Buddhist traditions explain what constitutes mindfulness such as how past, present and future moments arise and cease as momentary sense impressions and mental phenomena.
To the West mindfulness landed in the early 30ties thanks to people like Thích Nhất Hạnh, monk and peace activist, Jon Kabat-Zinn, an American professor and creator of the MBSR technique, and Richard J. Davidson, professor of psychology and psychiatry. The eastern traditions were adapted to the western culture as different kinds of healing treatments and therapeutic activities.
Nowadays the word “mindfulness” can often be spotted from any health and wellness article on the internet. Specifically in the every-day discussions on the subject, the philosophy and spiritual practices behind the traditional mindfulness are often bypassed. Often the noble work of people like Thích Nhất Hạnh, Jon Kabat-Zinn and Richard J. Davidson seems to be watered down by the common folk quite profusely.
Still I do recognize clearly that it is good to spread the joy of mindfulness to more easily accessible mediums for people to enjoy and get inspired about, but more and more I see it done with money, publicity or company image in mind. Therefore I would like to try my best to nudge the concept a bit to get it back in alignment with its original, sacred purposes.
Mindfulness as a word derives from the Pali language. “Sati”, which means attention and meditation in English, is the origin word for mindfulness. The technique of mindfulness is based on Zen, Vipassana and Tibetan meditation. However there are many ways to explore the concept of mindfulness, and the most thorough understanding on the subject comes, I think, from Shinzen Young, an American meditation teacher, whose article “what is mindfulness?” is linked down below. Mind-blowing stuff, I do recommend!
As I do not consider myself to be a monk, a professor or a creator of any ground-breaking techniques, I would still like to do my part as an artist to try to revitalize the original meaning of mindfulness to help the on-going global awakening.
Something needs to be done.
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