WEBVTT - How Mindfulness Works 0:00:01.480 --> 0:00:04.280 Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of I 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:13.280 Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, 0:00:13.320 --> 0:00:17.159 and there's Chuck and Jerry's here, Ish and this is 0:00:17.200 --> 0:00:22.960 stuff you should know. Ish. This is full on stuff 0:00:22.960 --> 0:00:26.439 you should know, Charles. Remember that point. I feel like 0:00:26.480 --> 0:00:31.200 it was about ten eight to ten years ago where 0:00:31.440 --> 0:00:34.680 everyone was just saying ish on the end of things 0:00:35.880 --> 0:00:39.040 instead of saying, like, you know, finding the real word 0:00:39.080 --> 0:00:42.280 that they were looking for, so so like an approximation 0:00:42.400 --> 0:00:45.120 of the word or or of the thing they were describing. 0:00:45.840 --> 0:00:51.360 So like I'm saying, no, not even that, like when 0:00:51.360 --> 0:00:53.199 there's like a real word that could be used and 0:00:53.200 --> 0:00:55.440 they would just the ish on another word. I don't 0:00:55.440 --> 0:00:57.960 know what you're talking about. No, yeah, it was. It 0:00:58.040 --> 0:01:01.680 was the thing it swept the nation? When was it? 0:01:01.760 --> 0:01:04.440 Or maybe I'm thinking of the Marcarina. That's that's what 0:01:04.560 --> 0:01:08.679 you're thinking. Okay, alright, man, that really did sweep the nature. 0:01:08.680 --> 0:01:11.680 Remember that who let the dogs out? It was like 0:01:11.720 --> 0:01:15.280 a one. Did they ever find that out? No? I 0:01:15.319 --> 0:01:19.200 think it was a rhetorical question. It's the kind of 0:01:19.240 --> 0:01:23.720 rhetorical question you could ask yourself, Chuck while you're meditating. Yeah, 0:01:24.319 --> 0:01:26.720 but first thanks thanks, but I'm gonna step all over 0:01:26.720 --> 0:01:29.400 the segway because because before we get started, Chuck, I 0:01:29.440 --> 0:01:32.240 want to do if you'll allow me, another shout out 0:01:33.080 --> 0:01:37.360 for my little niece Mela's movie, big time movie called 0:01:37.400 --> 0:01:40.720 No Exit that's coming out as far as when this 0:01:40.760 --> 0:01:46.280 episode drops tomorrow, so February, No matter when you hear this, 0:01:46.640 --> 0:01:50.240 just immediately go onto Hulu subscribe if you haven't yet, 0:01:50.600 --> 0:01:54.240 and check out my niece Mila in No Exit because 0:01:54.240 --> 0:01:57.440 she is the trailer amazing. What do you think it 0:01:57.520 --> 0:02:01.920 looks like a taut thriller? She looks fantastic from what 0:02:01.960 --> 0:02:04.600 you can tell from a trailer. You just saved all 0:02:04.640 --> 0:02:06.840 the bad parts for the movie. I don't think they did. 0:02:06.880 --> 0:02:08.800 I was reading an interview with the director and he 0:02:08.880 --> 0:02:11.120 was saying like she was. She was doing such an 0:02:11.160 --> 0:02:14.120 amazing job of being terrified and freaked out and everything 0:02:14.639 --> 0:02:17.880 that like after in between takes, like the other customers 0:02:17.880 --> 0:02:19.399 would be like are you okay? And she'd be like, yeah, 0:02:19.400 --> 0:02:23.520 why are you okay? And you know I'm acting right exactly. 0:02:23.680 --> 0:02:27.720 She's like, it's acting you like John Love. Yeah, So 0:02:28.320 --> 0:02:33.160 on Hulu No Exit February. My niece Mila just kills 0:02:33.240 --> 0:02:37.560 it there you go, can't wait. Thanks again for that, chuck, 0:02:37.600 --> 0:02:41.000 So let's get started. Thank you for not passing judgment 0:02:41.080 --> 0:02:47.040 on that either way, Uh, your re siguing because we're 0:02:47.040 --> 0:02:50.880 times passing judgment. It means I'm not being mindful because 0:02:50.880 --> 0:02:54.800 a big part of mindfulness you just did not judge. Yeah, 0:02:54.919 --> 0:02:57.240 So that's like, this is one of those ones, you know, 0:02:57.280 --> 0:02:59.680 those episodes where we just start talking about the thing 0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:03.080 without defining it. Um. This is not going to be 0:03:03.120 --> 0:03:04.880 one of those episodes because I think it would be 0:03:05.160 --> 0:03:09.200 kind of rough otherwise, you know. Yeah, And I guess 0:03:09.200 --> 0:03:12.080 if you're gonna define mindfulness, you need to kind of 0:03:12.080 --> 0:03:15.040 go back in time. I mean, I guess we could 0:03:15.040 --> 0:03:16.680 hop in the way back machine. We haven't done that, 0:03:17.400 --> 0:03:20.160 it's been a while. Let's pull the old cover off. 0:03:20.200 --> 0:03:22.920 It's quite dusty in here, and a little bit of 0:03:22.960 --> 0:03:26.200 mill do, Little mill do. There's some old crystals boxes. 