January/February 2015

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Editor's Note

Rich Simon

Over several thousand years, different cultures have discovered how to nurture the seed of a specifically human capacity—a saving grace, as it were—for mentally stepping outside the rat cage of our own attachments and learning how to escape the whirring agitation of our minds. Over the past couple of decades, these meditative disciplines have become something of a national indoor sport, at least among a large segment of the American middle class seeking to quiet the mind and even develop a quality of genuine wisdom in our overstimulating and stressful world

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A crowd doing yoga in Times Square

The Mindfulness Explosion

The Perils of Mainstream Acceptance

Mary Sykes Wylie

By replacing the exotic aura of spirituality with the language of science and a down-to-earth self-help approach, mindfulness has brought practices once considered New Age hokum into mainstream acceptance. But as it increasingly becomes a product to be sold in the marketplace, does it risk losing something vital to its transformative power? Read More
A man sits cross-legged amongst a crowd

The Reluctant Guru

Staying in the Moment with Jon Kabat-Zinn

Rich Simon

A Conversation with Jon Kabat-ZinnSince he first developed Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction in 1979, Jon Kabat-Zinn has not only become a key figure in shaping our ideas about physical and mental health, but a cultural icon. Here he talks about handling his public role and being placed on a pedestal. Read More
An illustration of an eye with a cloudy sky in the iris

The Fiction of the Self

The Paradox of Mindfulness in Clinical Practice

Ronald Siegel

If we engage in meditation long enough, we discover that our sense of being a separate, coherent, enduring self is actually a delusion maintained by our constant inner chatter. Seeing ourselves in this light can pull the rug out from under us in alarming—though potentially liberating—ways. Read More
An illustration of a woman looking in a mirror as versions of herself sprout from her head doing the same

A Doorway to Mystery

Creating a Sacred Space in Therapy

Jack Kornfield

As pressures mount to narrow the focus of psychotherapy into a medicalized, evidence-based approach, one of the teachers who first helped integrate mindfulness into psychotherapy argues for recognizing the role of ritual and embracing the sacred in our work. Read More
A butterfly approaches an iPhone with an image of grass onscreen

Nature, Pixelated

How the Virtual World Is Rewiring Our Senses

Diane Ackerman

For the first time in history, we’re mainly experiencing nature through intermediary technology that paradoxically provides more detail while flattening our sensory experience. Can becoming entranced by electronic media alter our brains? Read More

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