Frank Jude Boccio (born 1956[1]) is a teacher and the originator of Mindfulness Yoga as he distinguishes his approach, based upon the Buddha's teaching ofsatipatthana, from Mindful Yoga, which simply emphasizes doing postures mindfully. He explains the difference in hisblog where he writes "In mindful yoga, one is practicing asana mindfully; in Mindfulness Yoga one is practicing mindfulness in the posture." He is known both for his teaching in centres across America, and for his 2004 bookMindfulness Yoga: The Awakened Union of Breath, Body and Mind, which describes a practice that combinesyoga as exercise andBuddhist meditational practice.
Frank Jude Boccio began practisingBuddhism in New York at the age of 18. He read Buddhist Studies at theUniversity of Sunderland, obtaining a graduate-level diploma but deciding not to write a thesis and hence obtain an M.A. In 1989, he began a period of study under Lyn Fine and Patricia Hunt-Perry in the tradition ofThich Nhat Hanh; in 1997 he was ordained into theTiep Hien order. He then studied underSamu Sunim, who ordained him as a dharma teacher in 2007.[2]
He studied a variety of styles ofmodern yoga includingIyengar,Anusara,Ashtanga,Integral andKundalini. He is a certified preventive and rehabilitative yoga teacher and therapist via the Bateman Institute.Georg Feuerstein has certified him for the Yoga Research and Education Center's 750-hour teacher training program.[2]
Boccio founded the Empty Mountain Sangha and the peer-led Tucson Mindfulness Practice Community.[2] He teaches, lectures, and gives workshops and retreats in the Americas and Asia on Mindfulness Yoga integratingmodern yoga and Buddhistvipassana mindfulness,[2] at centres includingKripalu.[3]
He has written articles for magazines includingTricycle,[4]Yoga Journal,[5]Shambhala Sun,[6]Spring Wind,Namaskar,Elephant Journal,[7] andExperience Life.[2] He is the author of the 2004 bookMindfulness Yoga: The Awakened Union of Breath, Body and Mind which integrates Buddhism'sFour Foundations of Mindfulness (Satipatthana) with the practice of yogaasanas,[8] and chapters in various anthologies on the connection of yoga and Buddhism.[2][9]
Phil Catalfo, reviewingMindfulness Yoga forYoga Journal, wrote that it was not surprising that many yoga practitioners also studied Buddhist practice, as the traditions have common roots, but that Boccio's was the first "successful book-length discourse" that properly integrated the practices. In Catalfo's view, Boccio shows that Buddhist practice "is itself a form of yoga, presenting a meditational approach to asana practice".[10] He writes that the book consists mainly of four sequences, each of some dozens of "familiar poses": "Body as Body"; "Feelings as Feelings"; "Mindfully Aware"; and "Dharmas in the Dharmas", the headings intentionally reflecting theAnapanasati Sutta which combinesmindful breathing with the direction of the attention to these four areas.[10]
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The yoga and meditation teacher and authorAnne Cushman, reviewing the book forTricycle: The Buddhist Review, noted that "Sneaking Hatha Yoga into a Buddhist practice used to be a guilty pleasure, like nibbling a secret stash of chocolate during a meditation retreat."[11] Obstacles to combining them included Buddhist masters' warnings thathatha yoga's focus on the body encouraged a dangerous obsession with something that inevitably decayed, while modern yoga's energetic workoutsdid not look like serious spiritual practice. However, in the 21st century, hatha yoga is, she writes, regularly forming "an integral part of the schedule at Vipassana, Zen, and Tibetan Buddhist retreats". Cushman writes that Boccio "solidly locates hatha yoga practice in Buddhist history and philosophy, emphasizing the mindfulness techniques laid out in theAnapanasati Sutta andSatipatthana Sutta".[11] She calls the book "the most erudite" and "the most philosophically comprehensive" of the three works on the topic that she reviews, tracing the origins of yoga to the life story of the Buddha, "himself a wandering yogi" in India. The book then provides a "dense but readable summary" of the core teachings of Buddhism andPatanjali'sYoga Sutras, before offering four complete, illustrated, meditational asana sequences, paying attention both to the physical postures and to their lessons "about the deepest truths in our lives".[11]
TheKripalu Center for Yoga & Health called Boccio's book "the first to apply the Buddha's mindfulness meditation teachings to asana practice".[3]
Publishers Weekly described the thesis ofMindfulness Yoga as "both novel and logical", since Buddhism "grew from Hindu-yoga roots", while modern yoga, especially the American kind, needed "greater appreciation of its spiritual significance." The review noted Boccio's debt to the Vietnamese Zen monkThich Nhat Hanh (who wrote the Foreword). It found the four sequences of asanas in the book somewhat hard to follow, making the book more suitable for established practitioners.[12]
In 2008, Nora Isaacs noted inYoga Journal that Boccio and others such asJanice Gates,Cyndi Lee,Phillip Moffitt, andSarah Powers, had "each, independently, discovered the benefits of merging mindfulness with asana", leading to "something we might call 'mindful yoga'."[13]
Boccio has two daughters, one 36 years older than the other, and lives inTucson, Arizona.[2]
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