As more Buddhists from the East shared their teachings internationally, the message of mindfulness began to influence more people, especially in the western world.
One of these people was Jon Kabat-Zinn, widely referred to as the father of mindfulness. Jon Kabat-Zinn was working on his Ph. This teacher was Philip Kapleau, who practiced and taught his unique style of Japanese Zen tradition. By , Kabat-Zinn had 13 years of meditation practice history. He was also doing post-doctoral work in cell biology and anatomy. Around this time, he decided to go on a 2-week meditation retreat. When speaking with Psychotherapy Networker, he put it this way:.
Kabat-Zinn started to envision all the different ways we could use meditation to help people suffering from chronic pain and other life-altering health issues. However, Kabat-Zinn had a problem. This was the s and the western world did not have nearly as much information on meditation practices as it does now.
Words such as vinyasa and vipassana were strange to most people. Also, he tried introducing these spiritual practices in hospitals. At the time managed by people who would throw out anything not based on empirical evidence.
With this challenge in mind, Kabat-Zinn decided to present his solution using a scientific approach that would appeal better to his target audience. He also avoided the use of words that could present his practices as Buddhist practices. Kabat-Zinn did not want cultural barriers to stop people from exploring MBSR and the potential benefits they could get from its practices.
Kabat-Zinn said:. With MSBR established, the more modern history of the mindful movement involved teaching teachers. Kabat-Zinn could teach mindfulness while researching and collecting the data he would need to convince more people. The basic techniques taught at MSBR are mindfulness meditation, body scanning, and yoga postures.
The program takes 8 weeks. This is one of the many reasons why mindfulness saw significant growth in America and other Western countries. His work created new teachers, who in turn, went to teach in their medical centers, schools, workplaces, and more. MBSR was helping patients through physical, mental, and emotional health issues.
Patients were reporting that they were less anxious, were more relaxed, and could sleep better. One doctor told Kabat-Zinn: "You did more for my patient in eight weeks than I've been able to do in eight years". Since , over 24, people have completed the 8-week MBSR program.
Some of these people have gone ahead to become teachers and instructors, passing along the practice. Others too contributed to the rise of the mindful movement. One of which was Harvard cardiologist, Herbert Benson. He spoke about eastern meditation practices and concepts. But, like Kabat-Zinn, he tried to bridge the cultural divide using western adaptation.
As this practise has grown in the Western world, the religious aspect has often been reduced, and is now often used without the explicit religious component. This shift has made yoga more accessible in society. Tai Chi is another Eastern practise involving mindfulness which is gaining popularity in western society. There has been an upsurge in mindfulness options as well as ways to practise yoga at home, with the development of better, more accessible technology, and the creation of apps and websites such as YouTube.
This is not to say none are effective. Mindfulness in an ancient practice gaining popularity in the modern world, during a time when many individuals struggle to be in the moment, with increased availability of classes and technological improvements, apps and videos.
In their teachings, articles, and books, Kornfield, Goldstein, and Salzburg deliberately downplayed elements of chanting, ceremony, and cosmology, noted Wilson Instead, they focused on meditation and mindfulness, integrating elements of Western psychology and psychotherapy.
The second main force in the rise of mindfulness was the Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh. Exiled from Vietnam, he gained prominence as a speaker and activist against the war during the s. By the mids, he shifted to focus on the promotion of mindfulness and meditation, publishing the Miracle of Mindfulness and more than subsequent books. Yet the most influential figure in the acceptance of mindfulness as a secular and scientific practice has been Jon Kabat-Zinn.
He went on to study at the Providence Zen Center, at the Insight Meditation Center, and with Thich Nhat Hanh, drawing on these and other traditions to inform his own approach to teaching mindfulness.
Participants, who usually numbered between thirty-five and forty per course, were assigned guided meditation recordings to use at home for forty-five minutes each day for the duration of the course. Just as important, the course was able to be offered across clinical and institutional settings.
Instructors, many with advanced degrees in the mental health professions, were required to complete an intensive certification process and to keep their training up to date. With the practice of meditation transformed into a clinical intervention, the effects on a range of mental, physical, and behavioral outcomes could be evaluated and published in the peer-reviewed literature.
By promoting mindfulness, meditation could help patients manage the suffering associated with illness, reasoned Kabat-Zinn, by enabling them to be more accepting of their experience, which in turn would lessen pain, anxiety, and depression.
Most would still need traditional medical treatment, but meditation could help speed the recovery process and prepare them to successfully navigate future experiences and decisions Harrington and Dunne Kabat-Zinn had transformed meditation from a practice rooted in Buddhism to that of a scientifically based form of health promotion.
The technique itself is based directly on the historical teachings of the Buddha who presumably used the technique to attain nirvana i. And according to those teachings, mindfulness is one of two key qualities that are developed when doing vipassana meditation with concentration being the other quality. The connection between mindfulness and Buddhism is clearest, however, in the ancient text known as the Satipatthana Sutta ; translated into English as The Discourse on the Establishing of Mindfulness the word sati means mindfulness.
Therein, the Buddha lays out the first-ever set of mindfulness instructions, guiding the practitioner to place careful attention on four different aspects — or foundations — of experience:. It is important to remember that modern mindfulness practices are often taught secularly — that is, with little or no mention of their Buddhist connections.
Mindfulness practice is often described as a form of mental training as a result, and this can be a helpful and accurate way to understand it. But, there is a wealth of knowledge and insight concealed in its Buddhist roots and I would encourage mindfulness practitioners to explore them too. The renowned social psychologist Jonathan Haidt put it well: "The Dhammapada [a collection of the Buddha's teachings] is one of the greatest psychological works ever written, and certainly one of the greatest before It is masterful in its understanding of the nature of consciousness, and in particular the way we are always striving and never satisfied.
You can turn to it — and people have turned to it throughout the ages — at times of trouble, at times of disappointment, at times of loss, and it takes you out of yourself. It shows you that your problems, your feelings, are just timeless manifestations of the human condition.
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