Initial Application of Mindfulness

Extension Exercises in a Traditional

Buddhist Meditation Retreat Setting

James Baraz
Insight Meditation West
Oakland, CA
Dharma Foundation,
Oakland, CA
Charles T. Tart
University of California at Davis and
Insitute of Noetic Sciences, Sausalito

(1995, unpublished.)

This paper has not been previously published. The contents of this document are
Copyright © 1995 by Charles T. Tart and James Baraz (see detail)

Abstract

The cultivation of mindfulness, clear moment-to-moment awareness of what is actually

happening, as opposed to the typical distortions of perception caused by desires, fears,
attachments and other psychological defense mechanisms so characteristic of ordinary
consciousness, is an essential element in personal and spiritual growth. Spiritual
traditions such as Buddhism have developed sophisticated methodologies for developing
mindfulness in specialized retreat situations, but the mindfulness and concentration often
experienced therein does not generalize well to daily life situations. Some principles of
generalizing mindfulness to daily life were used to design specific exercises that were
tested in two otherwise traditional Buddhist vipassana ("mindfulness") meditation
retreats. The exercises and their results are described. They proved useful in widening the
scope of mindfulness, easing reentry into ordinary life and enhancing the transfer of
mindfulness to daily life.

Article

One of us (C.T.T.) has argued elsewhere that the cultivation of mindfulness, a precise
moment-to-moment observation of exactly what is happening internally and externally, is
an essential element in personal and spiritual growth (Tart, 1986; in press). The great
spiritual systems originated, expressed and refined this idea. The goal of mindfulness and
related concepts and practices are now having an important impact on our culture in
general and on the humanistic and transpersonal psychology areas in particular. The
emphasized spiritual system will be Buddhism in this paper, but the arguments may apply
to other systems.

Practically, frequent and clear mindfulness is rare in everyday life. The monastic tradition
that has accompanied Buddhism to the West, in particular, has implicitly tended to
emphasize mindfulness in the special situations of formal meditation and monastic life.
Many contemporary Western practitioners of meditation have found that the deep
mindfulness developed in formal meditation and monastic-like retreats does not readily
transfer to enhancing moment-to-moment mindfulness in ordinary life situations. C.T.T.
(in press) suggested that some practices designed to cultivate mindfulness in everyday
life, drawn from his experimentation with the Gurdjieff tradition (Ouspensky, 1949; Tart,
1986), could be combined with more traditional Buddhist meditation training to facilitate
the development of mindfulness in everyday life (Tart, in press).

Working from a preliminary version of C.T.T.'s paper, which contained general principles
for mindfulness training exercises but few specific exercises, the first author (J.B.), with
significant assistance from Jack Kornfield, Carol Wilson, Howard Cohn and John Travis,
devised a number of specific training exercises and applied them in two traditional
Buddhist vipassana meditation retreats. J.B. is an experienced vipassana meditation
teacher. This paper elaborates on the need for additional training to facilitate mindfulness
training in everyday life, especially specific problems encountered in the transition from
a meditation retreat to everyday life, describes some specific mindfulness extension
exercises to use in a meditation retreat, and reports observations on their effects. We hope
these observations will be helpful to others who want to experiment with extending
mindfulness to all areas of life.

The discussion of difficulty in practicing mindfulness in daily life presented elsewhere

(Tart, in press) emphasized that everyday life was quite different in the stimulus
configuration presented to people, such that it failed to remind them of the high degree of
mindfulness they may have developed in the special situation of a meditation retreat. In
addition, J.B. has often observed a distinctively sensitive and challenging transition
period as a meditator leaves the retreat situation to return to ordinary life, especially with
those who are relatively new to retreat experience. This difficult transition period may
further increase the obstacles to taking the mindfulness developed in the retreat setting
into life, so we will describe the typical vipassana meditation retreat procedure here and
then discuss the transition problems before reporting on the application of mindfulness
extension exercises.

