[fmichael]

Through the years there have been a number of postings here on Shinzen Young's Break Through Pain, in which he introduces meditative techniques for people in chronic pain, much like Jon Kabat-Zinn's Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program.

I was referred to an MBSR teacher in 2002, a year into this, and "graduated" into Shinzen's fold a few months later. The guy is considered to be perhaps the best mediation teacher in the U.S., having gone to Japan in the 1960s as a graduate student in Asian Languages and the nice Jewish kid from LA was subsequently ordained as a Buddhist monk, going onto to be one of a handful of people who has been fully trained (in Asia) in each of the three major schools of Buddhism.

But what really sets him apart is that he is totally into post-graduate mathematics and neuroscience, on account of which he sees the great hope of the future in the melding of the deep Asian understanding of "I am-ness" (the combination of our subjective sense of self interplaying with an objective world) and the most advanced levels of neuroscience.

And in this regard, the relief of suffering from chronic pain has had a near visceral centrality for many years. And I have benefitted greatly from that over quite a number of retreats since March of 2003, along with the opportunity to sit regularly with a many people who have become in some cases very close friends. Literally, as CRPS brought my professional life to an end, another one opened for me. And I don’t even have to leave the house: once a month Shinzen puts on a total of five programs over the course of the weekend, in which people call in to a conference call center for 2 to 4 hour long sessions of guided meditation and Q&A sessions, with people participating from as far away as Northern Finland, Cypress, Israel and Hong-Kong all in real time.

I have learned to experience pain, sadness, sight, sound, joy, you name it, as just sensation, without (when I’m lucky) attachment or aversion. And so have avoided (per my psychologist) any real depression even as my body starts to fall apart, as we all do in the end. And all - at least in my case - without any real aspect of what might be called “faith.” Just taking the pieces of any particular situation apart, until they are down to manageable bite sized pieces. With the highest calling being in taking in as much physical and emotional pain – both of my own and others – digesting, processing and returning it to self and world as love and compassion.

In any event, for a while now I’ve wonder how I might introduce personally introduce Shinzen to more people this group. And then last week, it fell into my lap. Google invited him onto its campus a few weeks ago to deliver one in its series of TechTalks, which was promptly posted on YouTube in flaming HD as only the likes of Google can do. The 1:08 talk is a little “techy” at times, after all he’s speaking at Google, but at about the 34 minute mark he makes it as real in terms of chronic pain as you could ever imagine.

Perhaps the only term that’s important to know is “orthogonal” which refers, in the simplest terms to when two or more intersecting lines (axis) are perpendicular to each other, such that any position in a 2-demensional spaces can be defined by where it lines up against the 2 perpendicular axis, and in a 3-dimensional space against the 3 perpendicular axis, and so on.

So with no further ado, Shinzen Young on TechTalks:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XCWP4pODbs

I would be curious as to comments anyone might have after viewing the talk.

Mike

[Steelworker]

The only way he could say less is to talk more.

[fmichael]

Steelworker -

Perhaps it would have had more appeal if confined to one of his bullet points: "although pain may be inevitable, suffering is optional."

That said, I understand from your other post that you are the loving father of a young woman in terrible pain and that you didn't find this helpful. And I can appreciaite that. And if I had been fighting for years for one of my own kids, that might have been my first take as well.

But sometimes, from the patient's perspective, the idea of dropping even just a little bit of resistance and exploring the aspects and nuances of the pain - sometimes in a part of the body where it is at it's feintest and therefore most bearable - can be very useful in being less afflicted by the thing as a whole. That's what Break Through Pain and its accompanying CD is all about. Sorry if that point was not made clear when expressed in terms of "suffering equals pain times resistance." Perhaps I should have started with something more narrowly tailored and a bit less, shall we say, comprehensive in its scope.

Mile

[hope4thebest]

Although I only have a few moments for this post as I am at work, I want to thank Mike for posting information regarding Shinzen Young and his CD and book titled "Breakthrough Pain."
I can't as yet speak for the Youtube presentation as I haven't seen it , but I plan to view it this week.

