Work Wisdom Arising from Three-Dimensional Mindfulness

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How to Work Wisely: Work Wisdom Arising from Three-Dimensional Mindfulness

Suwimon Phaetthayanan

A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Leadership, Higher and Adult Education Ontario Institute for Studies in Education University of Toronto

How to Work Wisely: Work Wisdom Arising from Three-Dimensional Mindfulness

Suwimon Phaetthayanan

Doctor of Philosophy

Department of Leadership, Higher and Adult Education

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education University of Toronto

2019 Abstract

While research on the benefits of mindfulness for organizational well-being and performance has dramatically increased during the past decade, rarely has it revealed obstacles experienced by practitioners in integrating mindfulness into work. Further, I argue that the literature on mindfulness fails to fully integrate three dimensions of Buddhism: virtue, concentration and wisdom, referred to as ‘Three-Dimensional Mindfulness,’ which together increase the effectiveness of mindfulness in ending stress. To facilitate this integration, I explore two research questions: 1) ‘How do Buddhist-informed and secular-informed mindfulness practitioners reduce work stress and improve work performance through mindfulness practice in work-life?’ and 2)

‘What obstacles do they experience in integrating mindfulness into work?’ Critical reflexivity and critical phenomenology are employed as a methodological framework for qualitative interviewing. Data are drawn from interviews with 21 long-term Buddhist mindfulness practitioners, 16 of whom are from Buddhist traditions and 5 from secular traditions. Findings show that practicing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness helped both groups reduce work stress and improve work performance. However, both groups constantly experienced internal difficulties of not being able to accept stress instantaneously and external difficulties due to unsupportive external work conditions and attributing causes of stress to these conditions. To embrace,

transform or overcome these difficulties, participants tried to put more effort into practicing

Three-Dimensional Mindfulness and/or change or accept external work conditions. However, some external difficulties, such as the contradiction between compassion and competition, were viewed by some participants as more complicated to overcome. In handling these difficulties, participants showed four patterns: A) prioritizing work, B) prioritizing Three-Dimensional

Mindfulness, C) not prioritizing either, and D) combining them. Most Buddhist-informed participants fell within the first three patterns; secular-informed participants and one Buddhist- informed participant fit the last pattern. Patterns A and C show positive organizational outcomes of resilience and retention, while Patterns B and D have mixed results of resilience or resistance and retention or turnover. To remedy this disconnect between Three-Dimensional Mindfulness and work, I propose that organizations align their values with Buddhist values. These findings contribute to the fields of adult education, Buddhist studies and human resources management in transforming work-life.

Keywords: mindfulness, Buddhist wisdom, work stress, organizational values, well-being, virtue

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Acknowledgments

I wish to thank everyone and everything that helped me realize the importance of Buddhism and encouraged me to pursue a thesis with this focus in the context of work. Thank you for supporting me throughout this endeavour. I have now arrived at its conclusion, and I hope that your efforts put into this work will have a positive impact on mindfulness practice. Firstly, I am most grateful for my family’s unconditional support, encouragement and understanding. Home is where I find acceptance, love, comfort, freedom, motivation, joy, warmth and good food. Second, I would like to thank my thesis committee members: Supervisor, Dr. Jamie Magnusson; supervisory members, Dr. Kiran Mirchandani and Dr. Sherida Ryan; internal/external examiner, Dr. Michel Ferrari; alternate internal examiner, Dr. Bonnie Burstow, and external examiner, Dr. Heesoon Bai, and the oral examination chair, Dr. Michael Chazan for their academic support, patience and goodwill. I am also thankful to all my professors, University of Toronto colleagues and friends, the OISE Student Success Centre peers and staff, administrative and student life staff at the University of Toronto and lifelong friends for their invaluable contribution to the thesis in the form of lectures, mentorship, academic advice, insightful guidance, listening ears and joy. With special thanks to Dr. Roxana Ng, Dr. Anne Jordan, Dr. John Vervaeke, Dr. Tony Toneatto, Dr. Frances Garrett, Dr. Henry Shiu, Dr. Blake Poland, Dr. Yuk-Lin Renita Wong, Dr. Jack Miller, Dr. Gary Knowles, Dr. Eunice Jang, Dr. Nancy Jackson, Dr. Monique Herbert, Dr. Olesya Falenchuk, Dr. Lingqin Feng, Dr. Shahrzad Mojab, Dr. Mary Ann Archer, Alex Gallacher, Dr. Nina Bascia, Dr. Glen Taylor, Dr. Valerie Damasco, Dr. Zeenat Janmohamed, Dr. Michelle Coombs, Dr. Adam Perry, Dr. Soma Chatterjee, Dr. Adriana Berlingieri, Dr. Agnes Thomas, Dr. Sheila Stewart, Dr. Vijay Ramjattan, Dulani Suraweera, Fiona Sookhai, Anjali Helferty, Yukyung Kim-Cho, Amelia Merrick, Dr. Andrea Chan, Dr. Daisy Zhu, Dr. Marissa Largo, Dr. Rochelle Johnston, Dr. Julia Gray, Haeson Moon, Samantha Walsh, Michael Koslowski, Jeananne Robertson, Karolina Szymanski, Dr. Sanghyun Kris Kim, Dr. Susan Harrison, Dr. Napat Sittanomai, Dr. Joseph Ng, Dr. Mimi Kam, Jotzu Huang, Christine Liu, Hayley Dilazzaro, Chalita Santatisup, Narissara Chalermchaichan, among others. I am forever indebted to you all. Third, I wish to express my gratitude to all my research participants in Thailand and Canada for volunteering their time and sharing their wisdom and experiences of mindfulness. I am inspired by your way of living. Your stories, as recorded and interpreted in this thesis, shall live on in my practice and in other fellow practitioners. Fourth, I am also thankful to researchers on the topic of workplace learning and mindfulness, trainers of mindfulness, teachers of Buddhism, the utmost being the Buddha, and all Buddhist and secular practitioners and communities of mindfulness. My special thanks to Ajarn Supee Tumtong whom I have never met but appreciate his online Dhamma talks. My experience has been enriched by your legacies, presence and continued fellowship. Fifth, I wish to thank my work supervisors: Dr. Sherida Ryan, Dr. Jack Quarter, Dr. Kunle Akingbola, Dr. James Ryan, Dr. Michel Ferrari, Dr. Peter Sawchuk, Dr. Rafael Chiuzi, iv

Dr. Zubin Austin, Dr. Monica Gautam, Dr. Phanikiran Radhakrishnan, Michal Serwin and Elizabeth Whittington, and work teams throughout the program for supporting me in my capacities as a research assistant, teaching assistant, invigilator, peer career advisor, and other student volunteer positions within the university. These employment and volunteer opportunities enriched and fulfilled my academic and leadership development, knowledge of student life and administration, and love for education. More importantly, I am truly thankful to the readers of this thesis and hope you will find your path in practicing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness in both your social and work lives. While this entire piece acknowledges a web of connections with people to whom I am thankful, many more of you are unnamed but will always be remembered, including those of whom I met before starting my Ph.D. and those who I will meet in the future. Along this path, I might not have always been aware and understanding; if there has been any misunderstanding, misrepresentation, misconduct, or any other intentional or unintentional actions on my part that caused you discomfort or suffering in any way, I am truly sorry and ask for your forgiveness. Thank you very much! Suwimon Phaetthayanan

Contents Abstract ...... ii Acknowledgments ...... iv List of Tables ...... ix List of Figures ...... x List of Appendices ...... xi PART I: THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS ...... 1 Chapter 1 Introduction ...... 2 Personal Background ...... 3 Rationale ...... 6 Research Objectives ...... 7 Theoretical Framework ...... 9 Buddhism ...... 9 Chapter Summary ...... 13 Part I: Theoretical Foundations ...... 13 Part II: Research Findings ...... 15 Chapter 2 Literature Review ...... 19 Secular Stress Models ...... 20 What is stress? ...... 21 Causes of stress or stressors...... 22 Importance of work stress research...... 24 Solutions to work stress ...... 25 Dimensions of Mindfulness in Research ...... 30 Research trend ...... 30 Research contribution ...... 31 One-Dimensional Mindfulness: Literature on concentration training ...... 33 Two-Dimensional Mindfulness (1): Literature on concentration and virtue training ...... 39 Two-Dimensional Mindfulness (2): Literature on concentration and wisdom training ...... 41 Three-Dimensional Mindfulness: Literature on concentration, virtue and wisdom training...... 46 Summary ...... 52 Chapter 3 Research Design ...... 54 Research Paradigm ...... 54 Research Methodological Philosophies ...... 56 Critical reflexivity ...... 57 Critical phenomenology ...... 59 Research Procedure ...... 64 Data collection ...... 65 Data analysis ...... 82

Thesis completion timeframe ...... 85 Summary ...... 85 PART II: RESEARCH FINDINGS ...... 87 Findings Outline ...... 87 Chapter 4 Work Wisdom Arising from Three-Dimensional Mindfulness ...... 91 Work Stress Reduction Outcomes ...... 92 Virtue outcomes...... 93 Concentration outcomes...... 93 Wisdom outcomes...... 96 Three-Dimensional Mindfulness outcomes...... 100 Work Performance Outcomes ...... 103 Virtue outcomes ...... 104 Concentration outcomes...... 104 Wisdom outcomes...... 107 Three-Dimensional Mindfulness outcomes...... 113 Summary ...... 116 Chapter 5 How to Work Wisely ...... 119 Mindfulness Confusion ...... 120 Definitions of mindfulness ...... 120 Definition of wisdom...... 121 Mindfulness bundles ...... 124 Three-Dimensional Mindfulness ...... 125 Virtue practices ...... 125 Concentration practices ...... 126 Wisdom practices...... 129 Three-Dimensional Mindfulness practices ...... 135 Life-Work Alignment ...... 137 Complementarity of mindfulness to work ...... 138 How to Work Wisely? ...... 141 Discussion on Three-Dimensional Mindfulness...... 143 Summary ...... 148 Chapter 6 Obstacles to Working Wisely ...... 150 Obstacles that Caused Stress ...... 153 Internal causes of work stress ...... 153 External causes of work stress ...... 158 Obstacles That Prevented Practitioners from Practicing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness at Work. ...168 Internal difficulties in integrating Three-Dimensional Mindfulness into work ...... 168 External difficulties in integrating Three-Dimensional Mindfulness into work ...... 170 Summary ...... 182

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Chapter 7 Discussion: Obstacles to Working Wisely ...... 185 Obstacles that Caused Stress ...... 186 Obstacles that Prevented Participants from Practicing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness ...... 193 External work conditions as obstacles ...... 193 Integrating Three-Dimensional Mindfulness into Work ...... 195 Pattern A: Prioritizing work over Three-Dimensional Mindfulness ...... 195 Pattern B: Prioritizing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness over work ...... 196 Pattern C: Prioritizing neither work nor Three-Dimensional Mindfulness ...... 197 Pattern D: Combining Three-Dimensional Mindfulness with work ...... 197 Recommendations ...... 204 Participants’ recommendations ...... 204 Conclusion ...... 209 Research Limitations ...... 213 Implications for Research ...... 213 Implications for Practice...... 217 Appendices ...... 219 References ...... 274 Endnotes ...... 292

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List of Tables

Table 1 Names of Participants ...... 67 Table 2 Participants’ Mindfulness Profiles ...... 69 Table 3 Participants’ Mindfulness Motives and Goals ...... 73 Table 4 Participants' Work Profiles ...... 75 Table 5 Findings Outline ...... 87 Table 6 Patterns of Embracing, Transforming and Overcoming Obstacles in Integrating Three- Dimensional Mindfulness into Work ...... 199

List of Figures

Figure 1. 'Job stress' search result ...... 20 Figure 2. 'Work stress' search result ...... 20 Figure 3. 'Occupational stress' search result ...... 20 Figure 4. Presentation of Findings...... 90 Figure 5. Obstacles to Working Wisely ...... 152

List of Appendices

Appendix A Basic Buddhist Teachings ...... 219 Appendix B Thesis Overview ...... 230 Appendix C Outcome Types by Outcome Relevance ...... 235 Appendix D A Systems Approach to Job Stress ...... 236 Appendix E ABCs Schematic Diagram of Rational Emotive Therapy ...... 237 Appendix F Recruitment Protocols ...... 238 Appendix G Participant Recruitment Criteria...... 247 Appendix H Other Demographic Characteristics of Participants ...... 249 Appendix I Mindfulness Profile Description ...... 251 Appendix J Description of Participants’ Mindfulness Motives and Goals ...... 255 Appendix K Interview Guide 1 ...... 264 Appendix L Data Collection ...... 267 Appendix M Interview Guide 2 ...... 272 Appendix N Thesis Completion Timeframe ...... 273

PART I: THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS

Chapter 1 Introduction

Theorists have proven that mindfulness1 meditation is effective for improving well-being and work performance which are desirable organizational outcomes (Gordon, Shonin, Zangeneh, & Griffiths, 2014; Reb, Narayanan, & Chaturvedi, 2014; Reb, Narayanan, & Ho, 2015, p. 808; Shonin, Van Gordon, Dunn, Singh, & Griffiths, 2014). While I agree with this argument, my experience can attest to the fact that mindfulness is more than just a meditation practice. After synthesizing Buddhist teachings and stories from my research participants who are long-term mindfulness practitioners from Thailand and Canada from both Buddhist and secular traditions, I have arrived at a conclusion that would enrich and expand the effectiveness of mindfulness practice for Buddhist and secular practitioners in secular settings. I argue that mindfulness should include three dimensions: virtue, concentration and wisdom, which I introduce under a new term ‘Three-Dimensional Mindfulness.’ These three dimensions are already taught in Buddhism, known as ‘Threefold Training’ (see Appendix A4 on Threefold Training). However, this new framework of Three-Dimensional Mindfulness is a broader category that includes 1) the original Threefold Training for Buddhists and 2) the modified three dimensions of training informed by secular ethics and other religions for secular-informed2 practitioners. Three-Dimensional Mindfulness is a key concept I explain throughout the thesis and focus on in the findings in Chapter 5. While Three-Dimensional Mindfulness reduced work stress and improved work performance among my research participants, it also affected organizations negatively when participants struggled with difficulties in integrating Three-Dimensional Mindfulness into their work and when participants realized that their job was no longer good for them. Therefore, I argue that in order to garner the benefits of mindfulness practice, organizations should support

1 I chose ‘mindfulness’ as a translated term for ‘sati’ from Pali because it has been widely used in Buddhism as well as secular Buddhist meditation practice and research. Although ‘mindfulness’ means ‘being aware,’ it is not an equivalent term to ‘sati’ which also means ‘to remember’ or ‘bear in mind the object of meditation in the changing present moment.’ When ‘mindfulness’ is used in the context of Buddhist meditation, it can carry this added meaning. 2 By ‘secular-informed’ mindfulness, I refer to mindfulness influenced by researchers, trainers and practitioners who identify their teaching programs as secular instead of religious. Among them, Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) has been the most well-accepted program in healthcare. Secular-informed mindfulness practitioners learn and practice secular-informed mindfulness but may still practice their religious faiths. Participants used the term ‘secular mindfulness’ but I use ‘secular-informed’ mindfulness throughout for consistency and clarity.

their employees by changing their work conditions to correspond to and facilitate the practice of Three-Dimensional Mindfulness. By way of introduction, I provide a personal background, followed by research rationale, theoretical framework, research objectives and chapter summary.

Personal Background

Since childhood, I have been attached to the concept of virtue, heavily informed by Buddhist values of the cessation of stress3 in Thailand. Thai lay Buddhist practitioners practice the Five Precepts (pañca-sila) to achieve virtue. The Five Precepts are: 1) ‘I undertake the precept to refrain from destroying living creatures;’ 2) ‘I undertake the precept to refrain from taking that which is not given;’ 3) ‘I undertake the precept to refrain from sexual misconduct;’ 4) ‘I undertake the precept to refrain from incorrect speech;’ and 5) ‘I undertake the precept to refrain from intoxicating drinks and drugs which lead to carelessness’ (The Five Precepts: pañca- sila, 2013, para. 2). Buddhist values also encourage other practices such as meditation, generosity and good intention which includes compassion, loving-kindness and renunciation of desires for the cessation of stress. Before the cessation of stress can be realized fully, practitioners attain the primary outcomes of virtue. I have relied on these practices for virtue to navigate the material world as a principle and as a life goal. The beauty I find in this virtue is the realization of the freedom that I have in achieving it and the potential freedom from stress that it alleviates in relation to the world. In social life, I am free to be as good a person I can attempt to be. This goal and experience of the cessation of stress are interpretive, self-observing and relational. However, I do not deny the fact that the freedom to be virtuous and the freedom from stress are not equally experienced due to factors such as cognitive abilities and the external conditions in which we live that could challenge the practices for the cessation of stress.

Meanwhile, growing up, I was challenged by another set of values informed by workplaces that have been extended to social life. In my observation, workplaces prioritize organizational or corporate values of productivityi, efficiencyii and profit maximization which are external control indicators, especially of the ‘rational goal model’ of organizational

3 I use the term ‘stress’ to mean ‘suffering’ in this thesis. I chose the term ‘stress’ as a translation for the term ‘dukkha’ from Pali over other translation alternatives, such as ‘suffering,’ because it is more specific to the context of work and is still applicable to both social and work lives. This translation also allows the Four Noble Truths to be viewed as a Buddhist stress model and compared to other existing stress models and therapies.

effectivenessiii (O'Neill & Quinn, 1993; Quinn & Rohrbaugh, 1983, p. 371). These corporate values are supported by organizational cultures such as market culturesiv which emphasize competition and achievement (Cameron & Quinn, 2011; Hartnell, Ou, & Kinicki, 2011). Since education and employment have increasingly become market-based (Olssen, 2006; Olssen & Peters, 2005), workers learn to be efficient, productive and competitive by living the individual corporate values of personal responsibility (P. Brown, 2003), and pursue self-interests through individual freedom, individual agency, self-dependence, self-sufficiency, resilience, emotional well-being and self-care for personal happiness (Binkley, 2011; Sugarman, 2015). These corporate values are translated into professional work outcomes expected of employees to reach organizational goals.

These corporate values are a part of the stressful external conditions in which I live. I still struggle with organizational goals around work performance improvement, which entails efficiency, productivity and competitiveness driven by individualism and self-interest. The difficulty I find with the means to these goals is their inherent inequality, segregation and attachment to self. Even when we are equally motivated to achieve them, we do not always have the same life chances (Weber, 1922, 1946) such as knowledge, abilities, job opportunities, connections and the social safety net. We cannot always be compensated for or celebrate difference. We are segregated. We are self-serving. Even though achieving work performance excellence implicitly promises happiness, I conversely see that it conditions and generates stress.

Since I have been enculturated into both Buddhist values and corporate values, I am influenced by them both. While I find them to have contradictory goals and practices, they can also be interpreted as being compatible and complementary by mindfulness practitioners. The way Buddhism has been coopted in the workplace promotes individual liberty and agency, self- regulation, self-control, self-care, self-dependence, resilience, emotional intelligence and diligence. In Buddhism, there is a famous teaching on self in Dhammapada 160 which is translated into English as: ‘Your own self is your own mainstay, for who else could your mainstay be? With you yourself well-trained you obtain the mainstay hard to obtain’ ("Attavagga: Self (Dhp XII) (Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, Trans.)," 2013, para. 4). This teaching seems complementary to corporate values of improving work performance through personal efforts. Self-control and self-protection are emphasized in secular-informed mindfulness in its teaching

and application to the workplace under key constructs of self-regulation, self-control, self-care, resilience and emotional intelligence as further discussed in Chapter 2. Self in the workplace is individualistic and is used to realize personal stress reduction and personal gains for happiness. However, I see self in Buddhism as being interdependent with other entities and is used to recognize stress so that one can reverse the formation of stress. Additionally, the relational aspect of Buddhism in promoting cooperation, loving-kindness and compassion, also seems to be complementary to corporate values, which can also be achieved through teamwork and cooperation. The coopted form of Buddhism operationalized in organizations is generally referred to as ‘mindfulness.’ The construct of mindfulness will be explained briefly in this chapter and reviewed in Chapter 2. Aside from concentration, relaxation and acceptance, mindfulness features mindful leadership training and practice. This type of leadership emphasizes teamwork, compassion and empathy in addition to focus and emotional intelligence. In Buddhism, these practices are intended for practitioners to let go of desires while in mindfulness, they are intended to remedy stress and support corporate values for work performance improvement from which practitioners could hope to derive happiness. Since mindfulness is evolving, it should be noted that not all applications of mindfulness are corporate- value-oriented. After all, Buddhism and mindfulness share the same outcomes of reduced stress experienced in work systems.

While Buddhist values and corporate values co-exist, I observed that workplaces usually promote corporate values of work performance improvement and minimalize Buddhist values of the cessation of stress. The corporate values are adopted as a performance measure on every employee to achieve organizational goals. Depending on the context and interpretation of performance, the means to these ends such as competition can also undermine the means to the Buddhist cessation of stress such as cooperation. In my work-life4, I experienced role conflict in adopting diverging practices to achieve performance excellence. This role conflict is influenced by external work conditions, by which I mean everything that characterizes and influences work including internal factors of organizations such as strategy, mission, vision, culture, values, leadership and organizational design: structures, systems, policies, rules, regulations, goals and

4 All aspects of work both paid and unpaid someone has done in their life. However, the analysis of the thesis only covers paid work.

physical environment; and external factors that influence organizations such as the labour market, demographics, technology, the economy, and social relations (power structure and stakeholders). This role conflict inspired me to explore ways in which organizations can be mindful of the Buddhist values, which leads a path to the cessation of stress. The guiding wisdom along this path in Buddhism is Right View and Right Intention. These are the first two factors of the Eightfold Path, which will be described in the Theoretical Framework section of this chapter.

Among wisdom approaches, I chose Buddhism because I have adopted it as a guide of virtue as a part of my life conduct (Weber, 1922, 1946). Other philosophical approaches such as other religions and social change could be as valuable to discuss; however, I lack direct experience of these. A plethora of research in adult education argues for social justice, which, in my opinion, speaks directly to the injustice in the workplace. I see social justice as one model of virtue that can be subcategorized under or integrated into Buddhism. Nevertheless, in this thesis, I focus on the promotion of Buddhist values in the workplace over resistance to and transformation of corporate values. Thus, I choose to discuss the Buddhist approach over mainstream social change discourses, i.e. anti-oppression such as anti-colonialism and anti- racism.

Rationale

While enrolled in the Ph.D. program in Canada, I started noticing that selected Buddhist teachings are adapted, taught and practiced outside of Buddhist monasteries. Interestingly enough, people did not refer to it as ‘Buddhism’ but ‘mindfulness’ as mentioned earlier. Out of curiosity, I learned more about it and realized that mindfulness became a new secular wellness trend. Western research on secular-informed mindfulness from the 1970s onwards started comparing meditation against other types of relaxation and awareness practices. Academic interests in secular-informed mindfulness have increased dramatically only recently as shown in the number of scholarly journal articles, book chapters and dissertations on mindfulness in all languages and subjects: 107 publications in the 1970s, 333 in 1980s, 1,067 in 1990s, 6,677 in 2000s, and 41,505 in 2010s, 2,122 of which are in the management subject (as of July 21st, 2019, searched within University of Toronto libraries). The majority of the articles are in the health

sciences. These articles identify possible benefits and applications of mindfulness-based interventions. This influx and expansion of scientific mindfulness have eased its integration into the secular life of secular-informed mindfulness learners and practitioners in multiple settings such as hospitals, schools, communities and workplaces. This initiative might have been motivated by compassion and respect for the secular-informed population. In the workplace, researchers and practitioners can pick practices from Buddhism and design their practice for their purpose, particularly for the improvement of well-being and performance. Hence, secular- informed mindfulness is seen to be relevant to corporate values of efficiency, productivity and competitiveness, which are driven by individualism and self-interest, and is presented as beneficial and complementary to work. The proven benefits legitimize and popularize mindfulness practice in daily and professional life and provide evidence and explanations for future research on secular-informed mindfulness.

In this thesis, I argue that it is important to differentiate Buddhist-informed mindfulness5 from secular-informed mindfulness to understand the development of the construct of mindfulness, its applications and implications in theory and practice. First, I explore changes in Buddhist-informed mindfulness in its process of secularization in training and practice. Second, I address the value conflict between Buddhist values for the cessation of stress—through Buddhist virtue, concentration and wisdom—and corporate values for work performance improvement through increased efficiency, productivity and competitiveness, driven by individualism and self- interest, in work roles that might have been experienced by participants. These findings on how participants integrated Three-Dimensional Mindfulness into their work inform interdisciplinary fields of studies: adult education, Buddhist/religious studies and industrial-organizational psychology and human resources management.

Research Objectives

The research aims to explain how workers can work wisely by ending stress, informed by Buddhist values while continuing to perform their work influenced by corporate values. That is,

5 By ‘Buddhist-informed’ mindfulness, I refer to mindfulness drawn from the Buddhist Threefold Training of virtue, concentration and wisdom (see Appendix A4 on Threefold Training) from traditional Buddhist sources of knowledge such as from Buddhist monks at Buddhist monasteries. Buddhist-informed mindfulness practitioners may or may not be a Buddhist and may also have another faith.

mindfulness practitioners can work wisely by not causing stress but reducing stress for themselves and others through their work conduct, yet still achieving work goals. My research questions are as follows:

1. How do Buddhist-informed mindfulness practitioners and secular-informed mindfulness practitioners reduce work stress and improve work performance through mindfulness practice in work-life? 1.1. How are their approaches and experiences similar or different? 2. What obstacles do Buddhist-informed and secular-informed mindfulness practitioners experience in integrating mindfulness into work for work stress reduction and work performance improvement? 2.1. How are their experiences with the obstacles similar or different? 2.2. How do Buddhist-informed and secular-informed participants embrace, transform or overcome the obstacles in integrating mindfulness into work? 2.2.1. How are their experiences of embracing, transforming or overcoming the obstacles similar or different?

In my research questions, I do not use the term ‘cessation’ as an outcome because it is impossible for me to find a participant who has achieved it fully. There are different sets of milestones that Buddhist-informed practitioners could use to recognize their mindfulness achievement such as the states of concentration (jhāna); however, they are also hard for a lay practitioner to achieve and even if they do, they are not encouraged to share it with others. Thus, I use the secular term ‘stress reduction’ to explain the outcome of the practice. While the goals of the practice are different between Buddhist-informed and secular-informed participants, the outcomes that both groups achieved are only at the level of stress reduction and never the cessation of stress. It should be noted that stress reduction can be achieved through different means. It could be that practitioners do not feel stressed because they do not recognize stress. It could be that they suppress or relieve stress. It could be that they understand stress. Ideally, Buddhism promotes understanding and accepting stress in external work conditions as the starting point for ending stress. As for the second question, I differentiate between embracing, transforming and overcoming obstacles or barriers to integrating mindfulness into work. By ‘embracing,’ I mean recognizing and accepting that there are certain obstacles in practicing

mindfulness and being willing to practice despite the obstacles. By ‘transforming,’ I mean changing the obstacles or changing practitioners’ perspective towards the obstacles to be more suited for the practice. By ‘overcoming,’ I mean eliminating the obstacles partially or completely.

These research questions can be comprehensively answered with a qualitative approach as qualitative interviews can explore the what, how and why of mindfulness practice to explain the wisdom phenomenon in work-life with all possible outcomes.

Theoretical Framework

Buddhism. Ontologically, epistemologically and axiologically, I am most informed by Theravāda Buddhism. The Buddhist Four Noble Truths are the overarching theoretical framework of my thesis used in the literature review, argument construction, data collection and data analysis. While the dominant lineage in Thailand is Theravāda, there are multiple lineages in Canada, including its secular form under the Western construct of ‘mindfulness.’ Despite the claim that mindfulness is rooted in Buddhism, secular-informed mindfulness is different in content and purpose. Having lived in two countries, I found it interesting to see this knowledge transfer from the East to the West. Thus, I recruited three participant groups who are long-term mindfulness practitioners: seven Thai Buddhists, nine Buddhist-informed Canadians, and five secular-informed Canadians. The purpose is not to illustrate the politics of who creates, dominates and appropriates mindfulness but to explain what types and how mindfulness can benefit different groups of participants in overcoming or living with work stress. Since the difference I found between Thai Buddhists and Buddhist-informed Canadians was slight, the difference in nationality was dismissed. I merged the two groups and from now on refer to them as Buddhist-informed mindfulness participants. Having learned that Buddhism concludes that the Threefold Training (see Appendix A4 on Threefold Training) leads to the cessation of stress, my research questions centre around the Threefold Training.

Although the Buddhist stress model for the cessation of stress informs my research questions, I do not intend to use the Threefold Training to evaluate practitioners’ mindfulness level or their stress reduction outcomes. Instead, I explore their interpretation of work stress experience in relation to the Threefold Training. Secular-informed Canadians seemed to share a

similar experience of virtue and wisdom to the Buddhist-informed group through their mindfulness practice. However, as mentioned previously, they did not primarily practice or learn mindfulness from sources that are identified with Buddhism such as Buddhist monasteries and Buddhist monks but secular sources such as the healthcare sector, and learned virtue and wisdom from various sources, particularly their faiths which were not Buddhism. I continue to refer to them as ‘secular-informed’ participants. Since their virtue and wisdom are informed by other faiths, instead of calling the framework ‘Threefold Training,’ I refer to it as ‘Three-Dimensional Mindfulness.’ By ‘Three-Dimensional Mindfulness,’ I mean practicing mindfulness for Buddhist virtue, concentration and wisdom. When it is Buddhist-informed, virtue and wisdom are drawn from Buddhism for ending stress. When it is not Buddhist-informed, the virtue and wisdom are drawn from non-Buddhist sources, both religious and secular, and are not rooted in greed, aversion and delusion, for the purpose of reducing stress. If the purpose is not ending or reducing stress according to the Buddhist values, I would not consider it Three-Dimensional Mindfulness even if it has three components of virtue, concentration and wisdom. The distinction between Buddhist-informed and secular-informed groups is based on the group they identify themselves with, if they did; otherwise, it is based on their primary sources of mindfulness teaching. However, the two groups are influenced by each other. Some Buddhist-informed participants were secularly goal-oriented in their practice. Some secular-informed participants were open to learning Buddhism from lay teachers.

In data analysis, I use the Three-Dimensional Mindfulness as an analytical framework. I adopt Buddhist inclusivism (Kiblinger, 2017) in listening to and interpreting participants’ interviews. Meanwhile, I employ Buddhist pluralism (Kiblinger, 2017) in extending the Buddhist Threefold Training to Three-Dimensional Mindfulness, which can be applied as an analytical and practice framework to other faiths and can be open to the possibility that it may lead to slightly different outcomes from Buddhism.

The Buddhist Four Noble Truths form the Buddhist values of the cessation of stress. I follow the Theravāda explanation of the nature of existence, human existence, the means to the cessation of stress and the goal of the cessation of stress. I value this goal or consider this goal to be good. The Buddhist means to the cessation of stress can be cultivated internally within the external conditions of the material world of which I am a part. It was reliable when I practiced

Buddhism6 in my introspection. When I did not use it, I was stressed. Meanwhile, I continued to develop and serve the external work conditions, particularly work control and performance measures, by complying with them and using them at work as a means of living informed by the corporate values of efficiency, productivity and competitiveness driven by individualism and self-interest for work performance improvement. Without the internal means of ending stress comprising Buddhist virtue, concentration and wisdom, I find making a living in this way stress- inducing. The internal means of ending stress continued to be reliable and effective. However, when this internal endeavour of ending stress was disrupted and dominated by the external endeavour of making a living, I experienced difficulties that sometimes felt like contradictions in existence. This experience is exemplified by a role conflict between ending stress and performing work. I do not conclude that these two values of Buddhist freedom from stress and work performance, and only these two values, are always contradictory. Rather, it is a general tendency of me to surrender to the external demands. One of these demands is making a living in the workplace. This contradiction is a contradiction in existence.

To understand these value tensions between Buddhism and work, it is crucial that readers understand basic Buddhist teachings. In Buddhist texts, the term ‘stress’ and ‘suffering’ are used interchangeably, depending on the translator. I prefer using the term ‘stress’ throughout for consistency but still refer to it as ‘suffering’ when it is used in the Buddhist texts and when participants mentioned that term. The Buddhist stress model is explained in the Four Noble Truths (Stress, Cause of Stress, Cessation of Stress and Path to the Cessation of Stress / the Eightfold Path) (see Appendix A1 on the Four Noble Truths). The primary factor of the Eightfold Path is Right View. Right View is the key wisdom in Buddhism that features the teaching on Three Marks of Existence (tilakkhaṇa) which comprise impermanence, suffering/unsatisfactoriness and not-self/non- self/interconnectedness/selflessness/essencelessness/egolessness (see Appendix A2 on Three Marks of Existence). In this thesis, these three marks are referred to as impermanence, stress/suffering and not-self/interconnectedness. The central discussion of the Eightfold Path in this thesis is its seventh factor—Right Mindfulness (samma sati) (see Appendix A3 on Right Mindfulness). It is a factor in meditative and contemplative practice to cultivate wisdom for

6 I practice Buddhist virtue, concentration and wisdom.

liberation towards Nirvana (Nibbāna). It is generally referred to as ‘mindfulness’ (sati). Before wisdom can be realized fully, Buddhists practice mindfulness to cultivate virtues and concentration. The Eightfold Path is developed into a series of teachings. It is an outcome that practitioners can train themselves for. This outcome-focused training is summed up and referred to as the Threefold Training (Tisikkhā) which consists of the attainment of virtue, concentration and wisdom (see Appendix A4 on Threefold Training).

Because virtue, concentration and wisdom practices are practiced together simultaneously, it is difficult to attribute the outcome of virtue, concentration or wisdom to a single practice. Therefore, when the thesis title seems to focus on wisdom as an ultimate goal, I have been focusing on virtue as the beginning point. Buddhism claims that concentration and wisdom build on virtue, or virtue is the primary outcome to be achieved and perfected before concentration and wisdom can be fully realized. Thus, I start with virtue. Being virtuous is also being wise and will lead to the full attainment of wisdom in Buddhism.

In the thesis, I seek to explore how mindfulness practitioners negotiate their Buddhist- informed wisdom cultivated through Buddhist-informed and secular-informed mindfulness with their work wisdom cultivated through organizational cultures. Buddhist-informed wisdom has been defined and explained as the Right Understanding and Right Intention in the Eightfold Path in connection with the other factors of the path. For example, the National Coordination Center of Provincial Meditation Institutes of Thailand (2012) explained wisdom as:

The word paññā (wisdom) here, means transcendent insight knowledge (vipassanāñāna) endowed with virtue… vipassanāpaññā or transcendent states of mind that develop with virtue. They know that all conditioned dhammas have the Three Characteristics of impermanence, suffering and non-self, and also know the Unconditioned State of Nibbāna and the Four Noble Truths. This is called insight knowledge (vipassanāñāna) which is endowed with virtue (pp. 244-245).

Insight wisdom (vipassanāpaññā) aims ‘to get rid of the delusion associated with the ordinary perception of body (rūpa) and mind (nāma)’(The National Coordination Center of Provincial Meditation Institutes of Thailand, 2012, p. 255). Like Buddhist-informed mindfulness practitioners, secular-informed practitioners can also cultivate Buddhist-informed wisdom.

Conversely, work wisdom cultivated through organizational cultures such as market cultures promotes an attachment to organizational goals, personal happiness and ego. Within these corporate cultures, performance measures such as efficiency, productivity and competitiveness driven by individualism and self-interest are predicted to serve organizational effectiveness.

Ultimately, I am interested in the transfer of training/learning, or how mindfulness practitioners connect themselves through Three-Dimensional Mindfulness with work when the two are sometimes in conflict and when the workplace is unsupportive of the practice. Transfer of training is defined as ‘the application of the knowledge and skills acquired in a training program on the job and the maintenance of acquired knowledge and skills over time’ (Saks & Haccoun, 2018, p. 283)7. This transfer of mindfulness is not simply being able to apply knowledge and skills at work but seeing self as one with work. As the results of the transfer can be positive, zero or negative (Saks & Haccoun, 2018), I wonder how this transfer or the integration of Three-Dimensional Mindfulness into work is interpreted by practitioners and how the transfer or the integration can be supported and improved.

Chapter Summary

Part I: Theoretical Foundations.

In Chapter 1 on Introduction, I share my experience of role conflict between Buddhist values and corporate values as a motivation to conduct this thesis. This conflict is a manifestation of the contradiction in existence. This conflict is significant academically because of the lack of interest paid to Buddhist virtue cultivation in mindfulness research and practice applied to organizational development. When virtue is missing, mindfulness may not be as effective as suggested in Buddhism. The thesis does not focus on role conflict as a cause of stress in general. More specifically, it focuses on how to embrace, transform or overcome obstacles to integrating Three-Dimensional Mindfulness into work. In other words, how to be free from stress while still performing well at work when work could be stress-inducing. When freedom from stress and freedom to perform work are put together, depending on the context, they are viewed as

7 ‘There are two conditions of transfer of training. Generalization refers to the use or application of learned material to the job, and maintenance refers to the use or application of learned material on the job over a period of time’ (Saks & Haccoun, 2018, p. 283).

complementary or contradictory. Despite this challenge, I trust that stress can be ended with the Threefold Training (see Appendix A4 on Threefold Training) in any context, workplace included. However, I also acknowledge the importance of external work conditions that they should be aligned with Buddhist values to facilitate the integration of Three-Dimensional Mindfulness into work. Despite obstacles, I still wish to extend the Threefold Training (see Appendix A4 on Threefold Training) to secular-informed mindfulness practitioners for the same purpose of ending stress. Therefore, I propose Three-Dimensional Mindfulness as an inclusive framework for mindfulness practices in other faiths and value systems including the secular with the primary purpose of reducing work stress in such a way that could ultimately lead to the cessation of stress.

In Chapter 2 on Literature Review, I review the literature on work stress interventions from different perspectives and identify the contribution of mindfulness to reducing work stress as secondary and tertiary interventions. The contribution mindfulness makes to the existing literature on work stress is the claim that stress can be reduced internally by practicing Three- Dimensional Mindfulness without changing external work conditions. Practitioners recognize stress situated in these conditions but are not stressed by them or experience reduced stress. The external work conditions or external work problems can be solved by other approaches in problem-solving and social change. Within the secondary and tertiary interventions, I argue that one- and two- dimensional secular-informed mindfulness research may not be the most effective models to end stress because the three dimensions (virtue, concentration and wisdom) are interdependent and are practiced together for the cessation of stress as taught in the Buddhist stress model. The One- and Two-Dimensional Mindfulness may not address obstacles practitioners may have with their virtue, mindfulness and wisdom in relation to their external work conditions. Therefore, I support the use of Three-Dimensional Mindfulness that is aligned with the Buddhist stress model as a means to the cessation of stress. Even when Three- Dimensional Mindfulness is used, practitioners will continue to experience work stress because they are yet to embrace, transform or overcome the obstacles in practicing mindfulness at work. As reported in work stress research, the primary intervention is more effective. Therefore, I recommend an external intervention to remove these obstacles alongside Three-Dimensional Mindfulness.

In Chapter 3 on Methodology, I justify the use of qualitative research design by applying methodological philosophies of critical reflexivity and critical phenomenology as a methodology in data collection. Critical reflexivity helped me reflect on the connection between mindfulness and work and on the knowledge production and reception of the thesis, being aware of the social dynamics and co-construction of meaning. Critical phenomenology enabled me to study the essence of work experience, which is materially organized to uncover stressful external work conditions that continue to exist but are overlooked or normalized in achieving corporate values. Both methodologies allowed me to conduct the research qualitatively using qualitative semi-structured interview and qualitative thematic analysis.

Part II: Research Findings.

In Chapter 4, I present findings on work wisdom that arose from practicing Three- Dimensional Mindfulness. Both Buddhist-informed and secular-informed participants enjoyed primary outcomes of reduced work stress and secondary outcomes of improved work performance at the level of virtue, concentration and wisdom. While both groups achieved work stress reduction, most of the Buddhist-informed participants had a higher goal of the cessation of stress while secular-informed participants were interested in reducing stress to improve their health and well-being in this lifetime. While both groups improved their work performance, this outcome was unintended for most Buddhist-informed participants while it was an intended outcome for secular-informed participants.

In Chapter 5, I present findings on how to work wisely, which, fundamentally, is practicing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness. I problematize the use of the term ‘mindfulness.’ This term and its use are evolving in the secular-informed mindfulness discourse. It is unclear and confusing, and even more so, when Buddhist-informed Canadians are influenced by its widespread use and start using the term themselves as an umbrella term for Buddhism. This confusion masks the importance of the other two components—virtue and wisdom—of Three- Dimensional Mindfulness. I explain that the Three-Dimensional Mindfulness outcomes are the result of practicing the three dimensions: virtue, concentration and wisdom. These three components are practiced together at the same time. While participants in both groups learned and practiced concentration through mindfulness rooted in Buddhism, they learned and practiced virtue and wisdom from other faiths and social backgrounds. For the most part, secular-informed

practitioners’ virtue and wisdom, practiced within the mindfulness context, were aligned with Buddhism. The differences between the two groups were the scope, focus and application of the practice, and the terms used. Secular-informed participants can learn more about Buddhist teachings from the Buddhist who practiced under a broader scope. Buddhist-informed practitioners can learn more about applying mindfulness to work activities, such as mindful leadership and mindful communication, from the secular. The outcomes of Three-Dimensional Mindfulness were similar to existing research with some exceptions. The key differences are the demographics of the participants, the acknowledgement that the practices consist of three dimensions instead of just one or two, the differentiation between stress reduction driven by Buddhist values and corporate values and the negative outcomes, rather than positive, experienced by the participants of this thesis.

In Chapter 6, I present findings on obstacles participants experienced in integrating Three-Dimensional Mindfulness into their work. The obstacles can be categorized into obstacles that caused them stress and obstacles that prevented them from practicing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness. Obstacles that caused them stress are internal difficulties and external difficulties. In certain work situations, both groups identified that the causes of stress were internal—their mental formations, feelings, craving and clinging—but their realization of these was not instantaneous. As for external difficulties, both groups identified external work conditions as the causes of stress. This is the second pattern of cause identification that is problematic. They suffered until they accepted the external work conditions or accepted the stress.

The other type of obstacles were obstacles that prevented both Buddhist-informed and secular-informed mindfulness practitioners from integrating Three-Dimensional Mindfulness into work. Again, these can be internal or external. Only Buddhist-informed participants said the integration of Three-Dimensional Mindfulness into work was difficult due to internal difficulties or inadequate effort put into practicing virtue, concentration and wisdom. They tried to overcome this by practicing more. In other situations, both groups experienced external difficulties or barriers from difficult or unsupportive external work conditions. Another type of external difficulties I present was the participants’ experience of contradictions between Three- Dimensional Mindfulness and work. Participants identified these difficulties as contradictions

because they were almost impossible to overcome. Most of the contradictions were reported by Buddhist-informed participants.

In Chapter 7, I expand on the findings from Chapter 6. I start with obstacles that caused participants stress followed by obstacles that prevented them from practicing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness at work. I discuss both groups of participants’ general approaches to overcoming obstacles to working wisely or to integrating Three-Dimensional Mindfulness into their work. As for internal difficulties, participants were aware that they had to put more effort into practicing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness. Participants from both groups were not always successful in overcoming external difficulties, including the contradictions. Sometimes, they were unaware; other times, they embraced or transformed those difficulties. Both Buddhist-informed and secular-informed mindfulness practitioners shared the following patterns in their approaches: 1) prioritizing work by changing their perspective and external work conditions, 2) prioritizing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness by dropping work when it was in conflict with Three- Dimensional Mindfulness, 3) not prioritizing either work or Three-Dimensional Mindfulness by doing what was permitted or being unaware of contradictions, and 4) combining Three- Dimensional Mindfulness with work by changing their job to teaching secular-informed mindfulness or integrating mindfulness into the content of their work. Buddhist-informed participants fell within the first three patterns while secular-informed participants and one Buddhist-informed participant, Lex, were in the last pattern. Patterns A and C had positive organizational outcomes of resilience and retention, while Patterns B and D had mixed outcomes of resilience or resistance and retention or turnover. Both groups recommended that organizations offer more support through benefit programs such as mindfulness retreats, mindfulness breaks and meditation facilities. Some preferred practicing meditation alone, while others wanted to practice in groups. The focus was on meditation and not virtue or wisdom. The obstacles to integrating Three-Dimensional Mindfulness into work show the conflict between being free from stress and being free to fulfill economic needs. To facilitate practitioners to achieve both, I propose that organizations change external work conditions, culture and design in particular, to align with Three-Dimensional Mindfulness at the level of virtue, concentration and wisdom in the hope to reduce work stress. Changes in external work conditions may not always lead to the cessation of stress but would at least enable participants to continue to practice more. I conclude that working wisely is when Three-Dimensional Mindfulness enables practitioners to

perform work at full potential without being overwhelmed by work stress. In closing, I indicate some limitations to this thesis, which should be considered by other researchers in their future research designs. I also provide thoughts on theoretical implications and practical implications for future applications of Three-Dimensional Mindfulness. The research questions, findings and arguments are organized into a table in a logical sequence, presented in Appendix B, Table B1 on Thesis Overview.

Chapter 2 Literature Review

In the previous chapter, I highlighted two sets of values—Buddhist values and corporate values—that are interpreted by practitioners as complementary as well as contradictory to each other. I support mindfulness that is aligned with the Buddhist values of virtue such as harmlessness, concentration or mindfulness and wisdom such as compassion for the primary purpose of ending stress. I refer to this mindfulness as Three-Dimensional Mindfulness. These are the practices in the Buddhist stress model, which I use as a frame of reference in this thesis. It has the potential to reduce work stress while improving work performance of practitioners of different traditions: Buddhist and secular.

In this chapter, I detail literature that describes the complementarity between the Buddhist values and corporate values through the benefits of mindfulness at work. Corporate values are, for example, efficiency, productivity and competitiveness driven by individualism and self-interest to improve work performance and increase organizational effectiveness. I begin by describing secular models of work stress. I identify meditation as one of the work stress interventions used in secular stress models. This meditation is rooted in Eastern religions, especially Buddhism. This intervention is an internal approach—changing the person—and can be implemented alongside other external interventions that change the external work conditions. In the latter part of the chapter, I examine the new trend of meditation research or mindfulness rooted solely in Buddhism. I discovered that there are three dimensions of mindfulness in the existing literature. I categorize the literature into three groups: One-Dimensional Mindfulness8, Two-Dimensional Mindfulness9 and Three-Dimensional Mindfulness10. Seeing that Three- Dimensional Mindfulness is most aligned with the Buddhist values, I argue that this should be used as the work stress intervention in the Buddhist stress model as well as secular stress models.