Meditation Retreat Procedure Vipassana meditation, popularly referred to as insight

meditation, is one of the fundamental forms of Buddhist meditation. Different teachers
and lineages emphasize different aspects, but basically it centers around the instruction to
sit quietly and observe whatever manifests in the mind and body as precisely as possible.
You focus on being present to what is, rather than, as is usually done in ordinary life,
manipulating your experience in accordance with desire, clinging to the pleasant and the
expected, suppressing the unpleasant and the unexpected. Excellent detailed descriptions
can be found elsewhere (see, e.g., Goldstein, 1977; Goldstein & Kornfield, 1987;
Goleman, 1988).

Vipassana retreats, particularly those run by teachers affiliated with the Insight
Meditation Society, generally have an equal mixture of relatively new and fairly
experienced practitioners. Instructions are given throughout the first few days of the
retreat. Participants sit in meditation for periods of 45 minutes to an hour, alternating
sitting with periods of walking vipassana meditation for about 45 minutes. Sitting,
walking, sitting, walking. There are two main meals a day, with tea and a snack rather
than a full evening meal. Retreatants are asked to be mindful in the eating periods also.
There is no talking or socializing during the retreat. Each participant can participate in an
individual or small group interview with one of the teachers every other day. This is the
only regularly scheduled opportunity for retreat participants to talk with anyone about
what is going on with their practice. If a meditator runs into special difficulties between
these times, however, a teacher is generally available. Each evening there is also a talk on
some aspect of the meditation practice or the philosophy on which it is based.

As part of the discipline and psychological atmosphere of a retreat, each participant

agrees to abide by the traditional Five Precepts. First, refraining from intentionally killing
any life form (vegetables are excepted, insects are included). This creates an attitude of
non-harming as well as a reverence for the interconnectedness of life. Second, refraining
from stealing. Third, refraining from any sexual relations during the retreat . Fourth,
[1]

maintaining silence, unless there is some important reason to talk, such as in interviews
or in group discussion with teachers, or in talking to the managers or cooks about
practical tasks which need to be done. The fifth precept is refraining from intoxicants,
drugs (excluding prescribed medications for illness) or alcohol . Besides the moral and
[2]

technical importance of the precepts, there is a general agreement that this is a time to
focus inward and to get in touch with one's own process of body and mind.

Retreats vary in length from a single day to three months. Weekend and ten day retreats
are common. Very deep states of mindfulness and concentration, specifically including
feeling clear, blissful, and particularly sensitivity to inner processes, can result from the
longer retreats, where the distractions of ordinary life progressively fade. It is from the
ten day and longer retreats that J.B. and other meditation teachers have observed
important problems in the transition back to ordinary life. Beside being important in
[3]

themselves, the fact that disturbances and unpleasant experiences can result during the
transition away from the mindfulness and concentration acquired in a long retreat can be
an important factor in inhibiting the generalization of mindfulness to everyday life.

Problems in the Transition Period

In the first three-month course of this style in America, in Bucksport, Maine in 1975,
there was no transition period between formal meditation practice and leaving the retreat.
It was clear from later feedback that this sudden transition created significant problem.
Besides J.B.'s personal experience of finding such transitions difficult, in his later
practice as a meditation teacher many retreat participants coming from long retreats have
called on him for help. They would be in a shaky, disturbed state of mind, not quite
knowing how to integrate what happened in their experience and how to make it
meaningful in their daily life. There is sometimes a feeling of depression, for example, or
feelings of confusion; of alienation and not knowing whether they really belong in the
busy world; of inability to get themselves in gear and go out and take care of very basic
ordinary functioning, like getting a job. When people have gone through a retreat,
especially the longer ones, they have cut off their ordinary routines and the stability
resulting from routines. They are coming out into a world that has many possibilities, but
some find they cannot focus as needed on the necessary tasks of everyday life.

If retreat participants do not expect difficulties at the end of a meditation retreat, such
problems can be made worse. Participants may tend to think, "Well now, I've done the
retreat, I've gotten myself together, I'm all fixed!" Then on leaving what they see, with
much more clarity than they did when they first started, is all the old automatic habits and
fears and ways that we "lose it." This can be very unsettling! For example, the first time
J.B. left a three month retreat, when he started talking with people all the old
psychological "garbage" was still there, such as self-judgment and paranoia. He went
running to the teacher, saying that the meditation hadn't worked. Indeed, he thought of
asking for his money back! He was reminded by the teacher that insight meditation is
more about making friends with those parts of ourselves that we reject than about getting
high, but he believes that if he hadn't gone directly to the teacher in such a distressed state
that he would not have understood that. Many retreat participants leave without getting
that understanding.