Shinzen Young's CD has helped me cope through many, many a night of intense pain. He guides the listener through a series of techniques on how to regard the pain, rather than fight it and resist it; He helps me to identify it, pinpoint it, break it down into smaller pieces, rather than one big, huge overwhelming avalanche of pain.
In the middle of the night, when I am feeling most lonely and in pain, with just my thoughts, my pain and the length of night ahead, his expertise, guidance, and comforting objective understanding of pain (its essence, without any connotation) have carried me through, with his help, on my own.
I only wish that everyone could have a copy of his book and CD, (which I ordered on-line)
This is a brief post, but I wanted to get it out there to support Mike's appreciation of Young and his work and study.
Hope4thebest

[SandyS]

Ditto! I appreciate all of Mikes posts. I am going to order this for my daughter. She will try anything to help with pain. I think the book would be helpful in my understanding of her pain as well. This reminds me of Mind, Body Spirit that my daughter learned at the Cleveland Clinic Childrens Pain Program. Thanks again Mike.

Mike you are the best.

Sandy

Originally Posted by hope4thebest

Although I only have a few moments for this post as I am at work, I want to thank Mike for posting information regarding Shinzen Young and his CD and book titled "Breakthrough Pain."
I can't as yet speak for the Youtube presentation as I haven't seen it , but I plan to view it this week.

Shinzen Young's CD has helped me cope through many, many a night of intense pain. He guides the listener through a series of techniques on how to regard the pain, rather than fight it and resist it; He helps me to identify it, pinpoint it, break it down into smaller pieces, rather than one big, huge overwhelming avalanche of pain.
In the middle of the night, when I am feeling most lonely and in pain, with just my thoughts, my pain and the length of night ahead, his expertise, guidance, and comforting objective understanding of pain (its essence, without any connotation) have carried me through, with his help, on my own.
I only wish that everyone could have a copy of his book and CD, (which I ordered on-line)
This is a brief post, but I wanted to get it out there to support Mike's appreciation of Young and his work and study.
Hope4thebest

[hope4thebest]

Hi Steelworker,
I wanted to add a few words to my previous post...

The explanation of Shinzen Young's work and study of pain might seem complicated but truly it is so very helpful and basically simple in the C.D.

It helps with relaxing into the pain (even though that seems utterly impossible to do when you are in a state of excruciating "of the charts" distress...but he addresses that level of pain, too.)
It's somewhat like a series of mindful mental exercises and breathing patterns to learn to help us through.
They are helpful for physical pain and possibly even emotional pain...
I am so sorry that your loved one had to undergo so much hardship...... I read your original post where you describe her ordeal..I hold her in my thoughts, and you as well.
Hope4thebest

[hope4thebest]

I was able to view the Youtube featuring Shinzen Young that Mike wrote about..(I stayed up too late, but I am grateful for the reinforcement...)

Because I have some familiarity with his practice and work, I found it very enjoyable and (surprisingly) understandable. I understand his concepts of blending the scientific method (and disciplines) with the realm of meditation and enlightenment, and the crossing of depth and breadth, vertical and horizontal to maximize infinitely the experience, so that the clarity of mind and concentration become a constant in our consciousness. This clarity and concentration helps us "endure"....

It was a complex and 'technical' interpretation of meditation and was intimidating in the beginning...
But as Mike pointed out, about half way through, (at about 34 minutes) Shinzen focuses on pain and physical discomfort, and helps us understand that pain and the resistance of pain bring on suffering. If we can break the experience of pain into quantifiable categories, it fragments pain, and almost "neutralizes" it. This is done by learning mindfully-based techniqes
(the general term is meditation, but with a scientific bent) and by monitoring our somatic, visual, and auditory responses to pain...)

I've practiced this with his C.D. and I thank Mike for the reminder to re-visit these techniques....it's hard to remember when bombarded with the demands of the day, of life.....

Here's hoping for all of us to somehow be comfortable, in whatever way we can..
hope4thebest. xoxox

[fmichael]

Originally Posted by SandyS

Ditto! I appreciate all of Mikes posts. I am going to order this for my daughter. She will try anything to help with pain. I think the book would be helpful in my understanding of her pain as well. This reminds me of Mind, Body Spirit that my daughter learned at the Cleveland Clinic Childrens Pain Program. Thanks again Mike.

