The Mindful Lawyer Digest, Summer 2014 Issue

The latest issue of the Mindful Lawyer Digest was recently sent out.  If you are not yet subscribed to the Mindful Law email list, you can read it here.

The Mindful Lawyer Digest is a newsletter connecting like-minded lawyers with each other, and informing them about developments in the field of Mindfulness and the Law.  Each newsletter will feature a new Mindful Lawyer Spotlight, highlight resources for attorneys interested in furthering their mindfulness practice, and share the latest articles on mindfulness and the law.  It is an exciting time to be exploring the intersection of mindfulness and the legal profession, and we hope you will consider subscribing and joining our growing community.

If you are hosting a mindfulness and the law event, or know someone who is, please share it with us for inclusion in a future Digest.  Relevant events include mindful sitting groups, workshops and lectures on mindfulness for legal professionals.

The Mindful Lawyer Spotlight, July 2014

Tony Recio is a partner at the Florida law firm Weiss Serota Helfman, and he is working and residing in Miami.  Tony has been helping to encourage the growth of mindfulness and meditation practices in the local legal community through his participation in various mindfulness and law related events in Miami and at the University of Miami.  He was kind enough to share with us some of his history and experience with contemplative practice for this month’s Mindful Lawyer Spotlight.  We are grateful to Tony for adding his voice to the growing community of lawyers seeking out more satisfying ways to live and practice.

TML: What is your contemplative practice?

Tony: I practice the Tibetan form of Buddhism, primarily in the Shengpa Kagyu, Karma Kagyu, and Nyingma Katog lineages.  My daily practice includes recitation, meditation, and visualization.

When and how were you introduced to contemplative practice?

Initially through books on eastern religions, including both traditional texts such as the Tao Te Ching and modern distillations of core beliefs and practices.  From there, I explored meditation through yoga and zen before finding the presentation of the path that felt the most natural to me.

What impact does your practice have on your professional life? And life in general?

Certainly a positive impact . . . There are obvious manifestations of the impacts of the practice, such as reduced stress and anxiety, but those are really more of a side effect.  The more important primary effects involve the training of the mind to focus with less distraction, to process occurrences with less reactivity, and to be more patient and mindful in thought, word and deed. 

These changes are more subtle and take longer than the immediate peaceful feeling one gets from meditation, but they are far more important in that they alter the way one perceives life’s myriad situations and personal interactions, which leads to changes in how one is affected by- and in turn deals with- these situations and interactions.  One’s attitude shifts to one of openness and understanding, the perspective becomes broader, and the bumps in the road are seen as challenges rather than problems.  This leads to a more effective way of dealing with the world openly and honestly, of addressing issues that crop up by seeing a bigger part of the picture, rather than simply something that must be weathered or steamrolled over. 

That ability to deal directly with whatever life brings instills a confidence and happiness that is less dependent on the external surroundings – even when the news is “bad,” there is enough space to address it, rather than giving in to the feeling of the world seemingly ending, and enough confidence to actually do so effectively.

What advice would you offer other lawyers interested in contemplative practices?

Practice, practice, practice.  It is not enough to simply learn a meditation technique, nor is it necessarily beneficial to learn a number of techniques without implementing them as part of a daily practice.  The mind training I spoke of above occurs through habituation, though familiarization with the technique.  That requires repetition, and for me daily repetition is the best way to deeply ingrain the habit.  And the habituation is indispensable in developing the ability to apply the technique when it is most needed, such as when things get chaotic at work or at home.  The ability to take a few seconds before reacting to an irritating situation often means a big difference in the eventual response.  However the opportunity to take those few seconds is rarely noticed unless one is accustomed to observing them rather than immediately reacting. 

If you think about it, we have all spent most of our lives habituating ourselves to thinking and acting in certain ways, and we have done so with a daily “practice” involving repetition.  Changing those patterns requires the same amount of daily practice.

What teachers, books, and/or workshops have you found helpful along the way?

For me, authentic teachers have been indispensable.  I owe most if not all of my meager progress to Lama Norlha Rinpoche and Khentrul Lodro Thaye Rinpoche, two Tibetan lamas.  More locally, I have learned a great deal and am indebted to Lama Karma Chotso, an American monastic that heads a local meditation center. 

Books have also been instrumental – while I found modern books written by westerners more accessible in the beginning, for the last few years I have gotten more out of traditional texts.  Their directness seems to strike more of a chord with me. 

There are a healthy number of western teachers as well who often present meditation in a more secular bent.  The important thing is to find a teacher or presentation that resonates and feels comfortable so that one trusts the practice and is inspired to continue with it. 

Beyond the traditional teachers, I have also learned a great deal from all sorts of people in daily interactions – part of the openness I mentioned earlier involves noticing the nuggets of wisdom every person can let out from time to time, whether they know it or not.  We all have access to a much greater wisdom than we are conscious of, and sometimes it slips out in spite of our best efforts otherwise.

Do you recommend any particular resources?

A great book I read several years ago was Living, Dreaming, Dying by Robert Nairn. There are some excellent, practical exercises in there that demonstrate the efficacy of meditation.

A far older book from a different tradition that I hold very dear is the Tao Te Ching – just a simple presentation of wisdom in poetic verse.  Depending on the translation, it can be a bit esoteric, so I would also recommend a modern western interpretation, The Tao of Pooh. 

YouTube is actually a great resource as well – English speaking teachers such as Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, Tai Situ Rinpoche, and Dzongzar Khyentse Rinpoche have meditation instruction videos that are freely accessible.

Would you like to add anything else?

For those that decide that training their mind is something they want to do, I believe the most important aspect is to have the courage and diligence to take up the practice and stick to it.  It is probably best to start small, perhaps as little as 5-10 minutes a day.  That way it is easier to keep with it, and doing it every day is the best way to achieve lasting mind training.