0:03:26.680 --> 0:03:30.000 Those are yours? Remember you had them accidentally delivered to 0:03:30.040 --> 0:03:32.360 your house? Right, and then we went back to the 0:03:32.360 --> 0:03:41.480 old West to celebrate you're thinking of back to the future. 0:03:41.560 --> 0:03:44.560 Three ah, right, right right? I called Mary steam Virgin, 0:03:46.280 --> 0:03:48.400 meaning if I did to play her, not date her 0:03:48.480 --> 0:03:54.600 or anything, Oh, Dave Mary steam Burgin on her? Isn't that? Um? 0:03:54.640 --> 0:03:58.560 I really that's a Ted Danson's old squeeze, right, it's 0:03:58.560 --> 0:04:02.000 his current squeeze. I'm not gonna fight. Are they still together? Yeah? 0:04:02.040 --> 0:04:05.040 I think so. Gosh they've been together for a while. Yeah. 0:04:05.160 --> 0:04:09.480 Good couple. Okay, great, good stuff. So who knew we 0:04:09.480 --> 0:04:11.240 were gonna be talking about ted dancing at the beginning 0:04:11.240 --> 0:04:15.760 of Mine could richer gear, but ted dancing is a 0:04:15.840 --> 0:04:19.000 big surprise. If we get in the way back machine 0:04:19.120 --> 0:04:23.080 and go back uh in time to sort of the 0:04:23.120 --> 0:04:27.680 beginning of Buddhism, you'd have to look at the language 0:04:27.720 --> 0:04:31.880 Polly and the words sati Polly is p a l 0:04:32.040 --> 0:04:34.560 i satis s a t i. There are a lot 0:04:34.560 --> 0:04:37.240 of different words for mindfulness, but the one that we 0:04:37.320 --> 0:04:39.599 kind of identify with it's kind of been used most 0:04:40.200 --> 0:04:46.680 from Polly, which is a Middle Indo Aryan liturgical language 0:04:47.120 --> 0:04:50.480 from the early branches of Buddhism. iBOT to take in 0:04:50.800 --> 0:04:54.040 the reason that that Poully is so important is because 0:04:54.080 --> 0:04:56.920 they say that it was the language of the Buddha 0:04:57.000 --> 0:04:59.000 and at the very least it was the first language 0:04:59.040 --> 0:05:02.440 that the Buddhas were which have been passed down orally, um, 0:05:02.520 --> 0:05:05.560 we're written down in so it's like legit old school 0:05:05.600 --> 0:05:09.320 Buddhist thinking and teachings. And one of the basic parts 0:05:09.320 --> 0:05:11.920 of that is, like you said, sati, which is has 0:05:11.960 --> 0:05:15.880 been translated to mindfulness, but it was translated by a 0:05:15.920 --> 0:05:19.240 British colonial administrator, wasn't it. That's right, And it kind 0:05:19.240 --> 0:05:23.160 of more accurately as translated as memory of the present, 0:05:23.200 --> 0:05:25.520 which I think is a really kind of a cool 0:05:25.640 --> 0:05:29.280 way to look at mindfulness. Yeah. Absolutely, it really kind 0:05:29.279 --> 0:05:31.800 of reveals what what's what's going on, especially once you 0:05:31.839 --> 0:05:33.279 kind of learned a little more about it, you're like, 0:05:33.320 --> 0:05:36.560 that actually works about as perfectly as as can be. 0:05:37.440 --> 0:05:41.400 But it got it got translated, um into the word mindfulness, 0:05:41.400 --> 0:05:46.520 sati into mindfulness by a British colonial administrator in Ceylon 0:05:46.760 --> 0:05:49.480 which is now Sri Lanka, back in the eighteen eighties. 0:05:50.000 --> 0:05:52.440 So it was some British guy who said sati means 0:05:52.480 --> 0:05:54.839 mindfulness and actually kind of gave it to us today, 0:05:54.839 --> 0:05:57.760 although there was a long period where it had been forgotten. 