However, since the Buddhist values can be interpreted as contradictory to corporate values, I noted in the previous chapter that Three-Dimensional Mindfulness could also have a negative effect on organizations when practitioners are drowned in these obstacles to integrating

8 Consists of only one dimension of mindfulness: virtue, concentration or wisdom. 9 Consists of only two dimensions of mindfulness: virtue and concentration, virtue and wisdom, or concentration and wisdom. 10 Consists of all three dimensions of mindfulness: virtue, concentration and wisdom.

it into work. For this reason, I proposed that organizations’ members address this problem by changing their external work conditions to correspond to and support the practice of Three- Dimensional Mindfulness among their members. The external work conditions are the obstacles practitioners experience, such as work overload and organizational cultures, and behaviours such as gossiping. The obstacles to integrating Three-Dimensional Mindfulness into work have hardly been researched. Hence, they will be a unique contribution I offer in the findings chapters, mostly concentrated in Chapters 6 to 7.

Secular Stress Models

Stress in the workplace has received academic research attention from the 1980s onwards. The search results of scholarly journal articles, book chapters and dissertations in all languages and subjects under the keywords ‘job stress,’ ‘work stress’ and ‘occupational stress’ as of July 21st, 2019, via the University of Toronto Libraries search show a significant increase in 2019 from the 1970s as shown in Figures 1-3 below:

Figure 1. 'Job stress' search Figure 2. 'Work stress' search Figure 3. 'Occupational result. result. stress' search result.

I see the interest in work stress as a response to remedy the stress conditioned by corporate values such as efficiency, productivity and competitiveness, which are driven by individualism and self-interest in the workplace. Stress is also studied under positive terms in

management research such as ‘satisfaction,’ ‘well-being,’ ‘wellness,’ and ‘health and safety’ not only at the individual but also at organizational levels. I continue to refer to work stress as work stress for consistency.

Having been interpreted in management studies and industrial-organizational psychology as complementary to corporate values such as efficiency, productivity and competitiveness driven by individualism and self-interest in the workplace, complementary dimensions of Buddhism have been adopted as a work stress intervention. Since work stress research is secular, when it draws on Buddhism, it secularizes the practice. This secular-informed mindfulness has recently been scientifically shown to alleviate stress as discussed under the Dimensions of Mindfulness in Research section below. Much attention in the secular-informed mindfulness literature has been paid to its benefits through concentration methods to support human and work functioning. In the process of secularization, secular-informed mindfulness-based interventions tend to explicitly focus on the training in concentration and downplay training in virtue and wisdom or insight for liberation. The problem with this approach that I see is that the training in virtue and the training in wisdom may still implicitly persist. They should be explicitly trained together with the training in concentration or what I call ‘Three-Dimensional Mindfulness.’ This training framework can help practitioners to see the cause of work stress and its resolution. In this section, I review the literature on work stress models, which are the background of the second section on mindfulness research.

What is stress?. Stress experienced in the workplace may be referred to as work stress, job stress, and occupational stress (B. C. Fletcher, 1988) among other less common terms such as work pressure (Ballard & McGlone, 2016), strain, distress and alienation. In this thesis, I prefer the generic term ‘work stress.’ Stress is a ‘stimulus,’ ‘a force acting on a person and causing discomfort (or, in some cases, excitement and exhilaration),’ or a ‘response’ to a ‘stressor’ which is ‘an object, event, or situation seen as disruptive’ (Matteson & Ivancevich, 1987, p. 10). Matteson & Ivancevich (1987) defined stress as ‘an adaptive response, moderated by individual differences, that is a consequence of any action, situation, or event that places special demands upon a person’ (p. 10). They referred to bad stress as ‘distress,’ and good stress is ‘eustress’ (p. 15). Fletcher and Payne (1980) described strain as ‘the state of being stressed, and the conditions which cause the strain as stressors’ (p. 19). They further elaborated, ‘strain

may be physiological or psychological, short term (temporary elevation of physiological levels, or minor illness) or long-term (disease or even death). Stressors may emanate from within the person or from the outside environment’ (p. 19). Cooper, O’Driscoll and Dewe (2001) added that in addition to response and stimulus-based meaning of stress, stress could be seen as an interaction and transaction.

Multiple models of stress have been developed such as the ‘stress cycle model’ or the Four Processes Stress Model (McGrath, 1976), the ‘person-environment fit’ (P-E fit) (French, Caplan, & Van Harrison, 1982), the ‘job demands-control model’ (Karasek Jr, 1979), the ‘general systems approach’ (Cox & McKay, 1981), cybernetic model (Cummings & Cooper, 1979) and self-identity/self-categorization model (Haslam, 2004) to understand and explain stress. The person-environment fit model seems applicable to all these meaning approaches (Cary L. Cooper et al., 2001). The forms of stress individuals experience include mental health issues such as depression, anxiety and negative affectivity (Lamontagne, Keegel, Louie, Ostry, & Landsbergis, 2007, p. 273).

Causes of stress or stressors. Stress is studied in several disciplines, and each discipline has developed its own model of stress. Sources of stress or the stressors, such as work characteristics and level of jobs, are interacting with one another in their contribution to stress. As a part of the Managerial-Oriented Model of Stress, Matteson and Ivancevich (1987) summarized five main stressors which are ‘intrinsic job factors’ such as ‘role conflict,’ ‘role ambiguity,’ ‘work overload’ and ‘inefficient control;’ ‘organizational structure and control’ such as ‘red tape,’ ‘politics’ and ‘rigid policy;’ ‘reward systems’ such as ‘faulty and infrequent feedback’ and ‘inequitable rewards;’ ‘human resource systems’ such as ‘inadequate career opportunities’ and ‘lack of training;’ and ‘leadership’ such as ‘poor relationship’ and ‘lack of respect’ (pp. 27-28). In addition, they acknowledged that extraorganizational stressors such as ‘family relations,’ ‘economic problem’ and ‘legal problem’ also play a role because stress in social life and work-life are intertwined (p. 27). Some of these factors are presented in the ‘Organizational Stress Framework’ (Matteson & Ivancevich, 1987, p. 27).

Likewise, Cooper and Marshall (1978) identified similar stressors but divided them into seven categories. Two additional factors are relationships at work and workers’ individual characteristics or their personality. Similarly, Burke (1988) recategorized stressors of white-

collar workers or managerial professionals from other typologies as, ‘physical environment’ such as ‘overload,’ ‘lack of privacy,’ ‘noise,’ and ‘temperature extreme’ (p. 79); ‘role stressors’ such as ‘role conflict’ and ‘role ambiguity;’ ‘organizational structure and job characteristics’ such as ‘work overload,’ ‘lack of career progression,’ ‘supervisor relations’ and ‘role conflict’ (p. 83); ‘relationships with others,’ ‘career development’ from starting to developing to maintaining to ending and transitioning to another career; and ‘work-family conflict’ (p. 77). Role ambiguity and role conflict were closely examined by Caplan et al. (1980). Lamontagne et al. (2007) identified common problems of the organizations as job control, workload and work environment. The environment can be hazardous physical work environment and psychosocial work environment (Lamontagne et al., 2007). Psychological factors are also considered important stressors (B. C. Fletcher, 1988). Uncertainty is an underlying source of other stressors (Sharit & Salvendy, 1982). All these categorizations are overlapping involving work factors, human factors or relationships and power relations in the organization, and extraorganizational factors. These are the main stressors that are still relevant today. Over the years, there have been new emerging stressors that are less common such as terrorism, safety, technology, underemployment, harassment, aggression (Barling, Kelloway, & Frone, 2005), organizational injustice (Barling et al., 2005; Cohen-Charash & Spector, 2001) work hours (Sparks, Cooper, Fried, & Shirom, 1997), and job insecurity (Sverke, Hellgren, & Näswall, 2002).

Each worker may experience stress differently depending on the type, level, arrangement, characteristics of the job and characteristics of the worker. Aside from class, stress manifests differently along the line of worker groups such as race (Attell, Brown, & Treiber, 2017; Deitch et al., 2003; Din-Dzietham, Nembhard, Collins, & Davis, 2004; Dowler, 2005; Ensher, Grant‐ Vallone, & Donaldson, 2001; Glymour, Saha, Bigby, & Society of General Internal Medicine Career Satisfaction Study Group, 2004; Haarr & Morash, 1999; Kern & Grandey, 2009; Mays, Coleman, & Jackson, 1996; Strayhorn, 1980), gender (Farinde-Wu & Fitchett, 2018; Fila, Purl, & Griffeth, 2017; Gaensbauer & Mizner, 1980; Gardiner & Tiggemann, 1999; Greenglass, 1982; Huebner, Royer, & Moore, 1981; Jick & Mitz, 1985; McCord, Joseph, Dhanani, & Beus, 2018; Pu et al., 2017; Rudner, 1985; Terborg, 1985; Wolfe & Jones III, 1985) and abilities (Hall & Wilton, 2011; Hirschfeld & Behan, 1966; Merz, Bricout, & Koch, 2001; Pagan, 2017; Pagán, 2009; Roessler, 2002).

The Buddhist stress model of the Four Noble Truths introduced in Chapter 1 (see Appendix A1 on the Four Noble Truths) that informs Three-Dimensional Mindfulness is different from the secular stress models presented above. First, I only discuss stress as distress in the thesis. Second, the Buddhist stress model accords causal priority to the internal while the secular models can be either or both internal and external with more emphasis on the external. The external stressors referred to in secular stress models are only the external conditions of stress in the Buddhist stress model. I would rather take the metatheoretical view of addressing both the internal and the external or ideational and material forces. While I agree with the Buddhist stress model that through practicing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness, practitioners will be able to discern that the causes of stress is internal instead of external and overcome stress internally, I also see that the practices are difficult to master and will be further discussed in the findings from Chapters 6 to 7. Even when the external work conditions may not stress practitioners, they still need to solve problems that arise from the work conditions. Therefore, I propose that organizations also facilitate the practice of Three-Dimensional Mindfulness externally by aligning their external work conditions with the Buddhist values of ending stress.

Importance of work stress research.

Negative effects on work. Work stress has received an increasing research interest since the 1980s due to the realization of its negative impact on workers and their organizations (Lamontagne et al., 2007). Matteson and Ivancevich (1987) and Jex and Crossley (2005) identified three stress outcome types: psychological, physical, and behavioural. Jex and Crossley (2005) also discussed two dimensions of stress outcome relevance: individual or human and organizational (see Appendix C for Outcome Type by Outcome Relevance). Their examples of psychological stress outcomes or strains are ‘anxiety,’ ‘general psychological well-being’ (Jex & Crossley, 2005, p. 577), depression (Jex & Crossley, 2005; Matteson & Ivancevich, 1987), reduced self-esteem and increased irritability (Matteson & Ivancevich, 1987) compared to job dissatisfaction (Jex & Crossley, 2005; Matteson & Ivancevich, 1987), ‘job frustration,’ low commitment and involvement (Jex & Crossley, 2005, p. 576), reduced morale and apathy (Matteson & Ivancevich, 1987) and burnout (R. T. Lee & Ashforth, 1996) in organizations.

Physical outcomes are, for example, ‘Psychosomatic Symptoms,’ ‘ill health’ and ‘Physiological Indices’ such as changes in ‘blood pressure,’ ‘heart rate,’ cardiovascular disease,

‘catecholamine level,’ and ulcers (Matteson & Ivancevich, 1987) in individuals and organizational healthcare spending or ‘Healthcare Utilization,’ ‘Sick Days,’ and ‘Workers’ Compensation Claims’ in organizations (Jex & Crossley, 2005, p. 577), health and safety (injury), and accidents (B. C. Fletcher, 1988; Lamontagne et al., 2007, p. 273; Matteson & Ivancevich, 1987) in organizations.

Behavioral outcomes, for example, are ‘decreased positive health behavior,’ ‘drug and alcohol use,’ ‘risk taking’ (Jex & Crossley, 2005, p. 577) ‘smoking’ and ‘escapist drinking’ (B. C. Fletcher, 1988, p. 59) in individuals, and negative working conditions on ‘job performance’ (Jex & Crossley, 2005, p. 577) absenteeism and turnover (B. C. Fletcher, 1988; Jex & Crossley, 2005; Lamontagne et al., 2007, p. 273; Matteson & Ivancevich, 1987), lower productivity (B. C. Fletcher, 1988; Lamontagne et al., 2007, p. 273; Matteson & Ivancevich, 1987) ‘decreased work effort’, ‘decreased attention span’ (Matteson & Ivancevich, 1987), and increased malpractice claims (Jones et al., 1988), in organizations. These negative effects are costly to organizations (B. C. Fletcher, 1988; Matteson & Ivancevich, 1987). Other reasons to pay attention to organizational stress are ‘humanitarian responsibility’ to improve employees’ work-life and opportunity loss (Matteson & Ivancevich, 1987, p. 8).

Solutions to work stress. Lamontagne et al. (2007) conducted a systematic review of job stress intervention literature from 1990 to 2005 to establish models of best practice. They categorized the interventions into three levels in public health: primary, secondary and tertiary (see Appendix D for A Systems Approach to Job Stress). Primary prevention changes the external work environment or organizations at the organizational level; the secondary changes the individuals’ perception by training their skills and knowledge on coping with stress; and the tertiary rehabilitates workers. They rated 90 reports on interventions based on the degree of the systems approach and ranked them into three groups: high rating (predominantly organizationally focused but also includes individual interventions of the secondary and tertiary), moderate (organizationally focused only) and low rating (individually focused with little or no primary prevention). They found that the high rating or the primary interventions have increased, yet the low rating secondary level approach still dominates the field of job stress. Following the systems approach which emphasizes ‘dealing with problems at their source’ (Lamontagne et al.,

2007, p. 268), the article hypothesized that the high rating yields best or favourable individual and organizational outcomes.

I will use Lamontagne et al.’s (2007) three levels of intervention: primary, secondary and tertiary in categorizing stressors and solutions. Their three categories are similar to Matteson and Ivancevich’s (1987) coping categories: ‘modifying the stressful situation (that is, the stressors) by direct action; reinterpret the stressful situation; and manage the outcomes’ (p. 30). Lazarus and Folkman (1984) considered managing the stressors with ‘problem-focused’ copingv, and emotional regulation ‘emotion-focused’ copingvi in their coping framework. Matteson and Ivancevich referred to Antonovski’s (1987) three coping variables: ‘rationality, flexibility, and farsightedness’ (p. 30). They seemed to focus more on the secondary level while Lamontagne et al. favoured primary interventions which they described as:

proactive, aiming – in the job-stress context – to prevent exposures to stressors and the occurrence of illnesses among healthy individuals. These address sources of stress in the workplace, or stressors, through alterations in physical or psychosocial work environments, or through organizational changes. Primary preventive interventions can be driven by a range of influences, including organizations, workers or their unions, or mandatory or voluntary policy directives.… Primary preventive interventions are also commonly referred to as "stress prevention." Most primary preventive interventions are directed at the organization or the work environment, but they can also be directed at individuals – when addressing stressors rather than stress responses, as in conflict- management skills development in a hospital worker.

(Lamontagne et al., 2007, p. 268)

Examples of primary preventive interventions are change in psychosocial work environment, job hassles, job re-design, job control, ‘high employee participation and integration of occupational health with traditional core organizational concerns,’ social support, ‘a collaborative participatory approach,’ ‘occupational health and workplace health promotion,’ (Lamontagne et al., 2007, p. 276), ‘the formation of joint labor-management health and safety committees’ and ‘changes in work pacing’ (Lamontagne et al., 2007, p. 268). Matteson and Ivancevich (1987) with reference to other studies mentioned that changes in task attributes such

as ‘pay, promotion, and fringe benefits’ increase extrinsic motivation, and redesigning job characteristics such as variety, autonomy, task identity, task significance and feedback’ increase intrinsic motivation which could improve job satisfaction and performance (p. 42). Other related considerations they mentioned are improving individual-organizational relationships in a cycle from ‘recruitment to socialization to career planning to termination and back to recruitment’ (p. 133), and implementing organizational stress management policies and programs including ‘goal setting,’ ‘participative decision making,’ ‘job enrichment,’ ‘work scheduling’ and ‘survey- feedback systems’ (pp. 138-150). Other workplace policies are becoming a ‘healthy organization’—'an organization that is financially successful and at the same time emphasizes employee health and well-being’ (Sauter, Lim, & Murphy, as cited in Jex & Crossley, 2005, p. 592). These policies and programs are organizational interventions by either changing the stressors or matching workers with the right job. Either labour groups or the management takes action towards interventions as their understanding, experience and interests in stress reduction are fairly different (Burke, 1988).

The changes after interventions on organizations are increased job morale, job satisfaction, productivity (Lamontagne et al., 2007, p. 273), decreased ‘psychological job demands’, work demands, ergonomic risks, increased job control, and improved organizational climate (Lamontagne et al., 2007, p. 276).

Lamontagne et al. (2007) described secondary interventions as ‘ameliorative, aiming to modify an individual's response to stressors. Secondary interventions target the individual with the underlying assumption that addressing individuals' responses to stressors should be done in addition to-or sometimes in preference to-removing or reducing stressors’ (pp. 268-269).

Interventions at the secondary level are, for example, training in stress management that is more individual-focused that results in prevention or relief such as ‘progressive muscle relaxation, meditation, cognitive behavioral skill’ (Lamontagne et al., 2007, p. 273), biofeedback, exercise, social support systems (Matteson & Ivancevich, 1987). Matteson and Ivancevich’s (1987) described three cognitive techniques or strategies: ‘appraisal,’ ‘restructuring’ and ‘rehearsal’ (pp. 155-160). Cognitive techniques shift the view of the causes and effects of stress—from work situation as the stressor to the mind as the stressor—and that people have some control over their stress. ‘Cognitive appraisal perception’ or perspective-

taking, which is ‘the intake and processing of a stimulus’ is used to reinterpret the stressors (p. 28).

The changes after interventions on individuals are ‘somatic symptoms,’ ‘physiologic changes’ (decreased ‘cardiovascular health risks,’ improved ‘lipid profiles,’ blood pressure, and heart rate (Lamontagne et al., 2007, p. 276)), coping skills, positive health behaviors—increased physical activity and decreased substance use; and other psychological outcomes (Lamontagne et al., 2007, p. 273).

This level is closest to secular-informed mindfulness literature as mindfulness is used as a coping skill or strategy. The use of meditation existed in North America before the rise of the new wave of meditation research referred to as ‘mindfulness,’ mostly as a relaxation technique, such as ‘Zen meditation,’ ‘Nam Sumran’ or ‘Sikh meditation,’ ‘Transcendental Meditation’ introduced in 1960s, and ‘Benson Technique’ (Benson, 1975) (Matteson & Ivancevich, 1987, pp. 160-163). Meditation, as a relaxation technique, was proven effective in reducing stress as shown in physiological changes (Benson, Rosner, Marzetta, & Klemchuk, 1974; Gavin, 1977; D. J. Goleman & Schwartz, 1976; Orme-Johnson, 1984; Wallace & Benson, 1972), and psychological changes in organizations (Frew, 1977; J. B. Marcus, 1977). The benefits of meditation on job satisfaction, performance and relationship management were known since and meditation became widely practiced in various organizations in the United States (Matteson & Ivancevich, 1987).

Today, secular-informed mindfulness emphasizes a relaxation technique as in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) for chronic pain (Jon Kabat-Zinn, 1982, 2003a, 2003b, 2005, 2011, 2013) but has also become a cognitive therapy technique in Mindfulness- Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) (Zindel V. Segal, Williams, & Teasdale, 2002) and Acceptance-Commitment Therapy (ACT) (Hayes, 1987) (Baer, 2006). When secular-informed mindfulness is integrated into psychotherapy, there is a wisdom element added to it, which is more than just relaxation, such as cognitive behavioural change and acceptance. Nonetheless, this secular-informed mindfulness is only two dimensional as it is implicit of training virtue. As Lamontagne et al. (2007) suggested that the primary intervention has been more effective in overcoming stress, I propose that organizations promote primary intervention strategies as presented above alongside Three-Dimensional Mindfulness to facilitate its members’ Three-

Dimensional Mindfulness practices. This is not because Three-Dimensional Mindfulness is ineffective, but I observed that it is difficult for participants to maintain the outcomes.

Finally, Lamontagne et al. (2007) described tertiary interventions as, ‘reactive, aiming to minimize the effects of stress-related problems once they have occurred, through management or treatment of symptoms or disease’ (p. 269). Examples of tertiary interventions are counselling such as ‘employee-assistance programs,’ rehabilitation programs such as ‘return-to-work,’ and stress management as a relief (p. 269).

The examples of stress mentioned in the secondary level that aggravates to clinical conditions such as clinical depression and anxiety can be treated in the third level. Cognitive restructuring has been incorporated into multiple therapies such as ‘rational emotive behavioral therapy’ (Beck, 1976; A Ellis, 1978; Albert Ellis, 1999; Albert Ellis & Harper, 1961), ‘multimodel therapy’ (A. A. Lazarus, 1976), and ‘cognitive behavior modification’ (Meichenbaum, 1977). The ABC model was created and used in rational emotive therapy and cognitive behavioural therapy. Ellis (1991) explained that ‘the ABC theory of RET … holds that Activating Events (A's) in people's lives contribute to their emotional and behavioral disturbances or Consequences (C's) largely because they are intermingled with or acted upon by people's Beliefs (B's) about these Activating Events (A's)’ (p. 140) (see Appendix E for ABCs Schematic Diagram of Rational Emotive Therapy). Workers see their work situation or the stressors (A) as the cause of their stress (C) because they overlook their belief system (B), which is the actual cause. Cognitive rehearsal is used to practice confronting anticipated stressful events. When workers experience cognitive errors, such as motivated reasoning (Kunda, 1990), and cognitive dissonance (See Chapter 7, page 195, for further explanation) (Festinger, 1968) they are stressed. Cognitive-behavioural therapy could shift their patterns of thinking. A different form of cognitive therapy is Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT) to help clients accept their thoughts, feelings and sensations rather than change them (Hayes, 1987). Cognitive approaches, among others, are used as coping strategies. Burke (1988) discussed four categories of coping approaches including a psychoanalytic approach, a personality trait or style, a sequence of stages, and specific methods or foci. When workers experience secondary reactive emotional response, Emotion-focused Therapy may be used (Greenberg & Safran, 1989). Mindfulness has been incorporated into these therapies in the health sciences as a bundle.

Dimensions of Mindfulness in Research

Research trend. Secular-informed mindfulness referred to in this thesis is a variation of mindfulness rooted in Buddhism but may have diverged from it in interpretation and application. It has been reconstructed in the health sciences research during the past two decades. Unlike meditation in work stress research of the 1970s-1980s, mindfulness evolved from almost exclusively Buddhist meditation. Mindfulness programs as a product of Western mindfulness research are practiced and taught in scientific and academic settings such as in hospitals, clinics, and educational institutions by, for example, psychotherapists, general mindfulness practitioners, teachers and professors.

I have two concerns over this new trend of mindfulness. First, the use of the mindfulness construct is unclear and ambiguous, as Reb and Narayanan (2014) pointed out that the term can be unidimensional or multidimensional. Reb and Narayanan (2014) said ‘These conceptualizations include dimensions such as intention, present moment attention, awareness, decentering, openness, acceptance, non-reactivity, nonjudgment, and others’ (p. 756). In Buddhism, Right Mindfulness (see Appendix A3 on Right Mindfulness) as the seventh factor of the Eightfold Path seems to be multidimensional and is also a sub-element of the Eightfold Path. In secular-informed mindfulness, mindfulness is multidimensional, referring to a meditation technique to cultivate awareness and attention which can be bundled with other teachings in program development, or it can incorporate other teaching components under its name. My use of the term ‘mindfulness’ is multidimensional. I support including the teaching of virtue and wisdom for liberation as the content of meditation and contemplation practices. As mentioned earlier, I refer to this as ‘Three-Dimensional Mindfulness.’ While I admire the secular-informed mindfulness research contributions to extending improvements in health, disorders, prosocial behaviours, morality and wisdom, it is unclear what the mindfulness bundle consists of aside from concentration meditation. I still think mindfulness has to be multidimensional or added to teachings of virtue and wisdom to ever claim for the outcomes of virtue and wisdom. These results are drawn from the participants’ prior learning experience of realization. In fact, Payne (2018) suggested that mindfulness is not value-free and discussed mindfulness and morality by introducing three instruction models: morality seen as internal to mindfulness meditation, morality as integral to Buddhism, and morality as autonomous from mindfulness. Since there are

already two streams of practices—Buddhist-informed and secular-informed mindfulness—it may be too late to reject the mindfulness evolution. Payne’s (2018) second model is true to Buddhist- informed mindfulness, and the first model is usually the secular-informed mindfulness research standpoint. The third model, which connects meditation to generic moral lessons and other religions are applicable to secular-informed practitioners, which will also be explored in the thesis.

Second, since secular-informed mindfulness research is mostly conducted in the health sciences, predominantly, they are scientific in nature and methods: post-positivist, evidence- based, outcome-focused, and experimenting with beginners. Increasingly, mindfulness research is conducted across disciplines such as psychology, cognitive science, neuroscience, medicine, philosophy, management and education, all of which have something to offer to workplace learning. Except for education, these disciplines tend to adopt a quantitative research design. The quantitative means of knowledge production could result in an unnecessary attachment or fixation to the methods of mindfulness meditation in order to achieve specific outcomes.

Research contribution. While research on secular-informed mindfulness in health sciences has increased rapidly during the last decade, it is still scant in management studies (Dane, 2011; Glomb, Duffy, Bono, & Yang, 2011; Hede, 2010; Reb et al., 2014). I offer a critical perspective of mindfulness in the workplace drawn from qualitative data. New aspects I bring to mindfulness research are: interviews with long-term practitioners from Thailand and Canada who are Buddhist-informed and secular-informed; knowledge about obstacles practitioners experience in integrating Three-Dimensional Mindfulness into work; and knowledge about this revised framework for mindfulness research and practice—Three- Dimensional Mindfulness.

I found that mindfulness research is dominated by the Western psychological approach borrowing concentration meditation as a concentration practice for individual and organizational productive functioning and overlooking Buddhist meditative disciplines (R. Walsh & Shapiro, 2006) that also meditate and contemplate moral virtue and wisdom for liberation to overcome the unskillful, evil and unwholesome actionsvii that cause stress. For example, definitions of mindfulness in psychology treats mindfulness independent of moral virtue and wisdom featuring qualities of awareness or consciousness of being present, non-judgemental, non-attached,

receptive and attentive. In psychology, the most referred conceptual definition is ‘paying attention in a particular way; on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally’ (Jon Kabat-Zinn, 2013, p. xxvii). New operational definitions measurable with scientific measures are ‘the self-regulation of attention, which involves sustained attention, attention switching, and the inhibition of elaborative processing’ (Bishop et al., 2004, p. 233); ‘an open or receptive attention to and awareness of ongoing events and experience’ (Kirk Warren Brown & Ryan, 2004 p. 245). In Buddhism, Right Mindfulness (see Appendix A3 on Right Mindfulness) is one of the factors of the Eightfold Path to wisdom, therefore without other factors, mindfulness can only be practiced for a limited number of purposes and outcomes which may be sufficient to answer to the scientific research questions but do not offer participants the most skillful means to penetrate wisdom for liberation from stress. Arguably, when secular-informed mindfulness is introduced by focusing on concentration alone, practitioners may still be able to cultivate virtue and wisdom along the path by taking mindfulness as a first step. Without explicitly addressing virtue and wisdom training, it is questionable how secular-informed mindfulness research found these benefits through mindfulness meditation alone in beginner participants.

In this section, I review the literature on mindfulness in social life and in organizations. The main argument that I make in this chapter is the acknowledgement that mindfulness practice, whether it is Buddhist or secular, has three dimensions; however, the secular-informed mindfulness practice and research tend to have only identified one or two dimensions in their mindfulness application.

Western academic research focuses on the development and the functions of mindfulness. On the development side, researchers explain the scientific mechanism of secular-informed mindfulness from established constructs informed by interdisciplinary research in psychology, cognitive science, neuroscience, medicine and philosophy. This stream of research is very useful as the basis for understanding and explaining mindfulness scientifically. Its findings can be applied to teaching and learning of mindfulness, including adult education, and to conduct further research in the field. For example, Siegel (2007a) promotes education that not merely teaches content but also how to cultivate the mind. He argued for teaching mindfulness to enhance the skill of reflection in basic education to improve empathic relationships, resilience and well-being of students. On the practical side, secular-informed mindfulness research is

informed by interdisciplinary research for two streams of functions: (1) relaxation and concentration and (2) insightfulness. It became widely used as an emotion-focused coping strategy in healthcare and extended to work stress or well-being and focus or performance. It has also been used as a problem-focused coping strategy as in insight problem-solving, organizational change and leadership.

In the secular-informed mindfulness literature review, I categorize research by their development or cultivation of mindfulness rather than the outcomes of the Threefold Training (see Appendix A4 on Threefold Training) or the Eightfold Path. This is to say, secular-informed mindfulness research does claim for outcomes in virtue and wisdom, but it does not focus on explicitly training for virtue and wisdom. Parallel concepts and theories in literature that have no mention of Buddhist mindfulness or Buddhism such as ‘flow’ (Csikszentmihalyi, 2008, 2014), ‘learning organization’ (Senge, 2006; Senge & Society for Organizational Learning, 2004, 2005) cognitive ‘mindfulness’ (Ellen J. Langer, 1989; E.J. Langer, 1989; Langer, 1997; Langer & Moldoveanu, 2000) are excluded. The structure of the mindfulness literature review will follow this sequence: One-Dimensional Mindfulness - literature exclusive to concentration training; Two-Dimensional Mindfulness - literature inclusive of concentration and virtue training, and literature inclusive of concentration and wisdom training, and Three-Dimensional Mindfulness - literature that is inclusive of all three factors of mindfulness practice. The virtue, concentration and wisdom components must be explicit in the learning content or learning experience. Within each of the above groupings, I adopt Jex and Crossley’s (2005) two stress outcome categories— individual and organizational—and Good’s (2016) categories—human functioning and workplace functioning—in sub-dividing the literature into three categories: human outcomes, work-related individual outcomes and organizationally relevant outcomes. Literature addressing more than one outcome may be cited several times. I briefly introduce the human outcomes and focus more on workplace outcomes.

One-Dimensional Mindfulness: Literature on concentration training. The majority of mindfulness research found the benefits of concentration meditation techniques in reducing stress for well-being and enhancing awareness and focus. Some also found the further benefits of virtue as in prosocial and moral behaviours and wisdom as in insightfulness and compassion from meditation. I argue that these prosocial and moral

behaviours and the wisdom of compassion are not due to mindfulness alone but the results of research participants’ relevant prior learning and experience that were not accounted for in these research projects while insight problem-solving could be generated by mindfulness alone. In the Buddhist Eightfold Path, concentration training outcomes are Right Effort, Right Mindfulness (see Appendix A3 on Right Mindfulness) and Right Concentration (Bhikkhu Bodhi, 2013a). These outcomes are connected with the rest of the path and are derived from practicing virtue, concentration and wisdom together. The following are three categories of outcomes of concentration training.

Human outcomes of concentration training. Kabat-Zinn (2009, 2013) designed and implemented Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) in 1979, which is an 8-week mindfulness training program for stress reduction from a psychological and medical perspective. Participants and patients applied mindfulness in situations when they experienced stress and other health-related problems that caused negative feelings and chronic pain. ‘Mindfulness can be thought of as moment-to-moment, non-judgmental awareness, cultivated by paying attention in a specific way, that is, in the present moment, and as non-reactively, as non-judgmentally, and as openheartedly as possible’ (Jon Kabat-Zinn & University of Massachusetts Medical Center/Worcester. Stress Reduction Clinic, 2005, p. 108). His operational definition of mindfulness is ‘the awareness that arises by paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally’ (2013, p. xxxv). His MBSR has been adopted by other practitioners and researchers and influenced other variations of mindfulness-based clinical applications and teacher training. The MBSR shares the benefits of meditation for concentration and relaxation. Beyond the MBSR program, Kabat-Zinn practices Buddhism, but he did not attempt at explicitly integrating wisdom and virtue into the clinical mindfulness programs. Kabat-Zinn (2009) maintained that there are many paths to attain wisdom, a deeper understanding of the cause and effect of things and actions, for Buddhists and non-Buddhists. His wisdom is practical and functional and does not have to be guided by the Four Noble Truths (see Appendix A1 on the Four Noble Truths) or virtue training.

Other research projects in psychotherapy show the benefits of stress reduction and concentration in positive psychology such as improved self-regulation (K.W. Brown & Ryan, 2003), improved stress regulation using emotional approach coping which helped improved well-

being (Weinstein, Brown, & Ryan, 2009), emotional flexibility which may lead to psychological well-being (Ortner, 2006), increased well-being (K.W. Brown & Ryan, 2003), psychological well-being through the MBSR program (Eberth & Sedlmeier, 2012), improved mental health and resilience in children (Britton et al., 2014; Meiklejohn et al., 2012). Other psychological benefits were found in treatments of specific patient groups such as improvement of disorders (Baer, 2006) although cautioned that many studies had methodological flaws (Baer, 2003), reduced mood disturbance and stress in prostate and breast cancer patients (K.W. Brown & Ryan, 2003), stress reduction for cancer patients (Kvillemo & Branstrom, 2011), stress reduction and quality of life improvement in breast and prostate cancer patients (Carlson, Speca, Patel, & Goodey, 2003), improved chronic pain, health-related quality of life, and psychological distress at varying degree in patients of different pain conditions via the MBSR program compared to improved psychological distress via home meditation (Rosenzweig et al., 2010), depression relapse prevention in patients with depressive disorder through the Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) program (Z. V. Segal, Bieling, Young, & et al., 2010), improved mindfulness experience of distressing thoughts and images in psychotic patients (Chadwick, Hughes, Russell, Russell, & Dagnan, 2009), no improvement (except for reduced agoraphobic symptoms and psycho-neuroticism) nor adverse effects found in patients with psychosis introduced with mindfulness-based therapy (van der Valk, van de Waerdt, Meijer, van den Hout, & de Haan, 2013) and improved binge eating disorder via Mindfulness-Based Eating Awareness Training (MB-EAT) (Kristeller, Wolever, & Sheets, 2014). Benefits found in patient experiencing addiction were, for example, reduced use of substance in patients with substance use disorders via the Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention program (MBRP) (Bowen et al., 2009), reduced dropout of the facility for substance use disorders via the mindfulness-based therapeutic community treatment (MBTC) (M. T. Marcus et al., 2009), reduced gambling problem (Toneatto, Pillai, & Courtice, 2014) and effective alcohol relapse prevention (Zgierska et al., 2008). Aside from benefits in psychotherapy, some benefits are more applicable to workplaces such as eliminating or reducing task-set inertia or the carryover effect from a previous event or task onto a similar subsequent task through five-minute mindfulness (Kuo & Yeh, 2015), increased group performance and group cohesion among Applied Psychology students (Cleirigh & Greaney, 2015), reducing stereotype threat in task performance such as maths among women (Weger, Hooper, Meier, & Hopthrow, 2012), potential improvement in communication through

mindful listening (Ucok, 2006), improved distributive negotiation and negotiation satisfaction among undergraduate students via mindful attention training (Reb & Narayanan, 2014) and deautomatization (Deikman, 1982). Further benefits beyond concentration are the prosocial and moral behaviours and effects (Good et al., 2016) and practical wisdom. Examples of research results are less influenced by monetary incentives (Kirk, Brown, & Downar, 2014), increased ethical decision-making and less cheating (Ruedy & Schweitzer, 2010), increased insight problem-solving and creativity (Ostafin & Kassman, 2012), increased emotional regulation in rational decision-making (Kirk, Downar, & Montague, 2011); improved romantic relationship satisfaction and well-being (Barnes, Brown, Krusemark, Campbell, & Rogge, 2007), decreased stress, increased mindfulness and self- compassion via meditation, Yoga, a body scan exercise, and Qi Gong among helping professional trainees (Newsome, Waldo, & Gruszka, 2012), increased marital relationship satisfaction via enhanced emotion repertoire (Wachs & Cordova, 2007), improved partner relationship satisfaction and overall stress reduction through mindfulness-based relationship enhancement (J. W. Carson, Carson, Gil, & Baucom, 2004), and increased empathy through mindful observation (Dekeyser, Raes, Leijssen, Leysen, & Dewulf, 2008). Interestingly enough, some researchers found no evidence that mindfulness leads to prosocial behaviours. Eliseo (2016) found no evidence that mindfulness as in ‘our awareness of and attention to present events and experiences’ increases moral behaviour (p. 23). Work-related individual outcomes of concentration training. Kabat-Zinn’s MBSR has influenced workplaces and new development of mindfulness programs such as Google’s Search Inside Yourself program (Hansen, 2012; Tan, 2012). Other corporations that have implemented mindfulness programs are Apple, McKinsey & Company, Deutsche Bank, Procter & Gamble, Astra Zeneca, General Mills, and Aetna (Hansen, 2012); the U.S. Army (Jha et al., 2015) and Mayo Clinic (West et al., 2014), to name a few. Individual outcomes at work are well-being. For example, Jacob and Blustein (2010) conceptualized mindfulness-based stress interventions in the form of meditation in reducing stress, anxiety and other work-related psychological sufferings of people with an employment uncertainty. Their conceptual analysis is for mental health and career counselling. They drew on existing research on preventive interventions by Herr (2011) and Savickas (2003), work-based prevention programs, mindfulness-based stress reduction by Kabat-Zinn (2013) and Kabat-Zinn

et al. (1992) among others that view ‘Mindfulness as a Means of Coping with Stress’ (Jacobs & Blustein, 2010, p. 176). They followed the argument of Kabat-Zinn (2003a) on a concentration separation saying that ‘Because mindfulness is a universal quality of attention, it does not need to be tied with any philosophical or religious tradition to be effective’ (p. 176). Other projects on individual outcomes discussed stress reduction such as improved stress reduction (Wolever et al., 2012), stress reduction among caregivers (Epstein-Lubow, Miller, & McBee, 2006), stress reduction for employees facing changing work environment (Fries, 2009), and stress reduction in surgeons’ work-life (Fernando, Consedine, & Hill, 2014). Another topic discussed was improvement in sleep such as improved sleep quality in breast and prostate cancer patients (Carlson et al., 2003), decreased sleep difficulties and improved autonomic balance (Wolever et al., 2012), and increased work-family balance in working parents via improved sleep quality and vitality (Allen & Kiburz, 2012). Other positive psychology ad work included reduced expression of abusive supervision or a lower degree of acting out of hostility towards subordinates by supervisors (Liang et al., 2016), a model for mindfulness-based consultation, exploring the possibility of using mindfulness to enhance social, attitudinal and cognitive skills in the consultation profession (Davis, 2014), possible improvement in quality of life of occupational therapists by increasing self-awareness and self-care and relationships via MBSR (Gura, 2010), and increased self-regulation as a proactive strategy to buffer retaliatory responses to injustice (Long & Christian, 2015). Another research focus is on training program development and improvement, such as the MBCT clinician training program (Gibbons et al., 2014). Organizationally relevant outcomes of concentration training. Papers that focus on concentration in meditation found the benefits of well-being and performance. These projects are research on social and organizational behaviours that are general and specific to professions. For example, mindfulness improved emotional management of psychologists by preventing burnout (Di Benedetto & Swadling, 2014), reduced burnout and attentional biases among teachers through a modified MBSR intervention (Flook, Goldberg, Pinger, Bonus, & Davidson, 2013), reduced job stress and burnout among teachers via mindfulness training (Roeser et al., 2013) and could potentially improve emotion and stress management using a ‘model of the psyche’ consisting of ‘meta-mindfulness’ and ‘supra-mindfulness (Hede, 2010). Hulsheger, Alberts, Feinholdt and Lang (2013) concluded that mindfulness improves emotion

regulation, decreases emotional exhaustion and increases job satisfaction among interactive service workers or emotional labour in the Netherlands and Germany by analyzing their mindfulness traits and reports from self-training sessions based on concentration. In addition, mindfulness improved well-being in professional groups such as physician well-being through improving the meaning of work, work engagement, empowerment while reducing distress elements such as depersonalization (West et al., 2014), physicians’ well-being and improved attitudes towards patient-centred care via mindful communication education that consists of mindfulness and narrative medicine (Krasner et al., 2009), employee well-being such as ‘emotional exhaustion’, ‘work-life balance’, ‘job satisfaction’ and ‘psychological need satisfaction’ arising from leader mindfulness (Reb et al., 2014, pp. 39-41), employee well-being such as ‘emotional exhaustion, job satisfaction, and psychological need satisfaction’ from emotional awareness (Reb et al., 2015, p. 111), improved leaders’ well-being via mindfulness and psychological capital training (Roche, Haar, & Luthans, 2014), and improved well-being and work engagement through dispositional mindfulness and psychological capital training (Malinowski & Lim, 2015). Aside from well-being, concentration, as a result of mindfulness, improved engagement (Kahn, 1990; Reid, 2011), work engagement through authentic function and mindfulness (Leroy, Anseel, Dimitrova, & Sels, 2013), quality of organizational attention (Weick & Sutcliffe, 2006), attention and working memory among teachers via mindfulness training (Roeser et al., 2013), restraining attentional lapses or increased attentional stability in military cohorts during the predeployment training period (Jha et al., 2015) and flow (Reid, 2011). Ultimately, mindfulness improved work performance (White, 2008), improved work performance enhanced by focused attention of mindfulness in interpreting students (Ivars, 2013), increased performance such as increased ‘overall job performance’ and ‘in-role performance’ and decreased ‘deviance’ resulting from leader mindfulness (Reb et al., 2014, pp. 39-41), increased performance such as improved ‘task performance’, ‘organizational citizenship behaviors’ and reduced ‘deviance’ (Reb et al., 2015, p. 111), increased job performance and decreased turnover intention among restaurant servers (Dane & Brummel, 2014), and improved complex task performance and safety performance of nuclear powerplant workers (Zhang, Ding, Li, & Wu, 2013). Also, mindfulness prevented mistakes by improving organizational safety behaviours—compliance and participation—among experienced and intelligent workers who acquired dispositional

mindfulness (Zhang & Wu, 2014), and reduced sunk-cost bias through trait mindfulness developed in brief mindfulness meditation (Hafenbrack, Kinias, & Barsade, 2014). Results that show prosocial and moral behaviours and wisdom were patient-centred communication and increased patients’ satisfaction with mindful physicians (Beach et al., 2013), physicians’ communication quality with patients and among themselves (Beckman et al., 2012), improved workplace relationships through dispositional mindfulness (Long & Christian, 2015), improved workplace relationships between leaders and their subordinates (Reb et al., 2014), improved treatment team performance in psychiatric hospitals via the mindfulness-based mentoring (Singh, Singh, Sabaawi, Myers, & Wahler, 2006), increased self-compassion through a modified MBSR training (Flook et al., 2013) and increased self-compassion among teachers through mindfulness training (Roeser et al., 2013). Overall, researchers have been able to confirm the benefits of concentration training in their research areas. These have yielded both theoretical and practical implications. However, these projects almost entirely overlook virtue training which purifies the mind, such as the Five Precepts and wisdom training such as the Four Noble Truths (see Appendix A1 on the Four Noble Truths). This line of research is effective for explaining concentration for stress reduction and work performance but provides little evidence of work wisdom through becoming more self- transforming and self-transcending in their work conduct. Those projects which have gone further than concentration to explore prosocial and moral effects of mindfulness hardly addressed prior training or experience of virtue and wisdom of practitioners.

Two-Dimensional Mindfulness (1): Literature on concentration and virtue training. As stated earlier, academic research on mindfulness rarely includes moral virtue or moral development (Vich, 2015). In the Eightfold Path, moral virtue is Right Speech, Right Action and Right Livelihood (Bhikkhu Bodhi, 2013b). Moral virtue is an essential foundation for concentration and wisdom. Although morality is not overtly covered in the scientific mindfulness training programs, practitioners are aware of their own moral lessons and experience (Krägeloh, 2016). Three categories of a combination of concentration and virtue outcomes are presented below:

Human outcomes of concentration and virtue training. There are few research or academic writings that discuss the training of meditation and morality or virtue. One example

that emphasizes ethics or morality alongside mindfulness training is the role of mindfulness in fostering morality and aesthetic values in vocational education (Hyland, 2011),

Work-related individual outcomes of concentration and virtue training. Virtue, ethics, morality, or good conduct have been studied as a part of mindfulness training in some research papers. Lampe and Engleman-Lampe (2012) conceptualized Mindfulness-Based Business Ethics Education to promote the inclusion of mindfulness meditation techniques in Business ethics curriculum to improve the ethical decision making of business students. They adopted Kabat-Zinn’s (1994) definition ‘paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally’ (p. 4), and his eight-week MBSR program. They briefly summarized concentration and insight meditation as their techniques and discussed a possible curriculum to promote skillful meditation for business decision making and its outcomes of improvement in awareness, cognitive and emotional self-regulation, and ethical decision making. Although this paper focuses on ethics (that students will use in the workplace), ethics here are practical ethics. The authors do not relate ethics to moral factors in mindfulness practice and incorporate mindfulness meditation to the curriculum on a map of the Eightfold Path.

Kamble and Kumar (2017) proposed a Five Component Model of ethical decision- making by adding a mindfulness component to an existing James Rest's Four Component Model referred to as ‘moral spontaneity’ (Kamble & Kumar, 2017).

Organizationally relevant outcomes of concentration and virtue training. Some examples of topics and benefits are increased discretionary effort through ethical leadership among followers with higher moral emotions and mindfulness (Eisenbeiss & Knippenberg, 2015), prevention of social loafing through mindfulness and moral meaningfulness in Business ethics class which in turn would increase team’s effectiveness (Mihelič & Culiberg, 2018), decreased role conflict among healthcare employees through mindfulness and clear organizational ethical guidelines (Valentine, Godkin, & Varca, 2010). Reb et al. (2015) suggested the relationship between mindfulness and the possible outcome of ethical behaviour for future research but did not explore it directly in the paper. They researched prosocial outcomes such as organizational citizenship behaviour and deviance, which could improve performance, but they are not necessarily a virtue.

This section shows the scarcity of research on mindfulness and moral virtue training. Some are merely conceptual understanding; others are a course or program development that attempted at integrating meditation and moral virtue. Few empirical research papers exist to support the practice.

