Mindfulness in Blue Jeans

Mindfulness in Blue Jeans is the guided meditation teaching of Ron Levine, based in the Boston area. It is built around anapanasati (mindfulness of breathing) and vipassana (mindfulness-based insight meditation), offered to busy people with scattered minds. The tagline says it plainly: enlightenment doesn't care if you're wearing yoga pants.

Ron's own path into the practice began in early 1998. After earning an honors degree in Social Psychology while denying his own trauma for eight years, his life fell apart in anxiety, depression, panic disorder and agoraphobia. He couldn't leave the house or go to work. Anapanasati and vipassana became the basis of a recovery built on daily practice, on and off the cushion. He also studies the practical philosophy of Theravada Buddhism, keeping his book learning to what informs real, living practice.

His backgrounds in psychology, information technology and yoga shape a grounded, methodical, results-based approach. He has developed the MINDFUL Spiral of Growth, a seven-stage framework of Meditation, Insight, Non-attachment, Discernment, Form, Understanding and Living, which unfolds with sustained practice. Each stage leads to the next while also informing the others.

Ron writes about vipassana and mindfulness on his blog, with a plain-spoken, humorous voice. He describes meditation as "not for the chosen few with limber bodies, quiet minds, and serene faces" but as a living, breathing practice that can change anyone's life. Students describe him as someone who brings mindfulness concepts down to earth and who speaks openly about his own struggles with fear and anxiety. His website notes a Best of Waltham recognition in 2018.