of Buddhism at the time was
belief–oriented rather than practice-oriented, as a way to replace the
unsatisfactoriness some felt about Christianity – so they tended to just
replace one for the other in the same style. Along with this there were also
old (nineteenth century) and newer ethnic immigrant Buddhists in America .
After WWII there was D.T. Suzuki and the Japanese
psychotherapist Shoma Morita, whose Morita therapy stressed turning toward
symptoms rater than attacking them. This was/is highly affective for anxiety
disorders. Suzuki influenced Trappist monk Thomas Merton, psychoanalyst Eric
Fromm, and composer John Cage. Merton’s monastery in Kentucky collaborates with nearby Zen
monasteries to this day. He also influenced Alan Watts who wrote many books on
Zen and other forms of spiritual practice. Other illustrious contemporaries had
things to say about mindfulness. J. Krishnamurti called it “choiceless
awareness” while G.I. Gurdjieff called it “constant self-remembering.” Elsa
Gindler, afflicted with TB, devised and taught a practice known as Sensory
Awareness. Her student Charlotte Selver taught alongside Watts
and other Zen teachers such as Sunryu Suzuki. Watts
wrote some good books explaining the elegant simplicity of Zen practice. He
influenced the Beat poets of the 50’s and 60’s such as Gary Snyder, Jack
Kerouak, and Allan Ginsburg, thus inaugurating a “Zen boom.” The Beat poets
loosened Zen up and made it hip and so a younger audience came to it in a more
independent self-styled manner. Such an approach would intensify in the
psychedelic revolution of the 60’s. Zen Centers sprung up in San
Francisco , Los Angeles , and Rochester , New
York Rochester
Zen Center
The authors note that several Eastern practices such as
Hatha Yoga and mindfulness meditation have become quite secularized. Hospitals
and schools now feature such classes. They also note that since 1980 the
evidence has mounted for the mental health benefits of mindulness meditation
and there have been many studies done. In 1979 Jon Kabat-Zinn, a scientist at
Massachusetts Medical Center, developed Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction
(MBSR) which has proved successful for experiencers of chronic pain, anxiety,
panic attacks, and PTSD. The authors describe the typical MBSR regimen in the
8-week course. The four basic mindfulness practices taught are: body scan,
sitting meditation, hatha yoga, and walking meditation. These are interspersed
with lectures on mindfulness, stress physiology, interpersonal communication,
as well as group dialogues. Other therapies have spun off from MBSR such as Mindfulness-Based
Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) directed toward depression and mental health. The
authors present the results of various studies to show the efficacy of
mindfulness as medicine.
As Emerson and Thoreau’s contemplations of their natural
surroundings demonstrate, any situation can be an opportunity for mindfulness.
Mindfulness is not simply noticing what is happening around you but also within
you and the integration of it all which the authors refer to as the complex of body-mind-world.
In the Buddhist tradition there are the “three marks of
existence,” which apply to everything in our ordinary experience. These are impermanence,
unsatisfactoriness, and non-self. Buddha taught the Four Foundations of
Mindfulness. These refer to what we should put our attention on in order to
become mindful of reality. These are: mindfulness of the body, of feelings, of
mind, and of mental objects. Mindulness of breathing is said to activate all
four foundations of mindfulness.
Jon Kabat-Zinn gives the following definitions of
mindfulness geared toward contemporary practice:
“Paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the
present moment, and non-judgmentally.”
“Mindfulness meditation is a consciousness discipline
revolving around a particular way of paying attention in one’s life. It can be
most simply described as the intentional cultivation of nonjudgmental
moment-to-moment awareness.”
The three key elements are intentionality,
present-centeredness, and absence of judgment. This is also called “bare attention.” From Zinn come the Three Axioms of
Mindfulness: intention, attention, and attitude, engaged simultaneously. Scientific
studies of meditation have delineated mechanisms such as 1) de-automatization of “psychological
structures that organize, limit, select and interpret perceptual stimuli; 2)
increased field independence (defined
by an increased ability to notice hidden things); and 3) dehabituation to stimuli – which meditators may refer to as
constant refreshing of the present.