Two-Dimensional Mindfulness (2): Literature on concentration and wisdom training. Similar to research on concentration, the research variables can be the same—stress reduction and performance. However, when these mental factors are related to Right View/Understanding, and Right Intentions/Aspiration (Bhikkhu Bodhi, 2013a), or practical wisdom such as insight problem-solving, emotional intelligence, compassion and empathy, they may be considered wisdom. Literature that includes concentration and wisdom in academic research is focusing on cultivating insight in meditation and somehow neglects the importance of moral virtue and some also neglect the practice of contemplation. In academic research, the fields of study that are emerging and extending the theoretical foundation of mindfulness are cognitive science and neuroscience. Research in these fields largely focuses on individual outcomes, some of which are relevant to organizations. Human outcomes of concentration and wisdom training. Goleman (1980) studied two forms of Buddhist meditation: insight and concentration. Insight meditation contains two phases: "mindfulness" which ‘entails breaking through stereotyped perception...In mindfulness, the meditator methodically faces the bare facts of his experience, seeing each event as though occurring for the first time’ using a ‘receptive rather than reactive’ process (p. 145). Concentration aims at ‘focusing the thought flow "by fixing the mind on a single object, the meditation topic."’ (p. 142). Initially, meditators’ mind is likely to slip away and would return to focus in their awareness (p. 142). Nyanapopnika Thera described mindfulness as ‘clear and single-minded awareness of what actually happens to us and in us, at the successive moments of perception’ (D. Goleman, p. 146). “Insight” is the second phase that can be identified when ‘the phenomena contemplated are distinct from the mind contemplating them’ (p. 146).

Integrated into psychotherapy, Martin (1997) refers to mindfulness as ‘a state of psychological freedom that occurs when attention remains quiet and limber, without attachment to any particular point-of-view. Mindfulness is a process of looking freshly, of observation that is essentially non biased and explorative’ (pp. 291-292). Martin clarified that his interest in

mindfulness is in ‘how the processes of mindfulness have been tacitly contained in Western psychotherapies’ (p. 292). He mentioned that mindfulness in its religious originality is ‘tacit obscurity’; therefore, unlike Kabat-Zinn (2009), Heard & Linehan (1994), and Epstein (1995), Martin intended to exclude Eastern meditation, philosophy and psychology of mindfulness in psychotherapy. Instead, he attempted to study mindfulness within psychotherapy to ‘facilitate an optimal circumstance for psychotherapeutic change’ (p. 292). Following is what he focused on: ‘(1) explore the defining attributes of mindfulness, (2) review relevant conceptual approaches that provide theoretical support for a mindfulness factor, (3) propose two attentional forms of mindfulness that seem to have particular correspondence with either psychodynamic or cognitive-behavioural therapy, (4) examine clinical applications, and (5) address the role of mindfulness for the integrative decision-making process’ (p. 292). His literature review covers both Eastern and Western psychology of mindfulness, acknowledging both concentration and insight but not the higher wisdom that could arise from insight. He applied meditation practice for insight and concentration to his proposal of mindfulness factor in ‘freeing up of attention’ (p. 295). He explained that ‘attention is freed by suspending its attachment to any particular observation. As in the figure-ground illusion…attention is hovering and remains uncommitted to a particular point of view’ in insight meditation. By contrast, ‘attention is freed, albeit paradoxically, by focusing. In this instance, the object of focus helps the meditator disengage from preoccupations with which she may otherwise be attending’ in concentration meditation (p. 296). Martin explored the benefits of mindfulness outside of the Buddhist framework to enhance the optimal benefits he could obtain in psychotherapies and integrative approach, Buddhist Mindfulness practitioners would argue that reducing stress without realizing stress, stress can be treated and reduced only temporarily. Baas, Nevicka, and Ten Velden (2014) research shows that ‘ability to carefully observe, notice, or attend to a variety of internal and external phenomena consistently’ (p. 1103) and ‘attend to various stimuli’ (p. 1092) using ‘open-monitoring meditation’ (p. 1093) which enhances flexible thinking or cognitive flexibility is a mindfulness skill that has a different relation with creativity. This observation skill differentially predicts creativity as it is closely related to a personality trait called ‘openness to experience’ (Baas et al., 2014, p. 1095). In this paper, creativity is the practical wisdom of insight meditation.

Increasingly there has been a new focus on loving-kindness meditation in clinical research and applications, which I refer to as contemplation of compassion. Researchers attempted to use contemplation instead of concentration meditation to treat pain (J. Carson et al., 2005), anxiety disorder (Kearney et al., 2013) and psychotic disorder (D. P. Johnson et al., 2009), among others, but it cannot yet be concluded that compassion produces the results.

Other papers on concentration and wisdom are rather theoretical, researching counselling self-efficacy and empathy (Bentley, 2007) increased compassionate responding towards suffering people (Condon, Desbordes, Miller, & DeSteno, 2013), the mindfulness construct and mechanism (Shapiro, Carlson, Astin, & Freedman, 2006; Siegel, 2007b); relevance realization theory for enhancing insight problem solving abilities (Vervaeke & Ferraro, 2013; Vervaeke, Lillicrap, & Richards, 2009), and a development of the self-awareness, self-regulation, and self- transcendence (S-ART) framework to explain how mindfulness removes biases in self- processing or self-distortion and creates a healthy mind (Vago & David, 2012).

Work-related individual outcomes of concentration and wisdom training. Miller and Nozawa (2002) studied the benefits of meditation in students and educational practitioners to explore the importance of holistic education. They built on some of the existing general research on meditation but employed qualitative research in data collection. Research confirms that meditation is effective in enhancing physical and mental well-being by, for example, reducing stress (Benson, 1976; Walsh, 1999, as quoted in Miller & Nozawa, 2002, p. 180). Physical benefits are ‘lowering blood pressure and cholesterol levels (Murphy & Denovan, 1997, as quoted in Miller & Nozawa, 2002, p. 191). It increases ‘creativity, academic achievement and interpersonal relationships (Alexander et al., 1991; Murphy & Denovan, 1997, as quoted in Miller & Nozawa, 2002, p. 191).

Meditation, or being present, is introduced in addition to traditional cognitive ability and knowledge from instructors that focus on the intellect and not the whole person. By being present, students gain insight into their own experience. In their studies, meditation is a contemplative practice. Meditation is also useful from a teacher’s perspective: ‘If we teach from our original self (e.g. our Buddha nature), teaching becomes a fulfilling and enriching experience…When we teach mostly from our egos, our work inevitably becomes tense and frustrating; conversely, when we teach from the original self our work becomes an act of joy and

delight’ (p. 180). They collected data by introducing meditation as a part of a graduate course curriculum to students who are educational practitioners. They asked them to meditate in their own forms ‘as letting go of the calculating mind and opening to the listening mind that tends to be characterised by a relaxed alertness’ (p. 181) and to practice mindfulness by ‘being present in the moment in daily life. This practice is focusing on what we are doing without falling into automatic pilot, where we can function without awareness. Mindfulness leads to deep attention’ (p. 181). Findings show that meditation has benefits of feeling centred; ‘giving themselves permission to be alone and enjoy their own company; increased listening capacities; feeling increased energy; being less reactive to situations, and generally experiencing greater calm and clarity’ (p. 182). Their findings confirm that holistic education is essential to formal schooling and academic programs because it has ‘positive longterm effects on both the personal and professional lives of educators’ such as becoming ‘calmer and more grounded in their life and work,’ ‘a ripple effect as about one-quarter of the teachers introduced meditation to their students. They found that students looked forward to the meditation, and it helped make their classes calmer and more relaxed. One teacher felt that it also improved their creativity’ (Miller & Nozawa, 2002, p. 191). Miller and Nozawa’s research methods are similar to my research design, using qualitative interviews to collect data from open-ended questioning. However, their orientation to meditation discussed in the paper did not explicitly mention moral virtue through mindfulness meditation, nor did they focus on cultivating insight. Instead, the content of the teaching was around holistic education, which could involve wisdom through compassion and peace, and the practice was meditation. They were open to the general benefits of mindfulness. Their findings are purposive and sufficient to support their argument for holistic education. However, they do not uncover the insight that workers, in their case, teachers, develop from their workplace in relation to virtue but limited to mental states of being, for example, calm and relaxed. This paper is somewhat Buddhist-informed in tone but focuses mainly on concentration and wisdom.

Organizationally relevant outcomes of concentration and wisdom training. Goleman is well-known for his writings on emotional intelligence from the 1990s. Kabat-Zinn and Goleman (2007) co-produced an audiobook on Mindfulness @ Work: A Leading with

Emotional Intelligence Conversation with Jon Kabat-Zinn to discuss the interconnectedness between mindfulness and emotional intelligence to improve leadership in the workplace.

Duerr (2004) conducted a literature review and qualitative research interviews on spirituality in the workplace and concluded that ‘contemplative organisation’ meaning ‘an organization that attempts to infuse a contemplative approach into the workplace’ is emerging as a trend (p. 44) and proposed it as a conceptual model for future research. Duerr’s research project shares some similarities with my thesis in employing qualitative interviewing in the context of work. However, Duerr’s project does not attempt to incorporate moral virtue in the question, but the practice of contemplation itself and does not focus on any particular purpose of contemplation. Leroy et al. (2013) found a relationship between mindfulness and work engagement by adopting authentic functioning as a mediator. Kernis defined authentic functioning as ‘the unobstructed operation of one's true, or core, self in one's daily enterprise’ (Kermis, 2003, p.13 as quoted in Leroy et al., 2013). Leroy et al (2013) saw this connection between ‘an open and non-defensive way of interacting with oneself and others (Leroy, Anseel, Gardner, & Sels, in press)’ (p. 239) in the practice of mindfulness, and used this to strengthen a new relationship between mindfulness and work engagement. This employee authentic functioning also improves their well-being in the workplace. The idea of core true self and the open and compassionate mind in this article share some dimensions of wisdom. Other papers that focus on mindfulness benefits of concentration and wisdom are increased leadership (Shields, 2008), and improved attention, self-awareness and empathy of psychotherapists towards clients (Keane, 2014).

Some of these papers map insight onto intellectual and practical wisdom and the insight construct with the Buddhist insight, which can be enhanced by insight meditation and contemplation for practical wisdom. Some literature on concentration and wisdom discuss openness and cognition in mental development for secular purposes, but they do not intentionally contemplate insights into the Four Noble Truths (see Appendix A1 on the Four Noble Truths) to cultivate Buddhist wisdom such as compassion and the Three Marks of Existence (see Appendix A2 on Three Marks of Existence), or even practically. The importance of practicing Buddhist wisdom is if the goal of the practice is the cessation of suffering. If the wisdom is different but still leads to the same end, then it is worth studying.

One-Dimensional Mindfulness and Two-Dimensional Mindfulness have their academic merits that other studies can expand on. In this thesis, they open a discussion for Three- Dimensional Mindfulness for me. I mentioned earlier that Buddhism is outcome-focused, and those outcomes are from the Threefold Training for virtue, concentration and wisdom (see Appendix A4 on Threefold Training). Practitioners should not be fixated on the methods. In this literature section, my focusing on the training content or explicit training in virtue, concentration and wisdom together may make it seem like I am focusing on the method rather than the outcomes. If One-Dimensional Mindfulness and Two-Dimensional Mindfulness can produce the outcome of virtue, concentration and wisdom, then Three-Dimensional Mindfulness would be unnecessary. I would argue that One and Two-Dimensional Mindfulness outcomes so far are still limited. In fact, the concentration outcome is prized while the wisdom outcome is less discussed, and the virtue outcome is rare in mindfulness research. An imbalance of the importance of each outcome or an emphasis on a certain outcome over the others may shift the ultimate outcome of cessation of suffering to something else. For example, when a researcher or a practitioner aims for the concentration outcome and a wisdom outcome and overlooks the virtue outcome, then the practice can be used for any purpose including the purpose that creates stress. For this reason, I propose to examine Three-Dimensional Mindfulness cautiously.

Three-Dimensional Mindfulness: Literature on concentration, virtue and wisdom training. Research that corresponds to Buddhist Threefold Training (see Appendix A4 on Threefold Training) is considered Buddhist-informed. Buddhism claims that this stress model would end suffering. In this thesis, I extend the Threefold Training to a new framework - ‘Three-Dimensional Mindfulness’ - to be applied to all faiths and secular virtue and wisdom that are still aligned with the Buddhist Threefold Training in their purpose of ending stress. I suppose mindfulness scholars would be receptive to this framework and conduct further research on it. Some extant research seems to have shared aspects of this view. For example, Purser and Milillo (2015) were critical of secular-informed mindfulness and reconceptualized mindfulness by connecting it to the Buddhist virtues and wisdom. Walsh (2018) was critical of the use of corporate mindfulness as a stress reduction technology for individual workers to alleviate their own stress rather than changing the problematic system and structure, or as an enabler of biopower and neoliberal governmentality which pushed the responsibility of well-

being to an individual self. He supported resisting this neoliberal agenda of corporate mindfulness for well-being, resilience and engagement by reorientating mindfulness to social justice or ‘queering mindfulness to #makerefuge’ (p. 117) for collective well-being. Others argued for the importance of interconnectedness—the body is inseparable from the mind—in the embodiment or embodied learning literature (Bai, 2001; Ng, 2011; Yuk-Lin Renita. Wong, 2004; Yuk-Lin Renita Wong, 2013). For example, in social work, Wong (2004) introduced mindfulness to critical social work pedagogy as a practice for embodied and affective learning for students. Researchers in this group tap into virtue, concentration and wisdom at the same time. Since researchers have the liberty to design their project, some adopted Buddhism as a model; others developed their own combination from their own worldviews or different faiths and codes of ethics.

Human outcomes of concentration, virtue and wisdom training. Some academic writings on mindfulness addressed the Threefold Training (see Appendix A4 on Threefold Training) or address all three components: virtue, concentration and wisdom for liberation. Marlatt and Kristeller (1999), among other definitions presented, defined mindfulness as ‘bringing one’s complete attention to the present experience on a moment-to-moment basis’ (p. 68). They applied mindfulness meditation to clinical therapy by also cultivating spirituality. They reviewed meditation practices to develop therapeutic instructions and study their effectiveness. In another article, Marlatt (2002) applied Buddhist philosophy to studies on addiction as a model to replace a moral model and a disease model. In his study, meditation is a treatment of addiction, which is a form of suffering. He applied the Four Noble Truths (see Appendix A1 on the Four Noble Truths) to solving addiction. The last truth is the Noble Eightfold Path that emphasizes cultivating ‘"right" attitude toward all life experiences, including right vision, right conception, and right mindfulness and concentration’ and ‘behavior, such as "right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, and right effort"’ (Kumar, 2002, as quoted in G.A. Marlatt, 2002, p. 49).

Marlatt’s conceptual application of Buddhist philosophy to addiction is useful for developing a model for therapy and further research. His acknowledgement of Buddhist wisdom and morality (which in his paper is referred to as Dharma and Buddhist philosophy) is consistent with my argument for the Three-Dimensional Mindfulness practice. However, his concept

mapping does not critique how psychotherapy usually disregards wisdom and moral virtue in their research and limits the potential benefits of mindfulness to relaxation. Marlatt and Kristeller’s inclusion of the Buddhist Four Noble Truths (see Appendix A1 on the Four Noble Truths) in mindfulness meditation for addiction opens doors for Buddhist virtue to be taught to patients. Nevertheless, although the Four Noble Truths (see Appendix A1 on the Four Noble Truths) constitute wisdom from mindfulness, their study hardly addressed how mindfulness cultivates insight for that wisdom. Rather, it is more of a conceptual mapping of Buddhist philosophy to clinical therapy for addiction. Although they focused on the Eightfold Path, they did not address why the path would be indispensable or complementary to mindfulness practice.

Walsh and Shapiro (2006) explored the possibility of integrating the complementarities of meditative disciplines into Western psychology. They did an extensive literature review on the development of Western integration of meditative discipline into Western psychology to identify possibilities for extending research on meditation. They indicated the opposing arguments from both Western psychology and meditative disciplines over the other’s limitations. Psychology limits mindfulness to a therapeutic technique within Western psychological and philosophical research frameworks for secular purposes such as training attention, self-regulation, health and wellness and disregard morality and wisdom. By contrast, meditative disciplines limit meditation to mental development for religious purposes to cultivate insight and well-being, ‘mental capacities such as calm and concentration’, positive emotions such as joy, love and compassion towards all beings and things and limit ‘negative emotions such as fear and anger’ (R. Walsh & Shapiro, 2006, p. 228). Meditative disciplines regard meditation adopted in the West as a subset of the broader and deeper mindfulness practice in the East (R. Walsh & Shapiro, 2006). They mentioned that Western psychology did not merely decontextualize meditation but recontextualized it into a Western discipline (R. Walsh & Shapiro, 2006). It is a ‘“colonization of the mind” by Western psychology that “undermines the growth and credibility of other psychologies”’ (Marsella, 1998, p. 1286, as quoted in R. Walsh & Shapiro, 2006, p. 228). In their paper, Walsh and Shapiro (2006) aimed to examine ‘the varieties of psychological and somatic effects’ of meditation and called for a cooperation in research and proposed the ‘enhanced capacities’ that meditation can yield including attention, sense withdrawal, thought cognition, lucidity, emotional intelligence, equanimity, motivation, moral maturity, and unique capacities (R. Walsh & Shapiro, 2006, pp. 236-237).

Walsh and Shapiro’s (2006) examined the possibility of combining the benefits of the broader meditative disciplines with Western psychology. However, they did not prioritize virtue or wisdom and their relationship as a part of their possible integration of Buddhism and Western psychology and did not view the separation of moral virtue and wisdom from concentration in research as a threat to mindfulness practice.

In education, Bai conceptually proposed the use of pedagogy of mindfulness in environmental education (Bai & Scutt, 2009) and environmental and civic education (Bai, 2001). This pedagogy involves virtue of harmlessness, meditation and wisdom of compassion and love for life and interbeing with communities. She argued that this approach would enable students to embody their knowledge, transfer it to actions and realize their interconnectedness with the world. Bai’s pedagogy of mindfulness which is truthful to Buddhist liberation is aligned with Three-Dimensional Mindfulness with the aim to realize and overcome social suffering— alienation from the world (Bai, Beatch, Chang, & Cohen, 2017). Bai and Scutt (2009, p. 100) used mindfulness to cultivate interbeing, which they explained as:

a sense of interbeing or consanguinity between ourselves as human beings and all other beings that make up the ecological community that we call earth. Mindfulness practice cultivates subject-object integration and bonding, rather than subject-object dichotomy and alienation. From this integration and bonding flows love of life (biophilia) and deep appreciation of other beings’ sacred existence.

Bai’s works are also aligned with research on mindfulness in holistic education.

Other examples are improved spiritual outcomes in patients receiving religious and spiritual psychotherapies (Worthington Jr, Hook, Davis, & McDaniel, 2011), contemplative sociology, through mindfulness, as a means to making social change and creating mindful society (M. T. Lee, 2015), mindfulness as a means to social justice and collective well-being (Z. Walsh, 2018), a conceptual analysis of wisdom cultivation using an integral framework (Roger Walsh, 2012), a book on Mindfulness and Learning: Celebrating the Affective Dimension of Education (Hyland, 1995), a book on Teaching for Wisdom Cross-cultural Perspectives on Fostering Wisdom (Ferrari & Potworowski, 2008), and a book on the Scientific Study of Personal Wisdom: From Contemplative Traditions to Neuroscience (Ferrari & Weststrate, 2013).

Research on embodiment or embodied learning tends to use mindfulness-related practices such as Yoga, Qi Gong, Tai Chi and meditation as a means to social justice and anti-oppression. For example, Batacharya (2010) addressed the role of Yoga in healing to resist violence and oppression. Ng (2011) used Qi Gong in teaching and learning to show that body, mind and spirit are, in fact, interconnected and to transform being in the world. Western non-academic works on Buddhism that are devoted to social change are works written by or influenced by Thích Nhất Hạnh’s socially engaged Buddhism, Dalai Lama’s socialism, and other Buddhist social and environmental movement groups.

While I categorized the MBSR tradition as concentration training, Kabat-Zinn (2011) asserted that MBSR trains virtue, concentration and wisdom for liberation without having to mention them or any traditional teaching of Buddhism or other faiths. I am doubtful of attributing the benefits of virtue and wisdom to the training of meditation alone without considering practitioners’ prior learning and experience and social history. Kabat-Zinn (2011) did mention though that ethics is already taught and embedded in healthcare professional conduct which I think could be seen as prior learning and experience that the practitioners are responsible for drawing the connection themselves. Without teaching virtue and wisdom explicitly, it is almost assuming that every MBSR teacher and trainee could eventually, equally and automatically attain them with the same content and effect just through the eight-week program. It also seems to deter rather than empower practitioners to be open to learning about virtue and wisdom cultivation through other means and from other teachers and faiths and on their own. Buddhist traditions are receptive of secular-informed mindfulness initiatives, but it seems that this inclusivity has not been reciprocated.

Work-related individual outcomes of concentration, virtue and wisdom training. Examples are seen in professional curriculum development. For example, Harris (2011) designed a mindfulness seminar for peacemaking which incorporated mindfulness meditation and contemplation of loving-kindness and readings on morality lawyering and found that the students were appreciative of the seminar and gained the skills taught. From their mindfulness literature review, Lovas et al. (2008) proposed that mindfulness should be included in the dental curriculum along with professionalism and could potentially increase ‘attentiveness, self-awareness, acceptance, wisdom, and self-care’ (p. 998). Another example is the use of

mindfulness and compassion in finance to shift its purpose from making money to serve self- interest to realizing a greater purpose (Faugère, 2016). In social work, Hick’s (2009) edited book on Mindfulness and Social Work covers topics on virtue, concentration and wisdom aspects of mindfulness in social work such as ethic of care, activism for social justice and no-self. Unlike the majority of papers that focus on the mind, Wong and Vinsky (2008) applied embodied learning of mindfulness as a part of contemplative silence to social work pedagogy. The practice reconnected students to wholeness and interconnectedness with the world.

Other examples of works on individual outcomes are the enlargement of life : moral imagination at work (Kekes, 2006), the Contemplative Lawyer: On the Potential Contributions of Mindfulness Meditation to Law Students, Lawyers, and Their Clients (Riskin, 2002), and Reconstructing Vocational Education and Training for the 21st Century: Mindfulness, Craft, and Values (Hyland, 2014). These publications conceptually promote the use of Three-Dimensional Mindfulness but are not empirical research.

Organizationally relevant outcomes of concentration, virtue and wisdom training. Mindfulness training, which incorporates virtue and wisdom, improved work-related well-being (Shonin et al., 2014) and performance (Shonin et al., 2014). Shonin et al. (2014) found that Meditation Awareness Training (MAT) helped middle-hierarchy managers improve their work-related well-being, such as stress and job satisfaction, and job performance. Fehr (2011) theorized that mindfulness as a mechanism for temperance together with relationality and dignity contributes to forgiveness culture, which could improve organizational performance. A comprehensive conceptual example of publications is Mindfulness and Integrity: The Ongoing Challenge of Leadership Development (Waddock, 2016). At a community level, Scherer and Waistell (2018) examined Right Livelihood in socialist Buddhist communities in Thailand, the Asoke Community (Santi Asok), where members engaged in the day-to-day community by selling organic vegetarian projects in the community market at a fair price under the ideology of meritism instead of capitalism. However, this community has faced criticism in Thailand as it diverged from mainstream Buddhism.

While a fraction of Buddhist and mindfulness scholars have taken a critical perspective which is supportive of the Threefold Training (see Appendix A4 on Threefold Training) and Three-Dimensional Mindfulness, Buddhists have historically spread or transmitted the religion in

the world through an integration/assimilation/transformation/adaptation approach. This approach harmonizes Buddhism with existing systems, praxes and societies to serve the needs of the locals rather than resisting them (Heirman & Bumbacher, 2007; Sen, 2012; Treace, 1998), thus generating a variety of sects and undergoing revisions in different contexts. I suppose this could be a characteristic of Buddhist inclusivism (Kiblinger, 2017). Thích Nhất Hạnh, whose audience are Westerners, wrote books that could unite Buddhism with Christianity such as Going Home: Jesus and Buddha as Brothers (Thích, 2000) and Be Still and Know: Reflections from Living Buddha, Living Christ (Thích, 1996). This Buddhist inclusivism makes Buddhists more inclined to be receptive of secular-informed mindfulness regardless of whether it is one or two or three dimensional. Some scholars saw the development of Buddhist inclusivism as a contemplative turn in the postsecular age, witnessing the blurring of religion, healing and science in the application of mindfulness in education (Ergas, 2014). Others emphasized the subject position taken on this development such as those expressed in the critique of being spiritual but not religious in practicing social work (Yuk-Lin Renita Wong & Vinsky, 2008).

Mindfulness research from both secular-informed and Buddhist-informed research orientations presented above show a general trend of work stress research extending research results from the health sciences. Thus, the health benefits around stress reduction are prevalent in mindfulness research in the organization in health and wellness and job satisfaction. The focus in the organization is more on mental health than physical health. The concentration benefits have been applied to work performance, such as engagement and focus. In addition to stress reduction, organizational behaviour researchers extended positive psychological benefits such as self- regulation, emotional intelligence, empathy, resilience, teamwork, improved relationships and problem-solving from the health sciences to leadership research. The ethics component has been added to the mindfulness training bundle by university professors in professional school training. Ethics has also been added to the leadership bundle in organizational research. Buddhist- informed research is also interested in Buddhist outcomes such as Right Livelihood. While mindfulness research is growing, it is difficult to find the literature that corresponds to Three- Dimensional Mindfulness. Existing ones usually involve program and course development and theorization with limited empirical or ethnographic research.

Summary

In summary, this chapter is divided into two connected parts 1) secular work stress models, 2) dimensions of mindfulness research. Mindfulness is considered a secondary intervention in work stress intervention research. It can also be used at the third level intervention in rehabilitation. I agree with changing workers’ perspectives through mindfulness on their understanding of the cause of stress from external work conditions to their internal thoughts, emotions and feelings. This is aligned with the understanding of the causes of stress in the Buddhist stress model presented in Chapter 1. Nevertheless, I still propose that organizations follow the primary intervention of making changes to the external work conditions not because they are the stressors, but because it is difficult to always be mindful. These obstacles are discussed in the findings from Chapters 6 to 7.

In the second part of the literature review on mindfulness research dimensions, existing research confirms the benefits of reduced work stress and improved work performance in the organizational setting. The literature shows that a majority of mindfulness research is based on One-Dimensional or Two-Dimensional Mindfulness training, lacking either virtue or wisdom, and Three-Dimensional Mindfulness research is scarce. In order to achieve further benefits of mindfulness, I propose the use of Three-Dimensional Mindfulness which is based on the Buddhist stress model of the Four Noble Truths (see Appendix A1 on the Four Noble Truths). Three-Dimensional Mindfulness is the comprehensive and explicit training for virtue, concentration and wisdom.

My claim for Three-Dimensional Mindfulness training supports the first claim that the cause of stress is internal. Meanwhile, it does not prevent organizations from facilitating Three- Dimensional Mindfulness externally by changing its external work conditions to align with the practice for the cessation of stress. Three-Dimensional Mindfulness can be Buddhist-informed, other faith-based and secular-informed. Buddhist-informed Three-Dimensional Mindfulness is equivalent to the Buddhist Threefold Training (see Appendix A4 on Threefold Training). The other forms of practice are considered Three-Dimensional Mindfulness as long as they are aligned with the Buddhist values of the cessation of stress. The next chapter outlines the methodology and methods used to examine research participants’ experience, which informs the findings on Three-Dimensional Mindfulness in the workplace.

Chapter 3 Research Design

In the previous chapter, I categorize mindfulness into the secondary and sometimes tertiary levels of stress interventions and confirm the benefits of reduced stress and improved work performance with the literature reviewed. However, the literature is unclear about what is taught in mindfulness training. I proposed the use of Three-Dimensional Mindfulness that explicitly teaches Buddhist-informed virtue, concentration and wisdom as a learning framework for the cessation of stress or liberation. These outcomes are more advanced than stress reduction targeted in mindfulness research. However, I acknowledge that practicing for stress reduction alone was already difficult for participants which will be discussed in the findings chapters. To achieve a cessation of stress, they experienced even more challenges. Therefore, I propose that organizations facilitate Three-Dimensional Mindfulness learning and practices for its said benefits of reduced work stress and improved work performance by eliminating obstacles to practice and aligning organizational virtue and wisdom with Three-Dimensional Mindfulness. To arrive at this conclusion, I begin by conducting qualitative interviews.

In this chapter, I demonstrate why and how data are collected and analyzed qualitatively to answer the two research questions: 1) ‘How do Buddhist-informed mindfulness practitioners and secular-informed mindfulness practitioners reduce work stress and improve work performance through mindfulness practice in work-life?’ and 2) ‘What obstacles do Buddhist- informed and secular-informed mindfulness practitioners experience in integrating mindfulness into work for work stress reduction and improved work performance?’ I begin by discussing the research paradigm, followed by the methodological philosophies to justify the use of qualitative data collection and analysis and end with a description of the research process.

Research Paradigm

Currently, quantitative research dominates research on mindfulness. Despite its usefulness in testing, predicting and confirming relationships between mindfulness and existing constructs and phenomena, it does not capture and celebrate the diversity of mindfulness experiences in context and does not allow ideas and expressions to emerge in data collection and analysis. Instead of viewing this diversity as whole, quantitative research may treat this diversity

as a deficit and may suppress practices, beliefs, and wisdom that are yet explainable in scientific terms, such as kamma11 and reincarnation. On the other hand, qualitative research supports differences and diversity, which I found suitable to be used with mindfulness practitioners from diverse traditions to learn more about their wisdom. Besides its inductive process, qualitative research promotes ‘Naturalistic Observation and Description, Rather Than Testing General Laws’ (Auerbach & Silverstein, 2003, p. 24). The meaning and truth in worldly living are bound to context and time, and thus hardly generalizable. Although several measures of wisdom have been developed, only some aspects of wisdom can be measured. Qualitative inquiry is more open to unpacking workers’ wisdom that is beyond existing measurable outcomes because mindfulness is an experience that is explorative and could be complex to share with other people who do not practice it or practice it differently. In some traditions, practitioners are not supposed to share their level of mindfulness or their achievements except for sharing it with their teacher. It is self-observing and self-transformative. It is not a practice of a specific minority or vulnerable group, but it is embedded within a subjugated worldview, particularly in an era of late capitalism and global western hegemony. Qualitative research allows me not to prove the results scientifically yet produce valid social research findings. Qualitative data will uncover participants’ reflections of and insights into their work-life.

Not only the participants’ input is valued in qualitative research but also the researcher’s subjectivity and values. Auerbach and Silverstein (2003) referred to the process in which researchers observe the effect their subjectivity has on their research as ‘reflexivity’ (p. 27). Aside from being reflexive of my own subjectivity influenced by my past biography, positionality, and participants’ subjectivity, I am reflexive of different power relations between me as the researcher and the researched (England, 1994). Qualitative research regards participants as experts of their experiences (Auerbach & Silverstein, 2003) even if they are not traditionally scientific. Participants’ knowledge, experience and wisdom are equally valued without direct control and measurement in data collection. Open-ended semi-structured interview, the key qualitative data collection method that I used, enabled participants to engage in and be included in academic research with high discretion. These interviews invited participants’ freedom of expression regarding their views and experience.

11 kamma in Pali and karma in Sanskrit

Another advantage that qualitative interviewing offers me is the use of an insider perspective. I had developed the insider perspective of traditional Buddhism in Thailand, and I have expanded my knowledge to cover other Buddhist traditions and secular traditions by engaging in their communities of practice during the course of this research. Critical and interpretive frameworks that I adopt recognize the issue of power dynamics. These frameworks represent reality as complex and socially-organized (Lapan, Riemer, & Quartaroli, 2012). As a result, I become more accepting of other mindfulness traditions when conducting research. Critical interpretive qualitative research acknowledges that knowledge and meaning are socially and culturally contextualized (Lapan et al., 2012). Therefore, I intersperse my own reflections with those of my participants as part of my research method.

While the impact of qualitative research is not generalizable to a larger population, findings can be transferred or applied to other contexts. Yardley (2015) explained that there are similarities between contexts, allowing qualitative findings to be generalizable but in a more flexible manner than quantitative results. Yardley (2015) referred to Johnson (1997) in saying that ‘Qualitative researchers … aspire to what can be called ‘theoretical,’ ‘vertical’ or ‘logical’ rather than a statistical generalization of their findings’ (p. 260). My findings on work wisdom are not fully developed into a theory due to the scope of the thesis. Instead, I develop themes. These findings already have an impact on my mindfulness practice even though I am not practicing exactly in the same way as the participants and working in the same jobs as them. I hope the research will facilitate other readers in their wisdom transfer.

Research Methodological Philosophies

The term ‘methodologies’ is ‘the theoretical and philosophical considerations of how to engage in the process of doing research’ (Lapan et al., 2012, p. 427). ‘Methodology determines whether we are looking for the Truth, a point of view, a structural cause or an individual failing, an answer, or a question’ (Lapan et al., 2012, p. 427). In this research, I am seeking explanations on how to work wisely from the workers’ perspective. Methodologies chosen for the research are interpretivist: 1) critical reflexivity to reflect on the connection between mindfulness practice and work practice and reflect on the production and reception of this research, and 2) critical

phenomenology to explore how workers’ work experiences are materially organized and represent mindful work experience.

Critical reflexivity. Reflexivity is a methodology that enables me to do research informed by my social background of Buddhism. It is a powerful tool for qualitative research because it legitimizes subjectivity. According to Finlay and Gough (2003) ‘Reflexive’ means “‘to bend back upon oneself’…thoughtful, self-aware analysis of the intersubjective dynamics between researcher and the researched…a more immediate, dynamic and continuing self- awareness” (p. ix). It is achieved through ‘critical self-reflection of the ways in which researchers’ social background, assumptions, positing and behaviour impact on the research process…acknowledgement of how researchers (co-)construct their research findings’ (Finlay & Gough, 2003, p. ix). Different perspectives on reflexivity are applicable to this thesis: reflexivity as a human action that gives rise to paradigms (Holland, 1999), intersubjective reflection and ironic deconstruction (Finlay, 2003), referential reflexivityviii (May & Perry, 2011), reflexive presencing (Doane, 2003), self-reflexivity (Garfinkel, 1967) and feminist reflexivity (England, 1994). I will expand on the last perspective to exemplify the use of reflexivity in this thesis.

An example of how critical reflexivity can be used in my thesis is demonstrated in England’s (1994) article on Getting Personal: Reflexivity, Positionality, and Feminist Research. England (1994) emphasized the use of reflexivity in doing fieldwork in feminist research in geography. She used a qualitative critical paradigm that is more inclusive and sensitive to unequal power relations between the researcher and the researched, subjectivity and intersubjectivity with power being given to the researched as opposed to neopositivism that values objectivity, neutrality and impartiality, with the researcher taking the expert role and controlling the researched as objects. In her writing, she reflects on the relationship between the researchers and the researched. England argued that the researcher is subjective because of his or her biography, personality and positionality, and this subjectivity affects fieldwork and how data are analyzed and written up. She is concerned with including the voices of the others who are vulnerable without dominating them. Therefore, in feminist research, the relationships should be reciprocal by sharing knowledge and respect rather than exploitative. Additionally, the researcher should be a supplicant to the research subjects for their knowledge, treating them as experts and giving them power. Qualitative methods enable the researcher and the researched to

generate shared meanings in the dialogical and reciprocal research process, and this creation is informed by their intersubjectivity and guided by the researcher’s reflexivity. England refers to reflexivity as ‘self-critical sympathetic introspection and the self-conscious analytical scrutiny of the self as researcher’ (p. 82). In conducting fieldwork, reflexivity is indispensable because it enhances the researcher’s understanding of their own research and themselves, helps them to rethink the research questions and theoretical framework, and to pay attention to the relationships and consequences it has with the researched. England commented that ‘the reflexive ‘‘I” of the researcher dismisses the observational distance of neopositivism and subverts the idea of the observer as an impersonal machine’ (England, 1994, p. 82).

England’s use of reflexivity is applicable to my thesis, although this thesis is not specifically feminist research. We both use a qualitative design, encouraging intersubjectivity and dialogue, and working from a critical standpoint. My background in Buddhism influenced me to be interested in this topic and to craft interview questions in this direction. Yet, I had no intention to impose Buddhism on participants. In fact, I recruited secular participants out of interest in how they can be included in the discourse. Although the researched in my thesis are not necessarily a vulnerable group, questions around beliefs, religions, spirituality and values are sensitive and require reflexivity in the interview process.

In this process of self-examination or reflexivity, I have clarified my choices of metatheoretical positions that guided my research and justified my approach towards a critical movement. I aimed to minimize the risk of imposing my ontology arbitrarily onto the research participants in my explanation of mindfulness dynamics contingent on our working and social life in the contemporary workplace. The interpretive paradigm, through engagement with participants, uncovered participants’ mind and intentions influenced by feelings, emotions and values, and how they subjectively constructed and reconstructed their contextual social lives, interactions and relations. The critical paradigm released new potential findings from participants’ consequences of the Three-Dimensional Mindfulness practice without attempting to dominate other paradigms or establish a new truth. The critical examination is influenced by social structures and responds to the reality and needs of participants in their knowledge reception. It requires a reflexive process of deconstruction of established truths and cultural belief systems underpinning the Three-Dimensional Mindfulness practice. At the same time, it

triggers obstacles Three-Dimensional Mindfulness may have with the virtue and wisdom of the contemporary workplace. These two paradigms have different focuses, strengths and weaknesses but are consistent, especially in methods of data collection and analysis. It is interpretivism that permits meanings without truths, and it is this critical position that enables reflexivity to be a changing process in social research production and reception. Thus, this methodology is referred to as critical reflexivity.

Critical phenomenology. Although the thesis is not purely a phenomenological project, I am informed by critical phenomenology in data collection using qualitative interviewing and in acknowledging external work conditions as the condition of work stress in data analysis. Critical phenomenology derives from classical phenomenology in studying the essence of the experience, but like critical theory, it is critical of idealistic classical phenomenology that emphasizes the mind and individual experience in realizing the reality. While classical phenomenology and its development are useful for investigating workers’ work experience with Three-Dimensional Mindfulness at a personal and individual level, this phenomenological approach may disregard the external work conditions or the material circumstances of the worker as the source or condition of stress. To investigate subjectivity and intersubjectivity of workers, I used critical phenomenology to recognize socially organized subjectivities and investigate socially organized consciousness as a means of seeing reality.

Key examples of critical phenomenological practice I refer to in the thesis are Sara Ahmed’s books titled On Being Included: Racism and Diversity in Institutional Life (2012) and Queer Phenomenology (2006) and a journal article on A Phenomenology of Whiteness (Ahmed, 2007). Her works expressed the concrete experience of injustice due to race, sex and gender. The examples I took from her critical phenomenology are 1) qualitative interview as a method of data collection, 2) her use of phenomenology as a practice, and 3) her orientation to materialism. Her orientation guided her phenomenological practice, how she did the interview, and how she analyzed and wrote.

In conducting her qualitative interview, Ahmed interviewed 21 diversity practitioners in Australia and the UK in her book On Being Included (2012). She asked them questions about their experience of diversity and inequality in the context of diverse higher education institutions at the policy level. She argued that ‘a phenomenological approach is well suited to the study of

institutions because of the emphasis on how something becomes given by not being the object of perception’ (Ahmed, 2012, p. 21). The critical phenomenology methodology makes what is overlooked looked, invisible visible. Through the interviews, she wanted to ‘thicken our description of institutions’ (Ahmed, 2012, p. 9). In the process of the interview, she mentioned how the happy talk shifted to talking about problems in diversity work. I see this as an advantage of doing the open-ended interview—that it is open to this shift. Elsewhere she explained how she treated the interview data:

the texts I read are ones that already exist ‘out there’ in the public, rather than being generated by the research itself. My own view is that research on emotions should embrace the multiple ways emotions work, whether in public culture or everyday life, and this means working with a range of different materials, which we can describe in different ways as ‘texts, data, information’. We need to avoid assuming that emotions are ‘in’ the materials we assemble (which would transform emotion into a property), but think more about what the materials are ‘doing’, how they work through emotions to generate effects.

(Ahmed, 2015, p. 19)

In my thesis, I conducted 21 interviews with mindfulness practitioners from diverse industries and backgrounds in Thailand and Canada. It is true that Three-Dimensional Mindfulness has proven various benefits to the interviewees, and they wanted to confirm them in order that organizations support the practice. However, during the course of the interview, I began asking questions about the challenges encountered when practicing mindfulness. They took more time to reflect on those questions as they had hardly thought about them before. In the follow-up interview, I changed the focus from Three-Dimensional Mindfulness practice to stress. Talking about stress really showed that they knew that they still experienced tremendous stress amidst all the benefits they confirmed in the initial interview. Their experience of stress described their workplace. In their struggle, they practiced Three-Dimensional Mindfulness while trying to change their external work conditions. As Ahmed said, stress is not just in the interview data, but it has existed in the public sphere, which is the workplace in this thesis. Conditions of work stress today still resemble those of the 1970s-1980s presented in the literature review in Chapter 2. By collecting and putting work stress experiences together, in this

thesis, I make the case stronger that transforming or overcoming stress is every stakeholder’s collective responsibility, not just mindfulness practitioners or the employer. That is why I argue that organizations should align their corporate values with the Buddhist values guided by Three- Dimensional Mindfulness in order to facilitate mindfulness practitioners to reduce stress and improve work performance.

In her phenomenological practice, Ahmed (2012) used phenomenology critically in transforming diversity work in higher education, while I use phenomenology critically in transforming the workplace and studying internal landscapes to capture practitioners’ inner processes in their encounter with the neoliberal workplace. In her work, a lack of diversity or inequality is stress in lived experience that is recognized through the phenomenological practice and requires socio-political power to change it. I share the materialistic view of stress with Ahmed (2012) and would consider a lack of diversity and inequality as external work conditions in my thesis. The presence of these external work conditions creates the context of work stress for mindfulness practitioners. My phenomenological practice is to uncover these types of external work conditions that continue to exist but are overlooked or become normalized in achieving the work values of efficiency, productivity and competitiveness driven by individualism and self-interest. The findings of this thesis, presented in Chapters 4 to 7, show that Three-Dimensional Mindfulness aids practitioners in realizing that this stress exists in the workplace. Diversity and equality may appear to be corporate values; however, Ahmed’s (2012) work found that there is institutional resistance to diversity in the process of inclusion, and inequality continues to be reproduced. In this thesis, I attempt at showing that stress reduction, which is a broader category than diversity, is a virtue that is valued at work, but when applied incorrectly, it only suppresses stress. It makes stress invisible rather than visible. When stress is invisible, it may not be embraced, transformed or overcome. In brief, both research projects collect data qualitatively from interviews guided by critical phenomenology. Unlike classical and other types of phenomenology that focus on individualistic perception, Ahmed’s diversity is institutional, social and political. Similarly, mindfulness ontology is relational because there is no real intrinsic self or individual but interconnectedness.

In another writing of Ahmed on Queer Phenomenology (2006), she described the phenomenology of orientation, drawing from queer and feminist theories, critical race theory,

psychoanalysis and Marxism, as well as from other authors who used phenomenology critically. Ahmed’s (2006) phenomenological question in orientation is in how people and their body inhabit social spaces in relation to other people or objects in sexual orientation, along with other sources of knowledge such as gender and race. People orientate themselves towards certain normative lines of directions, but some people deviate and are inclined to objects they are not supposed to or form a new line and become orientated against the norms.

Phenomenology is used as a practice in Ahmed’s research to illustrate the ‘lived experience, the intentionality of consciousness, the significance of nearness or what is ready-to- hand, and the role of repeated and habitual actions in shaping bodies and worlds’ (Ahmed, 2006, p. 2). By ‘orientation,’ Ahmed (2006) referred to ‘different ways of registering the proximity of objects and others. Orientations shape not only how we inhabit space, but how we apprehend this world of shared inhabitance, as well as ‘‘who’’ or ‘‘what’’ we direct our energy and attention toward’ (p. 3).

By contrast, in the phenomenology of whiteness, Ahmed (2006) mentioned, ‘If we began instead with disorientation, with the body that loses its chair, then the descriptions we offer will be quite different’ (p. 138). This makes me think of stress as arising from external work conditions. It is the experience of being disoriented. This discomfort influences workers to habitually orient themselves towards changing the external work conditions on the surface in an attempt to end stress. One straightforward approach is to perform work well through their bodily acts, speech and intellect. Work performance is in the foreground that is valued and compensated for while work stress is pushed back to the background of the work experience. Work stress continues to be reproduced in organizations behind their products and services. Phenomenology is a method of unveiling work stress in the background and bringing it forward. In this thesis, I identify that Three-Dimensional Mindfulness is a path taken by mindfulness participants not to keep work stress dormant, but to see, embrace, transform or overcome it. Meditation is centring the body. When practitioners are centered, they are more relaxed and able to see stress more clearly as it arises while engaging in their external work conditions. In this thesis, I observed that Three-Dimensional Mindfulness affords practitioners’ reorientation. However, organizations can misorient workers towards organizational goals by instilling their corporate values of efficiency, productivity and competitiveness driven by individualism and self-interest, among others, in

workers which are difficult to embrace because, as findings show, they sometimes contradict with Three-Dimensional Mindfulness, creating a role conflict. Phenomenology is a method to uncover these obstacles, including contradictions experienced by participants in the workplace with the purpose of embracing, transforming or overcoming them.

Ahmed’s (2006) application of queer phenomenology was largely informed by the materialism of Marx. She questioned, ‘What work goes into the making of things, such that they take form as this or that thing?’ Following is her description of the application of Marxism in phenomenology:

Marxism provides a philosophy for rethinking the object as not only in history, but as an effect of history. The Marxian critique of German idealism begins after all with a critique of the idea that the object is ‘‘in the present,’’ or that the object is ‘‘before me.’’

(Ahmed, 2006, p. 41)

In other words, objects are not just there but have their social history of becoming and arriving, shaped by matter and social labour. Objects should not be merely viewed on the surface as given like how idealist phenomenologists might do. To Marx, this idealist view is ‘commodity fetishism’ (Ahmed, 2006, p. 41). In fact, commodities have two components, ‘”matter and labour,” where labor is understood as “changing the form of matter” (1887: 50)’ (Ahmed, 2006, p. 42). Ahmed (2006) referred to the example of a table as an object whose form has changed from nature/matter of wood to a table, or nature has taken the form of a table over time. The table has acquired use value for someone to do different things on it. Once the table is exchanged as a commodity in the market, it also has exchange value. Like other objects, the history of becoming the table is forgotten or overlooked. Ahmed (2006) used existential phenomenology of orientation to trace the life of the table in connection with other queer objects and their place that has been lost or disoriented in this way.

