People often ask me what I think of Jon Kabat-Zinn.
Well, he ROCKS. I love everything he writes and truly appreciate the wonderful work he has done to make mindfulness a more accepted and conventional concept in terms of wellness.
I highly recommend his books, tapes, workshops, heck, even his t-shirts if he happens to have them.
JKZ is the rock star of mindfulness. Which I guess makes me just one of his groupies, though I like to think that I’d at least get a nod and wink to come backstage. 
But there is just one thing I’m not so sure about. It’s just this one little thing, though. And it’s this:
He’s….doing the Buddhist thing. And he’s seen as hangin’ with the Buddhist folks. Yes, he has that whole medical/psychological/brain approach going, but he talks the Buddhist talk and walks the Buddhist walk.
Now, I have absolutely nothing against Buddhism. Not in the slightest. I mean, I have studied it for many years and have the utmost respect for the teachings and the vast majority of the teachers.
But I do believe that there is a significant PR issue (why do all things mindfulness-related have to be connected to Buddhism???) that is impeding the natural acceptance and embracing of mindfulness by the masses. You see, some people are all gung-ho about the meditation concept and the idea of gaining awareness, but they are TURNED OFF COMPLETELY once you mention the B-word. I know this for a fact because I have seen it happen again and again in my work.
People will come to me and say, “I really love this mindfulness. I really want to learn how to develop greater awareness and be in the moment. Too bad I’m not a Buddhist.” To which I reply: “But you don’t have to be a BUDDHIST! Honest!”
And they say, “Well, there’s just all that chanting and incense and even if I just do it in my bedroom on my bed, it FEELS like I should be chanting and burning incense.”
Me: “No, you don’t need a thing. You don’t even have to SIT!”
Them: “Um, every single book I’ve read talks about meditation and mindfulness the same way–being present in the moment, being in the now, scanning the body, watching for discomfort, staying on the cushion, waiting for the gong, etc.”
Me: “Forget all that. I mean, it’s good and all, but that’s just ONE way to approach mindfulness. The thing is, we’ve lumped mindfulness and meditation together for so long that we’ve forgotten something very important:
MINDFULNESS deserves top billing–meditation is simply the opening act!”
And it’s true. We keep focusing on the meditation–the process of sitting, learning how to do it, making a point of doing it, trying various approaches to doing it. And while I honor the focus on process, the fact is that people tend to get LOST there. They get totally bogged down in that meditation process. They never even get a GLIMPSE of mindfulness because they are so busy telling themselves how lousy they are at meditating and that maybe they should just go do something else.
This breaks my heart. I WANT people to taste mindfulness. I want them to have great big juicy mouthfuls of it, laugh out loud, and get another big juicy mouthful, with mindfulness dripping everywhere while they grin.
But if they sit down at the meditation table and can’t get comfy, can’t figure out what to order, can’t wait long enough for the food to arrive, they leave—-HUNGRY. And a bit cranky about the whole experience.
So, Jon, my beloved mindfulness rock star, please tell them they can go out and play. Tell them if they don’t like that meditation restaurant, they can go find their mindfulness at the local playground. I keep trying to tell them, but you can reach more of them, more easily, with more credibility.
Please, Jon.
You’re fabulous. Now, tell us we can PLAY with mindfulness, and do it without once sounding like a Buddhist.
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