A distinction is made between awareness (the continuous flow
of data from the senses) and attention. Emerson noted that awareness “will not
be dissected, or unraveled,” yet will be “gladly loved and enjoyed.”
Teachers at the Center for Mindfulness at the University of
Massachusetts Medical School came up with a scheme called the Triangle of
Awareness. The three dimensions of this triangle are given as body sensation,
thought, and emotion. These are often what appear during meditation and so we
notice them through our practice. Emerson notes: “Every moment is new; the past
is always swallowed up and forgotten; the coming only is sacred; Nothing is
secure but life, transition, the enterprising spirit.” William James, in his
theory of human emotions, sees emotions as arising from body sensations.
The authors discuss mindfulness of body through orientation.
Both gravity and the breath can be ways to orient. The breath defines in and
out, up and down. Gravity also defines up and down. Gravity helps us feel
ourselves in space through proprioception.
Mindfulness of breathing helps us orient from the inside of the body through interoception. There is a whole chapter
about gravity and three chapters about the breath.
I enjoyed the chapter and contemplation on gravity.
“Gravity” refers to the pull of the earth upon us – this is the gravitation we
feel - rather than “gravitation” which refers to the effects of any mass on any
other mass. Gravity is our constant companion. It affects our physiology and
evolution in various ways. We must work with gravity to balance our bodies all the time. We can sense gravity in
our meditations. Although the authors don’t mention it – we can also sense
atmospheric pressure. Sensing gravity is part of our “sense” of balance.
Balancing has to do with adjusting in different directions – up, down, right,
left, forward, backward. Body metaphors, some embedded in our language, are
explored. Words like “grounded”, “centered”, and metaphorical “up” and “down”
are examples. Also examined are physiological and psychological aspects of
gravity, mostly in terms of the study of sensation and perception. Our sense of
balance is thought to be influenced by three systems (equilibrial triad): the
vestibular system (a sort of gravity and motion regulating system operated out
of the inner ear through movements of gel in sacs and subsequent adjustments- space (x,y,z- roll, pitch, and
yaw), the visual system, and the somatosensory system. With the visual system,
we orient ourselves perpendicular to the (perceived) horizon. Some people are
more or less reliant on the visual system than others. The somatosensory system
includes proprioception, kinesthesia (knowledge of the body’s position in space
and of its movement, respectively), touch (knowledge of contact, temperature,
and pain), and interoception (knowledge of sensation inside the body). The body
may have various “gravi-ceptors” within, such as the kidneys. In any case, we
seem to have an inner sense of gravity to which we constantly adapt. Gravity
helps define the vertical and the position of our body parts, such as limbs, in
space. The vestibular-ocular reflex makes its possible to read a book on a
train as it adjusts the eyeballs in their sockets as the head moves. As I read
most of this book while walking on a treadmill and an elliptical I can
appreciate that! Even babies respond to gravity. One way is through the tonic labyrinthine reflex where as a
child is head-up horizontal, the limbs can be free to move. If the head is down
the baby will assume a fetal position (as do astronauts in zero-gravity). The
reflex leads to the development of muscle tone to move our head, neck, back,
arms, legs, and shoulders. This process is induced by the effect of gravity on
our otolith organs. Such analysis shows that gravity helps to define us and our
very abilities as humans. We creatures of earth are quite intimately connected
and inseparable from earth. She holds us and defines the mechanisms and limits
of our bodily movements.
