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The Meditative Life

Practical instruction on how to tap into your mind and heart, plus inspiration from great meditation teachers.
by Arthur Zajonc
Arthur Zajonc is professor of physics at Amherst College, where he has taught since 1978. His latest book is Meditation as Contemplative Inquiry: When Knowing Becomes Love. See full bio

The Meditative Life

February 5, 2010

Meditation and Mortality: Practice and Parkinson's

The diagnosis came a few months ago; I had stage one Parkinson's disease. The most prominent symptom was a persistent resting tremor in my right hand. I had been meditating for many years, and now I was experiencing firsthand the ways in which meditation and a chronic medical condition can intersect. Read More

August 10, 2009

Toward a Contemplative Curriculum

Last night I welcomed thirty faculty from U.S. and Canadian colleges and universities to the opening session of a weeklong gathering on Contemplative Curriculum Development. Read More

July 30, 2009

Meditating our Emotions: Finding Martin Luther King

Google's new personal development course Search Inside Yourself combines meditation with an understanding of emotional intelligence. We too can benefit from contemplative engagement with our emotions, finding peace and refining our feelings so we become more sensitive, insightful, and compassionate. Read More

July 13, 2009

Meditation and the Practice of Virtue

Establishing a meditative life can lead to a more settled and attentive mind, but to what end will you direct these capacities? If you are more attentive, to what will you direct your attention? If more settled, on what will you rest your mind? Humility and reverence can be the trusted entryways into the meditative life. Read More

July 4, 2009

Establishing Peace, Cultivating Wakefulness

Meditation entered the 21st century on August 4, 2003... Read More

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Books by Arthur Zajonc

Image of Meditation As Contemplative Inquiry: When Knowing Becomes Love
Meditation As Contemplative Inquiry: When Knowing Becomes Love
Image of Catching the Light: The Entwined History of Light and Mind
Catching the Light: The Entwined History of Light and Mind
Image of The Dalai Lama at MIT
The Dalai Lama at MIT
Image of The New Physics and Cosmology Dialogues with the Dalai Lama
The New Physics and Cosmology Dialogues with the Dalai Lama

Spirituality Basics

Spirituality means something different to everyone. For some, it's a personal lord, for others a feeling in the wind. Research shows that even skeptics can't stifle the sense something greater. Humans can't help but ask big questions, even if there's no one there to answer them.

Go to the Spirituality Basics page for more on Spirituality including:
  • Invisible Forces
Go to Spirituality Basics

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