{"id":1476,"date":"2011-07-25T11:42:03","date_gmt":"2011-07-25T15:42:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/?p=1476"},"modified":"2011-07-25T11:46:14","modified_gmt":"2011-07-25T15:46:14","slug":"meditation-made-simple-seven-considerations-to-get-you-going-part-five-your-religion-if-you-have-one-is-ok-with-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2011\/07\/meditation-made-simple-seven-considerations-to-get-you-going-part-five-your-religion-if-you-have-one-is-ok-with-this.html","title":{"rendered":"Meditation Made Simple: Seven Considerations to Get You Going :: Part Five: Your Religion, If You Have One, Is OK With This"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Meditation is not religion. Or at least it doesn\u2019t have to be. All religions have a meditative tradition, but meditation is just about paying attention to what is happening now. Religion doesn\u2019t own attention. You do.<\/p>\n

Meditation is not necessarily spiritual either. There is a strong tradition of secular meditation in the West that started in 1979 at a university medical center. Patients started paying attention on purpose to their experience to cope better with chronic illness and pain. No religion whatsoever.<\/p>\n

If you are a person of religion, don\u2019t worry. Meditation, at least mindfulness meditation, is not in conflict with your God or with your beliefs. A study found that people who practiced mindfulness became more of whatever they were already. If you are Christian, you\u2019ll be more Christian. If you are Catholic, you\u2019ll be more Catholic. If you are Jewish you\u2019ll be more Jewish. If you are Muslim, you\u2019ll be more Muslim.<\/p>\n

Since meditation is giving our full attention to whatever it is we are doing now, this increase in piety makes sense. If you pay more attention to what is happening in Church, you\u2019ll get more benefits. Simple as that.<\/p>\n

While meditation, and mindfulness are often associated with the Buddha or Buddhism, there is nothing essentially Buddhist about meditation. Meditation existed long before the Buddha and he did not invent it. The Eastern traditions don\u2019t own meditation. Again, you own it.<\/p>\n

The simple fact that we have a brain that works in particular ways has more to do with meditation than anything Eastern, or esoteric. However, people in the Buddhist traditions have been practicing these techniques for 2500 years and so know a thing or two about how to do it. There is a rich tradition of practice and a deep literature to fascinate, inspire, and guide.<\/p>\n

If religion or spirituality is not your agenda that\u2019s OK too. Meditation is at its core psychological. As a psychologist, I\u2019ll admit that I\u2019m biased, but there is a lot of evidence to support this notion.<\/p>\n

God and spirit can be involved but they don\u2019t have to be. That gives you infinite (no pun intended) flexibility.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Meditation is not religion. Or at least it doesn\u2019t have to be. All religions have a meditative tradition, but meditation is just about paying attention to what is happening now. Religion doesn\u2019t own attention. You do. Meditation is not necessarily spiritual either. There is a strong tradition of secular meditation in the West that started…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":268,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,8,9],"tags":[54,60,206,209,208,122,21,207,205,38],"class_list":["post-1476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-buddha-101","category-mindful-living","category-mindfulnesss","tag-attention","tag-buddhism","tag-christian","tag-church","tag-jewish","tag-meditation","tag-mindfulness","tag-muslim","tag-religion","tag-spiritual-path"],"yoast_head":"\nMeditation Made Simple: Seven Considerations to Get You Going :: Part Five: Your Religion, If You Have One, Is OK With This - Mindfulness Matters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2011\/07\/meditation-made-simple-seven-considerations-to-get-you-going-part-five-your-religion-if-you-have-one-is-ok-with-this.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Meditation Made Simple: Seven Considerations to Get You Going :: Part Five: Your Religion, If You Have One, Is OK With This - Mindfulness Matters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Meditation is not religion. 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Dr. Kozak's ability to translate ancient healing traditions into pragmatic applications suitable for modern lifestyles through the use of metaphors have made him a strong voice in healthcare and business. Beginning with a journey to India in the 80\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s where he took the Bodhisattva vows from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Arnie Dr. Kozak began his lifelong practice in mindfulness meditation. Intent on finding a way to bring the practical healing attributes of mindfulness he began incorporating these techniques in his private practice. In 2002 Dr. Kozak created Exquisite Mind in Burlington, Vermont as a vehicle that could expand his wisdom to larger audiences beyond individual psychotherapy to professionals and corporations, health care providers, public groups and, most recently with Exquisite Mind Golf, amateur and professional golfers. His award-winning new book, Wild Chickens and Petty Tyrants: 108 Metaphors for Mindfulness (Wisdom Publications, 2009) is a thoughtful, funny, and inspiring translation of mindfulness practice through the inventive use of metaphor applicable to our daily lives. In addition to his work with Exquisite Mind, Arnie Kozak, Ph.D., Licensed Psychologist\u00e2\u20ac\u201dDoctorate has been a Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Vermont and is a Clinical Instructor in Psychiatry and Medicine, University of Vermont College of Medicine. He has studied and practiced clinical psychology, meditation, and yoga for more than 25 years. He has studied with several meditation masters, including S. N. Goenka, Larry Rosenberg, Gurumayi Chidvilasananda, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. After receiving his bachelors degree with honors from Tufts University, he was awarded a Presidential Fellowship to get his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University at Buffalo. He completed his training as a Psychological Fellow at the Harvard Medical School. Prior to founding the Exquisite Mind in 2002, Arnie worked ten years in the private sector for the PKC Corporation consulting on mental health content for this revolutionary software company.","sameAs":["http:\/\/exquisitemind.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/author\/akozak"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/268"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1476"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1482,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1476\/revisions\/1482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}