0:05:58.400 --> 0:06:01.560 But I think you don't really talk about mindfulness even 0:06:01.560 --> 0:06:04.400 though it's changed so dramatically, especially in the last decade 0:06:04.480 --> 0:06:09.360 or so, without kind of describing what it was originally 0:06:09.400 --> 0:06:12.000 meant to describe, what it still describes if you're a 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:15.599 practicing Buddhist um and that is that like you are 0:06:16.040 --> 0:06:20.479 not only like paying attention to the moment and um 0:06:21.480 --> 0:06:26.200 like like experiencing this moment without letting your thoughts wander 0:06:26.240 --> 0:06:28.360 to the past or the future or anything like that, 0:06:28.920 --> 0:06:32.120 but that whatever you're experiencing in the moment, no matter 0:06:32.160 --> 0:06:35.800 what it is, you're experiencing with equanimity, which means that 0:06:35.839 --> 0:06:38.440 you're not passing judgment on it as good or bad 0:06:38.560 --> 0:06:42.360 or anything else. It just is And it sounds easy 0:06:42.440 --> 0:06:45.240 to describe, but if you've ever tried it, it's one 0:06:45.240 --> 0:06:47.680 of the hardest things a human being can never set 0:06:47.680 --> 0:06:51.039 out to do. Yeah, I mean, I think it's very 0:06:51.160 --> 0:06:57.760 very natural for human too, ah, seek out and contemplate 0:06:57.839 --> 0:07:01.360 and think about the things that feel good and please them, 0:07:01.400 --> 0:07:04.640 and to try and stuff down and get rid of 0:07:04.760 --> 0:07:10.360 and avoid things that either hurt literally hurt or emotionally hurt, 0:07:10.440 --> 0:07:14.440 or things that are painful or unpleasant. And Boyle's a 0:07:15.120 --> 0:07:18.120 that is a tough thing to overcome, my friend. Uh, 0:07:18.160 --> 0:07:21.160 just the condition of being human makes that very difficult. 0:07:21.440 --> 0:07:23.240 But yeah, and you just nailed it on the head, 0:07:23.400 --> 0:07:26.160 not once but twice, Chuck, when you said that it's 0:07:26.160 --> 0:07:29.960 a very human condition and part of sati. The point 0:07:30.000 --> 0:07:33.440 of sati as far as like Buddhists are concerned, is 0:07:33.480 --> 0:07:35.720 that it's a step that you take on the path 0:07:35.760 --> 0:07:38.360 to enlightenment to free yourself from the cycle of like 0:07:38.720 --> 0:07:41.400 life and death and rebirth and to become like a 0:07:41.440 --> 0:07:45.000 truly enlightened being that's freed from all of that. And 0:07:45.080 --> 0:07:47.520 so you have to free yourself from that human condition, 0:07:47.560 --> 0:07:49.360 and a big part of that is to free yourself 0:07:49.400 --> 0:07:53.960 from yearning from wanting. Because yearning and wanting or being 0:07:53.960 --> 0:07:56.160 repelled by something and wanting to get away from it, 0:07:56.680 --> 0:07:58.480 there are two sides of the same coin as far 0:07:58.480 --> 0:08:02.960 as sati is concerned, which is um you are wishing 0:08:03.080 --> 0:08:07.560 that something is different or was different than it actually is, 0:08:07.960 --> 0:08:11.480 and then that's the basis of suffering, and suffering is 0:08:11.520 --> 0:08:13.480 the thing that keeps you in that cycle of life 0:08:13.480 --> 0:08:17.720 and death and rebirth. So meditating to become mindful and 0:08:17.800 --> 0:08:21.840 non judgmental about your present experience is one step toward 0:08:22.600 --> 0:08:25.360 relieving yourself with suffering and then freeing yourself from that 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:29.680 shackle being born and reborn and reborn again. Well, you 0:08:29.680 --> 0:08:32.240 and my friend have just spoken about the noble truths, 0:08:32.280 --> 0:08:36.720 in part because craving is the cause of suffering is 0:08:36.760 --> 0:08:40.640 the second noble truth. And to cease that craving will 0:08:40.679 --> 0:08:44.000 bring about the ceasing of that suffering, which is the 0:08:44.000 --> 0:08:49.400 third noble truth. And basically, experiencing the moment without and 0:08:49.679 --> 0:08:53.760 everything about the moment without judgment is sort of the 0:08:53.760 --> 0:08:57.080 the goal. And you know, for modern you know, we're 0:08:57.120 --> 0:08:59.400 gonna talk a lot about sort of the beginnings of 0:09:00.000 --> 0:09:03.400 mindfulness and kind of how it's become um, kind of 0:09:03.440 --> 0:09:06.520 a hip thing to do here in the United States, uh, 0:09:06.720 --> 0:09:09.800 starting in about the nineteen seventies and on and especially today. 