It would appear that we are in agreement on many things and in particular that real mindfulness teaching comes from the heart rather than the text book. When people ask me what should I read about mindfulness? My common reply is, “if you really want to understand mindfulness do twice as much meditation as reading”. The reading only points towards something that you realize through meditation.

I am also a great fan of Jon Kabat -Zinn and although at the Now Project we prefer a more direct way of working, the MSBR course is without doubt incredibly valuable and offers an easily digested route into mindfulness. Nothing has done more to make mindfulness available to the many than the MSBR course, and that is wonderful

I question, however, whether there really is such a thing a secular mindfulness. Even if your practice is purely mechanical and about nothing more than relief from some or other neurosis, something interesting happens. As the mind slows and we connect with the miracle of now, a new dimension to ourselves and to the nature of reality comes into focus. A depth that no academic can understand because quite simply the human mind is not that smart and the intelligence of the universe is far beyond it’s limited grasp. Although Kabat – Zinn doesn’t really talk much about this, when you hear him speak, you feel his mindful radiance and he clearly points to this possibility without specifically referring to it. It’s only fair to understand than Kabat – Zinn is a pioneer, for much of his career academia was hostile to his realizations, he challenged the established paradigm and ignored the considered opinion of academics. His great talent is to make the miraculous, scientific and rational so that academics can have something to grasp and this is how he came to be “welcomed into the group” and his ideas were allowed to spread.

I have nothing against academic learning and I still use many things that i learned in my social work training many years ago. I’ve abandoned lot’s too; simply because as my mindfulness has deepened I find that a lot of it conflicts with what my mindfulness show’s me is true.

I’ve also found that sometimes an academic paradigm can also be an obstacle to the truth and as a social worker I confess that i missed many things that were right in front of my nose because my mindset would not allow me to see. This is particularly common when someone’s egoic identity, sense of worth and status is maintained through that paradigm. To acknowledge the existence of something outside of the paradigm would mean a destruction of self. Which is great from a mindfulness point of view, but at this stage of humanities awakening, is simply impossible for most people to do. Which is why to me academics are the last people I’d want “policing” mindfulness.

Who would police the police? Who would police the police who police the police? Very soon you have a top down egoic structure that inevitably breeds status, and therefore ego, and becomes the poison of mindfulness.

I’m not suggesting that one should embark on teaching without training and our teachers generally have between 8 and 15 years training under their belts. Yes they’ve read books, some of them have read dozens if books on mindfulness, but all mindfulness books say pretty much the same thing and ultimately their mindfulness training was done here and now in all the up’s and down of real life. Not from s book and no certificate in sight..

I do share your concerns that when working with vulnerable people mindfulness teachers must be competent in working with trauma and frequently after the initial honeymoon it is common for repressed emotions to surface. This represent a wonderful shift in the practice and offers the potential for healing and transformation if handled mindfully, but. I do wonder though, whether the MSBR equips teachers to deal with this. Ultimately it is only the depth of the teachers mindfulness and their ability and skill in holding their own pain in mindful acceptance and loving kindness that allows them to show others the way through.

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