Yeah, but the key is if we just force ourselves to pay attention in the moment and write down or enter that which we may need later, the moment will be all the more meaningful because if the attention we bring to it.

It's called maintaining disciplined mindfulness. For anyone who's interested, Shinzen Young, author of Breakthrough Pain, is doing a series of over the phone "mini-retreats" this weekend. The registration deadline is tomorrow, Wednesday, March 10th.

Before going further, I should say that Shinzen is one of the foremost meditation teachers in the United States, and has and is devising an evolving series of meditation techniques that incorporate all form of traditional Buddhist meditation, from the ancient Sutras, Zen (or Chan) to Tibetan visualization techniques, and in a form that can be most readily adapted to studying shifts in attention in a fMRI. This is what you get from a guy who went to Japan as a graduate student in Asian Languages, is ordained as a monk in a Japanese branch of Vajrayana (literally the "Diamond Vehicle) Buddhism, which is associated primarily with Tibet, and then spent a few more years in formal training in Rinzai Zen, before moving on to Southeast Asia where he studied under some of the great masters of Vipassana (Mindfulness) coming out of the oldest of the three Buddhist schools, Theravada. That and he's way into neuroscience and does graduate level math as a hobby. And all in all is a complete unassuming and totally approachable guy, who claims the rabbi in West L.A. who tutored him for his bar mitzvah many years ago as his spiritual mentor. You can also check out his personal homepage at http://www.shinzen.org/

Here's the basic program:

Basic Mindfulness – Home Practice Program

Registration Deadline: Wednesday, March 10th at 11:00 pm (Eastern)

Register at: www.BasicMindfulness.org

We cannot accept late registrations or even guarantee a response to late email requests. The Thursday and Friday before these 5 back-to-back programs are needed for administrative preparation. Thank you for your understanding and timely registration. Specific call-in information will be emailed to registered participants AFTER this deadline.

MARCH 2010 – Enjoy one or several of the following programs offered this month.

For complete descriptions, prerequisites and registration information, visit www.BasicMindfulness.org.

(1) MARCH 12 (Friday PM) – Exploring Relative & Absolute Rest (led by Shinzen Young)
7:00 pm to 9:00 pm Pacific / 10:00 pm to 12:00 midnight Eastern

(2) MARCH 13 (Saturday AM) – Sharpening Focus on Change (led by Shinzen Young)
8:00 am to 12:00 pm Pacific / 11:00 am to 3:00 pm Eastern

(3) MARCH 13 (Saturday PM) – Focus In: Part 2 (led by Shinzen Young)
1:00 pm to 5:00 pm Pacific / 4:00 pm to 8:00 pm Eastern

(4) MARCH 14 (Sunday AM) – Practice in Motion & in Life (led by Shinzen Young)
5:00 am to 9:00 am Pacific / 8:00 am to 12:00 pm Eastern

(5) MARCH 14 (Sunday PM) – Focus Out: Part 1 (led by Shinzen Young)
10:00 am to 2:00 pm Pacific / 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm Eastern

To register, visit www.BasicMindfulness.org

Please just check out the homepage: http://www.basicmindfulness.org/ It's got a lot of stuff on it, including a 35 minute guided meditation in an MP3 format "Focus on Relaxation," which is probably the best one to start. In fact, at the start if a retreat, that's the program he leads for first-time students.

Essentially, his core program consists of 5 classes or "mini-retreats" usually over a 4 hour period. Each class typically starts with a 5 - 10 minute presentation of what he will be doing, followed by maybe 15 minutes of Q&A where participants just press the "6" key on their phones to un-mute themselves, and ask whatever is on their mind, just like at a real retreat. This is followed by a guided meditation of anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes in length, winding up the first half of the program with 5 -10 minutes in which people can report on their experience.

We then take a 50 - 60 minute break, during which time anyone can privately call Shinzen on a number that works as long as the man is alive and living in Vermont. At the conclusion of the break we come back for perhaps a 40 - 60 minute guided meditation and the retreat is over.

Beginners start out either at a retreat or with whatever "Part 1" class is being offered that month. This week, it's "Focus Out," using the objective world as the object of your meditation, which is particularly nice. For a complete description, click on "Types of Programs" on the homepage. And I almost forgot, each class comes with "suggested readings" which anyone can download with a keystroke, whether or not you are registered for the class. Other materials are available on both http://www.shinzen.org/ (under "Articles") and off the basicmindfulness.org homepage (under the "Readings and Audio" tab) including a series of diagrams that come as close to describing his "world view" as anything I know, having been his student since March, 2003.

Next month, you can take another "Part 1" program, as well as "Part 2" of "Focus Out." Once you've taken all 10 of the core classes, which are always offered on Saturday and Sunday afternoon, you can take all of the rest of the programs. Some months, the Friday evening program is open to all; this month it's not. The cost of each program is $20 however no one is turned away for lack of funds. If you want to come and can't put $20 on a credit card, just click on "Scholarships" on the lower left of the homepage to send an email to the administrator. But since the registration deadline is 11:00 PM EST on Wednesday the 10th, I would get on it PRONTO if you are interested.

Otherwise, to register, go to "Monthly Schedule" and then click on "March 12 - 14, 2009," (or whatever is the highlighted set of dates at the time you register) and you are in.

Sorry for going on so, but this is something I've wanted to share for a while and this seemed like the right time and place to bring it up. Enjoy!

Mike