Some retreatants have difficulty adjusting to the faster pace of ordinary life, especially if
they have been deeply immersed in the retreat. They may experience headaches, nausea
and/or a sense of being overwhelmed by the barrage of stimulation. These disturbances
may last only a few days or sometimes for weeks. Others find that their relationships to
previous habits and desires has changed dramatically. It is not uncommon for someone
who had a powerful retreat experience to lose sexual desire for a period of time, for
example. Ambition and striving hard to become a success may likewise be curtailed.
While these may be viewed by some (including the retreatant experiencing them) as
positive changes, they can still be quite unsettling when someone's self image (habits
identified with) is so radically altered.

Another not uncommon difficulty stems from changes in the way retreat participants
relate to people in their lives. When one goes through a profound and inward experience,
it is sometimes hard to communicate with others, even people we consider close. The
feeling that "They just don't understand!" can lead to a distancing or alienation that can
be very saddening. Further, a retreatant sometimes finds himself or herself less drawn to
people whose values seem at odds to those discovered or reinforced in the retreat
experience, values such as sensitivity, integrity, kindness, etc. This can disrupt old
friendships, with consequent feelings of loss and grieving. These and other major shifts in
the way retreatants look at life after prolonged deep meditation practice are major
challenges in the return process.
As a result of these observations, vipassana meditation teachers instituted an integration
week at the end of three month retreats. This is a Western innovation: we do not know of
a comparable procedure in Eastern culture, and it may not be needed much in many
Eastern cultures, where meditation and associated values are much more accepted. This
integration week has been helpful, but has not eliminated the problem of many retreatants
finding the transition into life quite difficult. Integration week is a period when retreat
participants, who have been sitting together in quiet for three months, start to interact,
start to get used to talking and communicating while still having many periods of
meditation together -- perhaps for 5 hours instead of the usual 7-10 or 12 hours a day. So
there is a gradual coming back to conversing, with some sitting in between. The topics of
conversation in the integration week have varied from year to year. Sometimes groups
would meet to discuss topics like livelihood or relationship, or communication.
Sometimes retreatants just go out and have fun, like going to the shopping mall in
Worcester where they might feel intoxicated from the altered state of consciousness
induced by the sharp contrast of the shopping mall environment.

Vipassana meditation teachers have also modified the shorter retreats of 10 day to 2
weeks in a similar way the last few years. The silence is broken the afternoon before the
end of the retreat so there is some talking. It is like taking off the lid of the pressure
cooker of the retreat situation. In the evening quiet is imposed again and then the next
morning there is more conversing. This includes a group go-around where retreat
participants introduce themselves and start to relate to each other as ordinary people,
although in a rather minimal way. These modifications are only partial solutions,
however, as many retreat participants who do longer retreats still have significant
problems readapting to ordinary life. To some extent these practices are mainly a "release
of pressure" process, rather than specific practice in mindfully doing worldly kinds of
tasks. Teachers would also give some verbal suggestions to be mindful in everyday life,
such as taking a daily activity like shaving and doing that mindfully, or remembering to
come into your body and feel your body posture when you are starting to get a little bit
over-extended, or remembering about sensing breathing as a grounding exercise, or
sitting in meditation every day.

J.B. also found it particularly important to let retreat participants know that in the first
few days of coming out of a retreat there is such a sensitivity and openness that it is very
common for people to go though wide mood swings and energy swings. He advised them
to give themselves the psychological space to know that such swings are OK, to take care
of themselves, and to monitor themselves so that if their system was getting overloaded,
they could process such material as the overload started. There can also be a defensive
reaction to the disturbances resulting from reentering the ordinary world, what J.B. has
called the "retreat junky syndrome." Something very profound in the meditator can be
touched within the retreat. It seems so real and the outside world, in contrast, seems so
crazy and repugnant, that people long to flee the ordinary world as soon as possible, and
so live from retreat to retreat. That is most unfortunate. This "retreat junky" syndrome,
however, should not be confused with being in the middle of a very deep, inward journey,
which has its own cycle of completion. In the latter, the main motivation is a pull to
depend the profound inner work that has been started, rather than avoidance. Such a
journey might have a cycle of six months, two years, or a life-time given to the monastic
life.