The authors explore breath through a few paradoxical oppositions:
inside/outside, intentional/automatic, and revealing/regulating. We
breathe in. We breathe out. There is the breath within and the air/wind that
surrounds us. Thoreau died of TB as many others in the Romantic age did. It was
a wasting disease where breathing was troubled. Utilizing gravity to aid
breathing both relieved symptoms and encouraged mindfulness. The ancient Vedic
sages contemplated wind and breath as Vayu and recounted hymns of both as
medicine. In traditional holistic medicine (Greek, Indian, Chinese) –
Air/Wind/Breath is a key to health and sickness. Metaphorically, the “winds of
change” associate air with change into new circumstances. Prana, lung, chi,
pneuma, and many other terms loosely translated as life-force, are the inner
winds, which if properly harnessed, can influence physical, mental, and
spiritual health. Another metaphor they use is Passing Time/Present Moment –
referring to the motion of wind and breath as the everchanging present. One can
simply acknowledge the present moment and observe it quite quickly if one
becomes accustomed to doing that. We also use time to define space – as in how
long it takes to get somewhere. The breath is a cycle and can be timed as such
in various ways.
The breath can be both automatic and intentional in varying
proportions. In mindfulness meditation we intentionally focus on the breath but
also rest and allow it to be automatic as much as possible. The diaphragm may
be similar to eyelids in the ability to be both intentional and automatic. Breathing
also maintains an exchange of gases – oxygen in, CO2 out. Oxygen is what we use
but buildup of CO2 signals us to breathe. Other metaphors tying into
Automatic/Intentional the authors give are Universal/Unique and Willing/Willful
– or yes/no. Each of us is both universal and unique and in terms of life we
shift constantly back and forth from willing to willful. William James asks,
“Will I or won’t I have it so?” Another metaphor couplet they give is
Continuity/Disruption where it is noted that breathing is continuous but it is
regularly disrupted first by the need to shift from in to out and back but also
by changes in rate of breathing due to reactions to thoughts, emotions, and
sensual data.
There is an interesting section on the study of the “sigh”
and its likely function as a resetting mechanism. We tend to sigh when we are
frustrated or trying to hold onto deep concentration but we also have sighs of
relief. In MBSR there is the purposeful sigh. I have also encountered this in
yoga classes. Similarly, the yawn is examined. The authors think that it is a
signal for transition – such as from waking to sleep and vice versa. Contagious
yawning has been documented and even attuning with others through yawning
together. Others think that the yawn signals the yawner to come into embodied
self-awareness, so it may be a sort of readying mechanism.
The last main paradox-pair given is Revealing/Regulating
which includes Thought/Action, Threat/Safety, and Intervention/Observation. Our
breathing can reveal our state of mind – through its depth, speed, and rhythm.
Rules of thumb are that exercise causes us to breathe deeper and thinking
causes us to breathe faster. That thinking causes us to breathe differently is
one of many ways the mind affects the body. We breathe differently when under
stress or threat than we do when safe. “Fight or flight” responses rally the
sympathetic nervous system branch of the autonomic nervous system while the
parasympathetic branch is dominant in times of safety. The James-Lange theory
of the emotions is a bit counter-intuitive. For example, it notes that instead
of crying because we are sad, we become sad because we cry. They say the
physiological response happens first then the emotion is really felt and
intensifies. Emotions are adaptive physiological responses. We feel fear and so
we keep ourselves out of danger. The utilization of breath is probably the most
practical and readily available means we have to regulate our emotions. We can
take deep breaths to ease our stress. We can use sighs. It is a cheap method of
biofeedback. We can also step back and simply observe which may ultimately be
even more powerful than intervening, which is just the first step.
The next section is about Space, or Disposition – in terms
of our immediate experience. Again, the authors utilize paradox-pairs. The
first is Freedom/Constraint. They note that infants exhibit myclonic twitching – muscle twitches
during relaxation and sleep. This twitching helps to integrate bodily
awareness. Our bodily awareness is also integrated with the space around us. We
tend to feel free with more bodily awareness and constrained with less – unless
we are afflicted with pain. The authors note the notion of Alan Fogel,
psychologist and body worker, that we have both conceptual self-awareness and embodied
self-awareness. Embodied self-awareness can be quite useful for body-mind
integration. The body has tensegrity, an
idea defined by R. Buckminster Fuller, based on a balance between tension and
compression, that strengthens and stabilizes an overall form. Our muscles and
other soft and connective tissues such as ligaments, joint capsules, and
tendons make up the tensional component while the bones provide the
compressional component.
