Clinical Handbook of Mindfulness by Jon Kabat-Zinn, Fabrizio Didonna Read Free Book Online

mindfulness-based interventions without losing the essence and
    simplicity of the practice or collapsing its multiple-dimensionality; and (10)
    a continual raising of the challenges involved in taking on the work of mind-
    fulness in clinical settings, the occupational hazards associated with profes-
    sional roles and callings, and the recognition of increasingly skillful ways to
    catch ourselves getting caught up in ambition-driven striving or mere endless
    doing, and losing track of the domain of being, and of awareness itself.
    In this vein, I couldn’t help noticing and delighting in the fact that the
    words “wise” and “wisdom” were not shied away from in appropriate con-
    texts in many of the chapters of this book. To me, this is a positive indica-
    tor that the practice itself is shifting the vocabulary we use to think and talk
    about effective clinical interventions and outcomes, and is elevating the ways
    in which we hold those who come to us who are sorely suffering and in need
    of being seen and met wholly and wholeheartedly (as we need to do for our-
    selves and each other as well). I will single out only one sentence from one
    chapter because it states a perspective that is often tragically missing in the
    clinical setting in both medicine and psychology: “In DBT, it is assumed that
    all people have innate access to wisdom [15]. ”
    The heart of mindfulness-based interventions lies in a deep silence, still-
    ness and openheartedness that is native to pure awareness and can be expe-
    rienced directly both personally and interpersonally. The consequences of
    such cultivation (Pali: bhavana ) may go far beyond symptom reduction and
    conventional coping adjustments, defining new ways of being in the body
    and in the world that are orthogonal to the conventional perspective on both
    health and well-being. Indeed, perhaps the collective efforts in this emerg-
    ing field, as represented here, are defining new ways of being and knowing
    that express the wisdom and beauty inherent in being human - as well as
    new ways to measure its biological and psychological consequences. It is
    my hope that this volume, and the flowering of present and future research
    and clinical practices that it represents, be a major catalyst in our deepening
    understanding of the human psyche and its capacity for, and yearning for
    experiencing the wholeness that is its intrinsic nature.
    Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D.
    Worcester, Massachusetts
    September 15, 2008
    References
    1. Suzuki, S. Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind , Weatherhill, NY, 1970.
    2. Coupled with another Handbook on the subject which appeared in German in
    2004: Heidenreich T and Michalak J. Aksamkeit und Akzeptanz in der Psychother-
    pie: Ein Handbuch dvgt-Verlag, Tübingen, 2004.
    Foreword
    xxxiii
    3. Ghandi, M. http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Mahatma Gandhi/
    4. Ludwig, D. personal communication, June, 2008.
    5. Bodhi, B. The Noble Eightfold Path: Way to the End of Suffering , Buddhist Pub-
    lication Society Pariyatti, Onalaska, WA, 1994.
    6. Grossman, P. On measuring mindfulness in psychosomatic and psychological
    research, Journal of Psychosomatic Research 64 :405–408, 2008.
    7. Thera, N. The Heart of Buddhist Meditation , Samuel Weiser, NY, 1962.
    8. See The Heart of Understanding: Commentaries on the Prajnaparamita Heart
    Sutra Hanh TN Parallax Press, Berkeley 1988; also Kabat-Zinn J Coming to Our
    Senses , Hyperion, NY, 2005, pp.172-183.
    9. Cullen, M. Mindfulness: A Working Definition In: Emotional Awareness: Over-
    coming the Obsatacles to Psychological Balance and Compassion , The Dalai
    Lama and Paul Ekman, Henry Holt, New York, 2008. pp.61–63
    10. See for example, Varela FJ, Thompson E, Roach E. The Embodied Mind: Cogni-
    tive Science and Human Experience , MIT Press, Cambridge, 1991 ; and Thomp-
    son, E. Mind in Life: Biology, Phenomenology, and the Sciences of Mind. Belknap
    Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 2007; Depraz N, Varela F, Vermersch P.