Aim of the Present Study

What we basically hoped to do with the experimental mindfulness extension procedures

introduced during these retreats, then, was: (1) teach retreat participants to let go of any
tranquil, altered states that had developed gracefully, without the tendency to hold on or
be attached to the high, and (2) to create a more meaningful transition from retreat to
ordinary life, so the ability to be mindful that retreatants had cultivated would serve them
better when they returned home. Most of the retreat participants were quite willing to try
the mindfulness extension exercises, although there were some who later admitted they
were upset with the change of plans. As it turned out, by and large they changed their
minds and felt really pleased with the outcome.

Experimental Retreat Settings

The first retreat at which we4 introduced mindfulness extension exercises was held in
April l988 in the Yucca Valley in Southern California. This was two 10-day retreats back-
to-back, a 20 day retreat for those who attended both. Thirty people meditated for the full
20 days. An additional 35 people were there for the second 10 day retreat. Instead of
simply breaking silence near the end, as described above, we began introducing various
mindfulness extension exercises two days before the end. We began with some exercises
that were fairly quiet, to keep retreat participants in the quiet space most had reached and
not jar them too suddenly. The following day we introduced more interactive kinds of
exercises. Mindfulness extension exercises were also used at the end of another 10-day
retreat that was held in Santa Rosa, California in June of 1988. [4]

Easing the Transition

The retreat instructors had some concern that retreat participants would be upset by this
change of routine. There is something very sweet about being in the quiet space that
prolonged meditation can generate, and often retreat participants want to squeeze the last
drop of quietness and mindfulness out of their experience, knowing full well that they
would be going back soon to a very busy life. To express it the way the drug culture did
in the sixties and seventies, at the end of a retreat people don't want to "come down."
They want to keep enjoying the "high," because it is such a pleasurable altered state.
Things are so clear and brilliant. In addition, as previously mentioned, people are very
open and sensitive and are reluctant to jar their systems. In this state of enhanced
sensitivity, it can be, for example, quite painful to be in a room with a lot of people
talking at once. Most retreat participants realize that sooner or later they are going to have
to come down, so often near the end of a retreat people psychologically wince and put on
the brakes, since they know that there will be a crash soon. Experienced meditators know
that as soon as you open up your mouth (to talk), the concentration flies out. This
"knowledge" might set up an expectation that the crash will occur, and so may partially
act as a self-fulfilling prophecy. From a Buddhist point of view, of course, holding onto a
high is just one more kind of grasping that will create suffering. Instructors try to convey
the idea that practice is actually learning to let go of what is passing, to mindfully be with
confusion and chaos as well as desirable experiences, but it is hard in practice to not
grasp at the clear states meditation can bring about. These are the reasons we introduced
the mindfulness extension exercises gradually.

Mindfulness Extension Exercises

Fetching and Walking

As the first mindfulness extension exercise, we asked retreat participants to bring

sweaters or coats to the next session, but leave them outside the hall itself. It was very hot
in the day at that time of year, so there was a non-sensical quality about this that caught
retreat participants' attention. The first exercise was to go put on their coats and shoes at
normal speed (not the slow motion moving people at retreats deliberately adopt), then to
walk over to the dining room (about 200 yards away) and put their coat or sweater down
over a chair which they were going to be returning to later on during the day. Then they
were to walk back to the meditation hall, at normal speed, and then sit quietly meditating
for five minutes. What makes this and all the other exercises to be described a
mindfulness exercise is the instruction (followed by appropriate attentiveness) to be
attentive to and clearly mindful of what you are doing in every action. Being mindful in
this specific exercise would usually include keeping a sense of body awareness as you
shift into and move in that "new" speed of a normal pace. It may include doing some
mental noting, a tool sometimes used in vipassana meditation, a matter of bare labeling of
ongoing action. Perhaps you will be noting "tying shoes" or "putting on coat," for
example.

