welcome home

A few weeks ago, Oprah had Jon Kabat-Zinn on her Soulseries on XM radio. I just finished up listening to the interview last night, and I was definitely inspired by his thoughts on living mindfully.

After hearing the interview, I started doing some research, and found a transcript on-line from another interview he did with Rachel Kohn from ABC radio national. Here are is a bit of Kabat-Zinn's thoughts about spirituality that I'd like to share:

"In the last chapter of my second book, which is called Wherever You Go There You Are actually addressed this. In there, I ask the question, Well let's say is having a baby spiritual? Is washing the dishes spiritual? Is making love spiritual? Is seeing a sunset spiritual? I mean what isn't spiritual if you're present for it, if you show up for it? Is comforting a crying child spiritual? See my point is that everything is potentially a profoundly moving and illuminating experience if you show up for it with a clear mind and an open heart. And if you don't, then you're turning spirituality into some other materialist thing, which is a measure of your ego's desire to look a certain way..."

And, here is a bit on mindfulness...

"A taste of mindfulness. Have you ever had the experience of stopping so completely, of being in your body so completely, of being in your life so completely? That what you knew and what you didn't know, and what had been and what was yet to come, and the way things are right now, no longer held even the slightest hint of anxiety of discord?
A moment of complete presence beyond striving, beyond mere acceptance, beyond the desire to escape or fix anything, or plunge ahead. A moment of pure being, no longer in time, a moment of pure seeing, pure feeling, a moment in which life simply is. And that is-ness grabs you by all your senses and all your memories, by your very genes, by your loves, and welcomes you home. "

Namaste'

Yogagal