Mark Tully meditates on the art of being still, and the benefits of quiet contemplation, as medical science borrows from the practices of religious traditions.
He talks to Mark Williams, Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Oxford who teaches ‘Mindfulness’ techniques and whose research has shown that daily meditation can reduce the occurrence of severe depression at least as much as anti-depressants do.
Featuring music by Edward Elgar, Arvo Part and Jules Massenet, and words by Rainer Maria Rilke and Octavio Paz, this programme looks at how regular contemplative sessions can enrich our lives in an increasingly busy world. For some it is a way of experiencing God, for others a means of coming to terms with their own failures, and for many it can produce profound changes in their lives.
You can listen to the programme by clicking on the following link BBC Radio 4 – Something Understood – Mindfulness
The programme last 30 minutes. It’s available only until Monday 23rd April. I hope you enjoy it.
Another great signpost James! What a lovely programme with some gorgeous music. Thank goodness there’s a detailed listing of the music and readings as I would love to listen to some of that music for longer. But oops, is there a danger that I am spending too much time listening/reading/watching and not enough time with the practices!
I agree Sarah, how wonderful was that? Peaceful, informative and erudite sprinkled with sumptuous music – an excellent and beautifully composed bit of programming – well done Mark Williams, Mark Tully & Radio 4
Extraordinary programme, with subtle links throughout. It has made me embark on a hopeful and long overdue journey into meditation. Readings were fascinating and interesting to link in music and verse too. Loved it. Thank you!
Thank you Katie and a very warm welcome to the Embrace Mindfulness blog. There are lots of resources on this website to help you on that ‘long overdue’ journey and please do contact me directly if you wish to have a chat about next steps in person.
I agree with you on the Radio 4 programme, just to listen to it was a deeply enriching and meditative experience in its own right.
This has been one of the most wonderful, encouraging,beautiful programms. I have listened 5 times. Now to put it into practice.
Hello Elizabeth and welcome to the Embrace blog – yes indeed putting it into practice. For me it’s about finding the balance between intention (making the time to meditate rather than trying to find the time) and non-striving.(not looking for a particular result but being open to whatever arises in my experience) Of course this is much easier said than done!
I saw this programme was recommended and was hoping to listen to it on Iplayer but am just too late – the website says it is no longer available (by a few minutes!) Is there some other way I can hear the programme?
Hi Marie, i’ll make some enquiries, but I suspect that you may have missed the opportunity as the programme is rights protected. If I can get hold of a copy for you I will let you know.
Thanks James, much appreciated.
hi, i too missed it just today! :( if anyone has a recording please let me know
Hi Kaj, I was hoping to download this program but it is too late. I wonder if you got a recording and if so is it possible for me to get a copy from you? Please could you email me? Thanks
Hi Vanessa,
We have tried to get hold of copies to no avail (see above on the thread for further info).
Best wishes, James
What a beautiful programme. What a shame we cannot hear it again. I listened twice and would just love to have a copy if that is possible. Such inspiring readings and music.
Will there ever be a repeat ?
Mary
I often listen in to Something Understood. Unfortunately i didn’t catch all of this particular programme, but what I did hear impressed me greatly. I’d really like to see it available on the archive, as I take part in group sessions of Chan meditation and much of what was said would prove very useful for practicioners new and established to refer to on a regular basis.
hello there! Like others, I finally found the time today to click on the link which a pal forwarded, to discover the listen back had elapsed!!! Ha ha! Have I really been too busy to listen to this programme ??… A posting up of the programme seems vital!….In hope.
Dear All
I have phoned BBC information and as feared the programme is no longer available online due to rights restrictions.
Next step is to write to ‘Something Understood’ programme makers at BBC broadcasting house and also to Mark Williams at the Oxford Mindfulness Centre.
We can but try.
Here’s the response from the Oxford Mindfulness Centre following my enquiry about getting hold of the programme
Oxford Mindfulness Centre
University Dept of Psychiatry (POWIC)
Warneford Hospital
OXFORD
OX3 7JX
Tel: 01865 613141
Fax: 01865 613160
http://www.oxfordmindfulness.org
Sounds like you’ve tried every avenue James, but I’ve also emailed the company who produced the programme, ‘Unique’, to see if there might be some way of accessing it. Will let you know the response.
No joy there either, I’m afraid. Copyright restrictions prohibit further distribution. :(
Sarah, thank you so much for writing to Unique Productions and for sending me the factsheet of the programme.
I have taken the liberty of posting it here, in case anyone wants to trace or get hold any of the music or readings used in the programme.
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Something Understood
Information Sheet
Sunday 15 April 2012
Mindfulness
Thank you for your letter or telephone enquiry regarding Something Understood, for which we are the independent producers. We are sorry that neither the programme’s presenter nor the producer can reply to you personally, but the volume of mail we receive makes this impossible. We hope that this information sheet answers any specific query that you may have regarding content of this programme.
