examining factors that may improve attention and concentration has been an important part of
academic Western psychology theory and research for at least a century. However, inextricably
tying ethics to attention, in such a way that the quality and type of our attention is fully dependent
upon our intentions and attitudes towards self and other, is radically new to Western thinking. If
Western views of mindfulness as a mere form of attention proliferate, then experimental
psychological research on mindfulness will predominantly go in that direction, and the radical
implications of conjoining the cognitive and the ethical may become lost.
The major enthusiasm for mindfulness in Western psychology and medicine derives, now, from a
rather substantial number of scientific studies, many indicating that MBIs can effectively alleviate
the suffering of people afflicted with a broad range of conditions, for example, chronic pain, multiple
sclerosis, cancer and depression, to name but a few (see also
). How exactly this is
achieved is not yet scientifically established. In other words, we cannot yet be sure just what it is
about the mindfulness program that is responsible for these benefits, whether it is the special
relationship between participant and MBSR instructor, the special kind of exchange among
participants engendered by the program, the very act of merely sitting still and reflecting upon
immediate experience, the implicit qualities of kindness that arise from time to time that both body
and mind appear to like, or some other factors. In fact, given the limits of current research
methods, we are unlikely to know for sure for a very long time, if we ever shall.
Two things, however, should seem rather clear: 1) An eight-week period of mindfulness
meditation, even with regular daily practice, is not going to create highly skilled meditators, able to
maintain moment-to-moment awareness of their experience during everyday life or even
consistently while performing the mindfulness exercises. Interestingly, scientific studies even
indicate that there is no or very little relationship between how much benefit in well-being people
gain from the course and the amount of time they spend on their homework assignments practicing
mindfulness
2) Modestly improved attention to moment-to-moment experience of what one
feels and perceives doesn’t really explain why participants should feel better doing so. In fact, one
might actually think that greater awareness of the symptoms of illness would lead to an increase,
not a decrease, in distress and would interfere with a maintained focus upon immediate
awareness.
Thus there would seem to be something else going on that, at least sometimes, allows close
awareness of moment-to-moment experience of even unpleasant perceptions, emotions or
thoughts to be appreciated and maintained. This “something else” may, in fact, be directly related
to cultivation of kindness, tolerance, courage and openness to the object of awareness. However
else could one keep on closely examining unsatisfactory or even painful or threatening
experiences of life, like immediate perceptions or emotions related to serious illness and loss?
Within the model suggested here, the true value of MBI may be in creating new perspectives, and
systems of value and meaning related to various dimensions of life (e.g., attitudes towards
stillness, reflection, kindness and compassion to self, others and even the inanimate world) that
are directly derived from the embodied experience of concurrent, synergistic development of
attentional and ethical qualities. Within the Buddhist and MBI understanding, the cultivation of each
is seen as synergistically reinforced by the cultivation of the other: enhanced kindness to the
uncontrollable vagaries of life makes it possible to be in more direct contact with immediate
experience; greater capacity to attend to perceptible experience, on the other hand, strengthens
our capacity for kindness and patience.
Such a shifting of perspectives is not accomplished overnight, nor even over weeks or months.
However, one needs to begin somewhere, and eight-week MBIs seem to start the process for
many people, as indicated by the rather substantial body of scientific evidence.
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