Essays and Articles
Shinzen likes to publish his ideas in long-form articles and essays, which can be found on his site below:
https://www.shinzen.org/resources/articles/
They go in depth on various topics such as "What is Mindfulness?", "Five Ways to Know Yourself" and "An Outline of Practice", as well as various other specialised interest articles.
What Is Mindfulness?
https://www.shinzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/WhatIsMindfulness_SY_Public_ver1.5.pdf
Shinzen likes to be precise and this article gives an incredibly clear introduction into exactly how he’s using the word “mindfulness”. He defines exactly what he means by the term, what the practice of it is, what it results in, and has some extremely nerdy graphs and diagrams if you’re into that sort of thing!
See Hear Feel: An Introduction
https://www.shinzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/SeeHearFeelIntroduction_ver1.8.pdf
“See, Hear, Feel” is the core of Shinzen’s system, a noting/labelling technique that uses anything in your perceptual experience as its meditation object. This article explains how to do this technique in great detail, and is a great companion to the UM Core training course.
Five Ways to Know Yourself
https://www.shinzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/FiveWaystoKnowYourself_ver1.6.pdf
A meditation manual designed to train a broadly skilled practice by categorising various techniques into 5 categories: thought and emotions, physical senses, tranquility, flow and human goodness. Each category has a combination of practices which seek to hit every corner of your experience, so that you don’t miss the blind spots.
This article includes some historical influences of Basic Mindfulness.
An Introduction to ULTRA: Universal Library for Training Attention
https://www.shinzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/IntroToUltra_ver4.8.pdf
ULTRA is some of Shinzen’s ongoing thinking about how to organise practice, in order to arrange all of the themes of the world’s contemplative traditions into something that can be practically applied in day to day life. It’s a short read with some useful diagrams.
An Outline of Practice
https://www.shinzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/AnOutlineOfPractice_ver2.5.pdf
An Outline of Practice is an excellent one to read if you’re serious about implementing this system, as it breaks down every idea that Shinzen’s had on how to fully utilise life to gain results from practice. It covers ideas such as Microhits, Trigger Practice, Duration Training, Motion Challenge and offers a detailed look at what’s going on over the long-term of a practitioner's life.