Unfortunately, we are unable to make the programmes available on CD. Copyright laws forbid us from making a commercial copy of any music, prose or poetry that is still in copyright or photocopies of any of the material used in the programme. The programmes are not always produced from a typed script and therefore we cannot generally make a script available for distribution. However, you may like to know that the ‘Something Understood’ anthology collection, introduced by Mark Tully has been published by Hodder and Stoughton and is available in bookshops priced £6.99.
Thank you for listening to Something Understood and for your feedback. We hope you continue to listen to and enjoy the programme. Something Understood is broadcast weekly at 6.05am on Sunday mornings, and repeated at 11.30pm the same day.
Finally please find below a running order for the programme in which you have expressed interest. We have tried to provide as much detail as possible about the music and prose featured:
Today’s programme was presented by Sir Mark Tully.
The readers were Emily Raymond and David Holt.
The producer was Adam Fowler.
Readings and Music
Composer: Sir Edward Elgar
Performer: St Paul’s Cathedral Choir/John Scott
Title: Psalm 1
Album: Psalms From St Pauls
Label: Hyperion Records Limited
Catalogue: CDP110011
Composer: Lasse Thoresen
Performer: Nordic Voices
Title: Forfrisk og gled min
Album: Himmelkvad
Label: 2L
Catalogue: W 278358
Composer: Morton Feldman
Performer: University of California Berkeley Chamber Chorus
Title: Rothko Chapel
Album: Rothko Chapel, Why Patterns?
Label: New Albion
Catalogue: na039cd
Composer: Arvo Part
Performer: Tamsin Little, Martin Roscoe, Bournemouth Sinfoniette, Richard Studt
Title: Spiegel im Spiegel
Album: Arvo Part: Fratres, Etc
Label: EMI
Catalogue: 7243 5 73117 2 4
Composer: Octavio Paz
Performer: Eric Whitacre
Title: Water Night
Album: Cloudburst and Other Choral Works/Whitacre
Label: Hyperion
Catalogue: CDA67543
Composer: Stephen Paulus
Performer: The Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge
Title: Hymn to the Eternal Flame from the Oratorio
Album: Beyond All Mortal Dreams: American A Cappella/Layton
Label: Hyperion
Catalogue: CDA67832
Composer: Jules Massenet
Performer: London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Vilem Tausky
Title: Meditation From Thais
Album: Music You Have Loved
Label: Radiant Mastery
Catalogue: PCD 839
Title: La Vie Profunde
Author: Edmond Gore Alexander Holmes
Publisher: Constable, 1912
ISBN-10: out of print
Title: Gravity’s Law – Book of Hours
Author: Rainer Maria Rilke
Publisher: Riverhead Trade (November 1, 2005)
ISBN-10: 1594481563
Title: Guarding Alertness – A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, c 700 AD in Sanskirt verse
Author: Shantideva
Publisher: Snow Lion Publications; 6th Revised edition edition (1 Dec 1992)
ISBN-10: 8185102597
Title: The Art of Meditation
Author: Matthieu Ricard
Publisher: Atlantic Books (1 Jan 2010)
ISBN-10: 1848870752
Something Understood is a Unique production for BBC Radio 4.
Very interesting and entertaining listening, but I have looked through everything on this page and can find no mention of the Vaughn Williams piece that was played in the programme. Can you please tell me what it was? as I would love to hear the whole thing if only I knew what it was!
Thank you
Pamela
Hi Pamela,
Thank you for your comment on my blog. This post refers directly to a Something Understood programme on Mindfulness aired earlier in the year. For info on the most recent programme broadcast yesterday (28.10.12) please go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01nk244
Kind regards
James @ Embrace Mindfulness
I couldn’t resist commenting, in a very good-humoured frame of mind, on the irony of your advocacy, James, for “non-striving.(not looking for a particular result but being open to whatever arises in my experience)” made in reply to Elizabeth on 23rd April, followed closely by your brave yet earnest efforts to obtain access to a radio programme that some of your correspondents missed. Call me a purist, but is that not …..striving?
I’ll just put my smiley face :-) so everyone knows I’m not being grumpy.
Hi Karen and welcome to the Embrace Blog. Your good natured question is a fine one and has given me pause to reflect; I think it is fair to say that there was an element of striving present in my efforts to procure that radio programme. Having said that, the energy and effort put into that task was a conscious one. The striving of which I speak in meditation practice has a different quality perhaps and stems from the unconscious and habitual nature within all of us to control our experience and have it a certain way. This constriction or need to have ‘all our ducks in row’ is something that we try to loosen within mindfulness based approaches, thereby creating more space for people to work with and approach the difficulties in their lives in a slightly different way.
There is a shorter answer of course which is less good natured and more pithy – ‘don’t do as I do, do as I say!’ – smiley face :-)
Very best,
James
This programme always leaves me feeling disappointed and sad. I have no problem with the music which is often very good, but, in its thinking, it is a wasted opportunity. Instead of exploring grounding principles of ethics and morality, it offers us platitudes. Why can it not enter into a deeper thinking? It reduced ethics to nothing more than gossip and empty talk based on the feeling and ungrounded assertion. Please do not dumb down any further or you are in danger of becoming an ethical One Show.