Since the origins of these four volumes go back a long way, there are a number of people to whom I wish to express my gratitude and indebtedness for their many contributions at various stages of the writing and publishing of these books.
For the initial volume, published in 2005, I would like to thank my dharma brother, Larry Rosenberg of the Cambridge Insight Meditation Center, as well as Larry Horwitz, and my father-in-law, the late Howard Zinn, for reading the entire manuscript back in the day and sharing their keen and creative insights with me. My thanks as well to Alan Wallace, Arthur Zajonc, Doug Tanner, and Richard Davidson and to Will Kabat-Zinn and Myla Kabat-Zinn for reading portions of the manuscript and giving me their wise council and feedback. I also thank the original publisher, Bob Miller, and the original editor, Will Schwalbe, now both at Flatiron Books, for their support and friendship, then and now.
Deep and special appreciation, gratitude, and indebtedness to my editor of the first volume, Michelle Howry, executive editor at Hachette Books, who helped midwife the form of the entire series; to Lauren Hummel for her key contributions to making sure all went well, and skillfully keeping all of the moving parts of this project on track; and to the entire Hachette team that worked so cooperatively and effectively on this series. Also, deep appreciation to Mauro DiPreta, vice president and publisher of Hachette Books, who stepped in to edit the last three volumes when Michelle moved on.
While I have received support, encouragement, and advice from many, of course any inaccuracies or shortcomings in the text are entirely my own.
I wish to express enduring gratitude and respect to all my teaching colleagues, past and present in the Stress Reduction Clinic and the Center for Mindfulness and, more recently, also to those teachers and researchers who are part of the CFM’s global network of affiliate institutions. All have literally and metaphorically dedicated their lives and their passion to this work. At the time of the original book, those who had taught MBSR in the Stress Reduction Clinic for varying periods of time from 1979 to 2005 were Saki Santorelli, Melissa Blacker, Florence Meleo-Meyer, Elana Rosenbaum, Ferris Buck Urbanowski, Pamela Erdmann, Fernando de Torrijos, James Carmody, Danielle Levi Alvares, George Mumford, Diana Kamila, Peggy Roggenbuck-Gillespie, Debbie Beck, Zayda Vallejo, Barbara Stone, Trudy Goodman, Meg Chang, Larry Rosenberg, Kasey Carmichael, Franz Moekel, the late Ulli Kesper-Grossman, Maddy Klein, Ann Soulet, Joseph Koppel, the late Karen Ryder, Anna Klegon, Larry Pelz, Adi Bemak, Paul Galvin, and David Spound.
In 2018, my admiration and gratitude go to the current teachers in the Center for Mindfulness and its affiliate programs: Florence Meleo-Meyers, Lynn Koerbel, Elana Rosenbaum, Carolyn West, Bob Stahl, Meg Chang, Zayda Vallejo, Brenda Fingold, Dianne Horgan, Judson Brewer, Margaret Fletcher, Patti Holland, Rebecca Eldridge, Ted Meissner, Anne Twohig, Ana Arrabe, Beth Mulligan, Bonita Jones, Carola Garcia, Gustavo Diex, Beatriz Rodriguez, Melissa Tefft, Janet Solyntjes, Rob Smith, Jacob Piet, Claude Maskens, Charlotte Borch-Jacobsen, Christiane Wolf, Kate Mitcheom, Bob Linscott, Laurence Magro, Jim Colosi, Julie Nason, Lone Overby Fjorback, Dawn MacDonald, Leslie Smith Frank, Ruth Folchman, Colleen Camenisch, Robin Boudette, Eowyn Ahlstrom, Erin Woo, Franco Cuccio, Geneviève Hamelet, Gwenola Herbette, and Ruth Whitall. Florence Meleo-Meyer and Lynn Koerbel have been outstanding leaders and nurturers of the global network of MBSR teachers at the CFM.
