I have attended two Rocky Mountain Retreat programs in the recent past and found the group to be among the most inspired and kind and the event to be rich and transformative. The cost is extremely reasonable. Click here to learn more. Contact Nan Waller Burnett: Nan@disputepro.com or Terri Harrington th@hbc-law.net if you have any questions.
Mindful Law Blog
Wednesday, March 4, 2015
A Very Special Program: 9th Annual Rocky Mountain Retreat July 10-12, 2015
The Association of Conflict Resolution's Spiritualty Section offers an absolutely wonderful program at the The Franciscan Retreat Center in beautiful Colorado Springs, Colorado. This year's event take place July 10-12. The Keynote speaker is David Hoffman who will be joined by two dear friends and extraordinary people, Erica Ariel Fox and Rachel Wohl.
Thursday, February 19, 2015
Attorney and President of Warrior One, Judi Cohen, has written an important article on mindfulness and the law. In "Living (Happily) Surrounded by Conflict - Why the Mindfulness Revolution is Essential for Lawyers," she offers an extremely thoughtful introduction to mindfulness and provides a profoundly relevant and insightful application of the practice of mindfulness to the work of lawyering and the life of the lawyer. The article was published in PD Quarterly and can be found here.
Monday, July 28, 2014
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 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.
Tuesday, July 15, 2014
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.
Friday, November 29, 2013
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
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
Friday, November 8, 2013
"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.
Thursday, September 12, 2013
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.
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