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This edition focuses on the topic of Mindfulness.
This is a hot topic in today’s world with many interpretations
of the word. Working within the NHS and teaching mindfulness-based
approaches in healthcare, I bear witness to many interpretations
which demonstrate an incomplete understanding of the term ‘mindfulness.’
There exists an incomplete understanding, often based on the developments
within mainstream medicine and psychological services over the past
30 years.
To illustrate, one individual who is studying a PhD in Clinical
Psychology told me a while ago that mindfulness all started 30 years
ago in America. Just in case you didn’t know that, I thought
it might be a useful addition here within this dharma mag to clear
that up once and for all! Those individuals who introduced mindfulness
to medicine in USA, Dr. John Kabat Zinn, and many other colleagues,
have diligently recognised the roots of dharma within the mindfulness-based
stress reduction [MBSR] programme. Mostly dharma practitioners,
they point clearly to the roots of Buddhist teachings and skilfully
shape them in a way that people who have never been exposed to the
teachings may begin to receive dharma. More that 250 US hospitals
now offer this 8 week programme to patients attending medical services.
John Teasdale, Mark Williams and Zindel Segal, the three professors
of clinical psychology, adapted this 8 week programme slightly to
include cognitive behaviour therapy in the attempt to create a solution
to relapsing depressive illness. This model is known as mindfulness-based
cognitive therapy [MBCT] which also recognises the teachings of
the Buddha at its heart. There is currently a lobby headed by the
Mental Health Foundation in UK to roll out mindfulness training
within the NHS. I have heard it said by many dharma teachers and
senior students that the dharma survives because of its capacity
to evolve. Within the Zen tradition, this is no problem since everything
is Buddha.
Never, has the ground been more fertile for seeds of dharma. Never
has there been more need for dharma students to be creative and
generous, integrating the practice of the bodhisattva vows into
modern services for health, education and social reform in the service
of liberation.
Training in these mindfulness–based traditions are headed
in UK by Oxford, Bangor and Exeter Universities.
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