Mindfulness meditation, the ancient and flourishing practice that increases awareness of random thoughts and redirects attention to the present moment, has been used to manage stress, depression and even chronic pain. But can it improve test scores?

Everyone has experienced moments of awakening when time seems to stop and you are suddenly aware of every movement, every sound, every thought. Awareness, says Osho, is the key to being self-directed, centered, and free in every aspect of our lives.

If someone with AIDS, cancer or some other disease meditated like this and every day, for as many hours as possible, there would definitely be some effect. I know quite a few people who have completely recovered from terminal cancer through meditation.

From beginningless time we have been building, reinforcing and storing these habits in the alaya consciousness. They can be broken through, however, by getting used to positive habits in the practice of meditation. This will allow us to experience the nature of our mind, our Buddhanature, which has always been pure.

A Path To Wholeness A Buddhist psychiatrist who has been meditating for decades elegantly describes how psychotherapy and meditation can help us manage our most powerful emotions--and make us feel more alive and whole in the process.

A guided Chenrezig meditation and talk by Mana Waite given at Dhammaloka Buddhist Centre in Perth Western Australia. Dr. Waite is a meditation teacher from the Tibetan (Vajrayana) Karma Kagyu tradition. He operates Open Mind Meditation School: www.openmindmeditation.com.au

According to the Pali-Vietnamese Dictionary, Sati or Mindfulness is Sammasati (p)—Samyaksmrti (skt). In fact, Right remembrance (Sati), the seventh of the eightfold noble path, means remembering correctly and thinking correctly. The looking or contemplating on the body and the spirit in such a way as to remain ardent, self-possessed and mindful. Right remembrance means looking on the body and spirit in such a way as to remain ardent, self-possessed and mindful, having overcome both hankering and dejection. With the eightfold noble path, right mindfulness means the one-pointedness of the mind. 

It is as difficult for Anglo-Saxons as for the Japanese to absorb anything quite so Chinese as Zen. For though the word "Zen" is Japanese and though Japan is now its home, Zen Buddhism is the creation of T'ang dynasty China.

WHEN I READ Dr. Ames's able and stimulating article,"Zen and Pragmatism,"(1) I regretted that I had not made my points clear enough in my Zen articles, but at the same time I was thankful for having incited him to prepare such an illuminating paper. I realize that I make many inconsistent statements in my presentation of Zen, which unfortunately cause my readers some trouble in understanding Zen, In the following I will try to give--in brief-as much light as I can on my views so far made public. The one most-needed point in coming. around to the Zen way of viewing reality is that, negatively stated, Zen is where we cannot go any further in our ordinary way of reasoning, and that, positively, Zen is "pure subjectivity." "Pure subjectivity" requites a great deal of explanation, but I must be brief here.