0:09:10.200 --> 0:09:13.840 But we're we're kind of talking in American modern terms 0:09:13.880 --> 0:09:18.360 about stress and distressing and the Buddhists have a term 0:09:18.400 --> 0:09:20.960 for that, which is duca d u k k h 0:09:21.000 --> 0:09:26.440 a uh. And that is, you know, again, to avoid 0:09:26.520 --> 0:09:29.160 or destroy something that we don't like, and what we 0:09:29.240 --> 0:09:31.000 usually don't like is something that's going to put a 0:09:31.040 --> 0:09:34.720 stress on us, right exactly. And they're saying, like, dude, 0:09:35.200 --> 0:09:37.520 this is part of the point of life. I'm reading 0:09:37.559 --> 0:09:41.360 this really amazing book by Tick not Han right now. Um, 0:09:41.400 --> 0:09:42.959 rereading it. Actually it's when I was when you just 0:09:43.080 --> 0:09:46.960 kind of go back and reread very like easy slim volume. 0:09:47.240 --> 0:09:49.959 It's called No Mud, No Lotus, and it basically says 0:09:50.040 --> 0:09:53.679 like without suffering, you can't have happiness and vice versa. 0:09:54.000 --> 0:09:56.720 Pretty pretty basic stuff. But like he really gets into 0:09:56.800 --> 0:10:01.480 explaining how to confront suffering and understand that it's just 0:10:01.640 --> 0:10:06.280 part of life. And that's a huge part of the 0:10:06.360 --> 0:10:09.880 Buddhist approach to mindfulness. It's not to get away from suffering, 0:10:09.960 --> 0:10:13.920 is to recognize it as it is and also simultaneously 0:10:13.960 --> 0:10:16.040 not make a bigger deal out of it than it is, 0:10:16.200 --> 0:10:18.640 because suffering is enough. It's bad enough as it is, 0:10:18.840 --> 0:10:21.040 but another part of the human condition is to make 0:10:21.080 --> 0:10:26.760 it way worse by anticipating it, worrying about it, um like, 0:10:26.840 --> 0:10:29.280 focusing on it after it happens. There's a lot of 0:10:29.280 --> 0:10:31.640 stuff we do to our own suffering that explodes it, 0:10:31.679 --> 0:10:34.319 and part of mindfulness training is to is to stop 0:10:34.360 --> 0:10:37.720 doing that as well too. You ain't kidding, uh, And 0:10:38.120 --> 0:10:39.960 the lack of judgment is a big, big part of 0:10:39.960 --> 0:10:42.360 all of this. And we're gonna talk quite a bit 0:10:42.400 --> 0:10:45.800 here and there about John cabot Zin, who is uh, 0:10:46.360 --> 0:10:49.120 it's like easy, far and away the sort of leader 0:10:49.160 --> 0:10:53.760 of the modern American mindfulness movement in a lot of 0:10:53.760 --> 0:10:55.800 different ways. And we'll get to him in more detail later. 0:10:55.880 --> 0:10:59.200 But he says that awareness that arises through paying attention 0:10:59.240 --> 0:11:01.480 on purpose, and that's another big part of it. It's 0:11:01.520 --> 0:11:05.160 it's a very purposeful practice. Yeah, but not meditation, which 0:11:05.160 --> 0:11:08.040 we'll get to that as well, because meditation is a 0:11:08.080 --> 0:11:11.559 true physical practice that you in mental practice, whereas mindfulness 0:11:11.600 --> 0:11:13.600 is more of a state of being that you're trying 0:11:13.600 --> 0:11:16.680 to get to. But he says on purpose in the 0:11:16.679 --> 0:11:19.800 present moment and non non judgmentally, they always have to 0:11:20.120 --> 0:11:22.559 kind of hammer home the lack of judgment being a 0:11:22.640 --> 0:11:27.040 key part right exactly. Um, And he's he's a proponent 0:11:27.160 --> 0:11:30.200 in kind of one of the founders of what you 0:11:30.240 --> 0:11:34.040 can refer to as secular mindfulness, which is this current 0:11:34.120 --> 0:11:36.960 incarnation of mindfulness that's sweeping the West. It's like you said, 0:11:37.040 --> 0:11:41.040 hip that's been kind of like removed deliberately, as we'll see, 0:11:41.040 --> 0:11:44.839 removed from its Buddhist roots and