Mindfulness: Diverse Perspectives on its Meaning, Origins and Applications

Mindfulness-based approaches to medicine, psychology, neuroscience, healthcare, education, business leadership, and other major societal institutions have become increasingly common. New paradigms are emerging from a confluence of two powerful and potentially synergistic epistemologies: one arising from the wisdom traditions of Asia and the other arising from post-enlightenment empirical science. This book presents the work of internationally renowned experts in the fields of Buddhist scholarship and scientific research, as well as looking at the implementation of mindfulness in healthcare and education settings. Contributors consider the use of mindfulness throughout history and look at the actual meaning of mindfulness whilst identifying the most salient areas for potential synergy and for potential disjunction. Mindfulness: Diverse Perspectives on its Meanings, Origins and Applications provides a place where wisdom teachings, philosophy, history, science and personal meditation practice meet. It was originally published as a special issue of Contemporary Buddhism.

Table of Contents:
Editors' Foreword 1. Mindfulness: diverse perspectives on its meaning, origins, and multiple applications at the intersection of science and dharma 2. What does mindfulness really mean? A canonical perspective 3. Is mindfulness present-centred and non-judgmental? A discussion of the cognitive dimensions of mindfulness 4. The construction of mindfulness 5. Toward an understanding of non-dual mindfulness 6. How does mindfulness transform suffering? I: the nature and origins of Dukkha 7. How does mindfulness transform suffering? II: the transformation of Dukkha 8. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy: culture clash or creative fusion? 9. Compassion in the landscape of suffering 10. Meditation and mindfulness 11. The Buddhist roots of mindfulness training: a practitioners view 12. Mindfulness and loving-kindness 13. Mindfulness in higher education 14. ‘Enjoy your death’: leadership lessons forged in the crucible of organizational death and rebirth infused with mindfulness and mastery 15. Mindfulness, by any other name. . . : trials and tribulations of Sati in western psychology and science 16. Measuring mindfulness 17. On some definitions of mindfulness 18. Some reflections on the origins of MBSR, skillful means, and the trouble with maps

About the Author :
J. Mark G. Williams, Ph.D. is Professor of Clinical Psychology and Director of the Oxford Mindfulness Centre at the University of Oxford, UK. His research focuses on how best to alleviate depression and suicidality. Previous publications include Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Finding Peace in a Frantic World (2011) and The Mindful Way through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness (2007). Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D. is Professor of Medicine Emeritus, and Founder of MBSR and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, USA. He teaches mindfulness meditation as a technique to help people cope with stress, anxiety, pain and illness. Previous publications include Mindfulness for Beginnners: Reclaiming the Present Moment – and Your Life (2012) and Letting Everything Become Your Teacher: One Hundred Lessons in Mindfulness (2009).