Buddhism may not have the same explanation of objects as historical materialism that Ahmed (2006) referred to. The Buddhist stress in the cycle of life continues because of ignoranceix, and other factors of Dependent Co-arising consisting of both matter and mind explained in Appendix A1 on the Four Noble Truths. This cycle can be reversed by practicing the Buddhist Threefold Training (see Appendix A4 on the Threefold Training). I see this as

reorientation to external work conditions. Instead of being stressed while changing the external work conditions, practitioners can realize the stress and embrace, transform or overcome it and become free from stress. Nevertheless, Ahmed’s use of phenomenology with a materialistic view is useful in explaining participants’ stress arising from their external work conditions. Because it is difficult and sometimes contradictory to practice Three-Dimensional Mindfulness in the workplace, as discussed in the findings chapters, I understand why participants habitually attribute their stress to the material world. I also propose that organizations should align their values with the Buddhist values guided by Three-Dimensional Mindfulness in facilitating mindfulness practitioners’ practice discussed in the findings from Chapters 4 to 7.

The two methodological philosophies—critical reflexivity and critical phenomenology— are consistent with each other in comprehensively revealing how Three-Dimensional Mindfulness transforms practitioners’ life and their organizations beyond what has been partially and positively confirmed and generalized. Critical phenomenology is consistent with intersubjective reflection in being mindful of bodily sensations, feelings, cognition and relations. It answers what it is like to be mindful in the work process and how their wisdom changes their work-life, particularly work relations, work environment and work process. The epistemology is through participants’ subjectivity, intersubjectivity and transjectivity and interpretation of wisdom from their mindful work experience. Both critical reflexivity and critical phenomenology complement each other as a methodological philosophy guiding the conduct of this thesis in encouraging the use of subjectivity, intersubjectivity, lived experience, introspections, reflections, awareness of different power relations and qualitative research in research design, implementation and writing. All these research components or tools support the way of knowing within the critical, interpretive and Buddhist frameworks.

Research Procedure

I divide the research process into five stages: 1) proposal development (literature review), 2) research ethics review, 3) data collection (participant recruitment, interview and data organization), 4) data analysis (transcription and analysis of interview transcripts) and 5) reporting of findings (thesis writing from data analysis notes). First, my early research proposal was developed from the same interest throughout the research process. That is, learning about

mindfulness practitioners’ experience of obstacles to integrating Three-Dimensional Mindfulness into work and vice versa A major change from the research proposal in the final thesis is a shift of focus from an international study of Thai and Canadian mindfulness practitioners to a comparison between Buddhist-informed and secular-informed mindfulness practitioners in their practices, obstacles and outcomes. Second, the research ethics review was smooth and timely with minimal revision because the project is considered low-risk. I developed a consent form which ensures that participants’ interview data are kept confidential, and participants could withdraw from the project at any time (see Appendix F5 for Consent Letter to Participants). Third, the inductive logic of this research begins with collecting data from individual practitioners. I use open-ended semi-structured interviews to collect data qualitatively to abstract themes of mindfulness practice, outcomes, obstacles to practicing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness, including contradictions between mindfulness and work. I collected data from seven Buddhist participants from Thailand, nine Buddhist-informed Canadians and five secular- informed Canadians. I used an iterative strategy in data collection and analysis. Fourth, I used thematic analysis as a key method of data analysis. Finally, I report the findings by themes of comparison between Buddhist-informed and secular-informed mindfulness practitioners in Chapters 4-7. Following is a further explanation of Steps 3 and 4.

Data collection.

Recruitment of participants. I recruited participants from two research sites: 1) in Thailand, and 2) in Canada. I chose Thailand as a research site for both practical and theoretical reasons. I was raised in the Buddhist culture and familiarized with the rich Theravāda Buddhism, including its influence on work culture in Thailand. Thailand has abundant resources on Theravāda Buddhism as well as a large population of Buddhists. Theoretically, I chose Thailand as it is one of the countries in the East that train Buddhist teachers or monks who transferred the knowledge of Buddhism to the West. I chose Canada as the other research site as it is a recipient of Buddhist knowledge and wisdom transferred from the East. It features varieties of mindfulness including a secular form infused with multiculturalism. I have gained considerable experience learning mindfulness as well as working in Toronto. These two research sites speak to my own experience living here and there and influence my own cultivation of wisdom. By engaging in different traditions, I became more receptive to different practice orientations. One

approach I took is attending participants’ mindfulness practice groups to familiarize myself with their way of cultivation, taking relevant courses and reading about them.

I recruited participants who were working professionals and practitioners of mindfulness using qualitative sampling strategies. The sources of data in Canada were mindfulness meditation groups in cultural settings, meditation centres and monasteries, educational institutions offering mindfulness related courses and conferences, workplaces offering mindfulness programs and my social network. I contacted key persons or leaders from these access points and became involved in their mindfulness communities and activities in my lifeworld, mainly in Toronto. I developed relationships with practitioners in these groups and observed their practices within the groups. The participants from Thailand were recruited through my personal connections.

The sample size in the first round of interviews was 21. I used purposeful sampling strategies, mainly criterion sampling and maximum variation sampling, to invite these participants to my study. Before data collection began, I used criterion sampling based on the following criteria: 1) They are self-identified as an experienced practitioner of mindfulness with at least 150 hours of formal or non-formal teacher-led practices equivalent to 15 days of full-day mindfulness retreat, and 150 hours of non-formal practices at home or in a meditation centre, and 200 hours of informal practices in everyday life; 2) They practice mindfulness to cultivate wisdom using insight meditation and contemplation among their approaches; 3) They have been comprehensively trained with Buddhist Threefold Training of virtue, concentration and wisdom (see Appendix A4 on Threefold Training), or if secularly, they have been trained to incorporate mindfulness skills for developing virtue, meditation and contemplation of applied wisdom such as stress reduction, problem-solving and leadership; 4) They have practiced mindfulness when they are working in their workplace; 5) They have at least one year of full-time paid work experience or cumulative part-time work experience equivalent to one year or 1,560 hours, and 6) They are willing to participate in an initial individual semi-structured interview on mindfulness wisdom for research purposes (see Appendix F for Recruitment Protocols). In addition to these criteria, I used maximum variation sampling to select participants from different traditions. While Thai Buddhists are dominantly Theravāda Buddhists, Canada has a mixture of different religious traditions and secular practices. I selected 21 participants from 3 groups: 1) 7

Thai Buddhists, 2) 9 Buddhist-informed Canadians, and 3) 5 secular-informed Canadians. All seven Thai Buddhists practiced Theravāda Buddhism. Buddhist-informed Canadians belong to different Buddhist traditions: two following the Theravāda Buddhism and seven following other traditions within Mahāyāna Buddhism. Among the Mahāyāna, two follow the Vietnamese tradition led by Thích Nhất Hạnh; two follow the Chinese Zen/Chan tradition, two follow the Tibetan Shambhala Buddhism led by Chögyam Trungpa and Sakyong Mipham and one follow the Japanese Zen tradition (Sanbo Kyodan) led by Roshi Philip Kapleau. The five secular- informed Canadians recruited learned mindfulness from different sources, but all are health- focused.

I ensured confidentiality and protected participants’ identities by giving them pseudonyms, as presented in Table 1: Names of Participants. In Findings chapters, they are referred to by their first name. In other tables and appendices regarding participants, they are referred to by their ID Code.

Table 1

Names of Participants

Order Id Code Pseudonym first name Pseudonym last name 1 MC1 Kevin Bell 2 MC2 Chance Blake 3 MC3 David Engel 4 MC4 Adela Parker 5 MC5 Alice Henry 6 MC6 Jerzy Kumiega 7 MC7 Gena Poole 8 MC8 Lex Adler 9 MC9 Jessica Marshall

Panatda Chettanaromdi 10 MT1 ปนัดดา/ เจตนารมณ์ดี/ 11 MC10 Suzanna Siegal 12 MC11 Sinai Shor 13 MC12 Jane Evans

Yotsaphon Haruethaithep 14 MT2 ยศพล/ หฤทัยเทพ/

Order Id Code Pseudonym first name Pseudonym last name

15 MC13 Yue Kong 16 MC14 Beatrice Lewis

Naphisa Moradokkun 17 MT3 นภิสา/ มรดกกุล/

Farung Chanachatakun 18 MT4 ฟ้ารุ่ง/ ชนะชะตากุล/

Woraphat Phalathon 19 MT5 วรภาส/ พลาธร/

Saranyu Sanyachai 20 MT6 ศรัณยู/ สัญญาใจ/

Benchamat Phonphraprathan 21 MT7 เบญจมาศ/ พรพระประธาน/

Other useful information for readers to learn more about participants’ backgrounds can be found in the appendices (see Appendix G for Table G1: Participant Recruitment Criteria; see Appendix H for Table H1: Other Demographic Characteristics of Participants). I did not ask direct questions on their demographic information but obtained it during the interview through answers to other questions in the interview guide and my observation. To expand on the basic recruitment criteria of mindfulness and work experience, I summarized the participants’ mindfulness profile and work profile below:

Mindfulness profiles. Participants are long-term practitioners of mindfulness from different lineages, as presented in Table 2 (see Appendix I for Mindfulness Profile Description).

Table 2

Participants’ Mindfulness Profiles

Name Lineage Length Yearsa Practice hours

Group 1.1: Thai Buddhist-informed mindfulness practitioners

Benchamat Thai Childhood to present >25 Unknown, over 50 days of full-day Theravāda retreat, plus informal daily practice

Farung Thai Childhood to present >25 Unknown, over 20 days of full-day Theravāda retreat, plus informal daily practice

Naphisa Thai Childhood to present >30 Unknown, over 20 days of full-day Theravāda retreat, plus informal daily practice

Panatda Thai Childhood to present >30 Unknown, over 10 days of full-day Theravāda retreat, plus informal practice (Thai Forest)

Saranyu Thai Childhood to present >30 Informal practice at temple and home, Theravāda self-learning from books and online (teacher-led), no retreat, plus non-formal daily practice

Woraphat Thai Childhood to present >30 Unknown, retreat, informal practice at Theravāda temple, plus informal daily practice

Yotsaphon Thai Childhood to present >30 Unknown, over ten days of retreat, Theravāda short-term monkhood, plus informal daily practice

Group 1.2: Canadian Buddhist-informed mindfulness practitioners

Adela Burmese and Middle age to present 16+6b Unknown, over 40 days of retreat, over Nepalese 2-hour weekly group practice, plus Theravāda informal daily practice

Name Lineage Length Yearsa Practice hours

Chance Thai Young adult to present 20 Daily sitting meditation for 1 hour and Theravāda daily walking meditation for 30 minutes, (Thai Forest) joining weekly meditation groups and over 10 five-to-ten-day retreats and recently volunteering at a monastery several times a year (1/10 of the time in a year)

Kevin Taiwanese Young adult to present >10 Three days of volunteering per week at Chan, meditation groups for several years, Mahāyāna attending multiple retreats, plus informal daily practice

Jerzy Taiwanese Young adult to present >20 Weekly meditation, multiple retreats, Chan, informal daily practice, volunteered to Mahāyāna lead a meditation group weekly

Lex Thiền, Middle age to present = 14 Daily meditation (1-hour sitting), Mahāyāna contemplation, Gatha, precepts, mindfulness reminder, visiting a monastery, retreats, leading meditation groups, founding and running mindfulness training organizations

David Tibetan The early 20s to >37 Meditation, loving-kindness Vajrayana present contemplation, joining a weekly meditation group, everyday life mindfulness meditation and teaching meditation

Gena Tibetan Late career = 10 Daily sitting meditation and mindfulness Vajrayana meditation, compassion and joining a weekly meditation group

Name Lineage Length Yearsa Practice hours

Yue Thiền, Right after an =7 Daily mindfulness meditation on the go, Mahāyāna undergraduate degree extending loving-kindness to self and others, facilitating a sitting group once a week and trying to incorporate mindfulness into teaching.

Beatrice Japanese Zen, Started mid-career =14 Joining a meditation sitting group Mahāyāna regularly, joining an intensive training program yearly and practicing Tai Chi

Group 2: Secular-informed mindfulness practitioners

Suzanna Secular- Started after 15 years >10 Joining weekly meditation, practicing informed of working and teaching mindful movement yoga mindfulness

Jessica Secular- Started late in her >10 Joined an 8-week mindfulness program, informed career completed two certificates at the U of T mindfulness School of Social Work, taken courses at Verity Club, taken courses with Shinzen Young and taught private mindfulness meditation classes.

Alice Secular- Started in 2012 = 3 Trained in mindfulness-based chronic informed pain management course, facilitating the mindfulness course, daily meditation practice, leading an informal sitting group at work, practicing yoga, some contemplation of loving-kindness, visualization and Mantra

Name Lineage Length Yearsa Practice hours

Jane Secular- Started in 2000 = 15 Attended MBSR over 13 times, informed practicing daily before work and during mindfulness the day before and after meetings and teaching, and incorporated secular- informed mindfulness into teachers’ training (10 minutes sitting during a 3- hour class), leading mindful Wednesday meditation and running a private group practice of 15 people.

Sinai Secular- Interested in truth = 3 or Practicing mindfulness as work in informed since childhood, >20 psychotherapy for 2 years = 2200 hours, mindfulness practicing psychiatry years being alert on insights that came to him for over 20 years and during the day, mindfulness group acknowledged it as therapy (called mindful mindfulness for 3 communication), daily 20 min lying years meditation in the morning for about 10 years, attending over 10 retreats of approximately 30 days = 300 hours, pan-religious, pan-spiritual, Jewish educational background

Note. aAs of 2015. b6 years of other traditions including secular, and 16 years in the Buddhist tradition.

Participants’ mindfulness profile was influenced by their motives and goals for the practice. Table 3 summarizes participants’ motives and goals of mindfulness (see Appendix J for Description of Participants’ Mindfulness Motives and Goals).

Table 3

Participants’ Mindfulness Motives and Goals

Names Motives Goals

Benchamat Invitation, nirvana Being smart; nirvana

Farung Dissatisfaction with life, self-searching, Concentration, self-improvement (preventing the experience of positive outcomes mistakes at work), situational wisdom; nirvana

Naphisa Stress Discipline, self-improvement (preventing mistakes at work)

Panatda Experience with positive outcomes No explicit goal

Woraphat Stress Happiness, presence; nirvana

Saranyu Previously unknown, currently improving Work benefits: Calmness, concentration, work work performance; not causing harm, happy life, reaching life and work goals

Yotsaphon Enjoyment No explicit goal

Adela Stress Self-improvement (correct own faults)

Chance Stress Insight into big questions

Kevin Exploration Calm, clear, wise

Jerzy Unknown Parinirvāṇa /Buddhahood (for Chan practitioners but did not specify it for himself)

Lex Unknown Unknown

David Stressed by confusion, self-doubt, self- Befriending himself, being present, being loathing and anxiety kinder to himself and others, more generous to himself, developing more space in his life

Gena Stress Self-improvement (life)

Yue Seeing suffering in the world Well-being, peace, transforming suffering in the world (Self > others)

Names Motives Goals

Beatrice Depression Meaning of life

Suzanna Exploration—Curiosity Initially, improving leadership

Jessica Stress (work and physical) Leadership, happiness, a better world

Alice Chronic pain, stress Able to live and work with chronic pain

Jane Chronic pain, stress Not to suffer all the suffering

Sinai Exploration—Interest in truth Becoming a Buddha

Work profile. In work practices, some participants worked full-time, some part-time and others were semi-retired. First, I present their work profiles from past to present (as of 2015) as summarized in Table 4. Participants’ job choice was not directly influenced by Buddhism or mindfulness except for those teaching mindfulness. One influence Buddhism had on Buddhist- informed participants was restraining from harmful actions by practicing Right Livelihood. Mindfulness also guided participants to realize what job is right for them in their career path and cycle from entering, retaining and quitting it. Some participants did not set any work goals to hold any expectations and to be attached to. Without targeting any work industry, most participants or at least 11 worked in education and 8 in healthcare. At least 9 of them had direct work experience in the private sector, the majority of whom were from Thailand, and 15 of them worked for non-profit or governmental organizations.

Table 4

Participants' Work Profiles

Name Current job Previous job Years Career goal Organizational goal

Benchamat owner/entrepreneur, beauty products Children garment export business >2 Same as current Wanted to succeed in (marketing and sales), Bangkok business, having a counter in a shopping mall

Farung HR manager (telecommunications), Recruiter, air hostess in YYYa, hotel >5 Soft skill trainer Bangkok housekeeper and shopkeeper in Atlantic City, intern in finance at an oil company in Bangkok

Naphisa Tour agency manager Unknown >7 unknown Save up

Panatda A pediatric cardiologist and assistant None >5 unknown professor at the Faculty of Medicine AAA Hospitalb, FFF Universityc

Woraphat Marketing communications officer Customer support at Sky Airwaysd and >7 Happiness writer in Bangkok

Saranyu CEO and owner of Softe (IT, system IT >10 Soft-skill trainer programming service) in Northeastern Thailand

Name Current job Previous job Years Career goal Organizational goal

Yotsaphon Assistant professor in civil engineering at Assistant professor and research assistant >8 Making a living Pracha Universityf in Tokyo, GIS specialist in Tokyo by becoming a business owner for financial stability

Adela Case management coordinator for injured Worked in numerous jobs, for example at >46 unknown workers compensation and staff training CCCg and DDD Bankh, and as an assistant at Canadian EEEi in architecture in Canada, worked in advertising and publishing as a personal assistant in London, England, worked in the post office, as a housemaid, a nutritionist in a hospital and various other businesses in Australia, and worked as a caseworker in social security in New Zealand

Chance A researcher at FFF Research Institutej Researcher >20 Unknown (non-profit) and lecturer of psychology at CCC Collegek

Kevin Copyrights specialist at a non-profit for one job from graduation >17 no dream job, to deliver royalties to music copyright no goal songwriters

Jerzy IT technician at a museum Unknown =18 No goal none

Name Current job Previous job Years Career goal Organizational goal

Lex Director of Finance and Development at a founded New Mindfulnessl, Executive >15 unknown mindfulness training institute. Director of the AAA Party of Canadam, the program director for a non-profit—a grant program for energy projects, Director of advocacy for a national LGBT advocacy group, a real estate developer and a lawyer

David Retired, sub-teacher, mindfulness teacher An elementary school teacher for special >37 unknown needs and behavioural students

Gena Retired An elementary school teacher for special >40 unknown needs and behavioural students for the Toronto School Board

Yue Part-time research assistant at TTT briefly worked as a community educator >1 Wanted to work Universityn and project coordinator in a Chinese in international

community in Toronto on the civic development for engagement of Chinese Canadian youth, social justice an intern in Sri Lanka and peacebuilding.

Name Current job Previous job Years Career goal Organizational goal

Beatrice A sexual health educator at a medical None >30 unknown clinic

Suzanna Semi-retired lawyer Lawyer, psychiatric social worker >20 unknown (government)/mediator, arbitrator, yoga teacher

Jessica Retired, mindfulness teacher Worked for smaller companies in >35 unknown financial services, consultant in finance, worked in banking, worked in packaged goods marketing, then food industry, mathematician

Alice RN, Telemedicine Clinical Coordinator, A registered nurse doing labour and >20 unknown MBCPM™ Trained Affiliate at a health delivery, and recently, telemedicine, a centre in Sudbury, ON farmer at home along the way.

Jane Lecturer at TTT Universityn Administrator, schoolteacher >16 starting a business

Name Current job Previous job Years Career goal Organizational goal

Sinai A psychotherapist for individuals, family Psychiatrist for other areas such as >20 Helping people and couples and groups assessment to realize wisdom

Note. aYYY = a pseudonym given to a country. bAAA Hospital = a pseudonym given to a hospital. cFFF University = a pseudonym given to a university. dSky Airways = a pseudonym given to a company. eSoft = a pseudonym given to a company. fPracha University = a pseudonym given to a university. gCCC = a pseudonym given to a company. hDDD Bank = a pseudonym given to a company. iCanadian EEE = a pseudonym given to a company. jFFF Research Institute = a pseudonym given to a research institute. kCCC College = a pseudonym given to a college. lNew Mindfulness = a mindfulness training organization. mAAA Party of Canada = a pseudonym given to a party. nTTT University = a pseudonym given to a university.

Participants’ mindfulness profiles and work profiles presented above provide more information on participants’ mindfulness narratives. Their mindfulness may not have as much influence on their work at first in their mindfulness motives and goals and vice versa, but eventually, the two were intertwined, which will be explored in the findings chapters.

Interviews Procedures. Once potential participants had been identified, I began collecting data by conducting one-on-one open-ended semi-structured interviews. This method allowed me to have a conversation with participants with a broad list of structured questions that were flexible in order and enabled me to examine the answers and explain the questions to participants for mutual understanding.

I asked participants 27 questions on three dimensions of mindfulness in their work experience. Probes were not included in the list. Twenty-two questions were descriptive questions; four were structural questions, and one was a contrast question. Descriptive questions are suitable for generating open-ended narratives. In Harrell, Bradley, Rand Corporation, & National Defense Research Institute (U.S.)’s (2009) categorization; my questions are grand tour questions, mini-tour questions, example questions and experience questions. I created structural questions to explain structures of mindfulness practice in a list and their relationships. The type of structural questions used is a cover term to explain answers about mindfulness in a domain (Harrell et al., 2009). Finally, towards the end of the question list, I created one directed contrast question (Harrell et al., 2009) to ask about the alternative practices that share similar outcomes with mindfulness to differentiate them from the Threefold Training outcomes. These questions were categorized into nine groups: questions on work, mindfulness constructs, mindfulness learning and training at work, Right View, Right Intention, contradiction and complementarity, transformation, and integration and mindfulness outcomes.

Examples of questions are: 1) ‘How has mindfulness influenced your career path?’ 2) ‘How is it like to be mindful at work?’ 3) ‘How are you practicing mindfulness in the workplace?’ 4) ‘How have you experienced suffering, impermanence and not- self/interconnectedness in your work through mindfulness?’ 5) ‘When you were mindful, how has it helped you to connect with other people at work?’ 6) ‘In your mindfulness practice, what have you found complementary and contradictory to work?’ 7) ‘Could you give me a few examples of situations in which you practiced mindfulness, and explain how it impacted or

changed your work process and work-life?’ 8) ‘How has your experience been in bringing mindfulness into the workplace?’ and 9) ‘What are the outcomes of your mindfulness practice in the workplace?’ (see Appendix K for Interview Guide 1). Each initial interview lasted between 51:37 and 146:14 minutes. I started coding data while interviewing the 21 participants in the first round to partly answer the research questions and modify some of the questions for further clarification.

Following the first round of interviews, I requested a follow-up interview with 19 participants. I did not invite the other two Thai participants for a follow-up because I condensed interview 1 and 2 into one session for them. Among the 19 participants, 16 completed the follow- up interview (see Appendix L for Data Collection). I extended the questions from the first interview to the follow-up interview. These questions were aimed at generating in-depth explanations of wisdom by incorporating the teaching on the Four Noble Truths (see Appendix A1 on the Four Noble Truths) and at checking participants’ answers to the first interview. I started by asking about suffering first instead of mindfulness. Four questions are descriptive, and two are structural (Harrell et al., 2009). Descriptive questions are grand tour, and mini-tour questions to generate more narratives, and structural questions are cover term questions to generate a group of items in a domain (Harrell et al., 2009). The main interview questions were: 1) ‘Tell me about your experience of the Four Noble Truths.’ 2) ‘How do you evaluate your practice?’ and 3) ‘Why do you practice mindfulness?’ During this phase, I conducted one-on-one semi-structured interviews with every participant who was available (see Appendix M for Interview Guide 2).

Since I am fluent in both English and Thai, interviews with Canadian participants were conducted in English, whereas interviews with Thai participants were conducted in Thai for effective communication. Since I analyzed interviews myself, I did not need the transcripts translated. The initial interviews were conducted in person at their office, public space and home except for some that were done on the phone. The follow-up interviews were done on the phone.

Data Organization. After collecting data, I organized them into types: interviews and field notes, by their locations and by participants. Interviews were transcribed and saved as a text file using Microsoft Word. Final transcripts were imported into NVivo 11, a computer program that facilitates qualitative data organization for analysis. All files were saved on my external

drive. Only I and my supervisor had access to the final transcripts. Only direct quotes from interviews in Thai were translated into English in the findings.

Data analysis. In data analysis, instead of comparing Thai Buddhists with Buddhist- informed Canadians, I decided to merge the two groups and referred to both groups as Buddhist- informed mindfulness practitioners/participants because their practices and worldview are similar. My interest shifted from investigating the knowledge transfer from the East to the West to exploring the differences and similarities between Buddhist-informed and secular-informed mindfulness practitioners in practicing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness. I mainly used thematic analysis in analyzing data and connecting participants’ life stories. Thematic analysis. Braun and Clarke (2006) defined thematic analysis (TA) as ‘a method for identifying, analysing, and reporting patterns (themes) within data. It minimally organises and describes your data set in (rich) detail. However, it also often goes further than this, and interprets various aspects of the research topic (Boyatzis, 1998)’ (p. 6). Boyatzis (1998) described TA as ‘a process to be used with qualitative information. …a process for encoding qualitative information. The encoding requires an explicit “code.” This may be a list of themes; a complex model with themes, indicators, and qualifications that are causally related, or something in between these two forms. A theme is a pattern found in the information that at minimum describes and organizes the possible observations and at maximum interprets aspects of the phenomenon’ (p. 4). Clarke, Braun and Hayfield (2015) differentiated two approaches to using TA: 1) quantitative paradigm which they referred to as ‘small q,’ and 2) qualitative paradigm, Kidder and Fine (1987) referred to as ‘Big Q’ (p. 223). They identified with using Big Q as explained below: Big Q approaches to qualitative research share in common a rejection of the possibility of discovering universal meaning, because meaning is understood as always being tied to the context in which it is produced. Big Q approaches also emphasize the active role of the researcher in the research process, and the importance of embracing researcher subjectivity, rather than viewing it as a 'problem' to be managed (Braun and Clarke, 2013). Our approach to TA is Big Q because we advocate the use of an organic approach to coding and theme development, one that is informed by the unique standpoint of the

researcher, and that is fluid, flexible and responsive to the researcher's evolving engagement with their data. (Clarke et al., 2015, p. 223) Boyatzis (1998) seemed to identify with ‘small q’ in his explanation of TA. Clarke, Braun and Hayfield (2015) described ‘small q’ as follows: 'small q' qualitative research uses qualitative techniques in a (post)positivist paradigm (Kidder and Fine, 1987a). Key motivations in developing small q approaches to TA include making qualitative methods acceptable to quantitative researchers and seeking to 'bridge the gap' between qualitative and quantitative approaches (Boyatzis, 1998). Small q TA is underpinned by quantitative conceptions of reliability; authors advocate the use of a (predetermined and fixed) 'code book' or coding frame (e.g., Boyatzis, 1998; Guest, MacQueen and Namey, 2012; Joffe, 2011), which is applied to the data (the coding frame is typically developed after data familiarization). The use of a coding frame facilitates the use of multiple, independent coders, which allows for the calculation of inter-coder or interrater reliability scores. These scores provide a quantitative measure of coding 'accuracy', offering reassurance of the reliability of the analysis (if a kappa of >.80 is calculated).

(Clarke et al., 2015, p. 223)

I used Big Q TA as a primary analytic strategy because small q TA might limit the use of subjectivity and reflexivity of the researcher and may contradict with the theoretical framework and methodologies set out in this study.

Clare, Braun and Hayfield (2015) said that TA is usually associated with a realist/essentialist theoretical framework, but in fact, it is used with many frameworks. I used a critical materialist/contextualist framework.

This analytic approach was chosen primarily because of its flexibility in theoretical orientation, epistemological paradigms and knowledge production (Braun & Clarke, 2006). The amount of data I collected was sufficient for TA as recommended by Clarke et al. for a Ph.D. project—a sample size of ‘15-20 (one study); 30+ (sole data source)’ (Clarke et al., 2015, p. 229). My interview sample size is 21, but I collected data in two rounds.

In analyzing data I followed simple steps to thematic analysis as summarized by Clarke et al. (2015): 1) ‘Familiarization,’ 2) ‘Coding,’ 3) ‘’Searching’ for themes,’ 4) ‘Reviewing themes,’ 5) ‘Defining and naming themes,’ and 6) Writing up (pp. 231-245). In coding, I started with a general inductive approach to look for the core meanings or categories that were found in the text related to research objectives’ and discover the most relevant themes or categories for research objectives and report the description of the themes (Thomas, 2006, p. 241). There are three main levels of themes: ‘Overarching Themes,’ ‘Themes’ and ‘Subthemes’ (Clarke et al., 2015, p. 236). To be more specific, the primary analytic approach that I choose, Clarke et al. (2015) referred to it as ‘Inductive TA’—'analysis primarily grounded in the data, rather than existing theories and concepts’ (p. 225). They defined Inductive TA as:

…analysis primarily grounded in the data, rather than existing theories and concepts. Although pure induction is not possible in most forms of qualitative research - analysis is always shaped by a researcher's theoretical assumptions, disciplinary knowledge, research training, prior research experiences, and personal and political standpoints - inductive TA aims to stay as close as possible to the meanings in the data.

(Clarke et al., 2015, p. 225)

Subsequently, I used ‘Deductive TA’ that ‘views the data through a theoretical lens so that existing theoretical concepts inform coding and theme development, and the analysis moves beyond the obvious meanings in the data’ (Clarke et al., 2015, p. 225). Deductive TA is used not to quantify the themes or to validate and establish reliability, but to compare data to the extant theory that informs my subjectivity. I used Deductive TA on themes of Buddhist Threefold Training—Three-Dimensional Mindfulness (see Appendix A4 on Threefold Training). In terms of levels of themes, I used Semantic TA on definitions of constructs such as mindfulness definitions, and Latent, Descriptive and Interpretive TA (Clarke et al., 2015, pp. 225-226). Once I had developed some themes, I drew thematic maps to visualize the relationships between codes and themes and between themes, then defined or elaborated the properties and scope of the themes.

Essentially how Inductive TA is conducted is informed by Grounded Theory, although I did not use Grounded Theory as a methodology in this thesis. In more detail, I followed the

analysis beginning with initial coding, followed by focused coding, and selective/substantive coding, but not theoretical coding and theoretical sampling. This coding process is ‘to make sense out of these data, divide them into text or image segments, label the segments with codes, examine codes for overlap or redundancy, and collapse these codes into broad themes. Thus this is an inductive process of narrowing data into a few core themes (Creswell, 2008, p. 251). During the initial coding or open coding from data collection to the initial phase of data analysis, I compared data from interviews from different participants, and interviews from the same participants to analyze their views, assumptions, processes, actions and patterns. I used paragraph-by-paragraph and incident-by-incident coding. This comparison may be referred to as ‘the constant comparative method’—that is comparing and contrasting data and codes (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). After exploring all the data, I did focused coding to examine the actions and processes of Three-Dimensional Mindfulness at work and formed tentative categories, defined and related them. Subsequently, I also did selective coding defined by the core category and codes or categories associated with it.

During this process of coding and analysis, I wrote memos on my conceptualization and theorization and sorted them to identify relationships of codes and themes. As the phenomenon was complex, I also analyzed data for ‘contrary evidence’ which is ‘evidence that does not support or confirm the themes and provide contradictory information about a theme’ if there is any (Creswell, 2008, p. 257).

Thesis completion timeframe. The thesis began in 2013 and was completed in 2019. I collected data from 2015-2016 (see Appendix N for Table N1: Thesis Completion Timeframe).

Summary

Qualitative research design is suitable for the thesis research questions on 1) the way Buddhist-informed and secular-informed participants practice mindfulness to reduce work stress and improve work performance, and 2) the obstacles participants experience in the process of integration. This research design can be justified by the methodologies of critical reflexivity and critical phenomenology. These methodologies support the use of open-ended semi-structured interview in data collection and seeing the external work conditions as the condition in which

work stress situates. Thematic analysis is used to analyze interview transcripts into themes, and I connect those themes into stories of work stress and work wisdom. These stories are presented in the findings from Chapter 4 to Chapter 7.

PART II: RESEARCH FINDINGS

Findings Outline

In Part I, from Chapters 1-3, I have presented the theoretical foundations of mindfulness from Buddhism and academic research. These theoretical foundations cover the broader theoretical framework of Buddhism, literature review on work stress and mindfulness research and methodological philosophies of critical reflexivity and critical phenomenology which inform the research procedures from data collection to data analysis. This is the background knowledge that I draw from and will refer to in the findings on mindfulness practice in Part II from Chapters 4 to 7. Findings chapters are organized in the same sequence as the research questions to directly respond to each question as summarized in Table 5 on Findings Outline.

Table 5

Findings Outline

Chapter Main idea Purpose

Chapter 4 Work wisdom or desirable organizational outcomes or goals of Answer the first research question: reduced work stress and improved work performance resulting from Three-Dimensional Mindfulness 1. How do Buddhist-informed mindfulness practitioners and secular-informed mindfulness practitioners reduce work stress and improve work performance through mindfulness practice in work- life?

1.1. How are their approaches and experiences similar or different?

Chapter Main idea Purpose

Chapter 5 Wise practices of Three-Dimensional Mindfulness that led to the Answer the first research question above. desirable wisdom outcomes

Pattern 1.1 of Identifying the Causes of Stress: Recognizing internal causes of stress and accepting stress in direct work experience. This pattern demonstrates how participants worked wisely, leading to desirable outcomes of reduced work stress with the potential to end stress and improved work performance.

Chapter 6 Obstacles faced during the practice of Three-Dimensional Answer the second research question: Mindfulness at work. Two Patterns of Identifying the Causes of Stress: 2. What obstacles do Buddhist-informed and secular-informed mindfulness practitioners experience in integrating mindfulness into 1. Pattern 1.2: Not recognizing the internal causes of stress in work for work stress reduction and improved work performance? direct work experience in both groups: Gradually overcome internally by putting more effort into the practice. 2.1 How are their experiences with the obstacles similar or 2. Pattern 2: Identifying external work conditions as the causes of different? stress: Embraced and transformed internally or overcome 2.2. How do Buddhist-informed and secular-informed participants externally by changing external work conditions and changing embrace, transform or overcome the obstacles in integrating jobs. mindfulness into work? Obstacles that prevent participants from practicing Three- 2.2.1. How are their experiences of embracing, transforming or Dimensional Mindfulness at work: overcoming the obstacles similar or different? 1. Internal difficulties: Internal difficulties such as a lack of effort among Buddhist-informed participants were gradually overcome by practicing more. 2. External difficulties: external work conditions including contradictions between mindfulness and work, secularization and mindfulness abuse: Gradually embraced, transformed or overcome by changing their own perspectives or changing external work conditions.

Chapter Main idea Purpose

Chapter 7 Discussion on obstacles to integrating Three-Dimensional Answer the second research question above. Mindfulness into Work Discussion and conclusion 4 patterns of embracing, transforming or overcoming obstacles:

1. Prioritizing work: Trying to use mindfulness to improve work 2. Prioritizing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness: Work is a mindfulness practice. 3. Not prioritizing either: Practicing mindfulness when it is not in conflict with work. 4. Combining Three-Dimensional Mindfulness and work: teach secular-informed mindfulness as work.

Conclusion, research limitations and theoretical and practical implications

Recommendations, conclusion, limitations and implications

The presentation of findings is organized in this order to show the cycle of how to cultivate wisdom from Three-Dimensional Mindfulness. Chapter 4 presents the desirable wisdom outcomes or the goals of the practice. Chapter 5 presents Three-Dimensional Mindfulness, which is used to reach those outcomes in Chapter 4. Chapters 6 and 7 present the obstacles in other situations that prevented practitioners from reaching desirable outcomes in Chapter 4. Practitioners had the potential to change the situation by embracing, transforming or overcoming these obstacles. Once achieved, they would be able to work wisely and reach desirable outcomes in Chapter 4 in more work situations. The research questions, findings and arguments are also summarized in Appendix B, Table B1 on Thesis Overview.

C5 Practice

C6 & C7 C4 Goals Obstacles

Change

Figure 4. Presentation of Findings.

Chapter 4 Work Wisdom Arising from Three- Dimensional Mindfulness

In the previous chapter, I outlined research methodologies of critical reflexivity and critical phenomenology which are supportive of using qualitative interviewing as a method of data collection and are compatible with thematic analysis as a method of data analysis. The data indicate that both Buddhist-informed and secular-informed mindfulness practitioners practiced three dimensions of mindfulness, including virtue, concentration and wisdom. These practices helped both groups to reduce work stress and improve work performance. In reducing work stress, at a surface level, the practice helped every participant to relax. At a deeper level, the practice helped some Buddhist-informed participants to reverse the course of development of stress by letting go of craving and desires. This renunciation is a practice towards the cessation of stress in Buddhism. Because participants in both groups were able to focus on their work, they were more productive. These first set of findings are discussed in Chapter 4 and Chapter 5.

However, in some circumstances, participants faced obstacles in reducing stress and improving work performance at the same time. Further arguments addressing their incompatibility will be developed in Chapters 6 and 7. At the interview, participants were asked about the obstacles they experienced in integrating Three-Dimensional Mindfulness into work and the stress they experienced at work. They reported that they faced tremendous obstacles in pursuing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness while pursuing work goals. This is noteworthy because despite being long-term practitioners, they still constantly experienced work stress and found it difficult to be mindful at work. In some instances, participants even found it contradictory to practice Three-Dimensional Mindfulness at work. These second findings are discussed in Chapters 6 and 7. As will be discussed further in the following chapters, these findings prompted me to believe that Three-Dimensional Mindfulness as a secondary and tertiary intervention will be more effective if changes are made to external work conditions as a primary intervention by organizational members. External changes would facilitate the integration of Three-Dimensional Mindfulness into work.

In this chapter, I first identify work stress reduction then work performance improvement as an outcome of Three-Dimensional Mindfulness experienced by the two groups. These

outcomes are referred to as work wisdom that arose from Three-Dimensional Mindfulness. For each outcome, I begin by describing participants’ understanding of the sub-outcomes of virtue, concentration and wisdom, then close with the combined outcomes of the three. In each sub- outcome, I describe the similarities between the two groups, followed by the differences. These findings presented in this chapter will be supported by a description of the practices to be discussed in Chapter 5. Chapters 4 and 5 together will answer to the first research question, namely, ‘How did Buddhist-informed mindfulness practitioners and secular-informed mindfulness practitioners reduce work stress and improve work performance through mindfulness practice in work-life? How are their experiences similar or different?’ This explanation will clarify the potential of Three-Dimensional Mindfulness as a practice contributing to desirable outcomes of work stress reduction and improved work performance for organizations. As explained in Chapter 1, the goals of mindfulness practice are different between Buddhist-informed and secular-informed participants—the cessation of stress and stress reduction, respectively. However, in presenting the outcomes, only the goal of stress reduction is met in both groups. None of the Buddhist-informed participants experienced the cessation of stress fully.

In Chapters 4 and 5, it may seem as though Three-Dimensional Mindfulness were supportive of corporate values for work-performance improvement. It is true that Buddhist values are compatible with these corporate values to a certain extent, as expressed by the participants. In particular, ending or reducing work stress through meditation, perseverance and ethics helps practitioners to perform work better. When not in conflict, practitioners are both free from stress and free to perform work. These are the positive outcomes of their transfer of learning of Three-Dimensional Mindfulness. Participants were able to reduce work stress while improving their work performance, the two main categories of outcomes to be presented in this chapter.

Work Stress Reduction Outcomes

Work stress reduction is the combined result of virtue, concentration and wisdom participants gained through their practice of Three-Dimensional Mindfulness. Three- Dimensional Mindfulness was informed by Buddhism among Buddhist-informed participants

and informed by a combination of Buddhism and other faiths among secular-informed participants. While concentration seems to be the most relevant to work stress reduction in removing or preventing stress, it is obtained together with virtue and wisdom rather than separately. All three outcomes are holistically supportive of each other in their effect of work stress reduction in the context of work. This benefit has been extended to work performance improvement. Both Buddhist-informed and secular-informed participants achieved all three with some minor differences explained as follows.

Virtue outcomes. Both Buddhist-informed and secular-informed participants achieved virtue of improved communication in the form of Right Speech. The key characteristic of Right Speech is not to lie, which could be harmful. Kevin said integrity is an outcome of his mindfulness practice. Yotsaphon said that mindfulness prevented him from making a mistake of saying inappropriate things to co-workers. This Right Speech is referred to differently by the participants. For example, Yue called it ‘filtered speech,’ which helped her to keep her word. Lex referred to it as ‘loving-speech,’ while Suzanna referred to it as kind speech, talking in a kind tone of voice. That was how she spoke to her clients to empower them. This virtue of Right Speech is infused with the wisdom outcome of love and kindness in these examples. Participants used Right Speech in both spoken and email conversations with co-workers and clients.

Buddhist-informed participants achieved other virtue outcomes guided by Right Action and Right Livelihood that were not mentioned by secular-informed participants. Mindfulness reminded Buddhist-informed participants of the Five Precepts or moral disciplines. Woraphat said that mindfulness helped him not to harm others. He said even for non-Buddhists, if they practiced mindfulness, they would be a good person according to their own ethics.

The outcomes of increased virtue are not merely abstinence from unwholesome actions or not causing stress but also combined with wisdom for becoming a good person. This outcome is twofold—it frees participants from making themselves, and others suffer and enables them to be virtuous by doing wholesome actions. When participants attributed their virtue outcomes to mindfulness, they meant mindfulness meditation of the virtue and wisdom practices.

Concentration outcomes. Buddhist-informed and secular-informed participants were non-judgmental, present and aware of their emotions and body. They were able to regulate

their thoughts and feelings to relax and calm down and to be joyful, happy, balanced, grounded, stable and tolerant. Some referred to this as self-regulation/emotional regulation. For example, Naphisa became calmer and viewed that every problem has a solution. She stopped ruining her work environment when she felt irritated. In the past, when she was annoyed, she would immediately scold someone, or let it out by other means such as hitting the table. Over the years, she gradually improved her expression to be more considerate of others. Mindfulness reminded her of her actions. Now that she was more skilled, she still had stress but to a lesser degree.

Kevin described his experience of relaxation at work from concentration meditation:

… My mind feels very spacious, it feels very light, … and it feels like whatever’s gonna happen, I can manage it, because my mind is … more than all those thoughts coming into my mind, so I’m creating this very large space for myself to, first of all, …relax and also to know that I am not just all these anxieties, I am not just all these thoughts…, that there’s something more to who I am … than these …little worries, and literally, I think the worries get smaller and smaller. It’s not that they all disappear, but I start to see them in the context of, they’re just things that are temporary, … they’ll get solved over time. If I’m not practicing mindfulness, I just feel like I’m rushing from one thought to the next and I feel tense, and I feel hurried, because there’s nothing to contextualize those thoughts, it’s just you’re actually being … driven from one thought to the next, … swing from a rope, whereas if you’re practicing mindfulness, it’s like you’ve got this enormous space—and you’re buffered from … the anxieties.

The practice also gave energy and power to some participants from both groups such as Yue, a Buddhist-informed participant, and Jane, a secular-informed participant; increased patience in Yue, Chance, Alice, Jessica, and Suzanna; and improved listening skills. Yue is the only Buddhist-informed participant who gained diligence and perseverance from the practice. By contrast, Jane became more protective of herself by not working overtime.

The outcomes experienced by secular-informed participants but not mentioned by Buddhist-informed participants are increased pain tolerance or chronic pain relief experienced by Alice and Jessica, enhanced emotional intelligence experienced by Jane, not feeling afraid experienced by Jessica and open-mindedness and increased sensitivity experienced by Suzanna.

For example, as a secular-informed mindfulness practitioner, Alice used mindfulness to cope with chronic pain, both emotional and physical. She explained how the mindfulness-based chronic pain management she took with Dr. Jackie Gardner-Nix worked:

… Basically for people that suffer physical or emotional pain … although we feel the pain, … you can step back and not suffer as much from it, … because … it changes your brain’s pathways that … you’re diverting your pain receptors and … you’re learning new pathways in the brain so that you’re not engaging, like, all the … negative [Laughs] receptors, … the negative emotions such as anger and resentment, … although I have the same physical pain as before, I don’t have as much suffering, since I practiced mindfulness.… you can really see the mind-body connection and the triggers that … signify your pain will intensify … if you engage the emotions at that … With the breathing and the focus on the breathing, you can break down the … physical suffering, and the emotional suffering.… It’s actually helping. I find it’s almost like a medication.

This training allowed Alice to experience joy despite pain. She was generally a happy person. Mindfulness helped keep her balanced:

… Sometimes, when you have that joy, … because it changes … the chemical reactions in the brain, you don’t notice the pain as much, too at the time [Laughs].… And it’s just a sense of well-being, right? Like … when I paint, I’m very focused … and it just makes me feel at peace. … So … just because I find that I’m more focused and … I’m not as rushed; I take more of my time.… It slows me down and allows me to enjoy things in the moment.

The difference in the outcome of concentration between the two groups was that Buddhist-informed practitioners seemed to focus more on the mind as the object of the practice while secular-informed participants focused on the body which is related to their physical health. Participants temporarily became free from suffering and let go of thoughts, feelings and emotions at work, which enabled them to perform their work better. In Jane’s example, work stress reduction could also mean self-protection by not working overtime. Again, what participants meant by mindfulness as a contributing factor to these concentration outcomes is a combination of virtue, meditation and wisdom practices.

Wisdom outcomes. Both groups were able to see suffering in themselves and others; see impermanence and see interconnectedness or not-self through working as a team. However, Buddhist-informed participants had more experience of the Three Marks of Existence (see Appendix A2 on Three Marks of Existence) compared to secular-informed participants. As a secular-informed mindfulness practitioner, Suzanna, Jessica, Alice, Jane and Sinai did not contemplate the Three Marks of Existence like Buddhist-informed mindfulness practitioners. Nevertheless, they were able to conceptually relate their experience to them through their practice of secular-informed mindfulness. For example, Suzanna thought suffering was a part of life, and problems were impermanent. She was connected with people around her, knowing whom she could trust, especially when she was suffering. In another example, Jane no longer took things personally, which was her way of emotional regulation. This change also corresponded to the outcome of not-self. The experience was not just in both groups of participants’ direct experience but through other people with whom they interacted. For example, David, Beatrice, Jessica and Sinai were able to see suffering in others through mindfulness. Beatrice saw her clients’ suffering or empathized with them and let go of the suffering. By understanding not-self or interconnectedness, participants had a reduced sense of ego. For example, Kevin was able to overcome conflicting opinions in meetings by seeing mind, which is viewed as shared rather than separate.

