JON KABAT-ZINN, 2022

Jon Kabat-Zinn traces his path from a molecular biology PhD at MIT to a chance 1965 talk on Zen that, as he puts it, “took the top off my head,” setting him on a lifelong effort to bridge science and contemplative practice. He describes founding MBSR not as stress management but as an invitation for patients to discover, through direct experience, that “there’s more right with you than wrong with you.” Drawing connections to Shantideva’s Bodhisattva path, he speaks about awareness as boundless and already present, and describes meditation not as a special state to attain but as an ongoing love affair with life itself.