Saying Hello

The next exercise that we did was learning to mindfully say hello to someone and seeing
what experiences arose as a result of this. We specified that this was not to be a lot of
conversing, but just greeting each other, as at a party, for example, where you know
peoples' names. You didn't go through the formality of introducing yourself, you just said
hello and shook the other person's hand. You could say a couple of words if that seemed
right, but there was no real urging to do that. After each hello, a bell was rung. Retreat
participants had five such interactions, saying hello to others near them this way. After
doing this, everyone sat in silent meditation for 15 minutes.

Waiting in Line

Participants lined up at the drinking fountain. After they received their drink, they were
asked to go to the back of the line again so that the experience of waiting was
emphasized, rather than that of getting some result. While on line, the instructions were
either to be mindful of thoughts and movements as the line inched forward or to do metta,
loving-kindness meditation . The metta was done silently, without making eye contact
[5]

with others. This exercise was meant to give some tools for common waiting situations
like traffic jams, movie lines, etc. After about 15 minutes of waiting in line participants
were asked to silently come together. They then received instructions for the next
exercise, hurrying.

Hurrying

Paired with the Waiting in Line exercise was one to train mindfulness in a typical
everyday situation, hurrying. What is it like to hurry? The retreat participants had left
their coats in the dining hall, which was 200 yards away. They were to imagine that a talk
was about to begin in another minute or so and they needed to get their coats and come to
the talk. They were to observe the things that came up while they were hurrying and how
much it threw them off balance. Is there a way to move quickly while being centered,
rather than toppling forward? Is there a way to experientially stay in your body, yet
hurry? Can you observe the pain that comes from hurrying? After these two exercises
participants sat in silent meditation for 15 minutes before some reporting of their
experiences with the group.

Serving Another

Tthen we had the last exercise for that day. Later on we went into silence for rest of the
evening. It was tea time at that point. At tea time, in the late afternoon, retreat participants
were asked to pair up with another person as they came to the door of the dining room, sit
down across from each other and then one person, Person A, would ask Person B what he
or she wanted for tea. This was a practice in giving and receiving mindfully. The only
words spoken were "What can I get you?" Person A would go and mindfully get the
order, bring it back and give it to Person B. Then they switched roles. The rest of the tea
time was done in silence. After tea there was formal sitting meditation, an instructional
talk and then more sitting.

Preparing for Everyday Life

The next day we had a few more exercises. First, people were asked to write down a list
of activities that they needed to do the first day or two after the retreat. They then shared
their list with their partner, discussing ways that mindfulness practice might be
incorporated into these practical activities. This exercise was to address the question of
mindfulness during planning and writing, as well as reflecting on practical ways to
maintain mindfulness in typical daily activities. Participants then spent some time sharing
their experiences and ideas with the group in general, and then ended with 15 minutes of
silent meditation.

The Go-Around

Next the participants went through an exercise that has been regularly used at the end of
retreats for the past 10 years, namely a go-around of introductions. Each person got up
and said their name, where they lived, and a few words about themselves, while trying to
be mindful throughout this activity. This kind of practice is important as many people
report that it is very difficult to be mindful while speaking.

Driving Exercise

We then left the meditation hall for the facility's parking lot. Drivers stood by their cars.
Passengers selected cars and silently got in. In silence, they were to drive slowly around
[6]

the front part of the facility. Each retreatant was to mindfully observe what it was like to
be a driver or a passenger, both physically and mentally, while taking this 5-10 minute
drive. Driving and riding in cars is, of course, a major everyday life activity for many
Westerners. After the ride the participants gathered again as a group and, following a 15
minute mediation, shared their experiences.

Results

In general, the results of introducing these mindfulness extension exercises were

extremely valuable. Retreat participants found that they did have to let go of the altered
state of blissful clarity they often developed during the prolonged sitting meditation in
order to do these mindfulness extension exercises. When you change from just sitting to
walking, to doing anything different, the feelings of clarity start to get shaken up a bit,
but that was a useful experience to see as well. Retreat participants felt a lot more
grounded and less confused than at the end of a more traditional retreat, and many
remarked that this was something that should be done regularly. We will now describe
results of specific exercises.

