The character arc of Jon Kabat-Zinn
A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record
Born on 5 June 1944 in New York City, the eldest of three children of a biomedical scientist and a painter. Between then and now sit a degree at Haverford, a doctorate in molecular biology at MIT in 1971 under a Nobel laureate, a talk given on campus by a Zen teacher, years of study with Buddhist teachers, a clinic founded inside a teaching hospital in 1979, an eight week course built by stripping a religious practice down to what a hospital could use, a book in 1991, and a practice now taught in medical centres worldwide. The line below draws the story so far, in order.
Drag along the line to move, pinch or use the buttons to look closer. Tap the line to pluck it, or any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of his life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who is Jon Kabat-Zinn?
He took the religion out of it, so a hospital could use it.
He was born in New York, the eldest of three, to a biomedical scientist and a painter, which is roughly the two halves of what he went on to do. He graduated from Haverford in 1964 and took a doctorate in molecular biology at MIT in 1971, studying under Salvador Luria, a Nobel laureate in medicine.
While he was there, a Zen teacher called Philip Kapleau came to speak at MIT. That talk was his first introduction to meditation. He went on to study with other Buddhist teachers, practised hatha yoga and Vipassana, read Soto Zen and Advaita Vedanta, studied at the Insight Meditation Society and eventually taught there. He has said that in those years he was working out what he called his karmic assignment, which is a young scientist's way of asking what his life was for.
The answer, in 1979, was a room in a hospital. He founded the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and built a programme out of what he had learned. Then he did the thing that made it spread: he took the religion out. He removed the spiritual goals and the connection to Buddhism and put the practice in a scientific frame, as an eight week structured course, for patients whose pain and illness the hospital could not fix. He called it Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction.
He wrote it down in 1991 in Full Catastrophe Living, with detailed instructions so that anybody could run it. A television documentary followed in 1993. The course is now offered by medical centres, hospitals and health organisations around the world, and the secular yoga and meditation practice he shaped has spread with it.
The moments
Jon Kabat-Zinn's timeline.
The 1960s
Haverford, then MIT
Milestone. A scientist for a father, a painter for a mother, and both showed up later.
A Zen teacher visits MIT
Milestone, and it changed everything. One visiting speaker on a campus, and the whole life turned.
The 1970s
A doctorate under a Nobel laureate
Milestone, and it changed his direction. Hard science, at the hardest school, under a Nobel laureate.
His karmic assignment
Everyday, and it changed his direction. A young scientist asking what the whole thing was for.
He learns, then he teaches
Milestone, and it changed his direction. Years of practice before he ever tried to teach anybody.
Stay in the laboratory
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: put meditation in a hospital, taken, or stay in molecular biology. The eight week course he built is now taught in medical centres and hospitals around the world.
The Stress Reduction Clinic
Milestone, and it changed everything. A meditation clinic, inside a teaching hospital, in 1979.
The 1980s
He takes the religion out
Milestone, and it changed everything. He stripped out everything a hospital could not sign off, and it spread.
The 1990s
Full Catastrophe Living
Milestone, and it changed everything. He wrote down the whole course so anybody could run it.
On television
Milestone, and it changed his direction. A camera in the clinic, and the queue got longer.
A centre, not a clinic
Milestone, and it changed his direction. One clinic became a centre, and then it was everywhere.
The eight weeks still run, in hospitals on every continent, mostly taught by people who do not know his name. What it has set moving is a chair in a clinic where somebody in chronic pain is being offered attention instead of another prescription, because a molecular biologist thought a two thousand year old practice deserved a trial.
Your turn
Every line draws a unique story.
His turned on a talk somebody else gave, that he happened to walk into. Yours is already further along than you think, and drawing it takes about five minutes.
Jon Kabat-Zinn: frequently asked questions
What people ask about his line.
What is Jon Kabat-Zinn's character arc?
What did Jon Kabat-Zinn create?
Why did Jon Kabat-Zinn remove Buddhism from mindfulness?
What did Jon Kabat-Zinn study?
What is Jon Kabat-Zinn's book about?
Who taught Jon Kabat-Zinn to meditate?
Where does this timeline of Jon Kabat-Zinn's life come from?
More character arcs
Lives that rhyme with his.
Sources
- Jon Kabat-Zinn, English Wikipedia biography, filed under living people.
- University of Massachusetts Medical School records for the Stress Reduction Clinic, founded 1979, and the Center for Mindfulness.
- His own 1991 book, as summarised there, for the structure of the eight week course.
- His student campaigning is deliberately left off this page.