I get surprised sometimes at how knowledge, and impressions that feel like knowledge, accumulate in my head. A well-educated friend with a lively curiosity recently saw a mention of an upcoming talk by a pastor about the power and usefulness of mindfulness meditation. We got to exchanging emails about the subject. I have touched on and off in posts in this blog but I realized there are facts and slants and impressions that have quietly accumulated in my head but eluded mention here.
One name that I want to mention is Jacob Needleman. His book, and he has several, called "Lost Christianity" has been cited in a few places I have seen as a source to appreciate the meditative traditions of various historical branches of Christianity. A related name, at least for me, is the memorably named "Christmas Humpherys" (1901-1983). I Googled him and read that he was once the best-known convert to Buddhism in Britain. Somehow, we acquired a copy of Humpherys' "Concentration and Meditation: a Manual of Mind Development". I looked through it one day and learned that some people call my version of meditation "concentration", which it is.
Two more mentions: Jon Kabat-Zinn, a biology researcher who started practicing meditation and realized that cancer patients, including those for whom medicine had exhausted its treatments, could possibly benefit from practicing meditation. He developed ideas headed Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). I Googled "Who started mindfulness meditation in the West?" and the unequivocal answer came up Jon Kabat-Zinn. Depending on what is meant, I would hesitate to be so sure. The American Existentialists, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, used many concepts related to meditation in the 1800's.
Finally, several Indian and Japanese people wanted to bring their ideas and activities to Americans. The teachers and inspirations for Karen Maezen Miller and Charlotte Joko Beck brought ideas, activities and organization to the US, people like Maharishi Mahesh and Shunryu Suzuki brought roots and seeds of current ideas, practices, organizations and research efforts.
