Coming to our senses: healing ourselves and the world through mindfulness

Introduction: The Challenge of a Life's Time-and a Lifetime 1 --

Part 1 Meditation: It's Not What You Think 19 --

Meditation Is Not for the Faint-Hearted 21 --

Witnessing Hippocratic Integrity 30 --

Meditation Is Everywhere 33 --

Original Moments 38 --

Odysseus and the Blind Seer 42 --

No Attachments 51 --

Origin of Shoes: A Tale 55 --

Meditation-It's Not What You Think 58 --

Two Ways to Think about Meditation 64 --

Why Even Bother? The Importance of Motivation 69 --

Aiming and Sustaining 75 --

Presence 79 --

A Radical Act of Love 84 --

Awareness and Freedom 88 --

On Lineage and the Uses and Limitations of Scaffolding 93 --

Ethics and Karma 102 --

Mindfulness 108 --

Part 2 Power of Attention and the Dis-Ease of the World 115 --

Why Paying Attention Is So Supremely Important 117 --

Dis-Ease 124 --

Dukkha 127 --

Dukkha Magnets 130 --

Dharma 134 --

Stress Reduction Clinic 139 --

A.D.D. Nation 143 --

24/7 Connectivity 151 --

Continual Partial Attention 157 --

"Sense" of Time Passing 162 --

Awareness Has No Center and No Periphery 167 --

Emptiness 172 --

Part 3 Sensory World: Your One Wild and Precious Life 185 --

Mystery of the Senses and the Spell of the Sensuous 187 --

Seeing 192 --

Being Seen 198 --

Hearing 202 --

Soundscape 205 --

Airscape 211 --

Touchscape 215 --

In Touch with Your Skin 221 --

Smellscape 224 --

Tastescape 228 --

Mindscape 234 --

Nowscape 237 --

Part 4 Embracing Formal Practice: Tasting Mindfulness 243 --

Lying Down Meditations 245 --

Sitting Meditations 254 --

Standing Meditations 264 --

Walking Meditations 268 --

Yoga 273 --

Just Knowing 278 --

Just Hearing 281 --

Just Breathing 283 --

Lovingkindness Meditation 285 --

Am I Doing It Right? 296 --

Common Obstacles to Practice 300 --

Supports for Your Practice 305 --

Part 5 Healing Possibilities: The Realm of Mind and Body 313 --

Sentience 315 --

Nothing Personal, But, Excuse Me...Are We Who We Think We Are? 321 --

Even Our Molecules Touch 331 --

No Fragmentation 336 --

No Separation 338 --

Orienting in Time and Space: A Tribute to My Father 340 --

Orthogonal Reality-Rotating in Consciousness 347 --

Orthogonal Institutions 353 --

A Study in Healing and the Mind 359 --

A Study in Happiness-Meditation, the Brain, and the Immune System 368 --

Homunculus 376 --

Proprioception-The Felt Sense of the Body 388 --

Neuroplasticity and the Unknown Limits of the Possible 392 --

Part 6 Arriving at Your Own Door 403 --

"I Can't Hear Myself Think!" 405 --

I Didn't Have a Moment to Catch My Breath 407 --

Infidelity of Busyness 410 --

Interrupting Ourselves 415 --

Filling Up All Our Moments 420 --

Attaining Place 425 --

You Can't Get There from Here 429 --

Overwhelmed 445 --

Dialogues and Discussions 448 --

Sitting on the Bench 451 --

You Crazy! 456 --

Phase Changes 458 --

You Make, You Have 462 --

Any Ideal of Practice Is Just Another Fabrication 467 --

You Want to Make Something of It? 469 --

Who Won the Super Bowl? 472 --

Arrogance and Entitlement 477 --

Death 482 --

Dying Before You Die 486 --

Dying Before You Die-Deux 491 --

Don't Know Mind 494 --

Arriving at Your Own Door 496 --

Part 7 Healing the Body Politic 499 --

Healing the Body Politic 501 --

"I Read the News Today, Oh Boy" 513 --

Reminding Myself That Self-Righteousness Is Not Helpful 522 --

Politics Not as Usual in the Twenty-First Century 528 --

Lessons from Medicine 536 --

Taming Power of the Small 547 --

Mindfulness and Democracy 551 --

Talking Vietnam Meditation Blues-A Snapshot from the Past, or Is It the Future? 555 --

Wag the Dog 562 --

"I Don't Know What I Would Have Done Without My Practice!" 566 --

Suspension of Distraction 569 --

Moments of Silence 573 --

Ascendancy of the Mindful 576 --

Part 8 Let the Beauty We Love Be What We Do 581 --

Different Ways of Knowing Make Us Wiser 583 --

On the Doorstep: Karma Meets Dharma-A Quantum Leap for Homo Sapiens Sapiens 591 --

Reflections on the Nature of Nature and Where We Fit In 598 --

Hidden Dimensions Unfurled 604 --

Getting Things in Perspective 606 --

Mindfulness Meditation Practice CDs 632.