Buddhist context to make 0:11:44.880 --> 0:11:50.160 it more palatable and scientific seeming. Yeah, secular, secular stripped 0:11:50.240 --> 0:11:53.280 of all the religion and maybe we can sell it 0:11:53.280 --> 0:11:57.559 to Americans exactly, and then a but the yeah, Um, 0:11:57.600 --> 0:12:00.320 The upshot of all this, though, Chuck, is that no 0:12:00.360 --> 0:12:02.480 matter who you are, where you're coming from, if you're 0:12:02.480 --> 0:12:05.280 talking about mindfulness, you're talking about paying attention to the 0:12:05.320 --> 0:12:08.160 present moment and doing the best you can at not 0:12:08.400 --> 0:12:12.440 judging anything that's going on in that present experience and 0:12:12.480 --> 0:12:15.080 just taking it on its faith value and engaging in 0:12:15.120 --> 0:12:18.840 it fully. That's mindfulness in a nutshell. Yeah. And it's 0:12:18.880 --> 0:12:22.520 not anything that the Buddhists um had a corner on. 0:12:22.640 --> 0:12:26.080 They just probably did it better because all different kinds 0:12:26.120 --> 0:12:30.120 of religions throughout antiquity had you know, chanting or some 0:12:30.200 --> 0:12:35.480 kind of mindfulness practice, maybe prayers or through songs or dance. Uh. 0:12:35.880 --> 0:12:37.760 You know that that kind of thing has been around 0:12:38.120 --> 0:12:41.079 as long as people have been practicing religion. So the 0:12:41.120 --> 0:12:43.240 Buddhists did not invent it, but I think they got 0:12:43.240 --> 0:12:46.559 it fairly right. So, um, let's talk a little more 0:12:46.559 --> 0:12:51.840 about how we got here today, Um, historically speaking, after break, 0:12:51.880 --> 0:12:53.840 what do you think about that? It sounds great. I'm 0:12:53.840 --> 0:13:21.600 gonna breathe in the meantime, Hey, let me teach you 0:13:21.679 --> 0:13:25.440 something I've been using that tickna Han taught me, not personally, 0:13:25.480 --> 0:13:28.040 but through his writing in a book that was published 0:13:28.040 --> 0:13:31.959 that I purchased with money. Smash your hand with a hammer, Yeah, 0:13:32.400 --> 0:13:36.800 he said, try to focus on anything else chump. Uh. 0:13:36.840 --> 0:13:39.040 There's a bunch of different mantras you can say, and 0:13:39.080 --> 0:13:41.120 I'm not even sure that's the right word, but um, 0:13:41.200 --> 0:13:44.760 one that I keep using is And it's just striking 0:13:44.920 --> 0:13:48.360 what taking a breath and deliberately focusing on that breath, 0:13:48.440 --> 0:13:51.240 just breathing in once and breathing out once can do 0:13:51.400 --> 0:13:54.199 to like just suck you right out of wherever your 0:13:54.240 --> 0:13:57.600 mind is, um, in the past or the future. It's 0:13:57.679 --> 0:14:00.840 it's really striking what how it can do that? But um, 0:14:01.000 --> 0:14:06.680 his was, Um, it's a take breathing in. I noticed 0:14:06.720 --> 0:14:10.959 that I'm alive and breathing out. I'm happy to be alive, 0:14:11.480 --> 0:14:14.880 and just doing it once like immediately brings me back 0:14:14.880 --> 0:14:17.439 into the present moment. And it's really cool. I like it. 0:14:17.559 --> 0:14:19.720 It's all very new for me, but I think it's Uh, 0:14:19.760 --> 0:14:23.400 it's pretty cool. Yeah, there's a lot of value there. Um. 0:14:23.440 --> 0:14:26.920 And you know, you can like practice something like this 0:14:26.960 --> 0:14:31.320 and those breathing techniques. It's not exclusive to mindfulness or meditation. 0:14:31.440 --> 0:14:35.200 Or Buddhism. Uh. You know, that's a great technique if 0:14:35.200 --> 0:14:38.000 you have kids. I found that, you know, with if 0:14:38.360 --> 0:14:40.800 my daughter is having a bad time, just kind of 0:14:40.800 --> 0:14:42.600 get her to slow down and take a couple of 0:14:42.680 --> 0:14:46.120 good deep breaths. Always a good thing to do. Uh. 0:14:46.160 --> 0:14:48.880 And Emily, who you know, someone who has a lot 0:14:48.920 --> 0:14:52.200 of anxieties in her life as a struggling small business owner. 