How to use your Guided Mindfulness Meditation Practice CDs As with the Series 1 and Series 2 CDs, these

Series 3 guided meditations are too ls that invite and reward something more than a casual listening. They are desig ned to be used on a regular basis to help you develop and deepen a daily meditat ion practice and thus to strengthen the qualities of mindfulness (moment to mome nt non-judgmental awareness), compassion, including self-compassion, and lovingk indness in every aspect of your life. The programs vary from 20 to 47 minutes in length. The real challenge, no matter which band you choose to work with at any given time, is to step out of time altogether and into the timelessness of the present moment. All bands include stretches of silence of varying lengths for be ing in relationship to your own experience moment by moment, based on the guidan ce you are receiving during the periods when I am talking. But again, the real c hallenge is to make the entire time, even during the guidance, into your own dir ect experience by dropping "underneath" the words to what, where and how they ar e inviting you to pay attention. In this way, the whole program becomes an occas ion to cultivate mindfulness, and not just the periods of silence. The suggestio n is to follow the instructions as best you can without getting caught in them, to perceive and open to what and where they are pointing, rather than falling in to thinking about them in a cerebral and conceptual way, or trying to figure out what they are for, or what you are supposed to be feeling. Whatever you are fee ling (and thinking) is what you are "supposed" to be feeling and thinking. The q uestion is, can you be aware of it, and take up at least temporary residency in that awareness? These programs develop the array of mindfulness practices described in Coming to Our Senses, beginning with mindfulness of breathing and mindfulness of body sen sations on CD #1. We learn through practicing together to settle into and rest i n awareness itself as the breath and other body sensations are "featured" within the field of awareness, almost as if we were "awarenessing" without doing anyth ing, like a mirror, simply including what comes within its scope, rather than be ing an observer of something separate from ourselves. Resting in awareness, and being the knowing that awareness is without any forcing become the unifying them es of all these guided meditations, even though they feature different aspects o f the interior and outer landscapes of our' experience. Through regular practice we become more and more familiar and intimate with these landscapes and what un folds from moment to moment within them. In the process, we become more intimate with the "domain of being," that aspect of what and who we are that is far bigg er and more magnificent that the stories we tell ourselves about what and who we are. CD # 1 includes a band (c) with less guidance and more silence, which you may find useful once you get the hang of resting in awareness from the two bands with more instruction. CD #2 features the cultivation of mindfulness via the experience of hearing what ever is coming to the ears, attending to the soundscape, and to the experiencing of thoughts and emotions unfolding from moment to moment, what you might call t he mindscape. This CD also includes a lying down meditation in the yogic corpse pose, specifically designed to help us learn how to cultivate mindfulness while lying down, to actually learn how to fall awake to the full range of our present moment experience rather than, as so often happens when practicing while lying down, inadvertently falling asleep. CD #3 features the practice of choiceless awareness, in which we let go of selec ting specific objects of attention to feature in the field of awareness and to b e mindful of, and instead, invite our awareness to be so spacious that it includ es anything and everything that might arise in any present moment, in the nowsca pe, just as a mirror does not choose what to reflect but reflects whatever comes before it. This CD also features instructions for mindful walking meditation, w hich can be practiced on your own once you have listened to the instructions.

CD #4 features an extended lovingkindness meditation, directed both inwardly and outwardly, in which we cultivate intimacy with the landscape of our own heart, the heartscape, and open to its capacity for deep nurturance, empathy, and heali ng for ourselves and for others. It also includes a guided meditation on how to bring mindfulness effortlessly into every aspect of everyday life, into what you might call the lifescape. When all is said and done, perhaps this is the most p rofound and most important of all these practices, and vvill make the most diffe rence in your life and the lives of those you love. Ultimately, when you have made the practice your own, you can practice in silenc e and stillness, and in daily life, without using these CDs any more, or perhaps using them on an occasional basis as appropriate to fine tune your practice and to support and enhance the daily discipline. But it is also fine to keep on usi ng them when you practice, as many people do. CAUTION Do not use these programs while driving! This set of CDs is meant to be used in conjunction with Dr. Kabat-Zinn's book, _ Coming to Our Senses: Healing Ourselves and the World Through Mindfulness_, Hype rion, NY, 2005 For additional Guided Mindfulness Meditation Practice CDs, see Se ries 1 and Series 2. To purchase additional copies of this program, or for more information or to com municate with us, please see www.mindfulnesstapes.com. www.mindfulnesscds.com or write: Stress Reduction Tapes and CDs P.O. Box 547, Lexington, MA 02420. Produced and directed by John Wager, Galileo Multimedia, Saratoga Springs, NY