Waiting in Line

The Waiting in Line exercise, and the Fetching and Walking (putting on coats and shoes
at normal speed) were early exercises, and retreat participants felt comfortable doing
them. We feel that "easy" mindfulness extension exercises like these should start the
series before moving on to more complex tasks. The Waiting in Line exercise was an
especially useful one. Retreat participants reported a wide variety of reactions, typically
seeing how frustrated they get when they are waiting. Often this was just a restlessness of
just needing to go somewhere, a motor tendency to just "topple forward!" Sharing these
reactions allowed retreat participants to laugh about themselves.

The Hurrying Exercise

The Hurrying exercise had varying responses that seemed to be influenced by how deep
the participants' retreat experiences had been. Many of those who were still very sensitive
as a result of intense practice found this exercise to be quite painful and jarring to their
systems. Through seeing this, they could appreciate in a new way the turbulent effects
hurrying has in their ordinary lives. Others, who were ready to let loose from the confines
of the slow pace of the retreat, found this exercise to be exhilarating. Perhaps the
imagined pressure of the situation (with most people obviously having fun in the
exercise) did not adequately simulate the pressure of hurrying in everyday life. Most
participants seemed to experience being less mindful than they had been, in addition to
feeling off center. A few found that they could use the gross movements of the body in
hurrying as an effective focal point for staying grounded and present. There was general
agreement that hurrying in one's life detracts from centeredness and should be avoided
when possible.

Interacting with Others

Retreat participants had a variety of reactions to the mindfulness extension exercises that
involved interacting with each other. The most striking was the one where retreat
participants serially looked at each other and said hello. Retreat participants had been so
inward that many felt very vulnerable to others. Most retreat participants felt that they
needed more time to process their inner reactions between each interaction. They wanted
to let them register more deeply: what does that mean to let someone in, let yourself out?
In the future we will allow at least a few minutes between each interaction. Some retreat
participants found the Saying Hello exercise and the wide spectrum of people's reactions
very stimulating. They got very high and loving, they wanted to take people in. On the
other hand, some retreat participants reported they were really fearful, or they saw
themselves close down. Some found they were defensive with some people while not
with others. Some retreatants had a feeling that they wanted to send something in these
interactions, they had to communicate something. Some were just dying to send their
love, beam their love out. Others had difficulties and noticed their bodies contracting,
some were mindful of their bodies being open. Some had an experience of really being
touched by the commonality of life, others felt other people as really separate. As
instructors we tried not to put any kind of value judgments on people's reactions to these
mindfulness extension exercises. It was not a pass/fail test. It was practice in just
observing. The more we observed with clarity, the more we could start to understand.

Driving Exercise

The Driving exercise brought up many useful self observations. For example, some of the
retreat participants cast in the role of drivers, for example, wanted to be creative in their
exploration. Rather than just circling around the islands and coming back, they wanted to
take an interesting drive. Others just followed the instructions to drive around the
[7]

islands. Some drivers saw how they liked controlling situations, controlling their
passengers, others saw that they became very anxious and felt on the spot, that they were
responsible for this whole journey. Were they doing it well enough? What did other
people think about them? The people in the role of passengers were very aware of what
their drivers did, and many saw very clearly how they were terrible "back seat drivers,"
nudging and pointing, wanting to control the situation.

Many retreat participants saw that they act in these ways in ordinary life, but are not
mindful of it then. What became obvious through all these mindfulness extension
exercises was that it is not a different mind that you have in the retreat: it is the same
mind, with its habits and patterns of thoughts, you are just seeing it a more clearly. When
retreats are held in Yucca Valley, there is a custom of driving up to the Joshua Tree
National Monument at the end. Driving there proved to be a much more grounded and
integrated experience, rather than the typical chaotic kind of "Whoa, its amazing and here
we are!" There was more of a sense of a community and a carrying over of mindfulness
in ordinary actions from these mindfulness extension exercises.

Another positive aspect of doing these exercises was that when silence was formally
broken at lunch time, before the driving exercise, there was not an explosion of energy as
often happens in the traditional retreat. Perhaps the exercises made the process of relating
more gradual and so more grounded and integrated. Rather than wild talking and intense
energy, as if the lid of a pressure cooker had popped off, people were calmer, talked in
small groups or dyads, and felt more at ease with the process of talking. The usual frenzy
of energy itself leads to burnout and an unbalanced mind.