0:14:52.720 --> 0:14:56.840 We will do this thing where we have hug breathing, 0:14:56.880 --> 0:14:59.320 where I will go up to her and we will 0:14:59.680 --> 0:15:02.680 have a good tight bear hug embrace and we'll breathe 0:15:02.680 --> 0:15:06.480 in together and it's sort of like doubles the power 0:15:06.560 --> 0:15:08.760 of it. Wow, that's neat, Chuck, Is that your own? 0:15:09.040 --> 0:15:11.360 Did you come up with that? Yeah? I mean I'm sure. 0:15:11.800 --> 0:15:13.400 I mean I didn't get it from anywhere, but I'm 0:15:13.400 --> 0:15:16.920 sure I didn't invent that. It sounds like a biking 0:15:17.560 --> 0:15:24.560 mindfulness like Hell's Angels. Sure, yeah, that's the Hell's Angels technique. 0:15:24.560 --> 0:15:26.880 You came up. You can call it whatever you want. 0:15:26.880 --> 0:15:28.680 It's your invention. It's a good one. Well. Yeah, there's 0:15:28.680 --> 0:15:32.440 something about breathing together that close physically. It's it's pretty powerful. 0:15:33.080 --> 0:15:36.040 So if you if you went back, Um, a few 0:15:36.120 --> 0:15:38.960 hundred years, a couple hundred years even, and you spoke 0:15:39.000 --> 0:15:41.840 to any Buddhists around the world and said, hey, how 0:15:41.880 --> 0:15:45.840 often do you do mindfulness meditation? They would look at 0:15:45.880 --> 0:15:47.880 you like they had no idea where you're talking about. 0:15:48.080 --> 0:15:50.800 And if you said, you know, sati, they'd say, oh, 0:15:50.840 --> 0:15:52.760 that's not for us. That's for like the monks and 0:15:52.800 --> 0:15:55.960 the nuns up in the caves in the mountains, Like, 0:15:56.040 --> 0:15:58.560 we don't do that kind of stuff where sup For Buddhists. 0:15:58.560 --> 0:16:01.680 We care about morality and we worship local deities and 0:16:01.720 --> 0:16:04.560 all that stuff. But that's that's kind of advance that's 0:16:04.640 --> 0:16:08.000 more than than the average Buddhist does. And it wasn't 0:16:08.040 --> 0:16:11.360 until I think the late nineteenth century in Burma that 0:16:11.360 --> 0:16:15.240 that was finally kind of broken up and and meditation 0:16:15.280 --> 0:16:18.040 and mindfulness together, we're kind of introduced for the first 0:16:18.040 --> 0:16:21.880 time to like lay Buddhists, like just the normal, everyday, 0:16:22.000 --> 0:16:25.600 average Buddhists living their life. Yeah, this is pretty cool. Like, 0:16:25.640 --> 0:16:27.560 I know, we love it when we can kind of 0:16:27.560 --> 0:16:31.080 pinpoint when things happen or when things change. Uh, And 0:16:31.120 --> 0:16:35.160 this is one of them. On November five, this is 0:16:35.200 --> 0:16:40.800 when the British Imperial army uh conquered Burma and said, King, uh, 0:16:41.400 --> 0:16:44.400 we're gonna mispronounce some of these thebol maybe. I think 0:16:44.440 --> 0:16:48.040 that's right, you're out of here. And that king was 0:16:48.160 --> 0:16:53.520 promoting mindfulness and promoting Buddhist institutions throughout the nation. The 0:16:53.560 --> 0:16:56.040 Brits of course, said, now we're not gonna really do that. 0:16:56.440 --> 0:16:59.040 So it fell to the lay people to get organized, 0:16:59.680 --> 0:17:02.760 to find new places to meet, uh, to find their 0:17:02.800 --> 0:17:06.640 own you know, gathering grounds, and a lot of times 0:17:06.640 --> 0:17:09.440 these were monasteries and it would go through monks, but 0:17:09.600 --> 0:17:12.919 they would it basically went to them to kind of 0:17:12.960 --> 0:17:14.960 figure it out because it wasn't I don't want to 0:17:14.960 --> 0:17:17.720 say state sponsored, but it kind of state sponsored, yeah, 0:17:17.840 --> 0:17:20.560 or state supported or something like that. Yeah, yeah, but 0:17:20.640 --> 0:17:23.000 so and so rather than being like, oh, I don't 0:17:23.040 --> 0:17:26.360 know who, I guess we're not Buddhists anymore, they took 0:17:26.400 --> 0:17:28.840 it by the horns and like they did something with it. 0:17:28.880 --> 0:17:31.120 But one of the outcroppings of that was that like 0:17:31.640 --> 0:17:34.040 these monks who used to just go meditate out in 0:17:34.080 --> 0:17:36.159 the like in the mountains or the hills or in 0:17:36.200 --> 0:17:40.120 the woods, were now now had audiences of like everyday 0:17:40.160 --> 0:17:42.679 people who were practicing Buddhists that they were teaching this 0:17:42.800 --> 0:17:45.639 stuff too, and it was it was one of these guys, 0:17:46.000 --> 0:17:50.399 Letty Sayado, who was a Buddhist monk, who said, you 0:17:50.440 --> 0:17:53.280 know what, this isn't just for us, this is for everybody. 