Me Mind Wandering and the CASE Method

The C.A.S.E. method is the name for a Jurisight exercise that moves from Concentrated Attention to Sensory Expansion--a basic mindfulness practice. Neuroscientist Richard Davidson and his colleagues research these two complementary contemplative practices, referring to them as Focused Attention and Open Monitoring.

Research exploring mind wandering finds that we spend about half our time with our mind's meandering and that as it wanders a state of brain activity known as the "default" network is activated. This state tends to be associated with a lot of thoughts about "me" and a ruminatory style that is emotionally flat, depressed or anxious.

Default mode activation drops off when we focus our attention on a task (think concentrated awareness) or expand our awareness and notice moment to moment experience (think sensory expansion). As we make this deliberate shift and default network activity subsides, we

"Workshop on Mindfulness in Legal Education" Video Available on Berkeley Initiative's You Tube Channel

Video are available on YouTube from the "Workshop on Mindfulness in Legal Education" held at Berkeley Law here more than 50 law professors, deans, staff and students, from over 30 law schools around the country, discussed the development of mindfulness in legal education and shared ways to bring the benefits of mindfulness to law students, faculty and staff. The event was hosted by the Berkeley Initiative on Mindfulness in Law.

AALS Balance in Legal Education Section forms "Mindfulness in Law Affinity Group"

The Executive Committee of the Balance in Legal Education section of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS), led by its president, Larry Krieger and president elect, Julie Sandine, has unanimously endorsed a petition to establish a Mindfulness in Law Affinity Group. Professor Richard Reuben, of Missouri Law, who spearheaded this effort encourages law faculty interested in mindfulness to "join the Balance Section and help grow this community," and requests that those who are interested let him know as there is presently no sorting mechanism to identify those members of the Balance section who are also interested in mindfulness. The link to join the Balance section is found by clicking here.

Trial Attorney, Paul Lipton, Publishes "Hour of the Wolf: An Experiment in Ageless Living"

The recently published "Hour of the Wolf: An Experiment in Ageless Living" by former Greenberg Traurig partner and trial attorney, Paul Lipton, is a wonderful treatment of what it is to live a mindful life--lessons that are readily brought into the study, practice, and teaching of law. Paul's story's, drawn from his personal life, will engage and inspire. Paul is a colleague and friend who has long brought to his law practice a heightened level of integrity and professionalism. This book adds to his already long list of meaningful and important contributions to the legal profession.

Teaching Mindfulness

As mindfulness is making its way into public and private consciousness, it is making its way into public and private institutions. In the legal profession, mindfulness is being shared with lawyers, law professors, law students, and judges. In all of these domains, but especially so with law students, the question arises whether those who teach mindfulness should be qualified to do so--and, if so, what it means to be "qualified."

The Huffington Post recently published "Beyond McMindfulness," which raises this matter, one that was explored at the 2013 Mindfulness in Legal Education Conference (See April 26th post) and has long been a topic of interest to law faculty interested in sharing mindfulness with law students. It becomes an issue of increasing importance as more and more law faculty are exposed to mindfulness or, having been longtime students of mindfulness, are motivated by its popular appeal to infuse it into their curriculum.

A fascinating dynamic and one which animates much of the present day discussion is the relationship between Buddhist teachings of mindfulness and the mindfulness being taught. One influential factor that has posited itself squarely in the midst of this relationship is the neuroscience research that strongly suggests that mindfulness practice can be associated with changes to the structure and function of the brain and that those changes are beneficial in the areas of focus and concentration, as well as areas of wellbeing such as the attenuation of anxiety and relapse of depression. Much remains to be learned in the scientific pursuit of the "active ingredient" of the mindfulness trainings and this area is sure to be fleshed out in the years to come.

An interesting piece of this conversation is the source of a mindfulness teacher's exposure to mindfulness. This is a question that not only may reach into the core of the debate, but also influences the very perspective of those engaged in the conversation. Some have rich backgrounds in Buddhist teachings, been immersed in Buddhist practice for many years, and are a student of a teacher who is part of a traditional lineage. Others have received training in Westernized programs such as Mindfulness Based Stress-Reduction (MBSR), which draws on buddhist teachings but tends away from their explicit inclusion in didactic portions of the trainings as well as in the richness of the experiential practices. And others have been exposed to mindfulness at legal conferences and workshops that increasingly are including mindfulness segments. And still others have been exposed to mindfulness through books, videos and audio recordings which derive from the three above mentioned forms.

As one might imagine, those with a longtime immersion in Buddhist teachings may well carry a special regard and respect for the teachings while those more recently introduced to the subject may have little or no familiarity with these traditional underpinnings. While the scientists exploring the properties associated with mindfulness trainings look to mindfulness experts to help craft and deliver the trainings, these trainings largely filter out contemplative components which, at least in the first instance of inquiry, create more confounds and clarity. And, not surprising, those introduced to the practice of mindfulness through more modern, secular trainings may not know enough of the Buddhist practice to even know how it does or does not factor into a modern training that has integrity.

It does appear that the growing presence of mindfulness trainings in corporate, educational, medical and legal contexts is indebted to its more secular form. Ironically, the growing presence is cause for many with a deep connection to the practice to voice concern over the quality of the teaching--as well as its content.

It will be interesting to observe how all this plays out. Perhaps owing to the heart of the practice itself and the clarity it engenders (as well as for many, wisdom and compassion) its ongoing evolution will assume a handful for forms and formats that allow for its continual blossoming in a manner that alleviates suffering--both to those to whom it is taught to as well as those who endeavor to share it with others.