Profound appreciation to all those who contributed so critically in so many different ways to the administration of the MBSR Clinic and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society and to their various research and clinical endeavors from the very beginning: Norma Rosiello, Kathy Brady, Brian Tucker, Anne Skillings, Tim Light, Jean Baril, Leslie Lynch, Carol Lewis, Leigh Emery, Rafaela Morales, Roberta Lewis, Jen Gigliotti, Sylvia Ciario, Betty Flodin, Diane Spinney, Carol Hester, Carol Mento, Olivia Hobletzell, the late Narina Hendry, Marlene Samuelson, Janet Parks, Michael Bratt, Marc Cohen, and Ellen Wingard; and in the current era, building on a robust platform developed under the leadership of Saki Santorelli over seventeen years, I extend my gratitude to the current leadership of Judson Brewer, Dianne Horgan, Florence Meleo-Meyer, and Lynn Koerbel, with amazing support from Jean Baril, Jacqueline Clark, Tony Maciag, Ted Meissner, Jessica Novia, Maureen Titus, Beverly Walton, Ashley Gladden, Lynne Littizzio, Nicole Rocijewicz, and Jean Welker. And a deep bow to Judson Brewer, MD, PhD, who became, in 2017, the founding director of the Division of Mindfulness in the Department of Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School—the first division of mindfulness in a medical school in the world, and very much a sign of the times and of the promise of things to come.
On the research side of the CFM in 2018, robust appreciation for the breadth and depth of your work and contributions: Judson Brewer, Remko van Lutterveld, Prasanta Pal, Michael Datko, Andrea Ruf, Susan Druker, Ariel Beccia, Alexandra Roy, Hanif Benoit, Danny Theisen, and Carolyn Neal.
Finally, I would also like to express my gratitude and respect for the thousands of people everywhere around the world who work in or are researching mindfulness-based approaches in medicine, psychiatry, psychology, health care, education, the law, social justice, refugee healing in the face of trauma and sometimes genocide (as in South Darfur), childbirth and parenting, the workplace, government, prisons, and other facets of society, and who take care to honor the dharma in its universal depth and beauty in doing so. You know who you are, whether you are named here or not! And if you are not, it is only due to my own shortcomings and the limits of space. I want to explicitly honor the work of Paula Andrea Ramirez Diazgranados in Columbia and South Darfur; Hui Qi Tong in the U.S. and China; Kevin Fong, Roy Te Chung Chen, Tzungkuen Wen, Helen Ma, Jin Mei Hu, and Shih Shih Ming in China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong; Heyoung Ahn in Korea; Junko Bickel and Teruro Shiina in Japan; Leena Pennenen in Finland; Simon Whitesman and Linda Kantor in South Africa; Claude Maskens, Gwénola Herbette, Edel Max, Caroline Lesire, and Ilios Kotsou in Belgium; Jean-Gérard Bloch, Geneviève Hamelet, Marie-Ange Pratili, and Charlotte Borch-Jacobsen in France; Katherine Bonus, Trish Magyari, Erica Sibinga, David Kearney, Kurt Hoelting, Carolyn McManus, Mike Brumage, Maureen Strafford, Amy Gross, Rhonda Magee, George Mumford, Carl Fulwiler, Maria Kluge, Mick Krasner, Trish Luck, Bernice Todres, Ron Epstein, and Representative Tim Ryan in the U.S.: Paul Grossman, Maria Kluge, Sylvia Wiesman-Fiscalini, Linda Hehrhaupt, and Petra Meibert in Germany; Joke Hellemans, Johan Tinge, and Anna Speckens in Holland; Beatrice Heller and Regula Saner in Switzerland; Rebecca Crane, Willem Kuyken, John Teasdale, Mark Williams, Chris Cullen, Richard Burnett, Jamie Bristow, Trish Bartley, Stewart Mercer, Chris Ruane, Richard Layard, Guiaume Hung, and Ahn Nguyen in the UK; Zindel Segal and Norm Farb in Canada; Gabor Fasekas in Hungary; Macchi dela Vega in Argentina; Johan Bergstad, Anita Olsson, Angeli Holmstedt; Ola Schenström, and Camilla Sköld in Sweden; Andries Kroese in Norway; Jakob Piet and Lone Overby Fjorback in Denmark; and Franco Cuccio in Italy. May your work continue to reach those who are most in need of it, touching, clarifying, and nurturing what is deepest and best in us all, and thus contributing, in ways little and big to the healing and transformation that humanity so sorely longs for and aspires to.