0:17:53.480 --> 0:17:59.359 And closely in Letty Sayadow's footsteps came Minga and sayo 0:17:59.680 --> 0:18:03.760 say y aw, say yea. I think that's right, and 0:18:03.840 --> 0:18:06.560 that he that monk was the first one to actually 0:18:06.680 --> 0:18:12.120 teach um mindfulness and meditation to regular people, I think 0:18:12.160 --> 0:18:15.600 around nineteen eleven. Yeah, I mean it's cool stuff. Like 0:18:15.640 --> 0:18:18.800 I love the idea that Letty uh say Adel kind 0:18:18.800 --> 0:18:20.959 of put forth, which was you don't have to go 0:18:21.000 --> 0:18:23.320 to a monastery even like we've set these up for 0:18:23.359 --> 0:18:25.919 you and you can. You don't have to retreat to 0:18:25.960 --> 0:18:28.080 a cave. You don't have to you don't even have 0:18:28.160 --> 0:18:31.240 to go into a deep meditative state or anything like. 0:18:31.680 --> 0:18:36.520 Just momentary bits of mindfulness are very helpful. Uh. And 0:18:36.600 --> 0:18:39.320 that's a good way to reach regular lay people. And 0:18:39.359 --> 0:18:43.680 I think through practice is when Sail came along and said, hey, 0:18:43.720 --> 0:18:46.680 that all sounds great, and buddy, I'm gonna teach it right, 0:18:47.359 --> 0:18:50.960 so the the people in what is now my me 0:18:51.080 --> 0:18:54.200 and Mar are the ones who um kind of broke out, 0:18:54.440 --> 0:18:59.160 broke mindfulness and meditation out of it's it's little slumber 0:18:59.640 --> 0:19:03.239 sure cage or something like that, and democratized it a 0:19:03.240 --> 0:19:05.800 little bit. But it was as far as the people 0:19:05.800 --> 0:19:08.320 in the West are concerned, it was the Japanese and 0:19:08.359 --> 0:19:12.200 their development of Zen Buddhism that we have to thank 0:19:12.400 --> 0:19:14.800 because this is you can pretty much trace a direct 0:19:14.840 --> 0:19:19.000 line between um, the mindfulness and the meditation and the 0:19:19.000 --> 0:19:23.320 approach to Buddhism in the West today back to the 0:19:23.359 --> 0:19:28.720 twentieth century Japan and specifically a guy named Dai Setsu 0:19:29.040 --> 0:19:34.080 Ta Taro d T. Suzuki. So d T. Suzuki was 0:19:34.160 --> 0:19:39.560 kind of a what's called a Buddhist modernist thinker who said, Um, 0:19:39.600 --> 0:19:41.399 there's different things we can do with this, but this 0:19:41.520 --> 0:19:44.320 approach is a little more rationally, a little less dogmatically, 0:19:44.359 --> 0:19:46.240 and open it up to people like our friends and 0:19:46.800 --> 0:19:50.800 what's soon to be me and Mar and um. Not 0:19:50.880 --> 0:19:53.800 only that, let's let's start relating to the West a 0:19:53.840 --> 0:19:57.840 little more. And DTI Suzuki actually kind of carried this message, 0:19:57.840 --> 0:20:01.440 this idea of Zen Buddhism with him over to America 0:20:01.480 --> 0:20:05.240 in Europe, and it just started to catch on like wildfire. Yeah. 0:20:05.240 --> 0:20:07.359 I think it's really interesting too that it was another 0:20:07.400 --> 0:20:10.800 active war that led to you know, that helped give 0:20:10.880 --> 0:20:14.520 rise to someone like Suzuki, just like when the Brits 0:20:14.560 --> 0:20:17.880 over threw Burma, when the U. S. Navy attacked Tokyo 0:20:17.960 --> 0:20:22.199 Harbor in eighteen fifty three. Uh, there was you know, 0:20:22.320 --> 0:20:25.000 basically Japan was like, you know, we gotta we gotta 0:20:25.040 --> 0:20:27.000 start relating to the West a little bit more and 0:20:27.040 --> 0:20:31.159 sort of modernize. And this was known as the Meiji Restoration. 