Mindfulness or Buddhism helped both groups of participants to understand themselves and others better. For example, Chance said Buddhism helped him answer big questions in life that psychology did not such as the meaning of life, true happiness and causes of suffering. Through mindfulness, David befriended himself and viewed human beings as fundamentally good:

It is a challenge; I wouldn’t say that because I meditate, I love myself all the time. My … view is that whatever arises comes from a ground of … goodness and wholesomeness and wisdom as opposed to when I have difficulties or strong emotions, … that's who I am; I don't believe that's who I am anymore, … because I’ve connected with what's underneath it, … which is a fundamental goodness, I guess, and … the meditation connects you with that fundamental goodness as opposed to the conceptual mind that you usually … identify yourself with.… That doesn't mean their actions are always good.…

It’s fundamental, like primordial goodness as opposed to kind of conditional goodness. … You relax into who you really are, … and then you're connecting with that fundamental kind of pool of wisdom and goodness and healthiness.

Likewise, Yue understood herself better through mindfulness and understood the contribution history and society had on her experience.

Both groups were not reacting but responding to situations. They became less attached. They became more accepting of reality: suffering, external work conditions and self. For example, Gena was depressed and overwhelmed and sometimes angry with life seeing the suffering of her school children with disabilities and illnesses but was able to accept the suffering and continue working:

… Through mindfulness, … I could put this … in a place in life, that life does have suffering and … that’s part of what life is, so how … I was drawn to work in this field, … what can I do that maybe—could be beneficial to the children and their families.… so, I would say it did cause or create suffering in myself, … but I think through … recognizing that suffering and admitting the suffering, … I could … still find a way to be in the environment, and hopefully, be a positive … element there.

Both groups accepted suffering but at various stages under different conditions. While Buddhist-informed participants were able to accept suffering in general, secular-informed participants were more specific about accepting their physical pain. Secular-informed participants such as Jane, Jessica and Sinai extended this idea of acceptance to accepting other people, too. In terms of external work conditions, Sinai was able to accept them after when nothing could be changed about the decision. He was able to accept his clients’ outcomes. He said he could, ‘let go of … an expectation of people making what I might call positive changes in their lives. That I’m more accepting and at peace with people, where they’re at.… I much less commonly feel anger or frustration or a need to tell people how to live.’ Similarly, as for Buddhist-informed participants, after seeing the fundamental goodness in himself, David gradually learned to accept himself.

With mindfulness, participants from both groups were able to see the cause and conditions of phenomena of stress. Kevin found being clear, calm and aware makes him see that

emotions were just conditions, and those situations were not him and were temporary, and he was not attached to them. He said, ‘ … the mindfulness allows me to kind of reset and to … be able to come back to the source of all these conditions so that I’m not attaching or clinging to a condition or identifying with those conditions.’

One other aspect of wisdom is Right Intention or the good intention in the form of empathy, loving-kindness and compassion that both groups developed. Secular-informed participants such as Jane and Alice extended the good intention to their ability to treat people with respect, and Suzanna cultivated gratitude for happy times. Secularly, Suzanna did not refer to this intention as loving-kindness but kindness and compassion. In her other job as a mindful movement yoga teacher, she taught students to use yoga to cultivate self-compassion. She explained the problem with a lack of compassion as follows:

When … something happens, say, to you in your life, and you do not like what happened, so you … start to … dump on yourself—'I should have known better, I should have done this differently, this just proves I'm not very smart’… this is like an internal assault on yourself, and so you sort of wake up one moment and you say, ‘Wait a minute, … this isn’t all my fault; this is also this one’s fault and that one … from an internal downward spiral of self-criticism, … you begin to feel crushed under the weight of it and then—you lash out against others … it becomes a blaming game, … I think that if you can stop the spiral in its tracks … then … you can … direct some loving-kindness towards yourself, either through … cerebral, mental, … self-talk or through some physical gestures or physical movements … that just make you feel good in your body, that just give yourself a sense of being from which to then take the steps, like, out of this mess, then … you can stop the whole thing in its tracks.… If you give yourself some soothing kindness, … you feel strong enough to acknowledge your role in the whole thing, someone else's role … being more objective about what you could do in the future, how you could change in the future to maybe prevent this kind of pattern from perpetuating itself.…

Only Buddhist-informed participants were motivated by the belief in kamma in extending Right Intention to others. Saranyu, Yotsaphon, Chance and Kevin gained good kamma from making merit by practicing generosity through helping and volunteering. This belief in kamma was not shared with secular-informed participants. When Jessica, a secular-informed participant,

talked about the outcome of giving back to the community, it was just helping informed by good intention.

The other aspect of Right Intention was reported by only Buddhist-informed participants. This is referred to in Buddhist teaching as a renunciation of worldly desires which prioritizes the cessation of suffering over making a living. Buddhist-informed participants were able to reduce craving or let go of craving. For example, Right Intention helped Chance, Kevin and Jerzy reduce craving after practicing mindfulness. Meditation helped Chance to decide to quit the job from which he derived too much ambition and move to a job that was more supportive of his practice. He was able to change from being ambitious at work to letting go of his craving and changed his lifestyle to have more free time. On the other hand, the right intention was expressed in the form of goal setting. Woraphat cultivated more faith and confidence in the practice as he practiced more. He was able to set his life goal for nirvana, a goal that is more important than work, while his immediate life goal is to be happy every day:

If we have work to do, then just do work. When I am mindful, I label actions. Life is just that. It may sound as though I had no goal, but I think this is exactly the goal. That is, how to be happy every day, not stressed. If I work better, that’s just a by-product or result of merit.… This shows me what the world is up to. It helps me not to suffer. There is a goal, and that is to live my life happily in the present moment, every day that arises.

These wisdom outcomes helped both groups of participants to become freer from stress by being able to see or understand reality, stress, external work conditions and people. Buddhist- informed participants seemed to be more experiential in their explanation of the Three Marks of Existence (see Appendix A2 on Three Marks of Existence) while the secular-informed explanation was more cognitive. Buddhist-informed participants were more explicit about reversing the stress at the root cause by letting go of their craving and desires, while secular- informed participants emphasized alleviating stress by extending kindness and compassion to themselves and others. The majority of Buddhist-informed participants focused on observing the mind that transcends across lifetimes while secular-informed participants were more inclined towards including the body or their physical health as their object of the practice and outcome. The outcome of acceptance of stress did not stop participants from changing external work conditions. Accepting stress is accepting that everything is stressful in its nature, including

external work conditions. This acceptance changes practitioners’ internal worldview. However, this acceptance did not always lead to external change. It is within practitioners’ wisdom to know when to maintain the status quo and when to influence change in their external work conditions. There have been times when participants such as Farung did not accept stress but used it to motivate herself to change external work conditions and times when they were in a dilemma whether to change or accept external work conditions. Mindfulness, as a practice for these wisdom outcomes, is connected to other virtue and wisdom practices.

Three-Dimensional Mindfulness outcomes. The outcome of virtue, concentration and wisdom presented separately above contributed to reduced work stress in both Buddhist-informed and secular-informed participants. In fact, the three outcomes were all related but presented separately for further clarification. The holistic outcomes of Three-Dimensional Mindfulness were obvious in the following situations. Participants from both groups felt happier and lighter in their jobs. For example, Chance enjoyed his work more once he found himself more patient while doing it, but he was still happiest outside of the workplace when he was at the monastery, being able to practice meditation, patience and generosity. Jessica had joy in teaching mindfulness courses. She said this joy was not about her, but seeing other people benefiting from the practice. Mindfulness helped her to experience joy fully even though it is impermanent and to feel less suffering over time. Beatrice and Alice were explicit about being satisfied with their job. However, Farung’s level of happiness did not increase with age but remained the same because she faced a lot more problems as she grew older.

Both groups transformed society by starting with themselves by changing their perspective and understanding of self in relation to the world. Woraphat, Chance and Yue understood the root cause of stress—craving and desires—and tried to let go of them. David started seeing fundamental goodness in him and other people. Suzanna and Jessica saw themselves becoming a better person. These changes, in turn, made them think they also transformed society in which they lived—treating people better and living and working with more harmony. For example, Woraphat said that he changed from within, and being positive changed his boss’ treatment towards him and his work environment:

Mindfulness makes me see the world rather than making me change the world; it makes me change. It depends more on me. When we practice, when we do good things, the

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environment will be good to us. Just like the example of me not being angry with my boss, … my boss sometimes became more considerate to me. I changed from within, and it affected him without me knowing. Changing myself, my thoughts and being calmer affect the external environment.

In this example, Woraphat only mentioned mindfulness as a practice, but because he was talking about the long-term transformation, mindfulness was not the only practice but part of his overall practice. Yue also worked towards transforming from within:

First, you have to have personal well-being … to be able to alleviate suffering of others and to be able to understand what suffering means in the world, but you shouldn’t just stop, like, ‘Oh, I’m now—I release my suffering, I get good test scores, I can perform really good in my exam, and … I forget about the world [Laughs] and forget … that my own suffering is interconnected with other people’s suffering and other people’s suffering connected with mine.’ And I think that truly is the beauty of mindfulness….

Regarding other positive changes, Buddhist-informed participants were more explicit about them than secular-informed participants. Kevin and Chance felt more peaceful. Chance, Panatda and Saranyu thought they had a good life. Saranyu, Naphisa and Benchamat were able to live in moderation. Farung felt she was able to take control of her life. The most striking experience of change was the cessation of stress experienced by Jerzy. He described that the cessation is when there is no action or reaction:

Your mind is completely open, and your mind is actually very clear. This is non- action.… Actually, it’s not that you don’t do anything, … you act without attachment.… You don’t see yourself in this action; this way, you cannot generate a sense of … either joy or attachment or rejection … you just … act accordingly to the causes and conditions.

Jerzy went further than some participants who explained the cessation of suffering as the end of suffering or simply when they are not suffering. He said that the cessation of suffering is when we are not affected by the phenomena and understand their nature:

Cessation of suffering … is to be immune. Your mind will not engage in creating a kind of artificial world of suffering. But it’s not that, actually, you’re physically or mentally

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not exposed to some sort of strain, discomfort, and kind of things. In a sense, you can say that you always do because you have body, you have mind, which are actually subjected to all those.… If you start, no matter how … strong you believe in practicing Buddhism, someone will truly hurt you and with the intention of hurting you. You will feel that. This is the way. So, in a sense, we can say that to measure this thing is more like: how much you are not affected by suffering, how much you can transform suffering into what it truly is, which is neither [not] suffering nor suffering, you know like, you don’t see it … in a sensual perspective: ‘Yes,’ ‘No,’ right? Or ‘I’m suffering’ or ‘I’m not suffering,’ ‘I’m doing better,’ ‘I’m doing worse,’ but rather you, as long as you are not affected by those difference, then you can say, ‘I can see it this way,’ and this is sort of effective practice12.

Another unique Buddhist-informed outcome is wholeness. Yue became more aware and became more whole—able to connect mind and body in doing her work:

It’s also to be aware of why our thoughts and bodies are not together.… sometimes; it’s not easy to say, ‘I want to … protect the environment,’ and then do all the actions to protect the environment. For example, … like not travel too much with car, not consume too much of those goods that are unnecessary, … and I think it takes courage or certain insights to take those actions, … to be more consistent … in terms of my thoughts and my actions.… Mindfulness definitely help me to be aware and develop some of the capacity … to become more whole in life, to have that courage to be whole, … because I think … there are so many distractions … that will always tell you that … it’s not right to be whole, or it’s not right … to follow your heart, or it’s not right to act what you think is right.… So, there are lots of distractions that separate body and mind, and I think mindfulness do help bring those together.

Secular-informed participants were more focused on improving their health and work. Participants such as Jessica, Alice and Jane felt healthier being able to cope with their chronic pain. Suzanna felt healthier from her mindful movement practice. Jessica thought positively of the mindfulness outcomes on work and felt she was able to manage change at work.

12 Effective practice is illustrated in Chapter 5.

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Work stress reduction outcomes, as presented above, are direct outcomes of mindfulness achieved by both Buddhist-informed and secular-informed participants. Even though secular- informed participants were self-identified as practicing secular-informed mindfulness, in fact, they practiced three components or Three-Dimensional Mindfulness—virtue, concentration and wisdom—informed by a combination of Buddhism, their faiths and other social values and culture in their lived experience which will be discussed in Chapter 5. The illustration of work stress experienced will be discussed in Chapter 6. Some differences between the two groups in terms of outcomes were that the wisdom of the Three Marks of Existence (see Appendix A2 on Three Marks of Existence) was more experiential among Buddhist-informed participants than secular-informed participants. The work stress reduction focus was more on the mind for Buddhist-informed participants and more on the body for secular-informed participants. These differences were due to their training orientation. Buddhist-informed participants addressed the stress that is associated with the mind more than the body, while secular-informed participants addressed the physical pain and health. The goal of the cessation of stress of Buddhist-informed participants was much deeper than work stress reduction of secular-informed participants. The cessation of stress can be achieved by reversing the causes of stress, particularly by letting go of craving and desires. These practices were not much reported by secular-informed participants. In this study, it can only be concluded that both groups experienced reduced stress. The magnitude is not the question as much as the approach.

The difference in goals of the cessation of stress and stress reduction is a reflection of the value influence: Buddhist values and corporate values. The cessation of stress is an area of study in Buddhist Studies that is not influenced by corporate values such as efficiency, productivity and competitiveness driven by individualism and self-interest for work performance improvement while the work stress reduction of secular-informed participants is studied in industrial-organizational psychology which is well-aligned with these corporate values. Therefore, mindfulness training of the two groups had different orientations to corporate values. These two disciplines have different explanations for the causes of stress, the end of stress and the purpose of ending the stress.

Work Performance Outcomes

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Findings show that most Buddhist-informed participants practiced Three-Dimensional Mindfulness for the cessation of stress, while the majority of secular-informed participants reduced stress in order to improve work performance. The idea of using Three-Dimensional Mindfulness to reduce stress, and consequentially improve work performance serves corporate values of efficiency, productivity and competitiveness driven by individualism and self-interest for organizational effectiveness. However, not only secular-informed participants were guided by these corporate values. But Buddhist-informed participants also tried to improve work performance. The difference is that work performance is unintended or secondary to the cessation of stress for Buddhist-informed participants while it is an intended outcome for secular-informed participants.

As a secondary outcome, improved work performance is an extended benefit of the work stress reduction outcome. Both groups of participants agreed on having achieved it. The combined virtue, concentration and wisdom outcomes that contributed to work stress reduction did not merely reduce work stress but also involved actions that were supportive of work. The following are some of the examples that participants have applied to work performance.

Virtue outcomes. Communication, which has been improved for both Buddhist- Informed and secular-informed participants, improved their work performance. Examples are not given here because their communication is a combination of outcomes including virtue, concentration and wisdom. It is rather discouraging to learn that virtue alone did not seem to have a lot of impact on work performance, in which case, organizations would not be convinced to promote virtues.

Concentration outcomes. Both Buddhist-informed and secular-informed participants were more aware. They were able to regulate their thoughts, emotions and feelings. They were non-judgemental—not taking things personally and not jumping to the conclusion. They were more patient. They were able to do work and set work priorities. Their efficiency increased when they were able to concentrate and focus on their work. For example, when Woraphat was able to concentrate on work, he felt relaxed and enjoyed working. He did not think too much. Woraphat was unbothered by his moody boss at his current job. He said, ‘I was not stressed at being scolded over and over, having stuff thrown at me, or things like that. I faced

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it all.… He called me on the phone to scold me, … but I was not stressed.’ Neither was he bothered by customers’ complaints in his previous job. He said he understood the nature of the service job. Panatda was calm working in a medical emergency because of the practice. She was able to detect her feelings, such as sadness and anxiety, at work faster, and the feelings remained for a shorter period. She said, being able to control one’s feelings at work is important to work efficiency. When Woraphat concentrated on work, he was more efficient. Mindfulness from meditation helped him to enjoy his work to the point that he had Keratitis because he was looking at the computer for a long time. All that he was doing with mindfulness was just completing the work.

Just do it, knowing its purpose…. Once it’s finished, I feel happy. Whether others like it or not, I don’t care. I like it this way.… Sometimes the work has to be passed on to others. I feel I do my best. I am not distracted by other thoughts, putting in all my mental efforts and all the resources to complete it before handing it over to someone so that they can work conveniently and smoothly, no need to ask me more questions as I’ve done it thoroughly. This also makes me happy.

In another example, stress was conditioned by parents who were dissatisfied with Gena’s role as a teacher, not giving enough care to their daughter, who had physical disabilities and cognitive challenges. Gena was able to be mindful and focused on her work on the daughter, and unattached to their words, and tried her best to help the student as much as the school resources allowed and communicated with the parents on what she could offer. She described the situation as follows:

I was aware of them really wanting to support their daughter and … get the best situation for her, to help her make progress, and … so, I wanted to have an awareness of that, a respect for that, and to try and work with what they were hoping for, but then I was restricted, … because we didn’t have enough staff; we didn’t have enough support to do what they had wanted.… So, … at times, … their message to me could become quite personal … that I wasn’t doing a good job, or I wasn’t a good teacher, whatever. So, I think during that time, because of practicing, because of trying to stay in touch with being mindful and open and aware, … I didn’t … end up in a situation where I felt oppositional to them or … whatever, attacked by them, … I was able to keep focusing on their

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daughter, and what’s the best for her … but to be very direct with them about what we weren’t able to do … and also to … expect that that would be difficult for them to accept, but I think because … I was mindful and open and, … caring about all the people involved all at the same time, that it helped to bring about the best situation that was possible … for that young student.

Both groups’ productivity increased. For example, Alice’ anxiety and irritable bowel syndrome were reduced, allowing her to be more productive. Benchamat tried to be mindful and concentrate on work. When she was distracted, mindfulness from meditation reminded her of her distraction, and she switched her attention back to work. When she was able to, her work progressed productively and smoothly. Beatrice was mindful of her body in counselling sessions and felt mindfulness from meditation increased her productivity and efficiency:

… Just to pay attention to, … physically, how we feel in a situation, what our body language is when we’re talking to clients, … we sit in a very open way that shows that we’re listening and paying attention, … being mindful of just how you feel in your neck and shoulders and whether you’re relaxed with the person or whether you’re all stressed out, … the body is always telling us things, … Even how I feel at the end of the day sometimes, if I’ve had a very productive day, productive I think means being mindful, because I’ve been able to get the things done that I wanted to do and I didn’t get distracted and so on, and I always feel more energized at the end of the day.

Both groups of participants improved their listening skills. For example, mindfulness from meditation helped Beatrice to improve her counselling skill in sexual health education. She learned to be quiet and be with the client when telling them the bad news:

We do HIV testing in the clinic, and so I’ve had to give positive results to people, I just decided to try and … be there with my discomfort to experience it and not to try to push it away, but also to create some space just to be silent, just to be comfortable with the silence, the person didn’t want to say anything, they just needed to sit with the knowledge or with what they just heard. And I felt that things were a lot better after that, … someone who’s just got a very serious diagnosis like that, and they need that space, they need

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someone there, but they also need the quiet just to process the information … and then when they did speak, … I was able to listen, and it was much more productive.

Most of the concentration outcomes were similar between the two groups. Some different outcomes that only Buddhist-informed participants had were increased work accuracy and effort. These could be because, for example, Woraphat became more detail-oriented. Yue increased her effort and became more diligent and perseverant. Other differences that only secular-informed participants had, and only Suzanna reported were higher sensitivity and becoming more disciplined. The mindfulness mentioned as a practice here is connected with virtue and wisdom practices.

Wisdom outcomes. Both groups’ interaction and relationships improved by cultivating loving-kindness or compassion and harmony. Through Three-Dimensional Mindfulness, they saw interconnectedness between self and others and self and the workplace. For example, Naphisa started to realize how her role was connected to the entire organization.

Personally, before practicing mindfulness, I didn’t really think about it. I am an office worker. Since I started practicing more, I have felt I am acting like an owner. I think in business, I may be just a low-rank employee, but I am bringing revenue into the company.

Another transformation was evidenced in Kevin’s experience, who initially had anxiety and vexation at work due to changing and increasing work demand from his supervisor and constant problems to solve. Later in life, Kevin was rarely stressed by work changing demand from his supervisor and their lack of understanding by seeing the reality or the Three Marks of Existence (see Appendix A2 on Three Marks of Existence) while trying to improve his work skills. He used Three-Dimensional Mindfulness to see interconnectedness or not-self at work:

If I’m using like, the mindfulness or if I’m using a meditative practice, and then I’m always, remind myself of some principles, like for example, I might ask myself the question, … when I fear the criticism, ‘Is the criticism, really coming from a person … or is it really coming from my own mind’ … I’m hearing the worst, and because I’m the one who’s processing that criticism, I’m the one who’s interpreting it, … it’s really the thought that I’m interacting with, it’s not that I’m … the person criticizing me, it’s more

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like that’s just the thought that’s coming out in that situation, and so, in that sense, … if I don’t take it as like a person criticizing me, if I just see the thought that is coming to mind, it’s much easier for me to understand how to approach the criticism. But if I say, like if I think that … the person’s mind is criticizing my mind, then … it’s sort of like I’m creating a separation and saying, “Well, that person is against me,” so the mindfulness is just to know that all that experience … is mind; … it’s not my mind versus that person’s mind; it’s only really just mind. So, the mindfulness is always about coming back to this basic awareness, like; I’m not interacting with separate people, … the mind is really just interacting with itself.

In another example, while working at institutions as a psychiatrist, Sinai’s co-workers unmindfully criticized and challenged him for not doing a good job without an opportunity to explore the situation. Sinai stayed calm listening to criticism and extended compassion to the co- workers who he was with during the meeting to truly love them. He thought their trust would come to him. Sinai described the social dynamics in the situation:

What I found myself doing was saying things that surprised me, that technically seemed inappropriate, certain moments of jokes, certain moments of being serious, … moments of speaking when it wouldn't be necessary, moments of … going against conventional wisdom in favour of whatever felt right in the moment, … and the outcome of situations were stupendous … where people who walked in to tell me one thing and changed their minds and we ended up with agreements that we were all satisfied with. And I think importantly, a change in tone, people walked in, would be very upset, and walked out smiling, I think, and offering encouraging words to each other. So yeah, so my experience of mindfulness in workplaces is that it … eases the flow and it allows people to … work collaboratively rather than in silos.

In fact, during these meetings, when Sinai was verbally attacked, he was relaxed and enjoyed the meeting. These three examples above show how interconnectedness or not-self helped participants integrate into the organization with increased harmony, cooperation, collaboration and unity.

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Both groups were able to make better decisions. For example, they were able to make the right job decision and change the job situation. Mindfulness from meditation did not directly increase the meaning of work for most participants but helped with job decision-making through making the right career choice for themselves; mindfulness from meditation helped participants to realize the purpose and meaning of work. Yotsaphon, Farung and Yue thought their work was meaningful as long as they enjoyed it. Yotsaphon said, ‘If we have a choice, … if we work the job we like, we will not think the work we do has low value or no value. Instead, it is always meaningful.’ Farung said mindfulness helped her to realize the purpose of her work and the type of work she liked: ‘The purpose of work is to serve people in the organization. I like working in a job in which I can help others. I chose HR because it is a support function … not to make money.’

Yue saw the right job as promoting well-being or a job that is aligned with Buddhist- informed mindfulness. Some participants, such as Chance quit their jobs for Buddhism. Some participants changed their job to secular-informed mindfulness teaching.

While mindfulness from meditation helped participants select the job, some did not choose a job that is more supportive of their Three-Dimensional Mindfulness practice. For example, social change was not Naphisa’s work motivation when she said, ‘I feel the content of my work, that is tourism, does not have value to anyone. It just makes a person happy from travelling, but not contributing value to others.’ Farung thought all types of work are equally challenging to practice mindfulness on, except for monkhood, but each person has a different standard as to what they experience and consider challenging. Mindfulness helped Farung to choose the right job for her character and personality, but she did not choose it so that she can practice mindfulness more:

I chose the job that fits me best … meaning least hectic for me, acceptable to me. But the phrase ‘least hectic’ for me means the level I can accept in HR. But I once talked to a colleague in Sales; he said, ‘How can you work in that field? For me I couldn’t, having to listen to stories of people in the entire organization. Ow, that’d give me a headache, that’s hectic.’

In this way, Three-Dimensional Mindfulness did not help people to accept just any job. Instead, it helped practitioners to understand their own needs, and make changes and choices for

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themselves. Participants also adopted secular approaches to problem-solving, which are partially influenced by corporate values of efficiency, productivity and competitiveness driven by individualism and self-interest for work performance improvement and personal happiness in their job decision-making.

Other than changing their jobs, the only person who believed he could change other people was Saranyu. However, his belief was informed by a secular self-help book, The Secret by Rhonda Byrne (2006). Before he changed others, Saranyu had been able to change himself and his own work situation when he started his own small IT company. He believed, ‘I could set up this company because of my thinking, the thinking process from the Secret, the Law of Attraction, goal-setting, big thinking, helped me to set up this company.’ He also hired workers by their thinking process and goodness over their intellect.

Three-Dimensional Mindfulness increased resilience and retention among participants from both groups. For example, Woraphat remained calm, did not form opinions on it, and extended loving kindness to his boss. He said, ‘In fact, it is good to practice loving-kindness together with mindfulness. I think extending loving-kindness can help a lot, helping me not to hate my boss, become stressed and want to change jobs, and continue to work here despite being scolded.’

Both groups were able to change their mindset or perspective. They were able to take the employer’s perspective. Sinai was able to change youths’ perspectives on diversity. He used mindfulness with youths in exploring gender issues. He explained that they get insights into their experience of gender in relation to society:

… It's a great outcome when a youth … gets beyond their own biases and recognizes other people's biases without taking them on.… But when that happens, it's not because I talk to them about gender but more … because through mindfulness, people shift their views.… And the group context for mindful discussion seems to allow these shifts in consciousness to happen faster than when people do it alone or in groups, discuss topics without mindfulness.

The following examples show differences in outcomes between Buddhist-informed and secular-informed participants. Mindfulness could potentially help Buddhist-informed

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participants—Yotsaphon and Naphisa—to change their work process. While Yotsaphon thought mindfulness helped him realize a different approach to work, but he did not want to take the risk due to time constraint, Naphisa thought mindfulness changed her attitude towards how she worked, helped her gain experience and later take more risk in changing her work process.

I felt mindfulness makes me change, and I dare to face changes.… dare to take risks, trial and error. Following a procedure is slow, isn’t it? ‘Should I try to change it?’ ‘Is it better?’ If changing doesn’t help, then go back to the same steps. If changing makes it better, then use it, to improve work. I think mindfulness rather helped change the attitude.

Beatrice, a Buddhist-informed participant, was the only person who felt Buddhism helped her to see the value in her job and every job, or it made her job more meaningful. She mentioned cleaning the temple taught people that every job had the same value to the practice or practitioners tried to respect what they did by being mindful:

I always knew it was very valuable work, … but more and more now I just feel so … grateful to have the opportunity to do work like this, because there’s always a chance to make someone feel better … to have that opportunity is … it’s a really, a wonderful thing.… and so, … to pay attention to see the value of the work itself, to see the value of the interaction with the client … when one is really fully present and mindful, then the work itself becomes the practice, … I’d say that every work has implicit value.

Buddhist-informed participants were able to solve problems through compassion as a part of Three-Dimensional Mindfulness. For example, as a schoolteacher, Gena saw an unsupportive environment for children and was able to change the school environment from hostile to more compassionate and supportive by talking with the principal:

When I first came to this last school, … I did observe quite a bit of … sadly, people, adults, yelling at children, screaming at them, telling them what they had to do, or even being somewhat rough with them physically, and I found that very difficult. I felt … I couldn’t tolerate it; it was unnecessary and so that I went to the principal and worked with her to try and change the atmosphere in the school, … definitely the culture evolved to more of a supportive, kinder, more compassionate … culture, and I think the feedback

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that I got was that had a lot to do with me sort of bringing it forward, wanting to deal with it, and working in a positive way to bring it about.

In another example, when a new supervisor, hired in another department which worked alongside his department, criticized his work, Kevin saw suffering, impermanence and not-self and the connection among the three at his work. He felt he did not have the right training for the tasks that were demanded of him but was able to face the situation with mindfulness and tried to solve the problem of external work conditions by improving his skills and knowledge:

What the mindfulness helped me do was it gave me perspective to realize that … whatever I’m feeling at that moment is just … the result of cause and condition that … arose up to that point in time, and with the perspective of mindfulness, I’m able to see what I can do in that situation. Can I learn more? Is there something I can improve? But not blame myself for not knowing up to that point, not try to blame a particular self, ‘cause in some sense, like when you start to blame yourself, you’re creating a thought and then that thought is giving you suffering, it’s giving you problems.… for me, that’s the principle that I use when I work.… I always feel like there’s always something that I can learn, but actually, even if there’s a mistake, there’s no permanent self in that mistake.… you’re able to kind of accommodate new experiences, and … you don’t have a self-attachment to your experience as opposed to their experience. It’s not a ‘me’ versus ‘you’ situation.

While most of these wisdom outcome differences are shown in Buddhist-informed participants, one aspect secular-informed participants achieved was working more effectively; that is, doing the right thing. For example, Jessica was more effective in getting her job done by focusing on the right inputs rather than the outcomes and noticed that the right inputs lead to the right outcomes regardless. She changed from reacting from her standpoint to responding to coworkers’ needs. She used to be anxious, frustrated and angry at work at her subordinates when they caused problems for her to fix. She shifted from asking herself, ‘How could they do that? Why could they do that? Do I have to fire this person?’ due to frustration and anger to ‘Oh, that's interesting, they must have had [Laughs] a good reason for doing that. Why did they do that? Could you give me some more explanation on that?’ because of not-self or self-relaxing, which she explained:

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The part of you that needs to be superior starts to disappear … You're just relaxed about it. You just listen to what someone has to say, and you say, “Okay, well, here's the next step, let's do this,” and it just, but you're not carrying that anger, that frustration, that angst around all the time, and you're just lighter and easier.… So … I think that's the magic of it.… You have that magic space to respond, to think about how you want to behave … in this situation. What can you do that’s the best? … And … part of it is thinking about Right Speech - what’s the right thing to say? … What’s the right thing to do?

All the wisdom outcomes on work performance as presented show that both groups shared similar outcomes as a result of practicing mindfulness of virtue and wisdom. However, some outcomes were specific to one group. A change in the work process, meaning of work and problem-solving outcomes were only experienced by some Buddhist-informed participants while effectiveness was only shared by some secular-informed participants.

Three-Dimensional Mindfulness outcomes. Both groups performed better. They were able to transform their work. For instance, David created a supportive environment for his students. Beatrice was an example of someone whose relationship with the job was improved by Three-Dimensional Mindfulness. She was happy, interested, and felt she was doing a better job:

It can be very easy to get bored at a job when you’ve done it for a long time.… once I started practice, then I … began to understand that it’s never the same thing over and over again, that every moment, of course, is a unique moment.… There’s less tuning out.… I’ve probably talked to young women about how to take the birth control pill probably thousands of times by now.… but when you’ve given that same sort of talk to someone, it’s possible that you could just sort of go on autopilot and just sort of talk at them and not really even see who’s sitting there on the other side of the desk, … being mindful is really probably made me … better at my job, being a better educator, as well as made me feel happier with the work that I’m doing.

Both groups improved their communication. Secular-informed mindfulness helped Suzanna communicate with clients and parties in her mediation work to arrive at the best

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settlement. For example, in a car accident situation, she described both parties to be very angry, hostile, distraught and upset. As a mediator, she tried to guide them through the reconciliation process to resolve their dispute. One party was a seriously injured person who became quadriplegic in a car accident. She described the situation as:

It's like a split-second of your life, but the car accident was his fault, and the other driver actually died, so it was a terrible situation. So, he was just feeling, like, so incredibly guilty and distraught, but he himself was now in a wheelchair. It's such a tragic situation, but we sat down….

Through the dialogue with the lawyers and the insurance company, Suzanna helped the party to receive the benefits and resources he was entitled to under the law despite his causing the car accident. She was satisfied with the result and expressed her feeling from this situation as:

Good, good, … good that you can set a tone, of patience, of compassion, of … rolling up your sleeves and working together. I mean … out of all the … sequel life from this situation where he was also charged criminally, and he had to live with the guilt of the other party dying and … his life is so dramatically changed. His wife was there, and her life was so dramatically changed that … he was still entitled to, like, helping to infuse a little bit of self-compassion, hopefully, in him, because he was just so distraught and didn’t even feel … he should continue to live.

The following themes were experienced differently by the two groups. Only Buddhist- informed participants mentioned competing with just oneself because they thought competing and comparing could be harmful. The group also had high job retention.

Only secular-informed participants improved leadership skills, which included management skills. For example, Jessica thought mindfulness helped her to be a better leader and a better boss. Incrementally her behaviour changed without trying:

Over time, you just find that you’re behaving differently, that you’re more kind, that you’re more compassionate, that you see somebody else’s pain, that you’re less likely to … engage in … carping about an individual.… It stops for you.… your need to be better

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than somebody else that forces a lot of this behaviour, … I call it bracelet, but that thread of ‘I’m not good enough’ breaks. When that is no longer a part of who you are.

Secular-informed participants thought the impact is not just personal but societal. Jessica thought when we change in an environment, we also change the environment, making a better world. Suzanna contributed to a healthier workplace, which she described as:

It’s not black-and-white like.… It's more a process where you kind of create … atmosphere in the workplace … there is a more respectable attitude for example towards other people or people being given a chance to express themselves, … being able to respectfully disagree with people, and being able to stay calm and not intimidate people you know like having people on the team stay calm and not intimidated, kind of listen and pay attention, to others and not only to themselves. I think over time it does become a … healthier workplace one which people enjoy working in, and I know that the workplace that I was the head of people over time, I did enjoy working there, but it's not the end of suffering. There's never gonna to be the end of suffering as far as I'm concerned.

Improved work performance outcomes are similar between Buddhist-informed and secular-informed participants. None of the virtue outcomes seemed to contribute to improvement in work performance on its own, but when it was combined with concentration and wisdom. The concentration outcome contributed to the work performance of both groups. It made them feel relaxed and calm, able to focus on work and complete their work or become more productive. It made them more open-minded—non-judgmental—to other people’s actions. It increased their patience. Buddhist-informed participants mentioned further details on increased efficiency and accuracy, while secular-informed participants, such as Jessica, mentioned increased effectiveness by focusing on the right thing. The wisdom outcome of work performance was also similar between the two groups. They saw the connection between themselves and their work. They were able to solve problems through mindfulness from meditation. They were able to find a suitable job for themselves that was supportive of their practice. They were able to get along with colleagues. When the three dimensions were combined, their performance improved. They were able to improve their work. Suzanna was more specific about transforming it into a healthier workplace. Only Buddhist-informed participants mentioned competing with only

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oneself, and work retention. A secular-informed participant, Suzanna, was more specific on how communication was improved with compassion. Secular-informed participants were also more applied in referring to specific skills improvements such as leadership and management. All the practices which improved work performance, referred to as mindfulness, actually have three dimensions: virtue, concentration and wisdom.

Buddhist-informed participants were aware that work outcomes were rather secular. Some Buddhist-informed participants such as Woraphat, Chance, Kevin, Jerzy and Beatrice were less concerned about practicing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness for the work performance outcomes. The results they achieved were merely a by-product. Other Buddhist-informed participants such as Saranyu, Yotsaphon, Naphisa and Farung and secular practitioners seemed to practice Three-Dimensional Mindfulness for work performance outcomes as well. Yotsphon thought mindfulness could help people to succeed in anything because mindfulness is universal. These outcomes of improved work performance confirm that Three-Dimensional Mindfulness is a practice that yields desirable work outcomes such as self-regulation, competitiveness and economic efficiency in all participants. Therefore, it is not only secular-informed mindfulness that is corporate-value-oriented in outcomes but also Buddhist-informed mindfulness, although to a lesser extent. In other words, without the emergence of secular-informed mindfulness, Buddhism has been coopted and interpreted in alignment with corporate values of efficiency, productivity and competitiveness, driven by individualism and self-interest, by both Buddhists and non-Buddhists. Some of the Buddhist-informed participants who were not practicing Three- Dimensional Mindfulness with an intention to improve work were least influenced by these corporate values. Regarding competitiveness, some of the Buddhist-informed participants said they competed with oneself which did not seem to mean competing but doing their best. As corporate values promote market cultures, personal responsibility, self-regulation and economic efficiency, they will continue to be effective and aligned with Three-Dimensional Mindfulness as long as the outcomes free participants from stress and, at the same time, support them in doing work which seemed to be the case in this chapter.

Summary

This chapter presents the findings from the interviews with both Buddhist-informed and

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secular-informed participants on their overall work wisdom outcomes of reduced work stress and improved work performance. Their work wisdom outcomes are formed by combined sub- outcomes of virtue and concentration, which are fundamental to gaining wisdom. As described, they gained these outcomes from practicing mindfulness, which actually has three dimensions to it: virtue, concentration and wisdom, referred to as ‘Three-Dimensional Mindfulness’ in this thesis.

For the most part, both the outcomes and the practices are similar between the two groups, yet there are some minor differences between them. First, both groups had reduced stress. The majority of the Buddhist-informed participants followed Buddhist values of the cessation of stress as the goal of their practice. Secular-informed participants were influenced by secular-informed teachings on stress reduction in healthcare with a goal of improving health and well-being. Buddhist-informed participants, although experienced no stress temporarily, never fully experienced the cessation of stress while secular-informed participants achieved their goal of stress reduction. Second, both groups still had to continue practicing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness as a way of life to maintain the outcomes. Third, both groups improved their work performance. However, a number of Buddhist-informed participants did not focus on improving work performance through Three-Dimensional Mindfulness. In other words, they did not practice mindfulness in order to be able to work. Improved work performance is a secondary or unintended benefit that they experienced. Other Buddhist-informed participants and secular- informed participants had work within their purview of their mindfulness practice. It is still secondary to their health and well-being, but they did practice mindfulness to improve their work. The secular workplace also influenced some Buddhist-informed participants in wanting to integrate mindfulness into their work to make them perform better at work. Fourth, secular- informed mindfulness started to have influence over Buddhist-informed participants in Canada in how they talk about Buddhism using more of the non-religious terms, ‘mindfulness,’ to mean more than what is Right Mindfulness, a factor of the Eightfold Path (see Appendix A3 on Right Mindfulness).

Despite outcome differences, overall, I could see that both groups gained a decent level of freedom from stress and freedom to fulfill their economic needs through Three-Dimensional Mindfulness practices. The outcomes of reduced work stress, which enabled improved work

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performance, are aligned with corporate values of efficiency, productivity and competitiveness, which are driven by individualism and self-interest, for organizational effectiveness. However, setting work improvement outcomes in mind as a goal of the practice implies that some of the Buddhist-informed participants and secular-informed participants were heavily influenced by these corporate values in their mindfulness orientation. This Buddhist-informed freedom to end stress contributes to topics in Buddhist studies while secular-informed freedom of well-being for work performance improvement contributes to discourses in industrial-organizational psychology.

I further explain these Three-Dimensional Mindfulness practices in the next chapter. Both this and the next chapter address my first research question, namely, ‘How do Buddhist-informed mindfulness practitioners, and secular-informed mindfulness practitioners reduce work stress and improve work performance through mindfulness practice in work-life?’ and ‘How are their experiences similar or different?’ by listing the outcomes they experienced supported by explanations of their practices. These outcomes and practices participants experienced are compared with the existing research and discussed in the next chapter.

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Chapter 5 How to Work Wisely

The work wisdom outcomes of reduced work stress and improved work performance presented in the previous chapter were the results of practicing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness. I have also identified some of the practices that led to these outcomes, as indicated by the participants. In this chapter, I further explain participants’ Three-Dimensional Mindfulness practice to answer my first research question: ‘How do Buddhist-informed mindfulness practitioners and secular-informed mindfulness practitioners reduce work stress and improve work performance through mindfulness practice in work-life?’ and ‘How are their experiences similar or different?’ However, the participants were not the ones calling these practices ‘Three- Dimensional Mindfulness.’ Therefore, first, I take a detour to differentiate Three-Dimensional Mindfulness from mindfulness to clarify what I mean by Three-Dimensional Mindfulness in this chapter and why participants’ practices can be categorized accordingly. This explanation will support my argument for using Three-Dimensional Mindfulness—virtue, concentration and wisdom—as a framework instead of just one or two dimensions as exemplified in the mindfulness literature review in Chapter 2. Without any categorization, referring to the practices as ‘mindfulness’ makes the term ‘mindfulness’ unclear as to what practices it constitutes.

As introduced in Chapter 1, Three-Dimensional Mindfulness is a conceptual framework modified from Buddhist Threefold Training which consists of three practice components: virtue, concentration and wisdom according to the Eightfold Path categorization (see Appendix A4 on Threefold Training). However, it should be noted that the results of virtue, concentration and wisdom are derived from practicing all the components together. Attributing a single practice to a single outcome is difficult. For example, the virtue outcome can be cultivated by practicing the virtue practices of the Five Precepts. However, practicing meditation, which is a concentration practice, and compassion, which is a wisdom practice, will also enhance the result of virtue. Similarly, concentration can be practiced by doing meditation but can be further strengthened by practicing harmlessness and generosity. I first start with the confusion with the term ‘mindfulness,’ then I identify participants’ practices as a virtue, concentration, wisdom and the three combined, their alignment with corporate values of efficiency, productivity and competitiveness, which are driven by individualism and self-interest, for work performance

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improvement, and end the chapter with a discussion of my findings against the existing mindfulness research.

Mindfulness Confusion

‘Mindfulness’ is a confusing construct because secular-informed mindfulness training sometimes uses Buddhist mindfulness meditation as a standalone practice, and other times uses ‘mindfulness’ as an umbrella term to include other practices without identifying those other practices. I will first identify how participants define ‘mindfulness’ within the Three- Dimensional Mindfulness framework.

Definitions of mindfulness. Buddhist-informed and secular informed participants defined ‘mindfulness’ as being aware of what we are doing in the present moment, remembering what we do, paying attention, being non-judgmental and receptive or open-minded. The secular definition that is different from the Buddhist was given by Sinai, a secular-informed participant. He defined ‘mindfulness’ as honouring and following what we notice and living by it. Up to this point, their definitions are still aligned with corporate values of efficiency, productivity and competitiveness driven by individualism and self-interest. Less common descriptions are the Buddhist values that diverge from the corporate values above. Both groups shared the idea of bringing the mind and heart to the situation with sensory clarity, equanimity, beginner’s mind, love, empathy and compassion. Descriptions that only came from Buddhist- informed participants are investigating how mind reacts to conditions, looking into true mind, being non-discriminatory, non-attaching, seeing that the phenomena are not you but a creation of mind, befriending and intellectual discernment. They saw that the nature of mind is empty, and ‘mindfulness’ is a natural function of mind. The opposite of being mindful is referred to as ‘mindless,’ ‘unmindful’ and absent-minded.

‘Mindfulness’ is closely related to concentration, often practiced together. When practiced together, both groups saw ‘mindfulness’ as being focused, not getting distracted, and being relaxed, not stressed or tensed. One Buddhist-informed participant added dropping the struggle with mind. When ‘mindfulness’ involves concentration, it corresponds to the corporate values. The purpose of secular-informed mindfulness is rather short-term. Mindfulness is used to improve relationships with pure intention and cope with pain and stress. These secular purposes

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are aligned with corporate values. However, some of the purposes of Three-Dimensional Mindfulness differ from corporate values such as attachment to work goals and competitiveness. To both groups, mindfulness has the purpose of being compassionate, understanding the meaning of life, happiness and freedom. Buddhist-informed participants added refraining from harmfulness, liberation from delusion and letting go of desires.

Participants explained what mindfulness is by defining it, how it is used, and for what it is used. In participants’ understanding, mindfulness is practiced together with concentration13 or focus, virtue such as harmlessness and wisdom such as compassion which fall under the framework which I refer to as Three-Dimensional Mindfulness14. The purposes of the participants’ practice vary and reflect both Buddhist values and also corporate values where they overlap.

Definition of wisdom. From my observation and interpretation, in the participants’ perspectives, wisdom was not explained as an object of participants’ practice, but the goal they wanted to achieve through Three-Dimensional Mindfulness. Here, I present Jerzy’s and Sinai’s interpretations as an example of Buddhist-informed participants’ and secular-informed participants’ definitions in that order. Informed by Chan Buddhism, Jerzy explained wisdom from the Mahāyāna Buddhist perspective that it has to be instantaneous rather than working through mental processing. There is not enough time or a chance to think through or use the intellect like what we do with conventional wisdom because life is fast-paced. According to Jerzy, this conventional wisdom is based on ‘knowledge, based on learning, based on habits.’ This partly explains why there are different patterns in participants’ approaches to overcoming

13 Readers may be confused when the same term ‘concentration’ is used as one component of Three-Dimensional Mindfulness and as a type of meditation practice. To clarify, mindfulness is a type of meditation practiced together with concentration meditation within the concentration practice and outcome. The Threefold Training in Buddhism uses the term ‘concentration’ (samādhi) as the training outcome of concentration (samatha) meditation and mindfulness/insight (vipassanā) meditation (see Appendix A4 on Threefold Training). Mindfulness in Buddhism is insight, but mindfulness in secular research and practice is a combination of both concentration and insight. 14 As mentioned in previous chapters, the original Buddhist framework is ‘Threefold Training,’ but because Buddhism is also practiced secularly, I created the new framework called ‘Three-Dimensional Mindfulness’ to be inclusive of both groups. In this thesis, Three-Dimensional Mindfulness is a broader framework for both Buddhist- informed mindfulness and secular-informed mindfulness. Thus, Three-Dimensional Mindfulness does not only mean mindfulness but the entire set of practices and outcomes that practitioners do which include virtue, concentration and wisdom that are aligned with Buddhist values.

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stress, as explained in Chapters 6 to 7. The traditional wisdom can be learned by people to change behaviour accordingly, but it is just a habit. He explained how prajñā15 or transcendental wisdom works differently from traditional intellect:

You won't have time to intellectually recalls the high values you want to base your decision on, right? And then you most likely react from your deeper instinct, which is the attachment, your fear, anger, all those things, right? … Wisdom is actually being able to go beyond … those attachments, ... those constraints … just true direct understanding what the mind truly is because you actually use it over time, it’s just a matter of seeing it.

Jerzy saw wisdom as seeing the natural process that phenomena are always ‘falling.’ He said Buddhist teaching is not just Buddhist but universal as it is natural wisdom that we already have. If we do not make mistakes, then the wisdom functions naturally. He saw Buddhism as wisdom. He said, ‘the practice of Buddhism is just the methods of actualizing that wisdom, or bringing it back when … you become confused, … or lost.’ He said we have to understand that we cannot have a thought that actually arises and never falls, everlasting happiness or pain. Therefore, there is no need to maintain or grasp happiness and reject the pain. He said, ‘Buddhism is something which actually allows you to see these changes as something natural and flow with them naturally without being affected by them.’