Mike you are the best.

Sandy

Dear Sandy -

Thanks, although I wouldn't go anywhere near there, especially as I MAY HAVE STUPIDLY ALIENATED PERSONS OF FAITH. Please check out Shinzen’s YouTube based Welcome to New Viewers http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pvk99BRxlPw My words were ill-chosen at best.

That said, your reference to the program at the Cleveland Clinic is well taken, although I just have a sense that program may owe more to Jon Kabat-Zinn's MBSR than they may acknowledge. Check out the MBSR home page at http://www.umassmed.edu/Content.aspx?id=41252 as well as Jon's homepage at http://www.mindfulnesscds.com/index.html with particular reference to his most recent book Coming to Our Senses: Healing Ourselves and the World Through Mindfulness.

There are some subtle yet significant differences between MBSR and Shinzen's approach, although both teach Vipassana (Mindfulness) Meditation, a technique which has at its heart, however practiced, with the careful noting of experience. There are however, two clear (at least in my mind) distinctions between the their approaches.

First, Jon is working almost exclusively out of the oldest and more conservative of the two principal branches of Buddhism, Theravada Buddhism, which gave rise to Vipassana (Mindfulness) Meditation - and in the U.S. is most closely associated with the Insight Meditation Society in Barre MA and Spirit Rock in Marin Co. CA - while Shinzen, although a Vipassana teacher in his own right who has studied directly under the Burmese master U Ba Khin (1899 - 1971) and others, began his training in the second and later branch of Buddhism, Mahayana, where he was first ordained as a monk a Japanese school that is a close counterpart of Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism, then spending another three years (I think) training in Japan, but in (Rinzai) Zen, another Mahayana school, before travelling to Burma to study Vipassana.

As such, Shinzen has been able to incorporate the emphasis on the discernment of internal visual images of the Vajrayana School along with the Vipassana emphasis of noting all things in the somatic world of the body - including sensations in the body of clearly emotional origin - along with what is typically associated with the principal activities of the mind: verbal thought. And to all of this he adds a Zen perspective of directly experiencing the complete lack of separation between one's subjective experience and the outside "objective world" as well as the understanding that the cessation of an experience is equally significant as it's arising. Although that is a concept that runs in one way or another throughout Buddhism, that nothing (be it noun or verb) exists/arises except in relation to something else. (I knew there was more to John Dunne's "No Man is an Island" when I read it in high school, it just took 35 years or so to get there.)

And having taken a couple of MBSR classes and studies with Shinzen for a number of years, the biggest difference in practice is that Shinzen has significantly reformulated traditional meditation techniques, with quite specific and incredibly efficient methods of noting experience. All with the goal of developing concentration, sensory clarity and equanimity. The latter being defined by its negation: aversion (resistance) to the unpleasant and craving the pleasant.

As chronic pain patients, we can build tremendous equanimity, but to do so generally requires maintaining our concentration on the clarity of the pain experience, so that we become first of all merely observers of it, as opposed to its captives. Big difference.

For any and all who are interested, I can refer you to the following additional sites:

1. Shinzen's homepage http://www.shinzen.org/ including the recorded “Dharma Talks” (perhaps starting with Breath Meditation, The Core Practice and Equanimity. As well as one item in particular under “Articles,” A Pain-Processing Algorithm which can be directly linked to at http://www.shinzen.org/shinsub3/artP...gAlgorithm.pdf

2. Shinzen’s program of monthly telephone retreats, where each month there is at least on class for pure beginners, the BASIC MINDFULNESS Home Practice Program at http://www.basicmindfulness.org/ and

3. On Shinzen’s YouTube channel, his wonderful presentation of the Ten Ox Herding Pictures, a.k.a. the Ten Bulls (famous in Japanese Zen) at the talk he gave on the last night of the 2008 – 2009 Year End Retreat, which I was lucky enough to see in person. http://video.google.com/videosearch?...d=0CCMQqwQwCA#

Mike