Mindfulness without Buddhism by Kabat-Zinn

From an article in http://buddhistchannel.tv:

Back in 1979, a biologist at the University of Massachusetts named Jon Kabat-Zinn had an idea. He was trained in the Vipassana tradition of Buddhist meditation, and he had a hunch that if he pared-down the technique, it could help patients at the university's medical center.

"The idea was to actually... train these medical patients in Buddhist meditative practices, but without the Buddhism," says Kabat-Zinn.

The idea of mind-body health wasn't well explored at the time, so Kabat-Zinn approached physicians and pain specialists at the university. He asked them to refer their patients to his new clinic, which happened to be set up in a windowless, underground office in a medical building.

"I wasn't objecting," says Kabat-Zinn. "Even with no air and no light and my wife saying, 'How can you work in these conditions?'" it didn't deter patients from seeking out the mindfulness training, either."

"The heart of Buddhist meditation is actually called mindfulness, and our operational definition of it is really paying attention in the only moment we're ever alive — which is the present moment," Kabat-Zinn says.

At the end of the article there is a:
A Crash Course in Body Scan Meditation by Vikki Valentine
Practice a seated body scan meditation with Trish Magyari. Follow along as she guides a class through the process.

Related Video:
An Intro to Meditation for Healing and Stress Reduction with Bob Stahl, Ph.D