Sinai shared his secular experience of enlightenment as coming and going. His idea might sound similar, but the language used sounded different from Jerzy’s explanation:

I see enlightenment as something that … happens and is brief and then can keep happening.… This great sentence I once heard that you cannot maintain your own transformation.… When I make a mistake, … I would just say that that was … a moment that didn't have light in it, … and that I can then get enlightened again.

Both Jerzy’s and Sinai’s explanations of wisdom above are aligned with wisdom in Buddhism. However, Jerzy and Sinai took a different stance on work. Jerzy was not attached to corporate values for work performance improvement. He did not agree to modify Buddhist

15 prajñā in Sanskrit and paññā in Pali

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wisdom to accommodate work. He saw prajñā or transcendental wisdom as letting go, and traditional wisdom as doing something:

Prajñā wisdom … is … not the wisdom derived from interaction with phenomenas.… This is what creates our, let’s say, conventional world in life. We interreact with the phenomenas.… We make the judgments, we create ideas, concepts … and we act on it. That’s karma16. So, prajñā is simply not using that mechanism, ‘cause this mechanism is constantly changing, right? … The prajñā is actually to know that in any parts of this mechanism, there is no self, there is … nothing real, … even the concepts … like Buddha, … the Four Noble Truths, it’s only part of it. So, seeing it, you actually are engaging in that wisdom, … but to see it is sort of like a function of meditation because it's samādhi. Without faith and without effort, you will not get to it. So, all of them are absolutely important, and … of course, based on the ethical aspect.… When you don't have an ethical foundation, there's no way for you to relax. If you relax, you're always relaxed in a state of some sort of tension. There would be a mental, physical tension somewhere there, but if you have nothing to worry about—you never lie, steal, kill, whatever, right? … Then, all it takes is just to let go of whatever you’re doing, and you will immediately enter that state.

Jerzy’s stance shows that he practiced Three-Dimensional Mindfulness: virtue, concentration and wisdom, and strictly followed the Buddhist values without feeling pressured to change for corporate values. According to him, traditional wisdom seemed to be the wisdom of corporate values.

Similarly, Sinai seemed to suggest that the wisdom he gained from Three-Dimensional Mindfulness was different from conventional wisdom but did not clarify what he meant by conventional wisdom. When he faced some challenges from co-workers during meetings, he maintained his practice of breathing, staying calm and extending compassion to them. He described wisdom in mindfulness almost as the intuition that arose in him. Even though Sinai did not feel pressured by corporate values in his mindfulness practice, he incorporated secular-

16 Karma in Sanskrit and Kamma in Pali

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informed mindfulness practices under the Three-Dimensional Mindfulness framework into his work and practiced them for work performance.

Regardless of the understanding and intentions, work wisdom, as the opposite of work stress, freed participants from work stress and enabled them to achieve their economic desires. Work wisdom is aligned with Buddhist values, part of which overlap with corporate values when work performance is achieved without attachment to organizational goals and ego. In the eyes of participants, practices for work wisdom are a combination of 1) faith-based wisdom and the other types of wisdom practiced within the framework of Three-Dimensional Mindfulness. These other types are referred to by participants as ‘practical wisdom,’ ‘traditional wisdom’ and ‘conventional wisdom,’ secular in nature, as discussed earlier. Faith-based wisdom is used to overcome stress, and secular-informed wisdom is used to solve external work problems. These two categories of wisdom are sometimes in conflict. In this thesis, the conflict arises when corporate values undermine the Buddhist values and vice versa in the work process. That is, for example, when work activities become harmful and when workers are attached to work performance and ego.

Mindfulness bundles. Both Buddhist-informed and secular-informed participants emphasized the practice of mindfulness when they talked about mindfulness even though they also practiced virtue and wisdom. Here I provide some examples of the bundles that participants mentioned. Among Buddhist-informed participants, their practices are similar and are easier to categorize as virtue, concentration and wisdom. For example, Beatrice' bundle includes meditation (focusing more on attention), contemplation of loving-kindness, participation in a Zen intensive program, Right Effort, patience, non-judgement, non-attachment, contemplation of the Three Marks of Existence (see Appendix A2 on Three Marks of Existence), Buddha's life story, spirituality, gatha, kōan, Tai Chi and mindfulness reminder. It should be noted that Tai Chi is more like an exercise for her than a mindfulness practice.

Among secular-informed participants, their mindfulness bundles are similar in the health focus but also bear some differences. Jessica and Suzanna practiced mindful leadership; this type of leadership was not mentioned by the other three secular-informed participants. Their mindful leadership is their own list of practices. Suzanna's bundle includes mindful leadership (self- inquiry, the attitude of kindness, empathy, calmness, focus, pausing, mindful listening, non-

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judgement, acceptance, and intention) and mindful movement yoga. Jessica's bundle includes mindful leadership (meditation: concentration, sensory clarity, equanimity), good and pure intention, not clinging, acceptance, not comparing and competing by becoming a better and fair person). Sinai’s mindfulness bundle does not have mindful leadership in it. His practices were Jewish ethics, Buddhist teachings, other religious teachings, lying meditation, mindfulness (mindful knowing, mindful communication and mindful decision-making), non-judgement, connectivity, not-self, compassion, letting go, acceptance, and recognizing impermanence. Sinai’s bundle does overlap with Jessica’s and Suzanna’s bundles. That means mindful leadership, as practiced by Jessica and Suzanna, is another application of mindfulness in the workplace at participants’ discretion.

The flexibility of mindfulness allows participants to create their own set of practices. Meanwhile, this flexibility creates confusion in training and research of mindfulness. It is unclear what combination leads to desirable outcomes of reduced work stress and improved work performance. Therefore, I suggest using Three-Dimensional Mindfulness as a framework for any bundle creation to ensure that practices for virtue, concentration and wisdom are aligned with Buddhist values of the cessation of stress.

Three-Dimensional Mindfulness

Virtue practices. Both Buddhist-informed and secular-informed participants practiced virtues. Both Adela and Sinai tried to do the right thing. Adela referred to this with the Buddhist term, ‘Right Action.’ Their practice resulted in Right Speech as presented in Chapter 4. Right Speech/honesty/integrity was practiced by both groups. One example was mindful emailing that made participants think before they wrote and sent the message. In addition, Buddhist-informed participants followed the rest of the Buddhist Five Precepts and Right Livelihood not to cause harm through their body, speech and mind. Lex practiced some of the precepts—Compassionate, Healthy Living, Truthful and Loving Speech, Right Livelihood and Reverence for Life—as part of the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings created by Thích Nhất Hạnh (2012). Yue is the only Buddhist-informed participant who mentioned embodiment of the ethics and wholeness or holism. Following the precepts or letting go of unwholesome deeds is a virtue that allowed participants to practice the opposite or wholesome actions or doing good. Practicing

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goodness is a way of making merit that Buddhist practitioners were aware of. Not only the precepts but also concentration and wisdom practices support becoming virtuous. Participants learned these virtuous practices from Buddhism and prior to and alongside studying Buddhism. Secular participants had their own list of virtues/values/disciplines/principles which overlapped with the Buddhist practitioners. Most of them were informed by other faiths. For example, Sinai followed Jewish ethics. All these virtues both groups of participants practiced are aligned with Buddhist values of the cessation of stress which is minimalized in corporate values of efficiency, productivity and competitiveness driven by individualism and self-interest for organizational effectiveness.

Concentration practices. Everyone said they practiced mindfulness. This term is unclear whether it is a combination of practices or just the Buddhist Right Mindfulness (see Appendix A3 on Right Mindfulness). Mindfulness may not be easily categorized as a concentration practice since it involves a bundle of practices exemplified above. Insight and concentration may be practiced simultaneously and sequentially. Differentiating the two in one activity is difficult. Except for the Theravāda participants, most did not differentiate them and referred to the activities both by the term ‘meditation’ or ‘mindfulness.’ Even Buddhist-informed Canadians had started using secular-informed terms. Mindful-plus-noun phrases such as mindful listening may not exactly fit what I categorize them here as a concentration practice. As shown above, mindful listening and mindful knowing seem like a combination of practices with an emphasis on Right View, which is wisdom. Following is a list of general practices featuring concentration that both groups followed: being in the present, meditating regularly, body scan, being mindful in doing activities such as mindful listening and mindful eating, concentration or focus, pausing, reciting Mantra, prayer, non-judgement, receptivity, equanimity, joining group meditation, Yoga, and putting effort into the practice. All of these are a form of meditation and the effort put into practicing it.

Participants from both groups practiced meditation at home, at their meditation group meeting place, at the temple, at a retreat centre, on the road and in the workplace. Some also practiced it in their prayer at home. The practice outside of work was mainly sitting meditation. At work, they did mindful listening, paying attention to their state of mind and work, breathing,

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praying and reciting Mantra. Mindful listening as a concentration practice is listening with a focus. This seems work gave them an opportunity to practice in a variety of ways and situations.

Every participant meditated using their breath as an object. For example, Woraphat and Jane sat in a chair and did breathing meditation when they took breaks to cope with stress at work. Suzanna would pause for a short time and do a few deep breaths. In the middle of a hearing, if everything were getting heated, she would call an adjournment, and say, ‘I think everybody should take a few deep breaths.’ She thought quiet meditation in the morning helps her to stay calm during the day and pause and wait to respond rather than react, which might cause people to panic. Jessica also practiced pausing. She said science confirmed it takes three in-out breaths to turn the stress response off and turn the brain back on. Stopping for Yue is a general practice, not specific to dealing with situational stress. Once concentrated, she could gain insight:

… If samatha means stopping … and vipassanā means looking deeply or insights, generating insights, … in Thích Nhất Hạnh’s practice, we do practice stopping, … meaning to create that space in our life, and that stopping first comes with bringing your … awareness to your breath … to stop and the bell of mindfulness is a reminder to stop and to check in, to create that space.… and then, with that space created, with the ability to stop and I think then, you have concentration, … you’re able to look at something very deeply and be aware of it, and then insights might happen [Laughs].

Both groups meditated to be aware of and accept their emotions. Awareness and receptivity are concentration practices and letting go is wisdom. For example, Kevin accepted his negative emotions from outside of work and let them go. Jane addressed her negative feelings or sensations and let go of them without pushing them away. It could be physical pain from her fibromyalgia, which she felt when she was typing emails.

Both groups practiced non-judgement and non-attachment in their meditation practices. Non-attachment, like letting go, involves wisdom. David shared his experience of non-judgement and non-attachment to good or bad feelings:

You treat your mind like the weather. And sometimes it’s gonna be raining; sometimes it’s gonna be sunny, sometimes it’s gonna be freezing, … sometimes it’s gonna be hot,

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and one isn’t better than another from a mindfulness point of view. You're not trying to make every day like today.… We live in Canada, and our minds are like Canada, … We have difficulties; we have fears, we have anxieties, we have sadness, … we get jealous and angry and … you have to make friends with those minds, not try and turn them always into calm mind because we do get agitated, … so meditation is how to be with agitated mind, kind mind, sad mind, … strange mind, anxious mind, but not have it spill out into your everyday life.

The differences between the two groups are found in specific practices. Only Buddhist- informed participants practiced activities that are emphasized in Buddhism and sometimes practiced them in monasteries: Right Mindfulness (see Appendix A3 on Right Mindfulness), Right Concentration and patience. Chance chanted, which is usually done in the Buddhist setting. Gena, Yue, Beatrice, Lex, Chance used a mindfulness reminder such as a mindfulness bell. Only secular-informed participants practiced activities that are also practiced in Buddhism but referred to them with different terms. For example, Sinai practiced mindful communication, mindful decision-making and lying meditation. Jane and Jessica savoured joyful moments which Jane described as:

For me in that particular circumstance, whenever I'm experiencing … some kind of joy, I become very conscious and in the moment of it, and I want to savour that moment, … like I want to really enjoy that moment, and that's true of everything; it's not just a work thing.… I've tried very hard not to have my mind wandering all over the place to other things while I'm in that moment of joy.

The above concentration practices are under the Three-Dimensional Mindfulness framework. These practices are described by both groups of participants as compatible with both Buddhist values for the cessation of stress and corporate values for work performance improvement. The difference was the terminologies used. When Buddhist-informed participants referred to the practices with terms used in the Buddhist Eightfold Path such as Right Mindfulness (see Appendix A3 on Right Mindfulness), the concentration practice is connected with the practice of virtue and wisdom in which case other elements that do not exist in corporate values were also practiced. By contrast, secular-informed participants referred to the practice with secular terms and phrasing such as ‘mindful leadership’ and ‘mindful communication.’

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These terms have high flexibility in what the user means. They may also involve virtues and wisdom. In the participants’ stories, they seemed to go well with corporate values. As indicated earlier, Buddhist-informed participants had started using secular terms. There are no data to know their motives and intentions for this change except for when they used those terms on purpose to teach secular-informed practitioners Buddhism.

Wisdom practices. Both Buddhist-informed and secular-informed participants practiced the following wisdom practices under Three-Dimensional Mindfulness: faith, contemplation of loving-kindness, generosity, self-reflection, non-attachment, letting go and acceptance of feelings and emotions.

Both groups had faith in mindfulness. The Buddhist-informed participants had faith in Buddhism, while some also maintained faith in another religion. Secular-informed participants had faith in scientific research of mindfulness as well as other religions. Buddhist-informed participants used kamma to explain life and work situations—understanding stress and problems, decision making, setting goals and aspirations, and accepting situations. Most Buddhist-informed participants believed in kamma with reincarnation. For example, Panatda and Adela believed that mindfulness skills development depended on the accumulation of practice in past lives. In another instance, Farung and Chance continued to believe that kamma influenced their employment situations. Chance accepted that he became a lecturer and was stressed by his students because it was due to his kamma. As for secular-informed practitioners, they were confident with the science of mindfulness, the benefits they gained, or their own intuition.

Buddhist-informed participants practiced visualization and loving-kindness contemplation while only one secular-informed, Alice, practiced them. Only Buddhist-informed participants, Yue and Woraphat, contemplated the Four Sublime States of the Mind which could have led to the result of good intention such as loving-kindness and compassion. Aside from contemplation, Buddhist-informed participants also showed compassion, self-compassion, empathy and respect through their actions. For example, Lex practiced compassion in gay rights advocacy:

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I always tried to … practice compassion for the people who were on the other side, … and not to put them down, … certainly to counter their arguments, but to always have in mind that they’re doing what they think is right and … to always treat them with respect.

Eventually, Lex had a reason to leave the gay rights and environmental advocacy jobs to a new career path on mindfulness:

I think … when I was at the AAA Party17, I … came to the conclusion that … the reason we weren’t tackling global warming … was because of our minds and our inability … to go beyond our fears and cravings, … and so I decided I wanted to … focus on my mindfulness practice rather than environmental advocacy.

In another example of showing compassion through actions, as a leader of the class, Gena, a Buddhist-informed participant, felt uncomfortable but tried to be mindful when her assistants did not do a good job and tried to be supportive of them and to do her best for the students:

Sometimes the people on the team, I would feel I might have all kinds of reactions to how they were, for example, … weren’t working very hard, … So how do you work with that, … but understand, … just an awareness that that’s their life, they’re coming from wherever they’re coming from, whatever has brought them to that moment to express themselves and function the way they’re functioning? So, how can I … be mindful and supportive of them, but still … have an awareness of what we’re trying to do at work, but not to just … not care about them or just think they’re not good at what they do, or be fed up with them? … How to always be reaching out to others?

Secular-informed participants practiced compassion, self-compassion and empathy by acting them out like Buddhist-informed participants mentioned above. For example, Suzanna was able to practice kindness while making a positive change to the situation. She practiced kindness and empathy by pausing and asking herself, “’Is it necessary?’ ‘Is it kind?’ and ‘Is it true?’” before she responded to people. As an arbitrator in a hearing room presiding over a case, seeing herself as a model, Suzanna asked a lawyer to change his tone of voice:

17 A pseudonym for a political party in Canada

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… One of the lawyers would start using a very, very aggressive tone of voice in cross- examining a witness … The lawyer was intimidating the witness or … causing the witness to become so upset that you couldn’t count on their answers anymore because … they weren't thinking straight, so as the judge, you sometimes have to stop that from happening.… I noticed that I started changing my own tone of voice when I was explaining this to the lawyer, and I would say on the record …, ‘Please speak to the witness … as I am speaking to you now.’ Like, kind of, I slowed down my voice. I calmed my voice.

Beyond the Buddhist-informed description, secular-informed participants also showed love, gentleness, kindness, caring and good or pure intention through their actions. For example, Suzanna and Jessica practiced good intention by wishing others well in their actions.

Another wisdom practice both groups practiced was generosity through actions such as giving, helping and volunteering. Most examples of these came from Buddhist-informed participants. They viewed this act as making merit, which is related to their acceptance of or belief in kamma and reincarnation. For example, Chance gravitated towards learning and practicing by volunteering at a monastery where he observed the livelihood of the community of monks as his role models and helped them with various tasks.

As for the other practices both groups shared, Suzanna practiced a type of reflection which she referred to as self-inquiry. Kevin and Chance practiced acceptance of their feelings and emotions. Finally, while both groups practiced letting go of feelings and emotions, only Buddhist-informed participants went further on to practice renunciation of desires.

Other practices of wisdom are practiced by one group only. Only Buddhist-informed participants practiced the following: a contemplation of the Three Marks of Existence (see Appendix A2 on Three Marks of Existence) and performing them at work, contemplation of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, following the Middle Path and positive thinking. Although both groups had the outcome of seeing the Three Marks of Existence (the teaching explained in Chapter 1), only Buddhist-informed participants identified the practices that are directly related to them. Practices that might have contributed to seeing the Three Marks of Existence were either contemplation or practicing the Three Marks of Existence in actions. For example, in

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contemplation, Kevin and Jerzy practiced Hua Tou, and Beatrice practiced Kōan. Through actions, Panatda constantly experienced suffering and impermanence in her work as a doctor.

I faced a lot of reality because it is different from other jobs that could be done at one’s own pace. This job deals with life and reality—at one moment there’s a newborn; the next moment there’s a death, there’s a sickness. I see a lot of afflictions in life. This helps me realize.… For example, I am a pediatric cardiologist, seeing a baby born with heart disease, a really serious matter in life, isn’t it? When someone is pregnant and unexpectedly has a full-term birth, but with severe heart disease, this is a very serious matter, very bad news. But for me, I see it almost every day. I know it can happen. Everyone may face a bad incident like this without any warning. It’s not my baby, not my niece, not my family member, but it taught me that this happens.… A tiny little baby has to go through heart surgery multiple times.

Another example of practicing Three Marks of Existence (see Appendix A2 on Three Marks of Existence) by Buddhist-informed participants through actions was when Kevin practiced mindful listening in meetings and in a challenging environment. He practiced interconnectedness when his supervisor scolded him or when a co-worker was angry at him. He saw the whole situation as his mind or the shared mind. He would try to understand the situation and know what to do. His mindful listening is actually practicing interconnectedness through actions. He uses the term ‘mindful’ listening as though he was being influenced by the secular term ‘mindfulness.’ He explained mindful listening as follows:

Listening means that when I go to a meeting, for example, and like there’s different opinions being expressed, I try to create a space for all those opinions, and like even if the opinion isn’t what I would really immediately agree with, and I may have my own opinion, you see with the mindfulness that that whole space as it’s happening is your mind, … So, like the key with all of that is that you have to be able to encompass all of that in mindfulness, … So, if the person is really angry, then instead of becoming angry with myself, … I just encompass that anger, … I’m going to try to understand why it’s there, … what can be done about it. So, I think like, with the mindfulness, this whole work environment; I see it as the mind; I don’t see my mind as suffering from the work environment, so we can take different attitude, … if there is something that feels tense,

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it’s really me being tense [laughs].… So, there’s always something that I can do in that situation to be more present, to be more yielding, to be softer, so that’s how … I would approach that.… So when my boss is scolding … not happy with me, … you just see, … how—I know that if I argue with the boss, it’s not gonna work, it’s just gonna make him feel more nervous, so I always try to think about what can I say to help to calm the boss and let the boss know that I’m listening, and then like, I’m willing to do whatever I can to solve the situation, so that’s how I practice mindfulness.

In another Buddhist-informed example, through actions, Jerzy experienced the Three Marks of existence (see Appendix A2 on Three Marks of Existence) all the time. He said joy, suffering, success and failures exist in any living environment. He tried not to engage, attach, indulge, or he withdrew from associating self to joy and success because it is impermanent. He did not reject or get upset with suffering and failure because they are impermanent:

… If we're interreacting, our karmas and our tendencies will be always conflicting to some extent, … I'm trying to use them both—not to indulge in this success and at the same time, not to get caught up in negativity based on the fact that there's failure. So, … when failure comes, when something negative comes, I say, ‘Oh okay, there must be something really important, some important message in that failure.’ So, I'm not rejecting it, and because of that, this becomes a steppingstone to, let's say, we could call it success, but I would rather call it, … harmony. It's not a success; it's not a failure. It's just … a state of mind which is quite even. And that's, at that point, I'm not trying to indulge in the evenness because we can always say, ‘Oh yeah, that's great; I'm practicing so well that … my mind is calm and whatever.’ No, because that's another failure immediately.… You're either getting caught up in something which is just non-graspable and constantly changing, so you have to accept the change; you have to accept the impermanence.

In knowing impermanence as explained above, Jerzy also experienced interconnectedness. He made a connection with everything that was constantly changing. He said it was about, ‘allowing yourself to flow into it or harmonizing with others, … you don't lock anyone in any of … your judgmental states, … see anyone defined by your own views.’

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Another contemplation practice that was practiced by only Buddhist-informed participants was contemplation of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness. This teaching is embedded in the Eightfold Path under the Four Noble Truths (see Appendix A1 on the Four Noble Truths). For example, Adela practiced Contemplation of Mental Objects under the Four Foundations of Mindfulness. She explained the Five Hindrances and how she observed them during meditation retreats in life. Her hindrances were her desires that caused clinging and led to suffering, aversion, sloth and torpor, restlessness and worry and doubt.

The other wisdom practices only mentioned by Buddhist-informed participants were following the Middle Path and positive thinking. The Middle Path is the Buddhist way. However, strangely enough, positive thinking is not Buddhist but was not practiced by secular- informed participants. Actually, one of the Buddhist-informed participants, Saranyu, seriously practiced positive thinking through reading a secular self-help book, The Secret (Byrne, 2006).

When Buddhist-informed participants were not stressed or experiencing external problems but were having a good time or happy, they still continued to practice the Eightfold Path by being mindful and maintaining Right View. For example, when his boss was nice to him, Woraphat did not form thoughts about it. He explained his experience of non-attachment:

There were times when everything went right: times when I did well, my boss’ mood was stable, work was smooth, and communication with co-workers was smooth. It was good. I felt good, but I kept things in perspective. When my salary was raised, or my boss evaluated me as the top, I was just indifferent.

Woraphat further explained that we must be in the present: ‘It is not that a situation is bad or good, black and white. Those who are very ‘white,’ having accumulated a lot of merit, they can also be attached to and deluded by the merit.… Breaths are not good or bad but neutral.’

As outlined earlier, secular-informed practitioners shared the same wisdom practices with Buddhist-informed participants and did not practice other practices Buddhist-informed participants did. Instead, secular-informed wisdom can diverge from that of the Buddhist- informed participants. ‘Mindful knowing’ is an example of a secular-informed practice Sinai created and referred to that sought wisdom infused with interconnectedness. According to Sinai, mindful knowing is knowing in the moment through sitting meditation or self-reminder to check

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in on his experience. Sinai said, ‘Mindful knowing to me is about noticing the shifts that occur as things change, noticing what happens in my body.’ During the day he was on alert for insights that came to him:

So, it might be that I’m in the shower or walking down the street or eating food, … and in those moments, … suddenly something … arises in my consciousness. I put a lot of … mental effort into distinguishing the different types of information that come and attempt to discern mindful clarity from … illusions of understanding that come from the discursive mind. If I’m pretty sure that something came to me … in a mindful way, … I take note of it … and I act on it.

Sinai further explained that mindful knowing or knowing ‘what comes to me’ is influenced by something external to him:

Anything that comes out of my mouth that I or others might say is useful doesn't feel like it came from me.… so that leads to my seeing myself as not an independent person of any real intelligence but rather … a living body through which, in a good moment, wisdom can flow.

Sinai incorporated mindful knowing to other practices such as ‘mindful communication’ and ‘mindful decision-making’ he did in his psychotherapy work.

The wisdom practices presented above show that wisdom practices cannot be practiced separately from mindfulness and virtue practices in participants’ experience. Secular-informed participants seemed to focus more on the intention through compassion, kindness and empathy in their actions while Buddhist-informed participants focused on both aspects of Right View and Right Intention of the Eightfold Path. Wisdom practices of both groups are aligned with Buddhist values of the cessation of stress while, to some extent, they also support the corporate values of work performance improvement to be discussed in the next section of this chapter. In fact, there were some obstacles participants experienced in practicing wisdom while pursuing work goals which are presented in Chapters 6 and 7.

Three-Dimensional Mindfulness practices. While the practices mentioned above can be categorized into virtue practices, concentration practices and wisdom practices,

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some practices in certain instances that participants mentioned cannot be easily sub-categorized. Therefore, I present them under the bigger framework of Three-Dimensional Mindfulness. Practices that were practiced by both Buddhist-informed and secular-informed participants were social justice/diversity/equity, Basic or Unified Mindfulness18 practiced by Jessica and Lex, non- comparing competition, teaching mindfulness, living and working. For example, Adela and Suzanna indirectly taught Three-Dimensional Mindfulness to co-workers by leading by example and modelling desirable behaviours. Non-comparing competition is being competitive at work by focusing on one’s being and performance. Buddhist-informed participants competed with oneself, while secular-informed participants such as Jessica competed by becoming a better person. Ultimately participants practiced Three-Dimensional Mindfulness by living and working. Buddhist-informed participants started practicing it through living or practicing it in their social life before integrating it into work, while secular-informed participants seemed to practice it with the intention to use it in their work-life.

Some practices were only practiced by one group. For example, only Buddhist-informed participants, such as Lex, practiced Fourteen Mindfulness Training. For example, he practiced mindful emailing, which is a means of communication that includes loving speech and mindfulness but is different from secular-informed participants’ practices such as Sinai’s mindful communication:

Mindful emailing, which is just … like practicing what I call “loving speech,” which is … trying to be kind … in the way that I talk and be present with people; it's definitely a big practice, … asking myself, “Are you sure?” before I hit the send button, “Does this e- mail have the right tone? Am I angry right now? Should I be not sending emails when I’m angry?” generally.

A practice that was followed by only secular-informed participants was mindful leadership. For example, Suzanna and Jessica practiced secular-informed mindful leadership encompassing a bundle of practices that they did all together, mainly focus, calmness, and compassion in order to perform a leading role at work. Suzanna and Jessica used this term. Through my observation, Gena, a Buddhist-informed participant, also practiced some Buddhist

18 Taught by Shinzen Young

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leadership when she was functioning as a leader of the classroom, being careful not to hurt the assistant in changing the approach to dealing with students. However, Gena did not have a concept of mindful leadership in her explanation of her mindfulness practice and did not have the intention of practicing mindfulness to improve her work.

Overall, Buddhist-informed participants had more experience practicing Right View through the Three Marks of Existence (see Appendix A2 on Three Marks of Existence) than secular-informed participants. This Right View directly speaks to Buddhist values and is potentially in conflict with the pursuit of corporate values such as attachment to organizational goals and ego to be discussed in Chapters 6 and 7. Through this Right View, some Buddhist- informed participants such as Woraphat, Kevin, Jerzy and Chance were not supportive of secular-informed mindfulness and practicing for the purpose of work which directly supports corporate values. However, Buddhist-informed participants were not well-aware that secular- informed mindfulness participants were not just secular but also spiritual on their path. They also seemed to have practiced Three-Dimensional Mindfulness with some diverging understanding and interpretations which show that they pursued values that are aligned with both Buddhist values for the cessation of stress and corporate values for performance improvement. Another distinction I observed was that Buddhist-informed participants practiced in their social life before transferring the practice to their work-life while it was the other way around for secular-informed participants. Since there is this transfer of practice between social-life and work-life, I found it interesting to know that Three-Dimensional Mindfulness became a way of life also for secular- informed participants. For example, Suzanna practiced mindful leadership in order to improve her ability to work but later seemed to be practicing it outside of work in her new job as a Yoga teacher. This transfer is in reverse—from work-life to social life. Suzanna thought, the more we practice mindfulness outside of work, the more it can be transferable to other contexts and become a way of life. Jane and Sinai already thought it had become their way of life. Jane said, ‘It's the only thing that I do; I don’t feel like I could live my life in the other way.’

Life-Work Alignment

When asked about the outcomes of mindfulness, both groups of participants tended to report positive results on work as presented in Chapter 4. For the most part, participants

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perceived the practice to be complementary to corporate values and continued to integrate mindfulness into their work. Nevertheless, as much as participants persevered in practicing mindfulness, a number of participants prioritized their work over their mindfulness practice when conflicts between the two arose. This means participants prioritized corporate values for work performance improvement over Buddhist values for the cessation of stress in certain work circumstances. I made this observation based on participants’ complementary and contradictory experiences with mindfulness at work. This chapter covers the complementarity, and Chapters 6 and 7 discuss the obstacles to their practice.

Complementarity of mindfulness to work. The key outcomes of reduced work stress and improved work performance, as presented in Chapter 4, show that Three- Dimensional Mindfulness was complementary to work practices in participants’ experience. That was also true in participants’ opinions such as Adela, Kevin, Lex and David. Although it might be difficult, Lex thought the practice is about practicing the difficulty. The following are some examples of participants’ experience of Three-Dimensional Mindfulness complementarity to work-life.

Buddhist-informed and secular-informed participants shared the same view of complementarity between mindfulness and work at all three levels: virtue, concentration and wisdom. Work practices were aligned with the Five Precepts in Buddhism. Buddhist-informed and some secular-informed participants were able to practice the Five Precepts or its relevant teachings in their daily life and at work out of their choice, although not perfectly. For example, their career choices were aligned with Right Livelihood, a factor in the Eightfold Path. Buddhist- informed participants such as Naphisa, Farung, Benchamat, Woraphat and Kevin chose the job that was not discouraged in Buddhism or against the Eightfold Path. Naphisa explained that in choosing a job, she would not want the job to be contradictory to her values or attitudes such as corruption. She was satisfied with her current company for being honest with clients. Similarly, Kevin’s work emphasized integrity. His organization was also forward-looking, taking care of employees, and environmentally sound, just like his mindfulness practice. It seemed that Buddhist-informed participants put more emphasis on Right Livelihood in their job choice consideration than secular-informed participants.

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Non-comparing competitiveness was aligned with a harmless intention and goodwill. Both Buddhist-informed and secular-informed participants focused on themselves in competing at work. Buddhist-informed mindfulness helped participants such as Benchamat, Panatda, Woraphat and Adela do their best at work to compete with themselves. Their idea of competition is competing without comparing themselves against another person. Doing their best is bringing out their best capacity to use at work. Benchamat explained that it complemented her goal of becoming number one in beauty products. She did not support those who competed with others by taking advantage of or exploiting others and admired those raising everyone else with them. Woraphat competed with himself only according to what might be required by his boss without exploiting others. He assumed his boss would evaluate him according to his own good deeds and work outcomes, and he did not have a problem with his boss. Similarly, secular-informed mindfulness helped Jessica compete by becoming a better person. She said that mindfulness, in the long-term, helps with anybody’s career to become a better leader, co-worker and team member and to see people’s points of view.

Another complementarity found by participants from both groups was between efficiency and focus as a result of relaxation or calmness. For example, Woraphat could generate ideas for his writing when the mind was clear and not anxious after regaining mindfulness. Similarly, effectiveness is aligned with focus and relaxation or calmness. For example, Suzanna demonstrated effectiveness in resolving a dispute by focusing, staying calm and communicating with clients kindly and empathetically.

Participants from both groups also found workplace policies complementary to health promotion. For example, Alice’ health centre ran a training program on mindfulness-based chronic pain management for staff and patients. Adela and Suzanna noticed an increase in mental health support programs such as Yoga and attitude training such as anti-bullying in the workplace.

In addition, work goals were aligned with the life goals of both groups. Some participants were aware of the benefits of Three-Dimensional Mindfulness in their work outcomes but saw them as a by-product rather than a goal of their practice. For example, Woraphat maintained that his practice goal was to reach nirvana, not to improve any work outcome, but the practice seemed to have led to positive work outcomes as a by-product. Kevin did not keep in mind any

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career goals and work goals. He did not hold an expectation in his work but tried his best and harmonized with work. This idea is similar to Buddhist teaching on non-attachment to expectations. Jerzy did not think that work was important to him since he originally wanted to be in the temple. These participants prioritized Buddhism over their work. Other participants whose practice was embedded in their work had work goals that were aligned with mindfulness goals. Sinai saw his group therapy work as a mindfulness practice. He kept coming to work to help people realize the possibilities for love, meaning, connectivity, harmony and truth.

Overall, the work role of teaching secular-informed mindfulness was aligned with practicing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness. Mindfulness was embedded in the jobs of Chance, Lex, David, Suzanna, Jessica, Alice and Sinai. Secularly, Sinai saw his psychiatry work as mindful knowing or mindful communication: I believe that I’m attempting to embody, model, and teach mindful communication all day long with my clients and students.… So, in this sense, … I believe that … I’m engaging in mindfulness as the only thing that I value doing in my career.… For me, mindfulness is the essence of what I do as a psychiatrist.… If you ask me what I do for a living, and if I didn’t feel obliged to give you a conventional answer, I would say, I teach mindfulness and mindful communication.

Some complementarities were observed by only one group of participants. Only Buddhist-informed participants found that competition was aligned with cooperation. Lex thought we could compete in a kind and cooperative manner. Even in the business of mindfulness, he already experienced competition with other providers, but they still got along:

It doesn’t mean that you … do … stupid things [Laughs].… It doesn’t mean you give everything away, … but … to work together on things, … areas where you work together … to not badmouth other people from … other groups, right? So, … I think of it like a political campaign; you can have a positive political campaign where people are talking about where they wanna go and why … their policy is the best, and you can have a negative political campaign where people are badmouthing each other and putting each other down and so, hopefully, … if people are really … practicing, … it’ll be a more positive form of competition.

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Another observation some Buddhist-informed participants made was that mindfulness was complementary to anything. Yotsaphon was confident in saying that mindfulness complemented work in every way. Chance said being at peace complements anything no matter what the circumstance and outcome:

If Buddhism is not about getting the sensory world right …, it’s about … being skillful and wise, that can happen no matter how much greedy, hatred, delusion is around, … theoretically, you know how the Eightfold Path is Right Intention and Right View, there’s no Right Outcome in the Eightfold Path. And so that is really freeing that you can practice these things with whatever values of people around because … there’s no Right Outcome that has to happen. You have to be at peace with whatever outcome happens….

Only secular-informed participants found that problem-solving was aligned with kindness. Suzanna said focus and awareness helped her slow down to think and handle situations kindly instead of using her survival instinct:

… Sometimes there’s an intuitive, like, a human survival instinct, … there’s a fight or flight … kind of instinct and … we protect ourselves, and so … sometimes we overprotect ourselves and hurt other people, and so just being able to, through awareness, … sort of moment to moment, I mean, even if you are in the process of doing something that will not be received that well by someone else, I think even the way in which you approach it, the way in which you discuss it … the sensitivity … I think can make a difference.

Overall, the complementarity of Three-Dimensional Mindfulness to work experienced by participants from both groups reaffirms that it helped participants to not only reduce work stress but also to improve work performance. These complementarities between Three-Dimensional Mindfulness and work practices show that Buddhist values held by participants are, to some degree, aligned with their corporate values. Participants seemed to be free from stress and also free to perform work to their full potential.

How to Work Wisely?

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Accepting stress. As the chapter has unfolded, to work wisely is simply to practice Three-Dimensional Mindfulness: virtue, concentration and wisdom while working. There were instances in which Buddhist-informed and secular-informed participants recognized work as stress quickly and were able to accept stress, and instances when they did not feel stressed but were still practicing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness while working. Participants identified the causes of stress as internal and were not stressed because they saw and accepted stress instantaneously. I refer to this identification as Pattern 1.1.

Pattern 1.1: Recognized that Internal Feelings, Mental Formations, Craving and Clinging Cause Stress.

Initial Action: Able to Accept Work Stress in Direct Work Experience, but not Necessarily Accepting External Work Conditions.

Only Buddhist-informed participants have given examples in response to stress in this pattern. They acknowledged that external work conditions were stressful, but practitioners did not have to be stressed by them since it is an internal mental formation that causes stress. I provide two examples to illustrate this. First, the workload was seen as the primary work condition of stress in David’s experience. The only work-related stress he had initially was from work overload in his perception. Not being able to finish his daily tasks and having to rush through them, he became stressed. Later in life, through mindfulness, he changed his mindset and became positive and proactive, wanting and loving to work:

I found it was always a challenge just like life is and, … the specifics of teaching and that … there’s a lot more assessment that’s going on, but … chaos is regarded as very good news from a Buddhist point of view, it kinda wakes you up, and so that just means that I had to … relax more into who I was and not … treat external phenomena as valid, to constantly rely on pulling up my own life rather than relying on anything in my school to do so, so, … school wasn’t a cause of suffering for me, I guess, is my point, no different than anything, … if anything, it was just a way; it’s just what I did; my work is what I do, and like everything else, … it’s good. Whatever comes up is good, shit comes up, that’s good, gives you an opportunity to work with that; it’s gonna come up anyway.

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In the second example, work performance is a condition of stress. In general, practicing mindfulness helped Jerzy to change his perspective at work to not being affected by external problems. He solved the problems from the perspective of the person with whom he was working to satisfy their needs even if it would take longer to solve the technical problem in other ways. As for his own stress, he accepted the stress so as not to suffer while making a change to external work conditions. One time, he was uncomfortable that he could not take leave to go on retreat as promised because the work project was delayed by the team. He practiced the Three Marks of Existence (see Appendix A2 on Three Marks of Existence) by accepting that life is suffering but did not suffer from it. He said, ‘I don't really mind suffering because I know it isn’t real.’ He knew that wanting causes suffering and did not have much craving at work. He acknowledged his craving to go on a retreat but was not attached to going. His craving was not rooted in greed, aversion or delusion. He was not much affected by this stress, and he tried to finish the team project as soon as possible so that he could still go on retreat.

Discussion on Three-Dimensional Mindfulness

I argue that mindfulness training and practice should have three dimensions: virtue, concentration and wisdom, or what I refer to as Three-Dimensional Mindfulness. This chapter shows that both Buddhist-informed and secular-informed participants were able to transfer their learning and practice of Three-Dimensional Mindfulness to their work practice, not just one or two dimensions as studied in existing research and gained the outcomes of reduced work stress and improved work performance. I argue that these outcomes as presented in Chapter 4 and the complementarity between Three-Dimensional Mindfulness and work practices are consistent with existing secular-informed research introduced in Chapter 2 not because one or two dimensions of practice are already effective, but because the other dimension(s) is implicit in the training or application. Therefore, identifying and being explicit about the other dimension(s) would clarify the practice of mindfulness.

Considering whether the thesis produces new outcomes, I here list the similarities and differences between the participants’ experiences and the existing literature reviewed in Chapter 2. First, Three-Dimensional Mindfulness of participants reached similar outcomes with the One- Dimensional Mindfulness literature on virtue such as ethical decision-making, concentration

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such as reduced work stress and wisdom such as increased empathy19. While the majority of Three-Dimensional Mindfulness outcomes of participants are similar to existing research, three of their outcomes are different from One-Dimensional Mindfulness outcomes presented in the literature review. First, Reb et al. (2015, p. 111) discussed improved organizational citizenship behaviour and reduced deviance. Some participants did not achieve them. Instead, Jane’s discretionary effort decreased through her mindfulness practice. She said she became more protective of herself and no longer worked overtime. Second, Dane and Brummel (2014) found decreased turnover intention among restaurant servers. The participants worked in different industries, but it seemed Three-Dimensional Mindfulness also influenced their intention to stay or quit their jobs. In some cases, Three-Dimensional Mindfulness helped them to stay in the same job for a long time. In other cases, they quit their jobs because they could not practice it or realized that the job was not a good fit for them. Third, Zhang, Ding, Li and Wu (2013) reported increased safety performance among workers in the nuclear power plant and Zhang, Ding, Li and Wu (2014) reported improved organizational safety behaviours among experts who had gained dispositional mindfulness. None of the participants had these outcomes because they did not work in high-risk jobs. However, Chance mentioned that he was reluctant to teach mindfulness to workers to improve safety. That was because he felt that employers were first supposed to do everything that they could to prevent hazards or accidents and mindfulness should come last. In other words, workers should not be blamed for not being mindful. These differences are rather negative or less favourable to employers or less supportive of corporate values compared to the existing research.

Second, Three-Dimensional Mindfulness shared similar outcomes with the Two-

19 Similar outcomes of participants with One-Dimensional Mindfulness are ethical decision-making, less cheating, reduced expression of abusive supervision, lower degree of acting out of hostility towards subordinates by supervisors, reduced work stress, reduced psychological distress, reduced anxiety, reduced mood disturbance, eliminating or reducing task-set inertia, preventing burnout, decreased emotional exhaustion, chronic pain relief, improved well-being, improved quality of life, improved health-related quality of life, increased mindfulness, deautomatization, increased organizational attention, increased resilience, increased self-regulation, improved stress management, increased emotional regulation, increased insight problem-solving, reduced attentional biases, improved distributive negotiation and negotiation satisfaction, enhanced creativity, increased group cohesion, improved group performance, improved rational decision making, improved meaning of work, improved job satisfaction, increased work engagement, increased empowerment, increased self-compassion, increased empathy, improved workplace relationships, improved communication, patient-centred communication, and increased patients’ satisfaction. The patient can be replaced by other groups of clients in participants’ jobs.

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Dimensional Mindfulness introduced in the literature review on virtue, such as improved ethical decision making, concentration such as greater calm and clarity and wisdom, such as improved leadership20. Two differences found between Three-Dimensional Mindfulness outcomes of the participants and Two-Dimensional Mindfulness in the literature review are ‘increased discretionary effort through ethical leadership among followers with higher moral emotions and mindfulness’ (Eisenbeiss & Knippenberg, 2015) and ‘decreased role conflict among healthcare employees through mindfulness and clear organizational ethical guidelines’ (Valentine et al., 2010), as stated in Chapter 2 on page 49. Again, Jane reduced her effort put into work by not working overtime. However, it could be said that in Jane’s case, she also reported poor leadership and a toxic work environment, which are different conditions from the research mentioned in Chapter 2. A number of participants experienced role conflict which came from the obstacles in integrating Three-Dimensional Mindfulness into work. These obstacles are the negative experience with mindfulness applications to the workplace to be further discussed in Chapters 6 and 7.

Third, Three-Dimensional Mindfulness shares the following similar outcomes with existing research which also has three dimensions: Right Livelihood, improved spiritual outcomes and projected outcomes, improved individual and collective well-being, improved self- care, increased job satisfaction, increased attentiveness, increased self-awareness, improved performance, increased acceptance, increased wisdom, increased compassion, making social change and creating mindful society, social justice, transforming being in the world, peacemaking, realizing a greater purpose, and wholeness. No major difference has been found. Some of these outcomes are consistent with corporate values, while some can be in conflict. I agree with Walsh (2018) that well-being has been made a responsibility of individuals, and that fits well with how mindfulness is being promoted in the workplace infused with corporate

20 Similar outcomes of participants with Two-Dimensional Mindfulness research are fostering morality, improved ethical behavior, improved ethical decision making, preventing social loafing, reduced biases in self-processing or self-distortion, being less reactive to situations, creating a healthy mind, experiencing greater calm and clarity, becoming more grounded and relaxed, feeling increased energy, developing self-awareness and self-regulation, feeling centred, increased listening capacities, improved attention, increased work engagement, enhanced embodied and affective learning, increased team’s effectiveness, enhancing flexible thinking/cognitive flexibility, increased creativity, improved insight problem-solving abilities, developing self-transcendence, enhanced counselling self-efficacy, increased empathy, increased compassionate responding towards suffering people, improved interpersonal relationships and improved leadership.

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values. While participants have achieved well-being, they referred to it as personal well-being rather than organizational well-being. Walsh promoted ‘reorientating mindfulness to social justice or ‘queering mindfulness to #makerefuge’ (p. 117) for collective well-being’ as mentioned in Chapter 2.

Positive outcomes of Three-Dimensional Mindfulness are still limited to the experience of individual practitioners, or their learning has barely been transferred to their organizations. Changing from an individual outcome of well-being to a collective outcome is a challenge among Buddhist-informed participants because a lot of them were reluctant to lead a meditation practice group or promote Three-Dimensional Mindfulness. They did not want to impose the practice on other people and did not want to be evangelistic. The practice groups that Buddhist- informed participants joined were not organized by the workplace, while it was more common among secular-informed participants to have a work-based group. Secular-informed participants did not have a problem teaching mindfulness to co-workers and clients. They envisioned a healthier workplace for themselves and the stakeholders. This difference between the two groups reveals that Buddhist-informed practitioners’ orientation to teaching Buddhism was a barrier in the transfer of learning and practice of wisdom to other workers in their organizations. Conversely, secular-informed participants were able to transfer their learning to their job and also to colleagues and clients more freely with secular-informed mindfulness. I argue that this barrier might be removed under the new framework of Three-Dimensional Mindfulness. This framework does not intend to blur the distinction between religion, spirituality, healing and secularity as observed by Ergas (2014). Indeed, this framework maintains clear space for Buddhist practitioners to practice Buddhism while teaching others Buddhist-informed and secular-informed mindfulness. This stance acknowledges the subject position raised by Wong and Vinsky (2008). This is rather Buddhist pluralism that I argue for through the practice of Three-Dimensional Mindfulness. Another difference to be observed between Buddhist-informed and secular-informed participants is the purpose of the practice. Although they both gained the same outcome of stress reduction, the majority of Buddhist-informed participants were pursuing the cessation of stress, which requires an understanding of the Four Noble Truths, especially the causes of stress. The cessation of stress goes beyond the organizational outcomes of personal health and well-being through stress reduction. While both groups seemed to have practiced Three-Dimensional Mindfulness and achieved the outcomes of stress reduction, only some

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Buddhist-informed participants shared their understanding of the causes of stress and have explicitly attempted at letting go of their craving and desires for this purpose. This practice can be unfavourable to employers and cause obstacles to practicing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness. Other participants who did not acknowledge this understanding could just have reduced stress at the level of relaxation.

