Philosophy East / West

Exploring Intersections between Educational and Contemplative Practices

Oren Ergas, Sharon Todd, Oren Ergas, Sharon Todd

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781119147336
• eBook ISBN: 9781119147312
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Philosophy History & Theory

Philosophy East/West showcases new scholarship in the philosophy of education and contemplative studies, paying particular attention to the intersection of mindfulness, evidence-based science, and wisdom traditions.

• Moves beyond simplistic explanations of "Eastern" and "Western" to explore the complexity and diversity of various wisdom traditions
• Investigates the effect of mindfulness-based curricular interventions on current educational theory and practice
• Uses insights from important Western philosophers—including Heidegger, Levinas, and Foucault—to situate contemplative practice within contemporary educational theory
• Emphasizes the importance of transcultural and intercultural approaches in the philosophy of education

1
On the Contemporary Applications of Mindfulness: Some Implications for Education

TERRY HYLAND

THE CONCEPT OF MINDFULNESS

Mindfulness has become something of a boom industry over the last few decades, thanks largely to the work of Jon Kabat-Zinn (1990) who developed a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) programme in his work at the Massachusetts Medical School in 1979. Since then the work of Kabat-Zinn and associates (Kabat-Zinn, 2005; Segal, Williams and Teasdale, 2002; Williams et al., 2007; Williams and Kabat-Zinn, 2013) has been responsible for a massive global expansion of interest in mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) in a diverse range of domains including work in schools, prisons, workplaces and hospitals, in addition to wide applications in psychology, psychotherapy, education and medicine. An Internet search on the concept of mindfulness retrieves around 18 million items and, in terms of publications, numbers have grown from one or two per year in 1980 to around 400 per year in 2011 (Williams and Kabat-Zinn, 2013, p. 3; the growth of mindfulness publications has been exponential over the last few years, see American Mindfulness Research Association, https://goamra.org/).

In accounting for this burgeoning interest in the idea of mindfulness we are immediately faced with questions of definition, meaning and interpretation. What is the relationship between the concept of mindfulness which informs Buddhist traditions and that which is utilised in the treatment of addictions and chronic pain sufferers? Moreover, is there a coherent concept which connects mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) programmes—for example, the treatment of cancer sufferers (Bartley, 2012), addiction therapy (Baer, 2006) and care of elderly people in nursing hoems (Langer, 1989)—with the use of mindfulness in education (Hyland, 2011)?

Thich Nhat Hanh (1999)—the renowned Vietnamese Buddhist teacher and campaigner for world peace and justice—describes mindfulness as being ‘at the heart of the Buddha's teachings’. It involves ‘attention to the present moment’ which is ‘inclusive and loving‘ and ‘which accepts everything without judging or reacting’ (p. 64). Kabat-Zinn (1990, 1994) and associates have been largely responsible for transforming the original spiritual notion (i.e. the training of the mind to alleviate suffering in ourselves and others) into a powerful and ubiquitous therapeutic tool based on forms of meditation and mindful practices. Mindfulness simply means ‘paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment and non-judgmentally’ in a way which ‘nurtures greater awareness, clarity, and acceptance of present-moment reality’. Such practice—whether this involves breathing or walking meditation or giving full non-judgmental attention to everyday activities—can offer a ‘powerful route for getting ourselves unstuck, back in touch with our own wisdom and vitality’ (Kabat-Zinn, 1994, pp. 4–5).

Bodhi (2013) explains that the original sati (the Pali word for mindfulness, smirti in Sanskrit) meant memory or recollection as originally interpreted by Rhys Davids the founder of the Pali Text Society in 1910. Another layer of meaning relating to ‘lucid awareness’ using all the senses was added later and this forged the connection between the ‘two primary canonical meanings: as memory and as lucid awareness of present happenings’ (ibid., p. 25).

Bodhi (2013) also points to the role of mindfulness (in addition to being the seventh strand of the path) in integrating other elements of the noble eightfold path, a role which Hanh (1999) also highlights in observing that:

When right mindfulness is present the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path are also present. When we are mindful, our thinking is Right Thinking, our speech is Right Speech, and so on. Right Mindfulness is the energy that brings us back to the present moment (p. 64).

There are, however, two aspects of the secular therapeutic conception of mindfulness—as ‘bare attention’ and non-conceptual, non-judgmental awareness—which require explanation in terms of their difference from Buddhist traditional notions. Buddhist accounts of the awareness involved in sati indicate an awareness which is cognitive, discursive and goes beyond pre-conceptual bare attention to include the ‘perception of the body's repulsiveness, and mindfulness of death’. Moreover, there is ‘little evidence in the Pali canon and its commentaries that mindfulness by its very nature is devoid of conceptualization’ (Bodhi, 2013, p. 28, original italics).

In addition, the work of Dreyfus (2013) on the cognitive dimensions of mindfulness has suggested that the non-judgmental features of the modern mainstream interpretation need to be modified in the light of original Buddhist emphases. Echoing aspects of Bodhi's analysis, Dreyfus contends that the ‘understanding of mindfulness/sati as present-centred non-evaluative awareness is problematic for it reflects only some of the ways in which these original terms are deployed’ (p. 45). Using Buddhagosa's (the 5^th century Indian Buddhist scholar) commentaries, he concludes that:

Mindfulness is then not the present-centred non-judgmental awareness of an object but the paying close attention to an object, leading to the retention of the data so as to make sense of the information delivered by our cognitive apparatus. Thus, far from being limited to the present and to a mere refraining from passing judgment, mindfulness is a cognitive activity closely connected to memory, particularly working memory … (ibid., p. 47).