Conclusions

A primary point of the original article (Tart, in press) and the primary purpose of the
mindfulness extension exercises introduced into these two retreats is that mindfulness is
not just a "luxury" item to produce a high in special retreat situations. Mindfulness is
essential in all activities of life if we want to understand ourselves and our lives better
and to reduce unnecessary suffering. Our informal observations of reactions to
mindfulness extension exercises are just a beginning at answering questions as to whether
and to what extent such exercises can assist in generalizing the mindfulness experienced
in retreat situations to everyday life, but it is a very encouraging beginning. J.B. has
spoken to a number of retreat participants since the end of these two retreats, and many
found the modified procedures resulted in a noticeable increase in their everyday
mindfulness and groundedness compared to previous retreat experiences, at least during
the first period of reentry. One should not expect too much of mindfulness extension
exercises as such, of course. They are tools, not solutions, and their effects will depend on
a person's general ability to be mindful, the power of the retreat experience, the effort he
or she puts into being mindful in everyday life, the mindlessness provoking qualities of
the situations he or she returns to in life, the strength of habits of automated, mindless
functioning, unconscious emotional factors, and of other factors which we do not yet
understand. All of the retreat teachers were pleased with the initial results of the
mindfulness extension exercises and plan to continue experimenting.

End Notes

1. 1) Outside of the retreat situation, the precept is to not create suffering through
sexual conduct.
2. 2) Imposing only five precepts is a small liberalization of the tradition for the
West. A more orthodox retreat includes three more precepts, namely not wearing
jewelry or ornaments, not sleeping on high or luxurious beds and not eating past
the noon meal.
3. 3) The retreat conditions of minimal external disturbance and an environment in
which the meditator is continually encouraged to bring the wandering mind back
to the present results not only in strong mindfulness but also, at times, in deep
 concentration. Some distinction should be made between mindfulness and
concentration, two separate qualities both developed by the meditation process.
Mindfulness is the ability to notice clearly what is happening in the moment
without clinging to the pleasant, condemning the unpleasant or identifying with
the experience (taking it to be "my" or "mine"). Concentration is the ability of the
mind to stay fixed on an object. Although the two often appear together, it is
possible to have some degree of mindfulness without particularly strong one-
pointed concentration, or strong concentration (being absorbed in an object)
without particularly strong mindfulness. Moment-to-moment mindfulness can
also develop a kind of concentration as well that keeps the mind fixed in the
present through constantly changing experience. As important as the difference in
mindfulness is between daily life and retreat, the contrast between concentration
levels is equally significant in discussing the difficulties in leaving the retreat.
When practitioners try to hold on to the calm and concentration once the retreat
ends, they are often very discouraged and frustrated. Also, the heightened
sensitivity of a concentrated mind leaves a meditator especially vulnerable to the
barrage of stimulation most of us deal insensitively with in daily life: this can be
quite jarring.
4. 4) J. B., Jack Kornfield, Carol Wilson and Howard Cohn.
5. 5) Metta is a complement to vipassana practice that comes from the Buddha's
teaching. It is usually done on retreats, as well as at the end of ordinary sitting
practice. It involves a repetition of phrases such as "May you be happy," "May
you be free from harm," etc., directed in a systematic way from oneself as a
starting point out to all beings.
6. 6) Many participants had flown to the retreat facility and so did not have their
own cars there.
7. 7) Wanting to make things "interesting" is a frequent obstacle to the meditative
aim of trying to be mindful of things as the are, rather than manipulating them.

References

1. Goldstein, J. (1977). The Experience of Insight. Boulder: Shambhala.

2. Goldstein, J. & Kornfield, J. (1987). Seeking the Heart of Wisdom. Boston:
Shambhala.
3. Goleman, D. (1988). The Meditative Mind: The Varieties of Meditative
Experience. Los Angeles: Jeremy P. Tarcher.
4. Ouspensky, P. D. (1949). In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown
Teaching. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World.
5. Tart, C. T. (1986). Waking Up: Overcoming the Obstacles to Human Potential.
Boston: New Science Library.
6. Tart, C. T. (in press), Extending mindfulness to everyday life. Journal of
Humanistic Psychology.