It should be noted that positive outcomes of Three-Dimensional Mindfulness in stress reduction are not always conducive to work performance improvement. Translating interconnectedness with colleagues as agreeing with them to maintain harmony and reduce the sense of ego, like how Buddhist-informed participants such as Beatrice, Kevin and Jerzy did, may not lead to the best work outcomes for the organization. In these instances, the participants demonstrated a sense of ‘interbeing,’ ‘subject-object integration’ and ‘bonding’ (Bai & Scutt, 2009, p. 100), but it is unclear whether the work outcomes would be more effective for the organization otherwise.

Like what Reb and Narayanan (2014) raised, mindfulness is an unclear construct, I see the practice as being multidimensional, and these different dimensions should be explicitly stated. I propose the use of Three-Dimensional Mindfulness, as discussed throughout Chapters 4 and 5 to solve this clarity problem. The first dimension, virtue, is based on practitioners’ values shaped by their faith and culture to which they were exposed. Like Payne (2018) said, mindfulness is not value-free. Buddhist-informed participants saw moral virtue as integral to mindfulness, and secular-informed participants brought in external morality from their own faiths into their mindfulness practice. While Kabat-Zinn (2009) prefers not to train virtue and wisdom in the MBSR program explicitly, I still maintain that training programs should be explicit about what is trained. Otherwise, mindfulness will continue to be an unclear construct. It will be developed into different bundles of practices under the same term, ‘mindfulness.’

Three-Dimensional Mindfulness would still be considered secondary and tertiary levels of intervention as categorized by Lamontagne et al. (2007). It was more of the secondary level for Buddhist-informed participants while it was more of the tertiary level for secular-informed participants, especially those who gained chronic pain relief. They had taken secular-informed chronic pain management courses in the healthcare setting. These findings support secular- informed mindfulness research on chronic pain led by Kabat-Zinn (2009, 2013), and other

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researchers (Rosenzweig et al., 2010). Sinai, who was not using mindfulness on himself but for his psychotherapy clients may also be practicing at the third level.

Summary

From the previous chapter through this chapter, I have addressed the first research question: ‘How do Buddhist-informed mindfulness practitioners and secular-informed mindfulness practitioners reduce work stress and improve work performance through mindfulness practice in work-life?’ and ‘How are their experiences similar or different?’ In this chapter, I have identified that not only Buddhist-informed but also secular-informed mindfulness practitioners practiced Three-Dimensional Mindfulness: virtue, concentration and wisdom in the workplace. These practices are how practitioners work wisely. They show positive transfer of their learning and practice between social and work lives. These practices were practiced altogether and had led to two desirable personal and organizational outcomes of reduced work stress and improved work performance, as indicated in Chapter 4. I argue that the benefits of mindfulness found in Three-Dimensional Mindfulness are similar to those found in One- and Two-Dimensional Mindfulness not because the One- or Two-Dimensional Mindfulness is as effective but because the other dimension(s) is not explicitly identified. I emphasize that researchers and practitioners should consider using all three dimensions in future training, practice and research. By not identifying what exactly is mindfulness, the term becomes inflated and unclear.

Even though both groups practiced Three-Dimensional Mindfulness, secular-informed participants were different in their virtue and wisdom practices. Since they had been raised in other faiths, they brought those into their mindfulness practice. Since their purpose of practicing was still within the boundary of health and well-being and work performance which corresponds to corporate values of efficiency, productivity and competitiveness, driven by individualism and self-interest, through individual efforts, it seems their Three-Dimensional Mindfulness was already effective. We have yet to know if their Three-Dimensional Mindfulness would be effective in ending stress altogether. Unlike secular-informed participants whose goal was primarily stress reduction, the majority of Buddhist-informed participants pursued the cessation of stress. They were not trying to reduce stress per se but to understand the Four Noble Truths. In

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achieving this end, some of them indicated having let go of craving and desires which, depending on their interpretation, could work against their jobs.

Another point of departure between this thesis and existing research is the examination of Buddhist values and corporate values in mindfulness practice. Findings in Chapter 4 show the compatibility between Buddhist values of the cessation of stress and corporate values of improving work performance. A number of existing research papers, especially One- and Two- Dimensional Mindfulness, are aligned with corporate values while this thesis prioritizes Buddhist values. The purpose of this differentiation is to find common grounds and explain how participants embraced, transformed or overcame the difficulties when conflicts between Buddhist values and corporate values arose in practicing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness. This will be the focus of the following two chapters.

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Chapter 6 Obstacles to Working Wisely

Three-Dimensional Mindfulness has proven beneficial in reducing stress and improving work performance in participants’ work experience as presented in Chapters 4 to 5. How to work wisely is demonstrated by Buddhist-informed participants in the first pattern of identifying the causes of stress as internal, such as mental formations, feelings, craving and clinging, introduced in Chapter 5. However, their transfer of learning of Three-Dimensional Mindfulness to work practice was sometimes negative. Participants still faced obstacles to working wisely, which can be divided into obstacles that caused stress and obstacles that prevented participants from practicing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness at work. Some participants even considered these latter obstacles contradictions. From this chapter to the next, I answer the second research question which is developed from the previous chapters: ‘What obstacles do Buddhist-informed and secular-informed mindfulness practitioners experience in integrating mindfulness into work for work stress reduction and work performance improvement? ‘How are their experiences with the obstacles similar or different?’ I further ask, ‘How do Buddhist-informed and secular- informed participants embrace, transform or overcome the obstacles to integrating mindfulness into work?’ ‘How are their experiences of embracing, transforming or overcoming the obstacles similar or different?’ Findings show that participants were able to reduce work stress as presented in Chapters 4 to 5, but not able to end stress because, in some stressful situations, they could not see internal causes of stress instantaneously while in other situations, they attributed the causes of stress to external work conditions and tried to change these conditions without accepting stress. Participants from both groups gradually embraced, transformed or overcame some of the obstacles by putting more effort into practicing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness. Buddhist-informed participants were more aware of their lack of knowledge and understanding of the teaching. They were also more aware of the internal causes of stress which, if reduced over time, would eventually end their stress. The other approach was accepting or changing external work conditions, with which they did not find much success. Participants also realized that some obstacles which they found contradictory to work could only be embraced or transformed but hardly overcome. As a result, some changed their jobs instead. If participants put more effort into the practice and recognize that stress is internally caused, they would be able to accept stress and see the internal causes of stress in context timelier. However, since most

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participants from both groups still thought their stress was caused by external work conditions, I argue that improving these conditions would also help participants integrate Three-Dimensional Mindfulness into their work-life and reduce work stress although not always ending stress.

In this chapter, I begin by listing patterns of obstacles that participants viewed as the causes of stress. I categorized them into internal difficulties and external difficulties. In the second section, I elaborate on obstacles that prevented participants from practicing Three- Dimensional Mindfulness at work, starting with internal and followed by external difficulties. In each theme, I first describe the similarities between Buddhist-informed participants and secular- informed participants, followed by their differences. Without comparing the two groups, the two sections of obstacles can be summarized in Figure 5.

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Three-Dimensional Mindfulness Practice

No Obstacles Obstacles

Impact Not Causing Causing Stress Hindering the Practice of 3DM Stress

Category Internal Causes of Stress External Causes of Stress Internal Difficulties External Difficulties

Identification Recognized that Formations, Work conditions caused Lack of faith, learning Work conditions, the formations, feelings, craving, stress. and practice secularization of mindfulness and feelings, etc. caused stress. mindfulness abuse craving, etc. cause stress.

Initial Response Accepted stress Could not accept Rejected stress. Were aware of some obstacles. in direct work stress in direct experience. work experience.

Result Not stressed Stressed Not stressed

Action Changed external work conditions while practicing 3DM. Put more effort into the Accepted, resisted or tried to practice. change perspectives or external work conditions.

Result Not stressed Stress reduced Embraced, transformed Unable to embrace, transform or or overcame some overcome some obstacles. obstacles.

Figure 5. Obstacles to Working Wisely.

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Obstacles that Caused Stress

Buddhist-informed and secular-informed participants attributed their stress to internal and external causes. In some situations, participants were not able to see internal mental formations, feelings, craving or clinging as the causes of their stress instantaneously. In other situations, they thought external work conditions caused stress.

Internal causes of work stress. In Chapter 5, I indicated that Pattern 1.1 is the way to work wisely. That is when practitioners see internal causes of stress in direct experience and are not stressed by the situation. In this chapter, although they attributed the causes of stress to self, both Buddhist-informed and secular-informed participants experienced difficulties because they only realized these causes in reflection and were not always mindful of them in the moment of stress. While identifying the causes of stress as internal is correct and aligned with Right View in Buddhism, not being mindful of those states of mind still caused stress. This pattern can be summarised as:

Pattern 1.2: Internal Feelings, Mental Formations, Craving and Clinging Caused Work Stress.

Initial Action: Unable to Accept Stress in Direct Work Experience, nor Accepting External Work Conditions.

The following examples are situations in which both Buddhist-informed and secular- informed participants were aware of stress and its internal causes but were unable to accept, transform or overcome the stress in their initial encounter and direct work experience. They focused more on changing external work conditions to alleviate the stress in themselves than practicing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness. Subsequently, Three-Dimensional Mindfulness alleviated their stress when they were able to accept external work conditions in the end, but stress persisted and arose in the same pattern in new situations. They identified the sources of stress as their self, conditioned by external work conditions.

Participants identified that stress came from self as felt in the mind. This stress in the mind and the body affects each other, but each is presented separately for greater clarification. The stress participants experienced seemed to have been recurring in multiple situations. They

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were inclined to suffer from their own views, which they recognized as being internal but conditioned by external work conditions, including work performance and workplace relationships. Stress was caused by a combination of internal factors—mental formations such as anxiety, worry, anger, low work morale, discouragement, disappointment, depression, self- distraction or muddling-up, impatience, reduced self-confidence, and self-evaluation of mindfulness, from feelings of fear, from craving and from clinging. Referring to the Buddhist stress model, stress due to craving is: getting what is not wanted, not getting what is wanted, and losing what is wanted, and the forms of craving in sensuality, becoming and non-becoming. In the participants’ stressful work situations, there were all three. Participants described the existence and occurrence of stress in this pattern when they were unhappy rather than when they were happy. Following are examples of stressful situations both groups of participants experienced in which they realized their stress was caused internally.

First, participants from both groups suffered from anxiety and fear. Panatda, Naphisa, Adela and Alice were stressed by anxiety and fear of making mistakes or not performing well at work. Naphisa was very stressed by the mistakes she or her colleagues made as it would affect the work outcome:

… When the mistake is about money, such as a loss in tour booking, I would feel, ‘Will they charge me?’. Sometimes, a loss is not just a few dollars, but over ten thousand baht, hundreds of dollars, so I felt, ‘Will they charge me?’ … or, ‘Will there be any legal consequence?’ …, or sometimes clients would complain too, ‘Will they sue me?’ … This makes me feel if I make a mistake at work, I will be stressed.… It happened before. I was very stressed when twenty to thirty thousand baht went missing.

In another situation, participants suffered from a fear of losing a job conditioned by work performance and the economy. Kevin was afraid of losing his job when his organization had a major layoff. He realized how much he was attached to his job, afraid of not having enough income to support himself and his mindfulness volunteership. Kevin used Right View in addition to meditation to reduce his suffering by seeing job loss from a different perspective and cope with his fear. His fellow practitioner who was laid off years before guided him through this experience:

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She views being laid off as preparation for your death [Laughs] because, I mean, it’s like you have those losses and those losses are just the training for you to experience the bigger losses in life. So you don’t think of losses as threatening to yourself, it’s just that loss is inevitable, it’s part of the process of being a human being, we lose—we’re going to lose our health, we’re going to lose our life, we’re going to lose our relatives, things will happen in your life, and that’s the training … to develop an insider perspective into it before it happens to you, and that’s really … where mindfulness and the Buddhist teachings come into it.

Similarly, Jessica often felt she was not good enough and feared being fired. Jessica generalized her experience to people around her in her description:

Everyone is afraid of being fired.… They think, ‘I’m gonna be fired, I’ll never get another job, I’ll lose my house, my family will starve, we’ll be out on the streets,’ and that happens in about a nanosecond, so what happens is, because they’re afraid of being fired, they can’t say ‘No’ to anything, and they’re often put in situations which are … unpleasant or even ethically challenging for them, and they feel they can’t say, ‘No.’ So, … they feel … have to do whatever is asked of them, even if it’s against what they believe is right … Then they deal with all the other people at work who are in the same position. They’re all suffering, right?

In this situation, Jessica coped with the fear by keeping her job options open, saving up, keeping her profile high and maintaining her network in case she was fired or needed to quit her job when she was forced to do something against her will. Both Kevin and Jessica were afraid of getting fired, which caused them stress internally. While Kevin’s solution is internal—changing his view on job loss—Jessica’s coping strategy is changing her external work conditions. Either way helps to reduce stress, but Kevin’s choice of addressing the fear internally is a step taken in Buddhism to end stress.

Anxiety has also been experienced by both groups over work overload. Panatda shared her anxiety from working long hours:

There were a lot of children with severe conditions in the ICU.… It was a stressful work life. When I first started, I was stressed because I did not work on shifts. I couldn’t work

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for 8 hours and leave my duty. I had to work like this for 30 consecutive days.… If I had not been mindful enough, I would have been stuck in a stressful cycle because I would think about patients, ‘What will happen to them—getting worse or getting better or what …?’ Isn’t it like suffering? It is suffering, but if I see myself as not good, then I would be fixated on that. When I say it is suffering, it can be viewed from multiple angles.… We do not have to suffer. Although I might be sad, it doesn’t mean I have to be depressed.

From this work experience and the Buddhist practice, Panatda learned to be patient and wait, and recognize factors that were beyond control instead of being anxious. This is practicing Right Mindfulness (see Appendix A3 on Right Mindfulness) to realize her feelings and seeing Right View to know that stress arises, remains and disappears. On a good day, surgery was successful, but on another day, she learned to accept the failure and continued to work without fear. She was still sad when unsuccessful but did not elaborate on it.

Third, Buddhist-informed participants suffered from craving. Chance suffered from his role as a researcher due to his craving and ambition to perform well, pressured by work demands and peers. Although he had high job discretion, he was impatient in the process of working. In this situation, he explained that he was aware of and accepted the suffering and its causes but still suffered from it because he could not let go of his ambition while having that job. He practiced Right Intention but was unable to let go of his craving. He gave up that career ambition by moving to a new job. In addition, he used meditation, effort, and other supporting structures of Buddhism, such as the Five Precepts, and volunteering in the community of practice at the monastery. After moving to a new job in teaching, he still did some research but was mindful and slowed down the process and became more patient. Work was more enjoyable and productive. These two examples above show that Panatda and Chance tried to practice Three- Dimensional Mindfulness by accepting stress, but they could not do it fully. Subsequently, Panatda’s case resulted in resilience and retention, while Chance’s experience resulted in resistance and turnover.

Fourth, participants suffered from discouragement or low work morale. As a self- employed business owner, Benchamat was unafraid of not performing well as no one was monitoring her performance. She suffered from lacking work morale because her business faced fierce competition. She said, ‘whenever we compare ourselves with other people, we feel small,

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and lose inspiration, energy to fight with others, and we feel exhausted having to fight in this world. Mostly it is our thoughts that dishearten us.’ Benchamat felt this way when experiencing slow sales, not hitting the monthly target and having a net loss. Although Benchamat was the owner, she was still impatient with her work progress. Mindfulness helped to remind her of these feelings of discouragement. In reflection, she realized that internal thoughts discouraged her. However, in response, she reflected on what to do with external work conditions and changed her perspective on work to regain her work morale without addressing the internal causes of stress:

When I realized I hadn’t done my best, I suddenly felt my breath. When I felt my breath suddenly, the phrase ‘Wait a minute’ would come up: ‘Wait a minute. You started to think too much. This is not a problem. This is your own mental formation. But what is the real problem? The real problem is you haven’t promoted them enough. It’s not that the products are not good, customers don’t buy them, or customers buy but don’t like them. The problem is you have not done enough. So, if you do more, you will get there.’

Fifth, participants suffered from ego conditioned by workplace communication. Beatrice thought the team separated their self from others, holding on to their own ego:

… Our sense of being a separate self, our ego, and trying to put ourselves first and thinking we have to defend ourselves somehow, … if we’re having a discussion or an argument about a certain point, that feeling … that I have to be the one who’s right or I have to get my opinion across or people have to listen to me because I have the correct idea, this kind of notion that I have a separate me and everyone else, and I have to impose my will upon other people, … that’s causing the suffering, the sense that other people can’t understand or, … they won’t listen, so a feeling of isolation can come up, as well. … sometimes anger can arise because we feel like we’re not being listened to or our point of view’s not being taken into account, … so it can be all kind of … challenging emotions that come up … in interactions in the workplace.

In this situation, Beatrice used interconnectedness to let go of her sense of ego to reach collective agreements while arguing or having problems interacting with co-workers. She realized the internal causes of stress and addressed them, but she was still bothered by stress.

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Although participants realized that internal mental formations, feelings, craving and clinging caused stress, they were stressed because the realization was in reflection or retrospection and not in direct experience, or the realization is only at the cognitive level, and they could not change their cognition right away. Buddhism or mindfulness helped them to see stress and reduce work-related stress over time, but stress persisted. I argue that they could try to put more effort into the practice to be more instantaneous in the realization of the nature of stress and accept it while trying to reverse the cycle of the causes of stress towards the cessation of stress. In the given examples, some participants focused on changing external work conditions rather than internally. This helped them to reduce stress but not necessarily ending it.

In most cases given above, participants from both groups were able to reduce stress through Three-Dimensional Mindfulness and changed their external work conditions by solving the problem at hand. They all seemed to have good coping skills. They either ended situational stress by accepting the stress or by changing the external work conditions or both. The acceptance of stress was more prevalent among Buddhist-informed participants compared to secular-informed participants. Acceptance of stress is taught in Buddhism as a path to the cessation of stress. Their acceptance was tied to their belief in Kamma or their realization of the Three-Marks of Existence while secular-informed participants’ coping depended more on changing external work conditions to become satisfactory, which also reduced work stress.

External causes of work stress. Both Buddhist-informed and secular- informed participants identified their external work conditions, including work and workplace relationships as the causes of their work stress. Identifying external work conditions as the causes of stress makes it even harder to end stress because external work conditions are not seen as stressful in themselves and the causes of stress according to the Four Noble Truths (such as craving) are not addressed. This is the second pattern of how the participants identified the causes of stress.

Pattern 2: External Work Conditions Caused Stress:

Initial Action: Not Accepting Work Stress, nor Accepting External Work Conditions.

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Stress from work. The first source of stress experienced is from work itself experienced by both Buddhist-informed and secular-informed participants. The key stressors in the external work conditions were their work demands, work performance, and employment situations. Other stressors were a negative work environment, work role, undesirable change at work and low compensation. In particular, this section identifies the participants' opinions about the causes of stress. This pattern shows that initially, most participants were stressed because they did not accept stress and did not accept external work conditions.

First, participants from both groups experienced stress caused by work demand or work overload. For example, in higher education, Jane felt her office was under-resourced because co- workers were on leave due to long-term disabilities. She was stressed and could not solve the problem of work overload. Through mindfulness, she decided to quit the job. The person above the participants who demanded the work was also seen as the cause of stress. For example, Naphisa was displeased when she was assigned work outside of her responsibilities. The supervisor crossing her role boundary also caused this stress. Saranyu admitted that his employees became frustrated by clients’ changing demands in the IT industry. In the employees’ opinion, the stress was also caused by the clients themselves.

In rare cases, stress was caused by insufficient workload. Once retired, David was still stressed for having nothing to do and started looking for a job to kill his time:

I’m finding having a lot of space a challenge. I have nothing to do.… I have way more time than I thought I would have, so I have to—I’m slowly trying to figure out what to do with myself. So, I, as a matter of fact, I decided to teach again, I’m going on a supply list.… So, you know, this meditation thing doesn't mean that it all works out in the end. You still have challenges.

Secondly, participants from both groups experienced stress due to their work performance. For example, Woraphat was stressed not being able to generate ideas in his previous job as a writer. After practicing mindfulness meditation, his mind became clear and empty, and some ideas emerged.

Third, participants from both groups experienced stress from other employment situations, including skill mismatch, health problems, economic instability, maintaining a job and

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employment transition. Farung experienced a number of obstacles and suffering in the process of establishing her career. She suffered physically due to a skill mismatch and work arrangement by an employment agency. Farung was disappointed by her first job assignment as a housekeeper instead of a waitress when she participated in the Work and Travel program21 because she did not have a chance to use English. She did not have a chance to choose the job and its location. In this job, she felt suffering in her body. She acknowledged that the level of pain depends on the type of job. When she went on retreat, she knew that suffering in the body is caused by the mind, and she did not have to suffer if she accepted the reality of the pain. However, in this work situation, she expressed that suffering in the body was caused by external work conditions such as work arrangement and assignment. Farung described her suffering in the body in this job:

I was very thin, working from 9 am. to 6 pm. as a housekeeper. During this 9 am. to 6 pm., I had to clean 14 rooms … per day. Among these 14 rooms, if they had two beds, then they used six sheets, and American beds are very heavy, so heavy that they can break a wooden stick. When I was tired, I tried using a wooden stick to lift one of the beds, and it broke. I felt my life was very bad….

Even though the program was advertised as ‘Work and Travel,’ her job did not offer enough income to cover the living and agency expenses. She had to work a second job as a shop keeper at a gift shop in the evening finishing at 11 pm. She experienced a lack of sleep, sleeping at 2 am and waking up at 7 am most days throughout the three months. Farung continued to experience bodily pain in the following jobs she had. After working as an air hostess for three years abroad, her health declined significantly. She had to quit; otherwise, she felt she would end up in the hospital. She resorted to the belief in kamma when she had work stress as an explanation of her work situations. She decided to change to an office job, which resulted in a huge pay cut, but she was able to accept it. The last job as a human resources manager gave her minimal health problems such as back pain and eye strain.

Fourth, participants from both groups such as Farung, Jane and Yue experienced stress from their work environments. Yue suffered emotionally and physically from the humid weather

21 The program was run by a private employment agency offering middle-class university students in Thailand who had no labour work experience to work as a labourer in the West during the holidays to earn some money to travel to the West.

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condition. She was frustrated and had a headache while collecting data from schools in Toronto. In this case, she thought the external physical environment caused stress in the body. After experiencing that stress, Yue practiced meditation to calm down and prepare for the next rough day ahead of her. She was more aware of her emotions and body and saw what her body needed such as appropriate clothing for the day and breaks during the day, and she went to practice with the group as a break from the week which also involved sending loving-kindness to herself and others.

Fifth, participants from both groups suffered from change at work when the change was undesirable. Naphisa was stressed when some co-workers resigned. Yet, she thought if the change were desirable, then she would not suffer from it. In another example, having been working for the same company for 17 years, Kevin noticed stress from organizational change— roles becoming complicated and competition heightened. Kevin commented on the impact of impermanence:

… When you have change and when you have impermanence, … there’s an element of … people having to compete, people having to keep bettering themselves over and over, like, … we have quarterly statistics, so these statistics tell us how much we process, how much we perform, and we have to write our statistics … in an Excel sheet, and … the supervisor will compare, like, who’s doing the most, and then … who needs the most improvement in their speed and in terms of their quantity, so there’s a sense of like, … people feel the pressure to keep hanging on to the roles that they have, and they just fear losing those roles as … the company changes … its direction and, … there’s no certainty, so that’s another aspect of the suffering, of … uncertainty of doubt….

Stress from workplace relationships. Stress was experienced in workplace relationships and interactions with stakeholders—co-workers at the same, lower and higher level and customers or clients. The stress from work presented above also involved these stakeholders in causing the stress but were not as much emphasized as the work itself. Both Buddhist- informed and secular-informed participants experienced stress from workplace relationships in the day-to-day interactions that were long-term as part of how these stakeholders were. Jerzy conceptually explained that people react to stress as though it were about all people because we

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interact and understand our identity by contrasting ‘me’ with ‘the others.’ Similar to stress from work presented above, both groups of the participants did not accept stress, nor external work conditions of their workplace relationships and were initially stressed.

As an entrepreneur, Saranyu observed that his workplace did not have this stress because everyone was getting along well with each other, and Benchamat did not experience this because she was self-employed. However, other participants from both groups, working as an employee saw it. They suffered from their boss the most, followed by other same-level co-workers, and sometimes from customers.

First, participants from both groups experienced stress from authority. They experienced a lack of co-operation at work. For example, Jane experienced poor leadership and unethical behaviours of the authority against her values at the university where she worked. This problem added up to work overload presented earlier and a toxic work environment, which lasted for about five years before she decided to quit. Jane’s conceptual understanding and use of the Three Marks of Existence (see Appendix A2 on Three Marks of Existence) helped her decide to quit her job. However, as a secular practitioner, her understanding is slightly different from Buddhist wisdom. She said, ‘the vision is not my vision.’ She did not accept the stress but eliminated it by quitting her job:

There's an element of suffering that happens with that because the vision is not my vision … the vision is not working and is creating a lot of problems in the environment. And so, I can choose to suffer with that … but I choose not to suffer the suffering, and so I choose to actively work to put that behind me, and my mindfulness practice has helped me with day-to-day stress, but it's also helped me to quit my job.

In this situation, Jane conceptually understood impermanence and connected the idea to non-attachment but non-attachment to the job, not non-attachment to her self:

The idea of impermanence is a huge thing to focus on because … we get too attached to a lot of things. And I think because I have an understanding of the impermanence as part of life, … I’m not attached to jobs; I've actually quit a number of different jobs because … I don't feel attached, and I just get to a point where I think, ‘Okay, you know, this isn't serving me anymore, so I'm not serving it.’

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As for interconnectedness, in the same situation, Jane saw it as helping her to make informed decisions: ‘You understand the connection between suffering and impermanence. You understand the notion of service, “Is it serving me? Am I serving it?”’ Jane’s application of the Three Marks of Existence (see Appendix A2 on Three Marks of Existence) is from a perspective of thriving in her career life, while Chance’ quitting his job is from a perspective of renunciation as illustrated in Pattern 1.2 above.

Some participants even felt their boss abused them at work. Farung suffered from her boss when they held different opinions, and she felt it was unjust for them to blame her for doing something wrong when she thought she did not. She felt she needed to use wisdom when things went wrong:

I felt I was slandered, … when the person who did wrong would get by and try to put the blame on me. And the person who is trying to frame me is at the director level. They thought they would lose face if they did something wrong, but blaming me for it, they wouldn’t lose anything. People would think I am lovely, childlike, so other people wouldn’t mind, so they framed me just like that.… I like practicing wisdom because if I only practiced mindfulness and concentration, ‘hearing, knowing, accepting,’ if I accepted it, I would be in trouble. [Laughs] No, I couldn’t. Wisdom is the highest. If it ended like that, just accepting it, forgiving them for everything, and would kamma follow them, like that? [Laughs] No! I felt I had to be mindful and wise. I knew I would have a problem with this person who exploited me.… I knew suffering, impermanence and not- self, … but this story was different from suffering, impermanence and not-self. [Laughs] It’s not like, it is happening, let them go, it’s just suffering, impermanence and not-self, and let it happen. It’s not for that. Sometimes, … in fact, in my opinion, suffering, impermanence and not-self are just teaching us to understand the world, but not teaching us to solve problems. When we have a problem, and we just let go, we would die. It would be considered not helping ourselves. Therefore, it is wisdom that can help…. If I did not have wisdom, I would not have even known that this person was framing me…. Then wisdom guided me on how to get by in this situation when the person was the director, and I was just a staff member, how could I tactfully communicate this not to offend them. Otherwise, we would still run into trouble. Big ants can still crush small

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ants. Wisdom was used to filter my words, my actions, my behaviours. I don’t have reasons for everything. As I said, some things are not screened by the brain, but through the mind, the sub-conscience, from within, … to know what to do. If asked, ‘When can we use suffering, impermanence and not-self?’ They can help us when we have taken action, solved the problem, done our best, but it doesn’t turn out as expected. It is at that point when suffering, impermanence and not-self will have a big role because suffering, impermanence and not-self help us to let go, but before that, we can’t let go until we have done our best.

In this situation, Farung thought tactfully speaking up or reporting the director was the best she could do; then she could let go of the external work condition when it was beyond her control. This example clearly showed that Farung did not accept the suffering, nor the condition in the beginning. She tried to change the condition by speaking up until there was nothing left within her control that she accepted the external work condition by using the Three Marks of Existence (see Appendix A2 on Three Marks of Existence). She did not think she could extend loving-kindness to the director from the heart and did not think it would help:

Sometimes it is due to our kamma, making us feel that even if we do it, it is just a ritual. It is not from our heart. If asked, ‘Am I wrong?’, ‘No!’, because we have the right to hate others, dislike others, even though we practice Dhamma a lot. It is more like trying to remind ourselves not to go too deep into it [hatred]….

… When at work, it’s not like that. People are not waiting around to send loving- kindness, waiting for people to change through its merit.… When we face a problem, extending loving-kindness alone doesn’t help.

Because the Three Marks of Existence (see Appendix A2 on Three Marks of Existence) are actually Buddhist wisdom to me, I was confused when Farung said the Three Marks of Existence were not useful in solving problems and wanted to use wisdom instead. I assume she referred to an intuition or insight to solve the external work problem. This corresponds with her previous explanation of the nature of stress that stress is the external problem that is left unresolved. The outcome was that she suffered until she had done her best and then accepted the external work condition.

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The second group of people from whom participants experienced stress is their same- level co-workers. Panatda’s co-worker in Canada acted out of disrespect22, which affected her emotions and patients. She disliked the co-worker but later tried to extend loving-kindness to her to become free from her. She could not help disliking her or judging her because she thought humans automatically form ideas about people we come across. She just remained professional when relating to her. Similarly, Farung felt she was looked down upon by co-workers when she worked as a housekeeper in the United States:

At first, everyone seemed disappointed because most of them were from Chula [Chulalongkorn University]. [Laughs] Everyone in the same team was looked down on by white people because we were the first cohort from Thailand to go to that city, Atlantic City. We were looked down on by other housekeepers, questioning whether we really were in university, why we would have to come to work, assuming we were sneaking into the US because we came from a developing country.

In some situations, participants considered co-workers’ expression of stress as harmful actions, usually through undesirable speech such as gossiping and sabotaging. For example, Jessica linked people’s stressful behaviours to her inability to get work done and her fear of not performing well. Lex experienced a strong reaction towards someone who wrote a negative email to him. He withdrew to calm down and tried to understand the person instead of reacting by replying with a revolting message. Adela suffered from her co-workers’ questioning her ability to do work or her work performance. Subsequently, she developed empathy for her co- worker, changing her cognition to thinking they might have a problem at home to calm her mind not to form stories that might not be true.

Another stress caused by co-workers was when they expressed conflicting ideas. Beatrice sometimes found working in an environment without a boss challenging as it was difficult to reach a consensus. Her co-workers sometimes were angry and harsh at meetings, felt hurt by not

22 In these instances, the difference in the experience of disrespect was not between the two groups but due to other multiple factors, attributed in particular to their ethnicities—from Thailand to North America. Yotsaphon did not report experiencing disrespect working in Japan. Originally from Malaysia, Yue did not experience it in Sri Lanka as an intern, or in Canada working for a Chinese community. Coming from New Zealand, Adela did not experience it in Australia, England and Canada. Jerzy had the opposite experience. As a visitor from Canada, he felt pampered by Chinese people in China.

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being heard, ganged up against one another, and created stress. She accepted the stress by withdrawing herself, going back into breathing meditation, to the present moment, to give herself space. She also used empathy, compassion, loving-kindness and the view of interconnectedness on co-workers in these situations. She said, ‘ … that’s the not-self, interconnectedness aspect … of knowing that I want to be happy and so does this other person even though we might be angry or having some conflicts right now, really, at the base, … we are not two; we are connected; we are one.’ However, she was still suffering from it occasionally.

Another action of how co-workers caused stress to participants was competition. Kevin was tense and angry at his co-workers for trying to compete with him during a major layoff period to prove their abilities. Unlike other participants, it seemed Kevin accepted the stress. His mindfulness reduced the reactiveness he would otherwise have towards the situation and acted more wisely in the situation. Secularly, Suzanna found competitiveness in the workplace, not so personally. She noticed this behaviour in people before seeing it in herself in her explanation:

I think it’s watching other people, … in various ways demonstrate conduct that is aimed at pushing themselves forward or promoting themselves rather than maybe promoting the good of the unit or good of other people.

Similarly, Jessica felt the same with competitiveness among co-workers who were outcome-focused, wanting to get ahead rather than wanting to do the right thing.

Fourth, participants from both groups such as Beatrice, Gena and Jessica experienced stress seeing their clients’ suffering. As a sexual health educator, Beatrice was stressed with her clients’ stressful situations in sexual health and relationships:

I just see first-hand every day how much suffering … people can experience through their sexuality and the way they express it, … and again, this falls back to habits, often the people have certain habits or tendencies or drives, and sometimes … they don’t think things through very clearly or … not being careful when they put themselves in dangerous positions, or they do things they feel upset or worried about afterwards or … they may become—get an STI or a kind of infection or a pregnancy they didn’t plan, or sometimes they get involved in a relationship that’s not healthy and … it just shows me

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again and again how powerful these drives are, how powerful our sexual tendencies can be and how much pain people can cause themselves and others because of them.

In this situation, Beatrice tried to show empathy and compassion to her clients who were suffering and might not be ready to change or improve, but she herself was still suffering from them:

There are things that we can do to help relieve suffering like the very obvious things like someone’s got an infection, you give them medication, or if they need a referral someplace, you offer that … that’s taking care of … maybe their physical need, but the emotional needs that they’re having, … I think just a lot of it is just being kind and being willing to listen, trying not to be judgmental about them in the situation they’re in.… help—somehow making it clear, helping them feel that there are choices and that … things will hopefully get better for them.

Among the above examples, Gena’s stress from working with students with difficulties had all the three sources of suffering: self, work and workplace relationships with the relationships being the most stressful. Gena was depressed by her students’ suffering from their difficulties, trying to find the best way to help them. Sometimes, she was stressed by her assistants’ actions because they did not use appropriate approaches to deal with the children. She accepted that stress is ordinary to life, but she was still bothered by it.

These stories from the participants’ experience show how work stress manifested in the workplace in specific job situations. These references to stress demonstrate that stress was experienced in work and workplace relationships. The problem with this second pattern is the identification of the causes of stress as external work conditions. In Buddhist teachings, external work conditions were considered stressful—the reality which if accepted in direct experience would not cause the practitioner stress. When the participants did not address their stress right away but shifted their attention to changing the external work conditions or solve the external problem instead, participants suffered until the external work conditions were overcome, transformed or accepted. The internal causes of stress and the causes of external problems were overlooked. In a subsequent response to the situation, the Three-Dimensional Mindfulness practice seemed to be participants’ coping mechanism, which helped them to either change the

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external work condition or accept the stress or do both. In most cases, it was mainly Buddhist- informed participants who were able to accept the stress and its reality either after changing the external work condition or at the same time. This difference shows their understanding or practice of the Four Noble Truths.

Since both patterns above caused stress, practitioners could try to put more effort into the practice so that they could see the internal causes of stress in direct experience and do not have to suffer from external work conditions. Meanwhile, I argue that aligning external work conditions with Buddhist values would also help participants reduce stress, although it may not be the path to the cessation of stress.

Obstacles That Prevented Practitioners from Practicing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness at Work.

Obstacles that caused stress could be changed if practitioners are able to practice Three- Dimensional Mindfulness at work. However, there is another type of obstacle or barrier to practicing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness, which can be divided into internal and external difficulties. Unlike the difficulties in the previous section, these difficulties did not cause stress but prevented participants from practicing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness. These obstacles prevented the transfer of learning at the level of subject-object integration to realize interconnectedness or not-self (Bai et al., 2017; Bai & Scutt, 2009).

Internal difficulties in integrating Three-Dimensional Mindfulness into work. Only Buddhist-informed participants mentioned having internal difficulties in learning and practicing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness in the workplace. Their difficulties in learning Three-Dimensional Mindfulness were doubts with mindfulness or a lack of faith, limited knowledge due to forgetting, not remembering, or remembering it incorrectly, or not paying attention to teachings or to learning the teachings, and limited understanding including being unable to relate one teaching to another, misunderstanding the teachings, limited ability to transfer the teachings to practice and ambiguous teachings left for interpretation. These obstacles in learning may not necessarily affect the practice as some practitioners did not focus on conceptual learning but the practice. These obstacles were rather trivial in the participants’

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opinion, and they had been trying to learn and practice more to overcome them. Naturally, some of these obstacles were overcome over time by putting more effort into learning.

In practice, only Buddhist-informed participants had internal difficulties with the following: irregular practice, no improvement, happiness, negative results from the practice, teachings too difficult to practice, not wanting to impose Buddhism on other people at work, physical constraints and unwholesome states of mind, Although, not necessarily in conflict with life and work, these obstacles had only partly been overcome by putting more effort into the practice. The following are some examples of these obstacles.

First, Buddhist-informed participants such as Farung, Naphisa, Adela and Gena found that happiness sometimes made them overlook the practice. Farung said that it was more difficult to practice when we are happy than when we are stressed. She explained, ‘Happiness makes us feel overconfident and rash and cannot tell what we have to practice on because we enjoy it.’ Farung learned her lesson and tried to be more aware. Adela was cautious not to be complacent when things were going along and not to get caught up in gossips. Naphisa was aware not to indulge in her job promotion.

Second, some Buddhist-informed participants did not want to impose Buddhism on other people. David did not teach Buddhism directly but applied it to the class atmosphere. Gena was not comfortable with the class assistants’ approach to teaching children with developmental delay. She said, ‘They were being more authoritarian and even possibly physical,’ and tried to find other ways such as approaches that were more child-centred and supportive but could not impose Buddhism on them.

Most of the Buddhist-informed participants were able to regulate their feelings better over time. Participants knew that if they put more effort into the learning and practice, they can overcome these internal difficulties. The unwholesome states of mind just show the difficulty in transferring conceptual learning to practice. For example, Farung found it hard to sincerely and intentionally extend loving-kindness to people she disliked. In any case, most participants thought the more they practiced, the more they would be able to experience it.

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External difficulties in integrating Three-Dimensional Mindfulness into work. Most of the external difficulties are experienced by both Buddhist-informed and secular-informed participants. These are 1) external work conditions such as physical work environment, time constraints and people, 2) Western secularization of mindfulness, and 3) mindfulness abuse.

Firstly, both Buddhist-informed Thais and Canadians and secular-informed Canadians found that their external work conditions made it difficult for them to practice Three- Dimensional Mindfulness. For example, the physical environment of Beatrice was distracting. She was distracted by noisy co-workers playing music and chatting with each other. Another stressful condition is a time constraint. Naphisa’s and Chance’ work culture was fast-paced. Naphisa gave an example of the workplace 15-minute group meditation that was launched but could only last for a month or two. She assumed the nature of work was too busy, and programs could not run without a leader. She admitted that it was a waste of work time:

Work was fast-paced with phone calls. During the 15 minutes that we tried, no phone calls were allowed. We had to tell other departments not to call in at all. In fact, the business was not created for meditation. Their nature was contradictory. Business is business, so we couldn’t practice for long.

In another example, Yotsaphon mentioned a time constraint in changing the work process:

When time is a condition, … I cannot change the process in time. It’s the process I’m used to. I can determine if I followed the process, it would finish right in time. But if asked whether it is the best method to do it, I would answer ‘No.’ But if we are mindful, we may be able to think of a better way to do it. But due to a time condition, I wouldn’t want to take the risk to think. But when we are free, after we are done, we can think of a more efficient way.

Another external work condition of the negative work environment is participants’ co- workers. Participants thought people at work created a destructive work environment. Farung liked the challenge of business. However, sometimes, it was too challenging for her, and she felt

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depressed when she was surrounded by people who did not practice and created an unsupportive environment at work by gossiping:

Sometimes it’s hard for me to maintain my mental strength. When I’m surrounded by people, who are so different from me, who just like to gossip … sometimes I admit that I am lost, questioning, ‘What’s happening to me? Why am I so sad, so depressed …?’

In this situation, Farung’s co-workers gossiped and talked negatively around her, which would prevent her from practicing mindfulness if she joined them.

At the societal level, some participants acknowledged that the destructive environment came from the culture in which we live. Suzanna, Jessica and Gena also thought our society raised us to be selfish. Gena said, ‘I think in our culture … we are brought up often to think of ourselves, protect ourselves, make sure we get our needs met, this is the message we’re getting from the outside often … and so … this is kind of flipping that around.’

Aside from experiencing the destructive environment due to people around them, Canadian participants particularly felt a lack of support and understanding from people. Canadian Buddhist-informed participants felt that society does not embrace mindfulness or understand its applicability. In Adela’s case, she was bothered by criticism from the Catholic. She needed to continue to support and be with her Catholic family and friends when she herself also practiced Buddhist-informed mindfulness. She described her stress when people disproved of her mindfulness practice as:

I have people where I work with, they always say, … whatever it is I’m doing … I think, oh, it’s just a lot of hogwash, just a lot of nonsense, why are you learning this for? ... I have to be careful of, … knowing that they’re just speaking their own self, it’s not affecting me; they’re just saying what they say, they don’t know, … my family think I’m a Catholic, why am I doing that, that’s losing your spirituality I don’t take anything personal from my family when I teach, but I try and say, you know, … I hear you, the Catholics, I said, 'I’m sorry, you do the same things over and over again, and yet you haven’t learned how to understand what causes you to suffer, … haven’t understand why you keep repeating the same things over and over again ‘cause you haven’t come to finding what’s the cause of it.' … But them, … they all want me to come back, and some

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people think I’ve gone on the dark side, … and I’m thinking, “Excuse me? Why would I be going the dark side?”

Knowing that mindfulness is not a social value in Canada, Sinai became more discreet in communicating about it:

The major challenge is that we live in a society that doesn't embrace mindfulness, so … as I’ve gone further into using and teaching mindfulness in my work, I become more discreet at how I talk to colleagues about my work. I’m not sure that people …, who don’t value mindfulness as I do, understand it would be comfortable … with the … intensity and depth relationship that happens between clients and in the groups I facilitate.

This difficulty with a lack of support and understanding led to colleagues not knowing the applicability of mindfulness experienced by both Sinai and Yue. Yue had difficulty integrating mindfulness into her citizenship work as colleagues were attached to their own approaches and did not think mindfulness would work:

I think in [my program of studies] there’s always very … critical social Marxist, neo- Marxist [for culturalism?] I think it’s getting harder … ‘cause I actually just recently did … a presentation about how mindfulness can enrich multicultural citizenship learning, and then it was really hard actually for audience to really … have a dialogue with people who are so into their theoretical space; it’s like people have their own ideas of how society can be changed, and how suffering can be addressed in the society … even though you think … at Mars, there's free space dialogues, democracy, … your knowledge is respected, blah blah blah, but then who’s the knowledge holders; it’s still like those people are from the West, from … I think those people who hold … the theoretical lens, it’s really hard, I think, for them to understand the different way of being … that I was advocating for.… They don’t think that Buddhist or mindfulness way approach to peace or non-violence is legitimate; they think that this is too weak; it’s not going to change the world.… How can you explain such a deep practice to a person in … thirty minutes, and then that person would be convinced that this practice is not going to help transform the injustice and suffering in the world.… It’s really hard … for a Western audience to really

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grasp the philosophical underpinning of … this kind of Buddhism, let’s say, mindfulness practice. Unless they really experience it and practice it, because it’s ultimately an embodied knowledge, and for them to really think through their mind and then think that mindfulness is not going to help or it’s not going to contribute anything, it’s just a psychological—I think that’s the main concern, a lot of my professors, when I told them I practice mindfulness, that … I do citizenship work, … they were like … [Laughs] …, ‘These are all psychology.’ [Laughs] ‘I don’t do psychology; I do political science.’ … I don’t see this as separated, I see mindfulness as political science, as philosophy, as psychology, and it’s all interconnected…

Seeing this lack of understanding and support in Canada can lead one to think it is because mindfulness is not well understood in Canada. In fact, Buddhist-informed Thais also felt they lacked support from the organization for which they worked. Farung, Yotsaphon and Woraphat did not feel that their current work gave them any support for the practice. Farung explained that if the executives had no vision for the practice, then there would be no policy or programs on soft skills training or inner self-development just like in her current workplace.

Secondly, both Buddhist-informed and secular-informed Canadians had concerns over how mindfulness has been adopted in the West. In this sense, secular-informed participants critiqued the trend of mindfulness secularization. Those who lead the secular-informed mindfulness movement saw Buddhism, as a religion, as an obstacle in the first place and secularized it so that it can be practiced in the public sphere such as hospitals and schools. As a Buddhist-informed mindfulness practitioner, Chance, Jerzy, Kevin and Yue saw this secular- informed mindfulness movement as an obstacle to achieving Buddhist goals and maintaining Buddhist values. The ultimate goal of Buddhism is the cessation of stress, which is different from the secular goals of reducing stress to increase happiness in the secular world. These secular goals are more corporate-value-oriented. For example, Jerzy elaborated on the secular purpose of Western mindfulness: ‘Buddhism becomes almost like another therapy to live life more comfortable and have, less … stress and … more success in … a daily or … career life.’

Secular participants, such as Suzanna, are critical of the secular-informed mindfulness movement. Suzanna agreed with this observation that secular-informed mindfulness in the West is happiness seeking, and happiness is based on worldly success:

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It's like in Western culture, … you're only as happy as your most recent success. Like … you're constantly dependent … on those successes, on those … events that make you happy, and then as soon as that isn’t happening anymore, well then, you can crash.

In addition, Suzanna thought Westerners have a hard time practicing non-attachment because society is capitalist, very striving, and self-esteem-oriented. She, herself, practiced mindful leadership after hearing about it being adopted in corporations in North America. Similarly, Jessica thought not-self is difficult for Westerners to grasp.

Another point Jerzy cautioned was that secular-informed mindfulness makes Buddhism less approachable by dissecting the teaching into chunks and teach only mindfulness meditation. He said secular-informed mindfulness limits practitioners’ ability to see the true mind and the Three Marks of Existence (see Appendix A2 on Three Marks of Existence) and to transfer the practice from one situation to another. He thought this Western secular approach is unnecessary because if we are able to see the Three Marks of Existence, then mindfulness is naturally there. There is rich teaching on that in Chan Buddhism that he practiced. He shared his approach to wisdom:

… Your mind doesn't have to be concentrated, … intentionally on something … when you observe those … principles, it's naturally concentrated because … it's calm. Why it's calm? Because it is … in harmony. Why is it in harmony? Because it understands … impermanence.… So, in a sense, those things are falling in place naturally, and you don't have to self-impose it, ‘Oh, now we practice mindfulness.’ And then you actually at this point, you withdraw yourself from the reality of the situation. You impose something on top of it and say, ’Let's practice this to go to the reality.’ Your reality is already here.

