Mindfulness: The Heart of Buddhist Meditation? A Conversation with Jan Chozen Bays, Joseph Goldstein, Jon Kabat-Zinn, and Alan Wallace

Abstract: Mindfulness has played a key role in Western Buddhism, particularly in the teaching of vipassana and more secular programs such as Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). Having been steeped in both these traditions myself, I was surprised to learn that the Tibetan Buddhists have a different understanding and usage of the term mindfulness. Some of these differences arise from diverging scriptural sources and interpretations dating back to the time of the Buddha. Our intention here is not to present a scholarly argument nor definitive interpretations of mindfulness. Rather, we would like to help make explicit the ways contemporary streams of Buddhism use this term, particularly since practitioners today have unique opportunities to practice with teachers from all the Buddhist traditions. To explore mindfulness, Inquiring Mind invited Jon Kabat-Zinn, the founder of MBSR, who was called “Mr. Mindfulness” in a headline in the Washington Post; Alan Wallace, a Buddhist scholar and prolific writer on Buddhism with whom I am collaborating on another secular meditation program, Cultivating Emotional Balance; Joseph Goldstein, a vipassana teacher known for his bell-like clarity and for the nonsectarianism he explored in his book One Dharma; and Jan Chozen Bays, Zen priest and pediatrician to whose trenchant and witty voice I was introduced at the 2005 Mind and Life Conference in Washington, D.C. As someone who has studied and worked with these teachers, I was honored to facilitate this dialogue along with Inquiring Mind coeditors Barbara Gates and Wes Nisker. —Margaret Cullen, M.F.T., Certified MBSR Instructor