The next paradox-pair is Power/Presence. Here the authors
get into holistic medicine models of how the body is animated. Both the present
moment and bodily vitality are always available. William James even noted that
we often think with the body – we utilize bodily awareness in our thought process.
He suggested sensing what happens in our body when we are thinking.
The last of the paradox-pairs is Optimum/Maximum. Our
optimum is something we need to discover through experiment and inquiry rather
than simply maximizing processes. This is perhaps best found as interplay
between formal practice and informal practice. When we find “flow” we tend to
become efficient with our internal energy usage so optimization is less
wasteful. It should not be forgotten that goals of mindfulness practice are ideas
like sanity, noticing what needs to be done, psychological health, increasing
our ability to respond compassionately, and avoiding unhealthy behaviors.
Optimization and efficiency in the body-mind can help.
It is noted that the practice of mindfulness reminds us that
we do indeed have choices. By observing closely we can be less influenced by
rote and habit and choose. They mention William James’ essay “The Gospel of
Relaxation” where he suggests that we “unclamp” our intellectual book-learning
and let our lives be enhanced through the relaxation of mindfulness. They also
note that Alan Watts became very interested in Taoism in his later years as he
saw it as being (at least potentially) a more natural, less forced, approach to
mindfulness. In both Taioism and Buddhism there are listed the four main
postures of man, The Four Dignities: walking, standing, sitting, lying down.
Each can be used as a posture for cultivating mindfulness. Lying down is more
conducive to relaxation and sitting is perhaps more conducive to concentration
and clarity.
An example of a reclining practice might be the body scan
where attention is brought progressively to different parts of the body. This
is a traditional Theravada practice and is also quite common as a closing practice
in hatha yoga classes. One might do reclining practices as one falls asleep and
upon waking. There are several possibilities in the Eastern traditions as well
as ones that can be devised. Dream yoga practices involve waking several times
through the night, doing some practice, and drifting back to sleep, There is
also utilization of the reclining posture of Buddha (typically on the right
side) although the authors do not mention this.
Metaphorically we sit
down to sort things out. Formal
sitting meditation is probably the most commonly taught form of meditation. The
method is simply to focus on an object, usually the breath, to notice thoughts
and emotions without interacting with them, but instead, returning to the
technique. With practice it becomes possible to sit very still for longer and
longer periods. One can become relaxed and alert enough to observe what appears
in deeper ways and different things may appear with different levels of
relaxation and alertness.
For standing the authors note the metaphors “taking a stand”
and “standing up for what’s right” and suggest that standing is a courageous
posture. It is also a wakeful posture. I think that standing meditation is
underrated and underused. Standing takes a little more work than sitting or
reclining. We balance on the balls of the feet and negotiate gravity and
stabilization a little more. We feel our feet. Standing with eyes closed
usually requires a bit more balance as some of us use our visual system to help
with balance. Hatha yoga offers many standing poses and standing balancing
poses that can be challenging as well as meditative for short periods. One
might take a posture on one foot like a dakini or wrathful deity. The martial
arts can also offer various standing poses for mindful relaxation. Tai Chi and
especially Chi Gung as slow-moving standing meditations are particularly useful
to explore.
Walking meditation is fairly common in the Buddhist
traditions but I think some just see it as a sort of intermission between
sitting sessions. With mindful intent it can be more than that. In the 17th
and 18th centuries, advocates of solitary walking included Rousseau,
Wordsworth, Emerson, and Thoreau. Walking was Thoreau’s favorite practice. The
authors note that walking may involve trips and slips. Trips may be caused by
not enough movement while slips may be caused by too much movement. Trips often
cause us to fall forward and slips to fall backward.
Within this book are given many and various practice
suggestions and experiments to help one explore mindfulness practice. The
authors also give some personal accounts and interesting accounts and anecdotes
of others. It was a bit slow here and there but otherwise quite informative and
a very useful read.
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