Although many modern representations of mindfulness in the context of MBSR/MBCT programmes (Williams et al., 2007; Crane, 2009) implicitly contain this additional active dimension of awareness, Dreyfus is concerned to foreground and emphasise the important cognitive features of meditation. Through constant practice such insightful awareness uses evaluation of mental states to ‘gain a deeper understanding of the changing nature of one's bodily and mental states so as to free our mind from the habits and tendencies that bind us to suffering’ (Dreyfus, 2013, p. 51). The crucial importance of developing such deeper insights into the nature of suffering are present in the literature on MBSR/MBCT but, as Teasdale and Chaskalson (2013) argue, they deserve much greater attention.

Gethin (2013) suggests that contemporary secular therapeutic mindfulness approaches could be said to portray a ‘minimalist’ account of the process and that the:

… traditional Buddhist account of mindfulness plays on aspects of remembering, recalling, reminding and presence of mind that can seem underplayed or even lost in the context of MBSR and MBCT (p. 275).

However, notwithstanding the presence of slightly different interpretations of mindfulness between older Buddhist traditions and modern strategies, the vast majority of commentators welcome the extension of mindfulness to therapeutic applications (Williams and Kabat-Zinn, 2013). Indeed, in the context of mindfulness practice in education, health services, psychology and psychotherapy, it could be argued that the new applications represent a dynamic and optimistic new wave of Western dharma comparable to earlier developments in Eastern traditions as the basic teachings travelled out from India to China, Sri Lanka, Tibet and Japan (Batchelor, 2011; Bazzano, 2014). Arguably, the efficacy of mindfulness practices in the historically neglected domain of the education of the emotions—concerned with fostering affective resilience and holistic mind/body wellbeing—in itself provides a powerful justification for the introduction of MBIs into schools and colleges (Siegel, 2007; Hyland, 2011, 2014a).

MINDFULNESS, MORALITY AND FREEDOM

Mindful practices such as breath meditation, walking meditation and mindful movement have been demonstrated to have positive impacts on the behaviour of people of all ages from school to lifelong learning (Burnett, 2011; Langer, 2003; Hyland, 2011). On the basis of fifteen years of utilising mindfulness techniques in American schools and colleges, Schoeberlein and Sheth (2009) argue that:

Mindfulness promotes resilience and enhances social and emotional competence. Mindfulness combined with empathy, kindness and compassion supports constructive action and caring behaviour. Living mindfully begets greater mindfulness. The more you practice, the more mindfulness will infuse your experience of life, work and relationships (p. 178).

The suggestion—in both Buddhist contemplative traditions and modern therapeutic interpretations—is that the practice of mindfulness leads naturally to the moral principles underpinning the noble eightfold path (Keown, 2005). Direct connections are made between the inner clarity that Siegel (2010) calls ‘mindsight’—the ‘focused attention that allows us to see the internal workings of our own minds’ (p. xi)—and the foundations of morality. This is brought out clearly in Kabat-Zinn's (2005) discussion of mindfulness and the moral life. As he suggests, the ‘wholesome mind and body states’ resulting from the practice include:

Generosity, trustworthiness, kindness, empathy, compassion, gratitude, joy in the good fortune of others, inclusiveness, acceptance and equanimity … [which] … are qualities of mind and heart that further the possibilities of well-being and clarity within oneself, to say nothing of the beneficial effects they have in the world. They form the foundation for an ethical and moral life (p. 103).

All this seems both over-simplistic and not quite complete. We feel the same uneasiness here when faced with such notions as the Socratic idea that the truly wise man can never commit evil or that complete faith in God's goodness will guarantee a morally just society. Moreover, what of Aristotle's discussion of akrasia—examined in painstaking detail from a moral education perspective by Straughan (1982)—and the inevitable gap between thoughts, intentions and actions?

Many of these dilemmas have been raised in recent literature in response to Harris’ The Moral Landscape (2010) which posits the idea that moral problems can be solved in just the same way that scientific or other everyday questions are answer...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Series
• Title page
• Copyright
• Notes on Contributors
• Acknowledgement
• Introduction
• 1 On the Contemporary Applications of Mindfulness: Some Implications for Education
• 2 Contemplative Pedagogy and Mindfulness: Developing Creative Attention in an Age of Distraction
• 3 The Deeper Teachings of Mindfulness-Based ‘Interventions’ as a Reconstruction of ‘Education’
• 4 Heidegger East and West: Philosophy as Educative Contemplation
• 5 Experiencing Change, Encountering the Unknown: An Education in ‘Negative Capability’ in Light of Buddhism and Levinas
• 6 Technologies of Self and the Cultivation of Virtues
• 7 Intercultural Philosophy and the Nondual Wisdom of ‘Basic Goodness’: Implications for Contemplative and Transformative Education
• 8 Reuniting Virtue and Knowledge
• 9 Improvisation and Meditation in the Academy: Parallel Ordeals, Insights, and Openings
• Index
• EULA