{"id":2808,"date":"2013-01-12T19:54:26","date_gmt":"2013-01-13T00:54:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/?p=2808"},"modified":"2013-01-12T20:50:36","modified_gmt":"2013-01-13T01:50:36","slug":"dress-well-or-go-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2013\/01\/dress-well-or-go-home.html","title":{"rendered":"Dress Well or Go Home"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A recent piece in the New York Times<\/a>\u00a0“The New Mantra: Replacing ‘Om’ With ‘Glam'”\u00a0caught the attention of Tricylcle blogger,\u00a0Emma Varvaloucas. She screamed “noooooooooooooooo<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

In my book, Wild Chickens and Petty Tyrants: 108 Metaphors for Mindfulness, I quoted Thoreau who said, \u201cBeware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes.\u201d\u00a0This captures it. There is nothing wrong with fine threads but they won’t do the work of meditation for you.<\/p>\n

The fancy clothes can contribute to identifying as a meditator and that will be a pitfall. There are many trappings that can become pitfalls–identifying with any of the “things” associated with meditation practice can be a detriment to practice. This includes statues of the Buddha, incense, zafus and zabutons, and brand names like “XYZ Zen Center” and “ABC Tibetan Buddhist Practice Center.”<\/p>\n

Anything we can do can be done materialistically–including the spiritual practice of meditation. Just read Chogyam Trungpa’s Spiritual Materialism for the definitive statement on this issue. Materialism breeds attachement. But wait a second, so does anti-materialism. So, watch out, attachment can get you from both sides.<\/p>\n

There is nothing wrong with having nice things as long as we are not fixated on those things, get distracted by them, or invest them with power that they don’t have.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

After reading this story, I got dressed for the meditation retreat I was about to lead at my Studio. I decided to wear my oldest, most ripped jeans. I don’t really think that my attire made a difference in my meditation. Yet, some of the other material in the Studio did help. The cushions and and the space provided the container where people could gather and place themselves and look within. The bell marked the transitions between sitting and walking so that we could remain in silence. Three bells signaled the end of our mini-retreat.<\/p>\n

The Studio is a lovely place and while it doesn’t do the work for us, it is a nice place to do the work (or play) of meditation. One of us eschewed clothes altogether.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A recent piece in the New York Times\u00a0“The New Mantra: Replacing ‘Om’ With ‘Glam’”\u00a0caught the attention of Tricylcle blogger,\u00a0Emma Varvaloucas. She screamed “noooooooooooooooo.” In my book, Wild Chickens and Petty Tyrants: 108 Metaphors for Mindfulness, I quoted Thoreau who said, \u201cBeware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":268,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,6,7,8,9],"tags":[45,620,619,618,1078],"class_list":["post-2808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-golf","category-golf-as-a-spiritual-path","category-metaphors-for-mindfulness","category-mindful-living","category-mindfulnesss","tag-new-york-times","tag-spiritual-materialism","tag-thoreau","tag-tricycle","tag-wild-chickens-and-petty-tyrants-108-metaphors-for-mindfulness"],"yoast_head":"\nDress Well or Go Home - 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\/2013\/01\/dress-well-or-go-home.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dress Well or Go Home - Mindfulness Matters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A recent piece in the New York Times\u00a0“The New Mantra: Replacing ‘Om’ With ‘Glam'”\u00a0caught the attention of Tricylcle blogger,\u00a0Emma Varvaloucas. She screamed “noooooooooooooooo.” In my book, Wild Chickens and Petty Tyrants: 108 Metaphors for Mindfulness, I quoted Thoreau who said, \u201cBeware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2013\/01\/dress-well-or-go-home.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mindfulness Matters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-01-13T00:54:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-01-13T01:50:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/files\/2013\/01\/glammeditator1-300x199.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dr. Arnie Kozak\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Dress Well or Go Home - Mindfulness Matters","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2013\/01\/dress-well-or-go-home.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Dress Well or Go Home - Mindfulness Matters","og_description":"A recent piece in the New York Times\u00a0“The New Mantra: Replacing ‘Om’ With ‘Glam'”\u00a0caught the attention of Tricylcle blogger,\u00a0Emma Varvaloucas. 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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\/2808","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=2808"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2830,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2808\/revisions\/2830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}