Ten Zen Questions

Exploring the Mind from Within

Susan Blackmore is a British psychologist, writer and broadcaster, and author of The Meme Machine and Conversations on Consciousness. See full bio

June 2, 2009, Spirituality

Mindfulness is infectious

Radio talks about mindfulness

I have just done a live interview for BBC Radio London. This was part of the publicity for my new book Ten Zen Questions for the Sunday morning "In Spirit" show, and to tell the truth I did the interview sitting in bed at 8 a.m. having just woken up, with a nice cup of English tea.
What a delight to find the interviewer, Jumoke Fashola, brimming with enthusiasm because she'd been reading my book all week and it had bowled her over.
Jumoke said that when she was reading what I'd written about mindfulness she had suddenly "got it".
She said "Susan you have no idea. I've spent all week thinking about it ... I tell you what struck me first. At the beginning of the book you start you start talking about mindfulness. It's not like I don't know about or haven't talked about mindfulness on this programme before, but for the first time I thought "that's what it means - to bring yourself back to the centre and not to panic about where you're going. It was just this moment of revelation".
That was an honour for me to think that I'd infected someone that way, just as I had been infected with the idea of mindfulness myself all those many years ago in Wales.
If you'd like to listen to the interview you can find it at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p0034534/Inspirit_with_Jumok... about two thirds of the way in.

And if you're in the mood for such things, you might enjoy hearing a three way chat on Buddhist Geeks. These are two young guys who describe themselves as "seriously Buddhist, and seriously geeky" and there are some brilliant episodes on their site. I much enjoyed talking with them and you can hear the result at http://personallifemedia.com/podcasts/236-buddhist-geeks/episodes....

All this has reminded me to be mindful. After all these years I still often catch myself miles away in fantasies and worries, and have to bring myself back to whatever is here and now. But that's all it is - nothing special - just being here now. I hope these thoughts remind you too.