Thanks for posting and thanks to bananas for mentioning!

Ohhhmmmm....

some sanity among our leaders.

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]What struck me also is that he's Catholic and presented mindfulness as a natural technique of mind discipline, not an anti-Christian "religion" as some fundamentalists have tried to do.

It was a very good interview.

just in passing:

a family friend who was Jesuit Priest (also a practicing psychiatrist), told me a long time back that -- his local Jesuit chapter had adopted Buddhist "Walking (Mindfulness) Meditation", as part of their spiritual exercises. The Jesuits, of course, have practiced their own forms of meditation since the inception of the order.

my own friend who's an Episcopalian Christian, tells me that his own church, here on Long Island, NY -- served by the Episcopalian Franciscan order -- practices the Buddhist "Metta (Compassion) Meditation" regularly, every weekend. Of course, IMO -- aside from his Christian faith -- Francis of Assisi was a Buddhist in all but name.

there was Thomas Merton, the Trappist Monk & author of the "Seven Story Mountain", was a student & practitioner of Zen meditation.

in India, around the time of the later & more enlightened Mogul Emperors & possibly during the British colonial regime, it was customary for Buddhist Monks, Hindu Yogis & Muslim Sufis, to have regular gatherings & practice their different forms of meditation, in a group.

I kinda like that. I could rock it like e.e. cummings

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]My Catholic experience also encouraged meditation, though it was usually directed in terms of focusing on one aspect of the life of Christ or one of the saints, which is somewhat different from mindfulness.

The people screaming "anti-Christian" are not Catholics, but the raving lunatic fundies who think Harry Potter, Halloween, and anything without an Aryan Republican Jesus blazoned all over it are "satanic."

Fully agree about Francis of Assisi. I've always loved him, and read an article at one point showing strong parallels between St. Francis and the Buddha; unfortunately can't find it right now.