Mindfulness — the very idea, and its practice — is so ubiquitous today that it’s easy to overlook its spiritual roots. This special edition from Lion’s Roar offers a deep, focused, and friendly look at why, for all its mainstream adoption, mindfulness really is “the Buddhist specialty.” The plain-language mindfulness teachings and practices found here will help anyone better understand their own potential to make mindfulness a way of life and, even a path to enlightenment.
The Buddhist Guide to Mindfulness
The Buddhist Specialty
What is Mindfulness? • Its depth and breadth in Buddhist philosophy
Mindfulness and the Path to Enlightenment • Instead of letting your mind wander aimlessly, what if you set it on the path to awakening? That, JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN tells us, is what the Buddha said mindfulness is really about.
It’s Not Just About “Being Present”
It’s All Good • SYLVIA BOORSTEIN celebrates mindfulness as both key to Buddhist practice and beneficial to every aspect of human life.
What Are the Four Foundations of Mindfulness?
How the Buddha Taught Mindfulness • BHANTE HENEPOLA GUNARATANA summarizes the Buddha’s seminal teachings on the practice of mindfulness.
What is Satipatthana? • Monk and scholar THANISSARO BHIKKHU clarifies a key term.
What Mindfulness Is (Not) • You can’t reduce mindfulness to just a single idea. ANDREW OLENDZKI unpacks its many meanings in classical Buddhism.
How to Practice Mindfulness • Instructions in a variety of transformative practices
The Basic Instruction
Get Very, Very Close • SAYADAW U PANDITA’s instructions for satipatthana vipassana.
Cultivate the Good • The historical Buddha taught mindfulness as a method to reduce harm and increase benefit. Best of all, says SHARON SALZBERG, he said we can all do it.
From Mindfulness to Awareness • LARRY ROSENBERG on mindful breathing
Mindfulness Is a Source of Happiness • “Breathing in, I know that I am breathing in.” It’s such a simple practice, but it can transform your life. The great meditation master THICH NHAT HANH teaches four mindfulness exercises to help you live with happiness and joy.
How to Be Grounded • THICH NHAT HANH on profound and pleasurable ways to deepen your connection with your body and the earth.
How RAIN Can Nourish You • JACK KORNFIELD teaches us a transformative mindfulness practice.
Tara Brach on RAIN in Real Life
The Practice of Recollection • BHIKKHU MANGALO on how to bring ourselves back to the present moment, again and again.
Tips for Teaching Mindfulness to Young People • OFOSU JONES-QUARTEY (aka Born I) on how he brings mindfulness to life for his students.
One-Shot Mind • In the Vajrayana Buddhist tradition, says CHÖGYAM TRUNGPA RINPOCHE, mindfulness of mind means relating to one little dot of nowness after another.
Mindfulness and Wisdom • How the stable mind of mindfulness discovers the true nature of reality
Simple As 1, 2 • AJAHN BUDDHADASA’s “Condensed Method” summarizes the Buddhist path in two steps.
Mindfulness and Wisdom in the Mahayana • DZOGCHEN PONLOP RINPOCHE looks at the four foundations of mindfulness as tools to develop prajna, the wisdom of emptiness.
Exposing, Embracing, Responding & Letting Go • In the Chan practice of mindfulness, GUO GU explains, four steps help us realize the three marks of existence and the four noble truths.
Life Undivided • When we practice mindfulness of feeling, says MELISSA MYOZEN BLACKER, ROSHI, we strike right at the heart of dualism.
Mindfulness in Action • The way of enlightened living
Mindfulness and the Buddha’s Eightfold Path • To understand how to practice mindfulness in daily life,...