0:20:31.680 --> 0:20:35.800 And part of that was saying, hey, Shinto is going 0:20:35.880 --> 0:20:38.359 to be our religion, our main religion, and not Buddhism, 0:20:38.600 --> 0:20:41.399 which led the Buddhist to say, hey, maybe we should 0:20:41.400 --> 0:20:44.159 modernize our religion as well, to you know, so we 0:20:44.200 --> 0:20:46.320 don't get left by the wayside. And that gave rise 0:20:46.640 --> 0:20:50.000 to someone like Deti Suzuki. Right. So it was from 0:20:50.040 --> 0:20:54.280 that modernization that um, Buddhist modernism came about. And it's 0:20:54.320 --> 0:20:58.240 basically what you would recognize as Buddhism today, like very thoughtful, 0:20:58.800 --> 0:21:02.919 very um uh, interior dwelling, um, the idea that the 0:21:03.080 --> 0:21:05.919 universe has all connected. All these were like Buddhist thoughts before, 0:21:06.359 --> 0:21:09.040 but it was it was Buddhism allowing itself to be 0:21:09.080 --> 0:21:13.800 influenced by Modernism and by other groups like the Romantics 0:21:13.800 --> 0:21:17.760 and the Transcendentalists, right, so they jumped on it big time. 0:21:17.800 --> 0:21:20.480 It was pretty It was like a confluence of perfect 0:21:20.520 --> 0:21:23.440 timing as far as coming to the United States and 0:21:23.480 --> 0:21:26.440 like the counterculture ready for this, but in a weird way. 0:21:26.480 --> 0:21:29.600 It was like the United States, unbeknownst to the counterculture 0:21:29.800 --> 0:21:34.200 Beats and then later the Hippies um that their predecessors, 0:21:34.240 --> 0:21:38.639 like the Transidentalists, had had pre influenced what was coming 0:21:38.680 --> 0:21:41.280 back to them. So it was already in a very 0:21:41.359 --> 0:21:44.879 palatable form for Americans who were open to the idea 0:21:44.920 --> 0:21:48.680 of like mind expansion and taking acid and um, you know, 0:21:48.840 --> 0:21:51.480 and meditating and were just open to the ideas of 0:21:51.520 --> 0:21:55.360 other cultures of becoming like more in tune with the universe. 0:21:55.680 --> 0:21:57.639 It was they were just waiting for it, and it 0:21:57.680 --> 0:22:01.359 came to them in the and in the briefcase I 0:22:01.400 --> 0:22:04.640 guess of D. T. Suzuki um, and it just kind 0:22:04.640 --> 0:22:07.199 of took off from there. So the idea everything we 0:22:07.280 --> 0:22:10.600 understand about mindfulness and meditation you can trace back to 0:22:10.680 --> 0:22:14.640 like D. T. Suzuki in those beats absolutely. And there 0:22:14.680 --> 0:22:18.040 were three people in particular, uh, in the seventies and 0:22:18.240 --> 0:22:23.040 sixties and seventies practicing this, Joseph Goldstein, Jack Cornfield and 0:22:23.080 --> 0:22:27.640 Sharon Salzburg who were not together but they studied separately 0:22:28.200 --> 0:22:31.359 meditation in Burma, and then the mid seventies founded the 0:22:31.400 --> 0:22:35.679 Insight Meditation Society in Massachusetts, which became sort of the 0:22:35.720 --> 0:22:40.800 center of the v Pasana meditation movement here in the 0:22:40.880 --> 0:22:43.120 United States. And they're they're still around, they're still doing 0:22:43.160 --> 0:22:47.760 their thing. So um, it was from that same group. 0:22:48.000 --> 0:22:51.560 There was actually a time where John cabot z In, 0:22:51.680 --> 0:22:54.920 the guy you we mentioned earlier ze I, by the way, 0:22:55.000 --> 0:22:57.720 not z In. That would be too far on the nose. 0:22:58.920 --> 0:23:03.159 Oh wait, what if his name was spelled z E 0:23:03.359 --> 0:23:08.520 n Oh, I got boy. I was not paying to 0:23:08.640 --> 0:23:13.280 the current experience very well, I'm sorry. That'd be like 0:23:13.280 --> 0:23:18.400 a boxer being named boxer. Uh, yeah, it would be right. 0:23:18.920 --> 0:23:21.240 I was for some reason, I was going more towards 0:23:21.320 --> 0:23:28.679 the um cabernets in. Yeah. So he's known as the 0:23:28.760 --> 0:23:33.119 godfather of modern mindfulness according to The Guardian at least, 0:23:33.240 --> 0:23:37.240 which is a pretty legit newspaper. Um, and by the way, 0:23:37.280 --> 0:23:39.320 thank you also to Olivia for helping us out with 0:23:39.359 --> 0:23:44.560 this one. Chuck. She did, she did, um. But John 0:23:44.600 --> 0:23:48.240 cabot Zin was among those people Jack Cornfield, great name, 0:23:48.800 --> 0:23:52.360