Every Sunday morning, a group of free spirits gather at 9 am upstairs in the Yellow Barn at Pebble Hill Church in Doylestown, Pa., to practice mindfulness and be present in silence and nature.  Almost immediately after attended my first session, I proselytized its practice.   (You can read more about that here.)

After a gong was sounded, we would meditate , being careful that if the mind ran away from itself, to come back to the present.  We accomplished this by concentrating on breathing and staying attuned to the diversions nature offers, including the skies above.

When I found out no regular Sunday morning meditation service is offered in the Greater Portland area, I wondered if the Pacific Northwest was as liberated as first imagined.  (A Monday evening meditation practice is held at the Unitarian Universalist Church in downtown Portland, but only to serve as a warm-up to a discussion of Buddhism.  That’s hardly an interfaith observance.  Meditation is not an appetizer; it’s the main course.)

Then last Sunday, Dec. 14, CBS ran Anderson Cooper’s piece about mindfulness on 60 Minutes.  His orientation occurred at a meditation retreat in the mountains of Northern California.  Man oh man, did he receive the right advice, and he now appears to be a convert.  It’s about time mindfulness joined the mainstream of self-awareness in the 21st century.

Cooper’s report is a first-person account.  He presents a full flavor of what meditators undergo.  Therefore, here’s a link to the CBS Overtime website’s full report on what you may be missing.  Enjoy!

And if you want some helpful hints on meditation, there are plenty of websites that will lead you the right way.  Check this one out.