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meditateallday.com — 13 years ago — permalink

Meditate means being in a state of no mind.

There are different methods leading to this state.

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davidbhayes — 14 years ago — permalink

It's not strictly about meditation, but I've always found really resonant this line from Jon Kabat-Zinn:

“Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally.”

I think it's sane to say that mindfulness meditation is doing that for a set period of time, with the aid of an object like the breath.

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fredclaymeyer — 14 years ago — permalink

I like this quote's pithiness, but I'm not completely sold on the language that "mindfulness is paying attention on purpose." That feels a little different than a lot of (Buddhist) teachings I hear—there's a bit "more to do," or to maintain, than in those teachings.
I wonder if "allowing awareness, which is naturally nonjudgmental, to rest in the present moment" would be a bit closer? Takes some of the "doer" out.
On the other hand, the definition above does seem pretty close as a commonsense description of what my meditation practice is like sometimes, as you said.

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davidbhayes — 14 years ago — permalink

Interesting.
I think your rephrasing makes the "on purpose" bit more forceful that it reads in the original, which may have something to do with why you seem worried by it. In the original "on purpose" is just the coincidental first of the three qualities describing how you pay attention, in your rewriting it's the only adverb describing how you're paying attention. 
How I read it "on purpose" is synonymous with "with intention" and is there primarily to delineate mindfulness from those times that you're coincidently "paying attention in the present moment, non-judgementally" which is certainly something I experienced a few times before I knew anything about the ideas of mindfulness or meditation. That experience is clearly neither meditation nor the kind of intentional mindfulness Kabat-Zinn's talking about, and thus "on purpose" serves a real, useful, and accurate purpose.
(Which is all, by the way, to make no claim about its validity for what you, or any specific tradition, think of as mindfulness, meditation, or worthwhile practice.)

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