To approach mindfulness through the secular route, Jessica, trained in secular-informed mindfulness, admitted that after practicing for several years it would be impossible not to become spiritual. She herself started to incorporate some Zen practices into her secular-informed mindfulness teachings. This first external difficulty raises an awareness that secular-informed mindfulness may not be an effective path to the cessation of stress because it does not promote understanding of the Four Noble Truths. Although it still leads to reduced stress, the result is temporary.

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Third, both Buddhist-informed and secular-informed participants saw that mindfulness could be abused. Jessica and Chance saw that mindfulness could be abused if used to manipulate people:

Because you're much more aware of other people and their emotions and their suffering, … and so if you're not careful, you have a greater opportunity to manipulate the situation than perhaps you did before, and you have to watch that. ‘Cause it's seductive, right?

When practicing mindfulness or Buddhism, together with work, Chance had a concern for its misuse, especially by the employer. One abuse is the prevention of mistakes. Chance warned that mindfulness should be introduced last after everything else is ensured in the context of work and safety training. Jessica disagreed with people who used it in meetings to deter people from asking, ‘Can you repeat that?’ because the answer is ‘No, because you weren’t listening.’ Yet, Jessica understood that it is because secular-informed mindfulness is still new; therefore, there will be missteps along the way until the best practitioners develop the best processes in the direction of making a healthier, happier, more effective and productive workplace and a better world.

Regarding safety, Sinai used mindfulness in psychotherapy on his clients as long as they are emotionally stable. He was aware that mindfulness could potentially destabilize people, but he saw his practice as safe, and clients had support outside of the practice. In any case, even if mindfulness can be abused, people cannot be forced to practice it.

Some experiences were only observed by Buddhist-informed participants. These include the difficulty of living a secular work-life and a lack of mindfulness exemplars. Only Buddhist- informed participants experienced the difficulty of practicing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness while living a secular work-life. They thought a layperson could not practice as much as monks. Some claimed that they could not fully practice because they had to work to make a living, and different jobs posed different levels of difficulties. Others said they adapted the practice to their way of life, and practitioners’ perspective on work could transform the challenges. For example, Jerzy initially wanted to practice in the temple full-time, but family life changed how he could practice it. Benchamat just thought it is impossible to reach Nirvana in this work-life and found it impractical to devote herself to mindfulness practice for nirvana when she had work and life

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obligations. Making a living is not seen as contradictory to practicing Buddhism but made it more challenging.

Only Buddhist-informed participants lacked mindfulness exemplars and leaders. Benchamat practiced with a teacher in a group that she later left because she did not like their way of practice. Her teacher discouraged her from listening or learning from other sources. Her group made her feel uncomfortable when she noticed that they were jealous of one another and compared themselves against one another. Naphisa gave an example of her co-worker, who was against Buddhist meditation and prayers. She said there are a lot of people like her co-worker and assumed that they might have seen monks who misbehaved and formed a negative attitude towards it. In general, some participants may not have a practitioner they admired, at least they still listened to teachings from multiple sources, especially by monks.

It is interesting to note that some Buddhist-informed participants said that a mindfulness meditation group needed a leader, but most of the participants did not want to take that initiative except for Saranyu. A part of the challenge is that the teaching or spreading Buddhism is subject to interpretation. Some only taught others who were invited, some believed kamma guided people in their practice, and a few were open to making an effort to teach it openly. While participants were reluctant to lead, their organization leaders were not interested either. Farung knew that the executives did not have a vision for mindfulness by just looking at their training courses that targeted only hard skills development for productivity and performance excellence. Similarly, Yotsaphon thought the workplace was not helping the practice, and it was impossible to change unless monks became the CEO.

The above examples show that participants found external difficulties as the obstacles to integrating Three-Dimensional Mindfulness into work. They gradually embraced and transformed the difficulties by putting more effort into the practice. However, they found it difficult to overcome or change external work conditions. I argue that if the stakeholders try to change these conditions together, it would help practitioners reduce stress and facilitate them to practice more at work. However, not all changes for stress reduction would help to end stress.

Contradictions between Three-Dimensional Mindfulness and work. I further explore the external difficulties in integrating Three-Dimensional Mindfulness into work that

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some participants referred to as contradictions. These contradictions were not identified as the causes of stress, nor the stress. They conditioned the stressful work experience by preventing practitioners from practicing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness in the workplace. These contradictions did not form a clear pattern due to a small number of samples. The perception of contradictions was subjectively tied to personal work experience and judgement, especially among Buddhist-informed participants. Some of the participants from both groups such as Kevin, Adela, Lex and Jessica did not see difficulties as contradictions. Among the contradictions, Buddhist-informed participants found a Buddhist good deed contradictory to the organizational good deed; valuing Buddhist virtue contradictory to valuing corporate virtue of performance; honesty contradictory to withholding truth in sales and marketing; goodness contradictory to smartness; patience in Right Effort contradictory to impatience in efficiency, concentration/attention contradictory to multitasking; valuing the learning process contradictory to valuing the learning outcome; wisdom practices contradictory to work practices; freedom contradictory to attachment and building ego as a purpose of learning; inner-self development contradictory to profit-making as a purpose of learning; virtue and compassion contradictory to high performance and profit-making as an organizational goal; freedom from the cessation of stress contradictory to attachment to work performance; not-self contradictory to self/ego; Buddhist insight contradictory to delusion in business; wholeness (body and mind and self and work) contradictory to a separation of self and work and body and mind; cooperation contradictory to competition; and compassion contradictory to competitiveness. I organize participants’ contradictions into three levels: virtue, concentration and wisdom.

Virtue contradictions. Buddhist-informed participants found that organizational work conduct or corporate virtues might not correspond with Buddhist virtues. Farung was aware that Buddhist virtues in workers were not valued in the workplace:

I never thought that my organization makes me wiser or helps me become a better person.… Your research reminds me of my vision and not to waver or be confused by the organization. Like I said, our workplace does not hope for us to be a good person, but to be able to work.

In another example, Panatda’s experience as a doctor, wanting to treat alien workers might be a good deed in Buddhism, but the hospital might not have the policy to treat them due

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to a financial constraint, thus did not consider treating alien workers good for them. She had to be mindful that this could not be performed, and patients might die because they could not pay for the service.

Likewise, Naphisa communicated with clients about tour bookings and sometimes had to lie or not tell them the truth. She found this difficult to avoid or impossible to be perfect if she wanted to work for the company:

Lying is not the main issue. Like I said, I didn’t lie to clients every day. There might have been sometimes that I had to, not lying to the point that would cause damage to them; it’s just not telling them everything.

It is interesting to note that Naphisa mentioned elsewhere that she followed Right Livelihood in choosing the workplace and liked the company she worked for because they were honest with customers. It seems she did not think withholding truth in her job is a big problem.

Concentration contradictions. Beatrice found multitasking contradictory to concentration. She described samadhi or concentration practice as, ‘Being so absorbed at what you’re doing that you’re not even aware of anything else, and … one can get into a kind of a samadhi state in any kind of thing that one’s doing, … where you’re just so focused on it that you don’t even have a sense of time anymore or place, you’re really completely one with whatever you’re doing.’

In another example, David found his value of goodness shown in the learning process of hardworking contradictory to schools’ value of smartness shown in the learning outcome of productivity:

You have to produce; you have to evaluate children … and the way evaluation is done, I think, in the public school system, isn’t always helpful because it's taken for granted somehow or it’s implied that the kids are always progressing.… Some kids aren’t progressing.… So, and then you have these kids … who try … really hard, the hardest they’ve ever tried in a project, and you end up having to give them a B because their best, a B … isn't as good as an A student’s worst work, and that was—always difficult for me. That’s … the really smart kids could do something fifteen minutes the day before a

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project and get an A or a B+ by doing nothing just ‘cause they know how to play school.… I found that … sort of excruciating that you couldn’t evaluate kids more on their attitudes towards the effort.

Wisdom contradictions. Participants from both groups found a contradiction between mindfulness and competition. Those participants from both groups who said they found mindfulness complementary to competition said it because they thought they competed with themselves only, or not comparing against others, but they agreed that the workplace encourages competition among workers. Buddhist-informed participants saw that work induced a competition which could be contradictory to cooperation. In the same way, secular-informed participants found a lack of compassion in competition. Suzanna and Jessica thought kindness and compassion are contradictory to the attitude of striving and succeeding. Jessica shared her view:

I think that we’re not socialized anymore in the West, at least, … in the ways of kindness, in the ways of compassion.… There’s a lot of socialization to get ahead; there’s a lot of socialization … that’s critical of others as opposed to … recognizing we’re all in this boat together, … and so … we’re socialized to … watch out for ourselves, to take care of ourselves, to … be the best that we can be as opposed to the best that together we can be, right? … It’s the individual nature of it, makes you individually competitive as opposed to, how do we work together….

The other wisdom contradictions were observed by Buddhist-informed participants only. First, they experienced a contradiction between work goals and mindfulness goals. The private- sector goal of profit-making may contradict with the Buddhist practice of virtue and compassion for liberation. Naphisa maintained, ‘If the core of Buddhism is liberation, of course, it cannot be used at work as it is contradictory.’ Farung always knew that her company’s goal was making a profit, wanting high performance, and not making workers a good person. She understood that politics existed in every organization and tried to survive without harming others. Yet, in some situations, it might seem unclear, and she would need the wisdom to know what to do:

The organization I work for seeks profit; therefore, it doesn’t look at good and bad deeds; they look at work outcomes.… In doing some tasks, if we do not put pressure on co-

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workers, we can’t finish them. I must pressure them, report them [to the boss]. If asked, if that’s what I wanna do, ‘No!’ But for work performance, we have to. For example, when people did a bad job, we explained to them, but there was no improvement, we had to report them because if they don’t improve, it will affect me negatively because there is a deadline for the task. Therefore, it is contradictory … because it is our responsibility. I can be flexible, but for any task that I am responsible for that would affect me, I should take action. Mindfulness and wisdom help us to filter what action needs to be taken.

In this situation, Farung did not like her job for focusing on performance and lacking a vision for mindfulness. Even so, that was not important enough for her to change her career path. She continued to work there and to work for a for-profit corporation rather than a non-profit organization because she could still take it and felt more secure and stable as a permanent employee in her work than having to work for non-profit organizations which, she said, mostly offered contract jobs.

At the level of teaching, Woraphat explained, ‘The purpose of mindfulness practice is liberation, …but I think education in modern times is narrowing our mind and building ego, creating a frame for ourselves, while dhamma teaches us to be free. It [modern education] teaches us to hold on to something.’ He elaborated that it is our mainstream education that teaches us about work and mindfulness is not teaching us to go to work. Likewise, Farung said the purpose of her organization was making a profit, and only trained employees to improve their performance instead of the inner self. However, she did not explain what she meant by inner self- development that contradicts with work. These contradictions mentioned did not stop the participants from continuing with learning and training for themselves for the broader life goal, but they limited their ability to transfer the Three-Dimensional Mindfulness practice to the context of work.

Secondly, some Buddhist-informed participants were not able to practice ‘not-self’ at work because it would be contradictory to work progress. Naphisa had difficulty gaining direct experience of the wisdom of ‘not-self.’ She said, ‘Nothing has a self, but now I still feel this is me; these are my clothes.’ She explained that we could not use ‘not-self’ but use business concepts. She said, ‘Not-self … cannot be used because, in the workplace, everything has to have a self. Humans have constructed it…. If I were to view business with ‘not-self’ then one

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day the business must change. That is, the business will turn back to zero, like in the beginning, or go bankrupt.’ She needed to attach the self to work or see that work progress matters. Otherwise, she would become passive, thinking everything would be fine since everything would dissolve. Similarly, Yotsaphon did not view ‘letting go’ supporting success at work in terms of work outcomes, and Benchamat could not practice the Five Aggregates, which is the teaching to understand the construction of self.

Third, Benchamat found a delusion from work contradictory to the Buddhist insight. Benchamat’s business was a beauty product retail. She was aware that her job in marketing and selling these products might create an illusion in customers’ mind about their own beauty:

I do the sales myself, but I feel I’m not good at sales, so I try to look for sales agents or dealers [Laughs] to help me sell.… when customers visited the booth and asked questions; I would not insist, … I’m not the type who would force sales but sell as I please. My strategy is, ‘If you don’t want to buy now, that’s okay. You can wait. Take a look, read more about it first. And when you want it, just come back to buy it.’ I would not push sales.

In this situation, Benchamat suggested that doing Beauty product retail business could be viewed as delusional as people’s beauty is illusory. She said, ‘It’s making us not see reality … in fact, we are not beautiful. In fact, beauty does not exist.’

Fourth, Yue was the only Buddhist-informed who realized that work practices were in conflict with integrity and wholeness. Her integrity was compromised at work as a part-time research assistant because the research did not align with her own experience, principles and core being as a whole person. To her, wholeness is thinking and acting accordingly in the mind and through the body:

I try not to have separation between work and myself.… I want to … work as a whole person and … I expect … my feelings, emotions, my well-being will be taken care or be … paid attention. … If the workplace is not helping me, then my mindfulness would probably help me do that [Laughs].… for example, social justice issues, I work in a community, and I work in places where people are trying to ask, … lobby for better jobs … they’re trying … to challenge social injustice, inequality, but then they don’t show it

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in their daily life.… They go to the street, they shout, but then they ask for peace, but then they’re not peaceful themselves, they’re violent.… Sometimes, it’s sad that activists have to be violent in order to get your demands heard, but to me, it doesn’t make sense. Like I feel like … I just don’t think that anger will lead you anywhere, … For example, if you want peace in the world, then you have to embody that peace, like, you don’t grow angry because you don’t get what you want.… I don’t think … that reflects my understanding of holism.

In the workplace, Yue saw that work practices were contradictory to wholeness because there was a mind-and-body separation at work. She saw that as using the brain but not acting out through the body.

In the participants’ opinion, these contradictions could hardly ever be overcome by just putting more effort into the practice. Since their practice was disrupted by these contradictions, they were able to practice Three-Dimensional Mindfulness only partially. Nevertheless, some could embrace the obstacles; others could transform them by changing their perspectives. Their approaches are further discussed in Chapter 7. With other external difficulties, I argue that every stakeholder could help practitioners change external work conditions so that they could practice Three-Dimensional Mindfulness fully. While changing external work conditions helps participants reduce stress, it does not necessarily end stress unless they help practitioners accept stress in direct experience. The more practitioners could practice Three-Dimensional Mindfulness in the workplace; the fewer obstacles could cause them stress.

Summary

Participants faced obstacles in transferring their learning of Three-Dimensional Mindfulness to work practice. Obstacles to working wisely can be categorized into obstacles that caused stress and obstacles that prevent practitioners from practicing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness. Internal mental formations, feelings, craving and clinging caused them stress when they could not see stress in external work conditions instantaneously, and external work conditions caused them stress when they thought these conditions were the causes of stress that needed to be changed without seeing and accepting stress in these conditions. These two patterns happened to both Buddhist-informed and secular-informed participants and resulted in stress.

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This pattern of attributing stress to internal conditions was less common among both groups of participants. Although Buddhism teaches identifying the causes of stress as their thoughts, feelings, craving and emotions, this pattern is still problematic because participants realized the conditioned causes of their stress in reflection and were not mindful of them in actual situations or direct experience. Thus, they experienced stress. They were willing to put more effort into the practice of Three-Dimensional Mindfulness to embrace, transform or overcome this obstacle.

In the second pattern, the majority of participants from both groups attributed the causes of stress to external work conditions. They did not accept stress and mainly tried to use Three- Dimensional Mindfulness to support external problem-solving. Changing external work conditions eventually reduced stress but it is problematic because participants had to be stressed until the external work conditions were changed, or the external problems were solved, or when they eventually accepted those conditions. They did not identify the actual causes of the problem that they found with the external work conditions. Only some Buddhist-informed participants were able to accept stress in their subsequent response while changing external work conditions. Through acceptance, they became less stressed and were able to do their work. It could be said that they were able to embrace or transform difficulties at some point.

The second group of obstacles are those internal and external difficulties that prevented participants from practicing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness fully but did not necessarily cause them stress. Internal difficulties such as a lack of knowledge, understanding, faith and practice, were experienced only by Buddhist-informed participants only. Buddhist-informed participants realized and tried to overcome these difficulties gradually by putting more effort into learning and practice. External difficulties experienced by both groups were from external work conditions such as a destructive work environment, a lack of support and a lack of understanding from organizations, the secularization of mindfulness and mindfulness abuse. At most, they subsequently embraced or transformed the difficulties, or left their external work conditions for a new job, without overcoming them. Some of these external difficulties mostly identified by Buddhist-informed participants and rarely among secular-informed participants were considered contradictions between Three-Dimensional Mindfulness and work. Participants, the majority of whom were Buddhist-informed, experienced contradictions at three levels: virtue, concentration and wisdom. They thought it was almost impossible to overcome these contradictions. They

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could, at most, embrace them or transform them through changing their perspectives on them. Some decided to overcome them by changing their jobs instead.

This chapter highlights that participants found it hard to embrace, transform or overcome the obstacles to integrating Three-Dimensional Mindfulness into work. Despite these obstacles, participants continued to practice Three-Dimensional Mindfulness and experienced less stress. I argue that external difficulties in organizations can be overcome if all stakeholders are willing to work together to change them in order to reduce work stress and improve work performance. When external work conditions are more aligned with Buddhist values, practitioners would have more opportunities to practice Three-Dimensional Mindfulness and overcome internal difficulties. However, changing external work conditions may not always lead to the cessation of stress. Only if participants see stress and realize the internal causes of stress instantaneously in direct experience, could they eventually end stress. The obstacles introduced in this chapter are further analyzed and discussed in Chapter 7. These two chapters combined aim to explain what obstacles participants from both groups experienced and how they embraced, transformed or overcame them in integrating Three-Dimensional Mindfulness into work.

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Chapter 7 Discussion: Obstacles to Working Wisely

In the previous chapter, I have outlined obstacles to working wisely. The presence of these obstacles shows a disconnect between Three-Dimensional Mindfulness and work and the direction for cultivating the transfer of learning at the level of subject-object integration to realize interconnectedness or not-self. The obstacles experienced were obstacles that caused stress and obstacles that prevented participants from practicing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness and how participants embraced, transformed or overcame them. The more they could handle these obstacles, the more they could realize work wisdom of work stress reduction and work performance improvement introduced in Chapter 4. Both Buddhist-informed and secular- informed participants experienced both types of difficulties. Participants were aware that the internal difficulties that caused the stress (Pattern 1.2) and internal difficulties that prevented them from practicing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness could be overcome by putting more effort into the practice. As for external difficulties, in some situations, putting more effort into the practice could potentially end stress but participants were more inclined to attribute the causes of stress to external work conditions, making them feel the need to change external work conditions to reduce stress before accepting the stress. Unlike other difficulties that could be overcome by putting more effort into the practice, external difficulties that prevented participants from practicing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness could potentially be overcome by changing external work conditions as suggested by participants.

In this chapter, I discuss participants’ approaches to embracing, transforming and overcoming obstacles to working wisely. I start by addressing obstacles that caused stress, followed by obstacles that prevented participants from practicing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness. These obstacles were sometimes viewed as contradictions by participants, most of whom are Buddhist-informed. I found four patterns in integrating Three-Dimensional Mindfulness into work. I include both groups of participants’ recommendations on how to improve the integration between Three-Dimensional Mindfulness and work before suggesting that external work conditions should be aligned with Three-Dimensional Mindfulness informed by Buddhist values instead of attaching workers to work performance improvement which is influenced by corporate values for organizational effectiveness. In this way, organizations can

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potentially maximize the potential benefits of Three-Dimensional Mindfulness, which are ultimately the cessation of stress while also gaining the benefits of improved work performance.

Obstacles that Caused Stress

As presented in Chapter 5 on how to work wisely, Pattern 1.1 Identifying the causes of stress as internal and not suffering from it, rarely occurred in participants’ experience and only has been mentioned by Buddhist-informed participants. This pattern was achieved when practitioners had no obstacles.

Pattern 1.1: Recognized that Internal Feelings, Mental Formations, Craving and Clinging Cause Stress.

Initial Action: Able to Accept Work Stress in Direct Work Experience, but not Necessarily Accepting External Work Conditions.

This pattern reverses the conditioned causes of stress to end stress. Participants identified the external problem and its external causes and solved the problem if they could. This pattern of understanding shows the rational agency of participants in being mindful of the arising stress and its conditioned causes in direct experience or awareness. This demonstrates the Three- Dimensional Mindfulness way of ending stress which is different from motivated reasoning (Kunda, 1990) and emotion-focused therapy (Greenberg & Safran, 1989) and removes bias and secondary emotion (Greenberg, 2004). Greenberg and Safran explained ‘secondary reactive emotional response’ as:

Secondary reactive emotional responses. These responses are often problematic and are not the organism's direct response to the environment. Rather, they are secondary to some underlying, more primary generating process or are reactions to the thwarting of primary responses. Defensive or reactive responses, such as crying in frustration when angry or expressing anger when afraid, are secondary emotional responses to underlying emotional processes. In addition, emotions such as fear in response to anticipated danger or hopelessness in response to negative expectations are secondary emotional responses to underlying cognitive processes. Secondary reactive responses of these types are not to be focused on or intensified in therapy; rather, they are to be bypassed or explored in

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order to access underlying processes. Secondary emotions are generally readily available to awareness and often are part of the presenting problem.

(Greenberg & Safran, 1989, p. 25)

This pattern also has the purpose of the cessation of stress, which goes beyond the secular outcome of stress reduction.

Unlike Pattern 1.1, in most cases, participants still faced obstacles to working wisely. Pattern 1.2 Identifying the causes of stress as internal but unable to accept the stress in direct experience could be overcome by putting more effort into the practice. However, sometimes, participants chose to leave stressful situations or change their external work conditions by quitting their jobs. Pattern 1.2, as presented in Chapter 6, is summarized and discussed as follows:

Pattern 1.2: Internal Feelings, Mental Formations, Craving and Clinging Caused Work Stress.

Initial Action: Unable to Accept Stress in Direct Work Experience, nor Accepting External Work Conditions.

Pattern 1.2 is close to secondary emotion in Greenberg’s (2004) emotion-focused therapy. For example, Jessica was suffering due to the fear of getting fired. Fear, conditioned by other factors, is a feeling that caused suffering to her. The suffering is the secondary emotional response to her fear. She linked it back to her childhood feeling of ‘I’m not good enough.’ The mindfulness practice helped her to become more aware of her fear and embraced it. Over time the fear decreased. At the same time, she coped with it externally by keeping her connections and other job options as a means of problem-solving, although not specified as such. In this situation, Jessica decided to stay in the job despite the fear. This mindfulness effort increased resilience and retention.

The other way participants from both groups identified the causes of stress was attributing them to external work conditions instead of internal causes above.

Pattern 2: External Work Conditions Caused Stress:

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Initial Action: Not Accepting Work Stress, nor Accepting External Work Conditions.

Seeing external work conditions as the causes of stress in participants’ opinions was the most challenging difficulty for them to overcome because they did not see this pattern of thought as a problem. The challenge that I see is not whether the external work conditions can be changed. Rather, it is whether anyone needs to suffer to bring about change. I argue that stress is unnecessary in the process of change. In fact, Three-Dimensional Mindfulness could be used as a driver for change instead of using stress. However, even long-term practitioners still suffered in this pattern because it is very difficult to be mindful all the time and at the time when it is needed the most. Even when participants were mindful, sometimes, they were overwhelmed by stress.

Through Three-Dimensional Mindfulness learning and practice, Buddhist-informed practitioners were aware that stress is caused by craving together with the other factors in Dependent-Co-arising, as explained in Appendix A1 on the Four Noble Truths. This perspective helped them to reduce work stress. However, when faced with challenging external work conditions, they went back to the ordinary world view that the external work conditions caused the stress (Pattern 2) and depended on secular-informed wisdom to change the external conditions. When they returned to this perspective, they also returned to stress. Social psychologists, cognitive scientists and psychotherapists, using rationality, might see Pattern 1.2 and Pattern 2 as cognitive errors or irrational thinking if people could no longer function properly in the society which is not the case for my participants. As mentioned in the internal difficulties section, Pattern 1.2 is similar to secondary reactive emotional responses. Pattern 2 might be considered ‘motivated reasoning’ which is based on the following notion:

motivation may affect reasoning through reliance on a biased set of cognitive processes— that is, strategies for accessing, constructing, and evaluating beliefs. The motivation to be accurate enhances use of those beliefs and strategies that are considered most appropriate, whereas the motivation to arrive at particular conclusions enhances use of those that are considered most likely to yield the desired conclusion.

(Kunda, 1990, p. 480)

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I do not have the data to explain that there is always a bias in reasoning to arrive at an accurate or an agenda to arrive at a preferred goal in participants’ view of external work conditions as the causes of stress. However, some participants, having learned about the Four Noble Truths (see Appendix A1 on the Four Noble Truths) which attempt to change their perspective on causes of stress from external to internal and agreeing to it conceptually, still arrived at a conclusion or reaction that external work conditions caused stress. This shows motivated reasoning as it shows a lack of critical detachment or cognitive flexibility from their previous conclusion. I cannot say that the Four Noble Truths (see Appendix A1 on the Four Noble Truths) are objective reasoning either. I am not much concerned about motivated reasoning as a fallacy in itself, but if that reasoning is motivated by greed, aversion and delusion, it will result in stress, according to Buddhism.

Buddhism might see taking external work conditions as causes of stress as ignorance, or not seeing that stress has conditioned causes which can be overcome internally, not externally, but the actions taken to overcome stress could also help resolve an external problem. Causes and conditions are interrelated, but Buddhism attributes the causes or the sources of stress to self as taught in Dependent Co-arising (see Appendix A1 on the Four Noble Truths). This understanding breaks the frame of problem-solving into internal causation and external causation or separating the causes of stress from the causes of external problems or work conditions. According to Buddhist teachings, if stress is overcome by changing external work conditions, stress from those conditions may temporarily disappear but reappear in a new condition because it is never addressed at its root causes. If stress is overcome internally at its root causes, which are led by ignorance, the chain of stress can be broken and reversed, ending its cycle. If stress is overcome by changing external work conditions, the practitioner would be stressed until the external work condition is changed or accepted. This corresponds with participants’ experience of stress, as presented in Chapter 6. The division of approaches to overcoming stress and external problems is implemented in psychology. For example, Lazarus and Folkman’s (1984) coping framework consists of ‘problem-focused’ coping, and ‘emotion-focused’ coping.

Participants’ experience of identifying causes of stress as external shows that participants were stressed until they were able to accept the reality of stress and the outcome of external problem-solving. Both Buddhist-informed and secular-informed participants at some point saw

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external work conditions as the causes of stress as presented earlier. Immediately, they tried to change the external work conditions without accepting stress. Their subsequent responses to stressful situations were slightly different. Both Buddhist-informed and secular-informed participants were no longer stressed temporarily when they managed to solve the external problem or change the external work condition through Three-Dimensional Mindfulness and other problem-solving strategies. However, only some of the Buddhist-informed participants were no longer stressed by the situations because they were able to accept the reality of stress through Three-Dimensional Mindfulness. I use two participants from the Buddhist-informed group to illustrate the difference. Farung suffered from her director’s slander. She thought her director was bullying her, which caused her stress. She solved this external problem by doing her best. In this situation, she thought all she could do was speaking up to tell the people involved the truth. As a result, she was no longer stressed after taking that action. In this situation, she was stressed until she could take that action. It was unclear whether her conclusion that work relations caused stress was motivated reasoning. The situational stress disappeared after she was able to accept the final outcome or what might happen to the director. In this situation, she did not mention accepting the stress at any point.

Elsewhere, Farung found acceptance in Buddhism contradictory to change or problem- solving. She said that acceptance could be harmful as she experienced depression at work. The more she had to accept the situation through mindfulness practice, the more she felt she would be depressed. In her experience, trying to end suffering in the mind did not solve the problem at work:

When we get scolded, if we only practice mindfulness and concentration, we can just label it, ‘just a voice, just hearing, just a voice, just hearing,’ which does not really end suffering. In the end, we still have a craving. We would feel, ‘Why? Why do we have to endure it? Why do we have to say, ‘just a voice, just hearing?’ [Laughs] We have to keep saying, ‘just a voice, just hearing,’ our whole life? Don’t you agree? We would be really repressed! … So, I feel we need wisdom.

Farung thought mindfulness and concentration meditation was not enough. Before letting go of an external problem, she had to try her best to change the situation since mindfulness and concentration did not help her to change the situation but to stay the same. She needed a

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scientific method of problem-solving. This is Farung’s thought that meditation is inadequate to the cessation of stress for her long-term and changing the external work conditions would help. She was still on her path of learning and practicing secular-informed wisdom, which was external problem-solving, instead of accepting stress as emphasized in Buddhism. In her example, the problem is that she did not differentiate accepting stress from accepting external work conditions. What caused depression for her is accepting external work conditions, and the meditation she did was to calm her down, but it did not always work. She said she needed wisdom, but her focus was on the wisdom of how to solve the external work problem rather than how to understand stress in the problem.

In another example introduced briefly earlier, Kevin was stressed because co-workers were competing with him to prove their abilities to keep their jobs during a major layoff period. Kevin was tense and angry at his co-workers for that. He said, ‘It’s an environment where people are trying to find their advantage, or they’re trying to find ways to … do better and … to be relevant … in the positions that they are doing.’ Mindfulness helped Kevin to accept the stress and job loss by seeing it as a preparation for bigger losses such as death23 and also to question his efficiency:

… When you’re practicing mindfulness, you realize the suffering that a competitive attitude causes, like you realize, ‘Okay, it makes me feel tense, it makes me feel angry with coworkers, or it makes me feel paranoid, or it makes me feel on-edge,’ like if someone is doing something very fast, I start to think, ‘Oh, … I gotta work faster,’ you know, but … with the mindfulness, I think …, you start to ask the question like you say, ‘I’m having this reaction to, … maybe the coworker is working very fast, but okay, if I really think about this reaction, does this reaction mean that I should work faster?’ So, you have to look at your own condition; you have to look at, ‘Okay, what you’re doing at the moment, does it require speed? … What does the moment require? Does it require fast efficiency? Could I work faster? Could I improve the condition? Or is what they are doing different from what I’m doing?’ So, it’s inquiring … into the reaction that is arising from the situation, and then asking, ‘What can I learn from it? … can I do something about it?’ So, it’s not that … you are just so relaxed that you don’t acknowledge those

23 Example given in Chapter 6, Pattern 1.2

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situations, but you try to use the wisdom to figure out what’s in the correct—what can you really learn from it.

The result of Three-Dimensional Mindfulness of acceptance of stress while also changing the external work condition is exemplified in Kevin’s example. His mindfulness reduced the reactiveness he would otherwise have towards his external work conditions.

The two examples raised the question of whether secular-informed wisdom as in the case of Farung needs to be balanced or compromised by Buddhist-informed wisdom arising from Three-Dimensional Mindfulness as in the case of Kevin. Farung still had the dilemma of whether she should accept or change the external work condition when experiencing work stress without questioning whether she should accept stress or accept that external work condition is stressful. When she did not accept stress, she was able to change her external work conditions. I argue that the two types of wisdom can be cultivated together at the same time. Buddhist-informed wisdom helps practitioners to become free from stress while secular-informed wisdom helps practitioners to be able to progress in work. Although stress motivated participants to make changes to their external work conditions or solve external problems, I argue that it is unnecessary to use stress as a driving force for change. In most cases, Three-Dimensional Mindfulness did not stop practitioners from changing their external work conditions. In other cases, presented earlier, feeling relaxed, accepting reality and being open-minded and non-attached helped participants to change external work conditions. The difference between using stress and using Three- Dimensional Mindfulness as a driver for change is the experience of stress during the process of change.

However, I understand that it is very difficult to be mindful all the time and at the right time. Even long-term practitioners in both groups still widely continued to perceive external work conditions as the causes of stress, which is an ordinary view. In some cases, practitioners accepted stress and attempted at letting go of stress and its causes but could not fulfill it. They turned to changing external work conditions instead. Since external work conditions are the obstacles in succeeding with practicing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness in the workplace, I argue that every stakeholder of an organization should change external work conditions to align with Three-Dimensional Mindfulness for it to be more effective in reducing work stress and improving work performance.

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Obstacles that Prevented Participants from Practicing Three- Dimensional Mindfulness

As mentioned in Chapter 6, internal difficulties which are due to a lack of effort, understanding and faith experienced by Buddhist-informed participants can be overcome by putting more effort into the Three-Dimensional Mindfulness practice. This effort could potentially lead to the cessation of stress. The more challenging are external difficulties.

External work conditions as obstacles. Participants suggested that external work conditions, which are the context of their stress, can be overcome externally by increasing support, understanding and alignment with Three-Dimensional Mindfulness. I think every member of an organization should take these responsibilities. I would like to discuss one of the difficulties participants, Buddhist-informed participants, in particular, mentioned. That is the secularization of mindfulness. A secularization is an approach which helps a number of practitioners to integrate mindfulness into secular settings such as work; however, some participants saw it as an obstacle because it could misdirect people. At the broader societal level, one difficulty with secular-informed mindfulness is its alignment with Western beliefs and wants, including corporate values. However, Buddhist-informed and secular-informed Canadian participants interpreted and adopted mindfulness differently from the mainstream. Secularization is unnecessary to some participants who are non-Buddhist but crucial to others who wanted to integrate mindfulness into work. Some Buddhist-informed Canadians did not need secular- informed mindfulness and practiced Buddhism despite having another faith. For example, Adela, a Buddhist-informed participant, is a Catholic but also practiced Buddhism. Other participants who are secular-informed needed secular mindfulness but were still able to integrate mindfulness into their other faiths. For example, Alice was a Catholic and adopted secular-informed mindfulness to alleviate chronic pain. She knew that mindfulness came from Buddhism but realized that it could be blended into her contemplative prayer. She described, ‘I pray the rosary, too, which is the contemplative prayer, you repeat the same words, sort of like a Mantra but you’re actually … looking at … Christ’s life through these prayers … which is … like, to me it was a form of meditation.’ At the level of wisdom, she conceptually understood the Three Marks

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of Existence (see Appendix A2 on Three Marks of Existence) and was able to explain it from a Christian point of view:

Christ suffered for us, and everybody on earth at some point does have to suffer, … it’s not … because God imposes suffering; it’s just our human condition that makes us suffer, right? … So, it’s more having an acceptance towards the suffering that does come, and … knowing that it’s not permanent, … it comes and goes.

Everything is transient because I know that sometimes just by changing the vision to … the experience of pain will decrease, … [Laughs] and … not anticipating negative as much. It does … give you better acceptance, and … more joy in life …

About interconnectedness, … we’re kind of all breathing the same air and all [laughs] rooted in the same earth, same sky.… It is in the way I see the world … because we’re sort of all in—as a Christian, too, because my belief is that we all share the body of Christ, so that we’re all kinda the same body, too, so it is the same kind of idea.

Based on this understanding, Alice thought contemplative prayer had a similar effect as mindfulness because it could be considered a type of meditation. However, she viewed it as a private practice for Catholics, a belief not shared by everyone. Even with Christian or Catholic patients, she would prefer to introduce them to secular-informed mindfulness. In her case, it seems she needed that secular status of mindfulness to teach mindfulness at work. Other secular- informed participants also had their own take on Three-Dimensional Mindfulness. Suzanna had another faith while practicing mindfulness to improve her leadership skills. Jessica practiced secular-informed mindfulness to manage stress and pain but started to incorporate Zen into her teaching later on. Jane started with practicing, then teaching, for stress and pain management. Sinai had a Jewish education and psychiatry as a profession but chose to integrate secular- informed mindfulness into his work to realize human potentials. It seems practitioners who have other faiths are more attracted to secular-informed mindfulness than Buddhist-informed mindfulness.

Participants’ approach and interpretation have to do with their orientation to spiritual and religious practices and how open they are to another religion. Secular-informed participants were somewhat spiritual on their path and were quite accepting of Buddhism compared to what

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Buddhist participants thought of them. The secularization of Buddhism is still new and evolving and requires further improvement for the benefit of work stress reduction and work performance improvement, among others. It is unclear if it is necessary that Buddhism has to be secularized, but the secular version is the one that is being popularized in Canada. My idea of Three- Dimensional Mindfulness can be both Buddhist and secular, depending on the practice and the interpretation of the practitioner. I argue that the Three-Dimensional Mindfulness framework could be the solution to this tension. That is, Buddhists can maintain their religion in their practice while non-Buddhists can choose their approaches to Three-Dimensional Mindfulness as long as they are aligned with Buddhist values for the cessation of stress. Their approaches could be purely secular or influenced by their own faiths.

Integrating Three-Dimensional Mindfulness into Work

Participants were able to embrace, transform or overcome some of the obstacles presented in Chapter 6 in integrating Three-Dimensional Mindfulness into work. There are four patterns to their approaches: 1) prioritizing work over Three-Dimensional Mindfulness, 2) prioritizing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness over work, 3) not prioritizing either and 4) combining the two. The categorization is based on the overall sense of the interview, not any one particular situation because participants might choose Three-Dimensional Mindfulness in one situation and work in another. Buddhist-informed participants except for Lex fall under the first three patterns, and all secular-informed participants and Lex fall under the last.

Pattern A: Prioritizing work over Three-Dimensional Mindfulness. This happened to both Buddhist-informed and secular-informed participants, but secular-informed participants eventually moved to Pattern D. Those choosing work tried their best to work and dropped Buddhism or Three-Dimensional Mindfulness when contradictory or tried to solve the problem of contradiction secularly or aligned their practice to their work. For example, Farung gravitated towards changing external work conditions first. Saranyu created a support structure to promote mindfulness training to improve his company’s work culture for work performance. Some of these examples show that Buddhist values are compromised, while corporate values are upheld by Buddhist-informed participants.

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Benchamat is a good example of those who adjusted their practice to align with work. She overcame the contradictions by making merits. She had some concerns over doing business—making a profit from beauty products. Therefore, she changed her perspective from negative to positive by giving three percent of her net profit to a women’s charity:

My business model is that all my customers will have a role in helping women who are less fortunate than us. I will deduct 3.08 percent and give it to a women’s foundation. Actually, it’s making us feel, ‘Oh, … we don’t just want people to be beautiful but make them feel confident, and they can send that luck to other people.’ I will try to say, ‘Being beautiful is not enough; we need this too.’

In the same process, Benchamat transformed her understanding that beauty products could promote a delusion in customers’ minds, which is contradictory to Buddhist insight by changing her own mindset about work. She said, ‘I had to change my mindset to ‘’Hey, actually I’m making people feel confident, not making people beautiful.’ Yet, she said that she had to believe in her intention; otherwise, she would be lying to both herself and the customers.

In pursuing her work goal, Benchamat overcame the contradiction by changing her external work conditions. She hired someone else to do the work with which she felt uncomfortable. She did not feel that she was and could be good at making sales because it involved making people feel uncomfortable or pushing them to buy. She hired sales agents to help her to sell the products. She tried to make the best products to make her feel confident in sales that the products were of good quality. Although Benchamat seemed to have a good intention for her customers, it is unclear to me if Benchamat actually promoted confidence and not beauty in sales and marketing and if confidence is not delusional. Regardless, Benchamat’s approach made her resilient and progress in the same job.

Pattern B: Prioritizing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness over work. Buddhist-informed participants who chose Three-Dimensional Mindfulness over work just practiced it as much as possible in and outside of work and prioritized their practice goals over organizational goals. In other words, work became a mindfulness practice for them. For example, Kevin and Beatrice tried to harmonize their ideas with colleagues when disagreements arose by lessening their ego in their opinion or trying not to see their opinion as separate and

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more accurate and important than others’ opinions. Chance avoided jobs that prevented him from practicing non-craving. Avoiding means not taking the jobs as well as quitting the jobs they found preventing them from practicing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness. However, they could not always avoid contradictions in every aspect of work. In another example, Chance chose to slow down work and take meditation breaks in addition to practicing mindfulness meditation while working and became more patient over time. This way, impatience in work efficiency was overcome by practicing patience.

Among secular-informed participants, Jessica and Suzanna, even before teaching mindfulness, which is considered Pattern D, started practicing compassion when they thought it was generally contradictory to competitiveness. They were able to incorporate compassion into their work. Buddhist-informed participants remained within this pattern while secular-informed participants moved from a combination of Pattern A and B to Pattern D over time.

Pattern C: Prioritizing neither work nor Three-Dimensional Mindfulness. Buddhist-informed participants either compromised on mindfulness and work by balancing the two, or they were unaware of the contradiction. Naphisa avoided jobs that were against the Buddhist Five Precepts and Right Livelihood. However, in some contexts, Naphisa still chose work over Three-Dimensional Mindfulness by withholding the truth from customers when she worked in marketing and sales. In another context, Naphisa did not have a direct role in pricing the tours and taking the commission, but when she was involved in it, she would set a reasonable margin and moderate pricing so that it did not affect the clients and the company negatively. Again, Buddhist-informed participants were working within this pattern while secular-informed participants and Lex moved to Pattern D.

Pattern D: Combining Three-Dimensional Mindfulness with work. Participants made mindfulness their job in the capacity as a teacher or as a training organizer or a facilitator. All secular-informed participants took this role as their main job or as a part of their current job. Among Buddhist-informed practitioners, Lex organized secular-informed mindfulness training full-time. Because David and Chance only taught secular-informed mindfulness as a part of their job casually, they were more aligned with Pattern B. It was more difficult for Buddhist-informed participants to be in this pattern because Buddhism is usually

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taught for charity or by donation, unlike secular-informed mindfulness. Another reason for their reluctance to teach or lead was because they did not want to impose Buddhism on other people. Their orientation to Three-Dimensional Mindfulness was not meant for work but spirituality and religion.

These four patterns of embracing, transforming and overcoming difficulties between Three-Dimensional Mindfulness and work show how difficult the integration was for participants. However, it is interesting to note that these difficulties did not necessarily cause them stress. While it was evident that they suffered from work and saw work as an obstacle to their practice, they did not always see these difficulties as the causes of stress. For example, Naphisa was not bothered by withholding truths from customers occasionally as though this work practice were the norm. Each participant’s job situation changed from one to another, so did their approach. They can move from one pattern to another over time. These patterns of handling obstacles are summarized in Table 6: Patterns of Embracing, Transforming and Overcoming Obstacles in Integrating Three-Dimensional Mindfulness into Work below:

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Table 6.

Patterns of Embracing, Transforming and Overcoming Obstacles in Integrating Three-Dimensional Mindfulness into Work

B. Prioritizing D. Combining A. Prioritizing Three-Dimensional C. Not mindfulness PATTERNS work Mindfulness prioritizing either with work Researcher’s Interpretation

GROUP Buddhist-informed Buddhist-informed Buddhist-informed Secular-informed There is a conflict between Three- + 1 Buddhist- Dimensional Mindfulness and work, informed regardless of whether it is Buddhist or secular-informed. The two can be combined to overcome the conflict, but it is still limited to teaching secular-informed mindfulness.

PARTICIPANTS Benchamat Jerzy Panatda Jessica Practitioners can move from one pattern to Yotsaphon Kevin Naphisa Suzanna another over time. Pattern C is the initial Saranyu Chance Adela Jane stage. Farung Beatrice Sinai David Alice Gena Lex (Buddhist- Yue informed) Woraphat

APPROACHES

Embracing ☒ ☒ ☒ ☒ Participants initially embraced some Obstacles obstacles when they were unable to transform or overcome them.

Transforming ☒ ☒ ☐ ☒ Participants subsequently transformed their Obstacles perspective or their knowledge and cognition on stress or external work conditions. Pattern C only embraced the obstacles without transforming them.

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B. Prioritizing D. Combining A. Prioritizing Three-Dimensional C. Not mindfulness PATTERNS work Mindfulness prioritizing either with work Researcher’s Interpretation

Overcoming ☒ ☒ ☐ ☒ Pattern A gradually changed their external Obstacles work conditions until they overcame obstacles. Pattern B tried to accept stress in external work conditions and reduce the causes of stress, which were their craving. When they could not continue practicing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness with these obstacles, some changed their jobs as a way to overcome the obstacles. Pattern C did not really try to overcome unsupportive external work conditions. Pattern D saw changing their job to teaching mindfulness as an opportunity, not necessarily as a result of a conflict in the integration.

ORGANIZATIONAL OUTCOMES

Increased ☒ ☒ ☒ ☒ resilience

Increased ☒ ☒ ☒ ☒ When participants were resilient, they were retention able to maintain their job.

Increased ☐ ☒ ☐ ☒ resistance

Increased ☐ ☒ ☐ ☒ When some participants became more turnover resistant to their work because it stops them from practising Three-Dimensional Mindfulness, they switched to another job.

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B. Prioritizing D. Combining A. Prioritizing Three-Dimensional C. Not mindfulness PATTERNS work Mindfulness prioritizing either with work Researcher’s Interpretation

Reduced work ☒ ☒ ☒ ☒ Every pattern reduces work stress, but stress Pattern B seems to have the potential to end stress because it reverses the cycle of the causes of stress such as craving while the other patterns just reduce stress. Pattern A is limited by the tendency to address external work conditions before stress. Pattern C only addresses the causes of stress in some situations. Pattern D has little mention of the causes of stress.

Improved work ☒ ☒ ☒ ☒ Every pattern reduces stress. As a result, performance practitioners’ work performance was improved.

SUMMARY This pattern This pattern could end This pattern is a This pattern is an The magnitude of Three-Dimensional improved work stress. middle way when alternative pattern Mindfulness integrated into work depends performance. participants were for an emerging on practitioners’ or organization’s priority. aware of the mindfulness difficulties and career. balanced between Three-Dimensional Mindfulness and Work. However, when they were unaware of difficulties; it is a pattern of ignorance.

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These four patterns of handling obstacles could be explained with the cognitive dissonance theory or the explanation of inconsistency within the cognitive consistency theory or the explanation of consonance (Festinger, 1968). Festinger (1968) said that cognitive dissonance and consonance consist of pairs of elements of cognition or knowledges that deviate from or correspond to reality (pp. 9-11). He said, ‘Two elements are dissonant if, …, they do not fit together. They may be inconsistent or contradictory, culture or group standards may dictate that they do not fit’ (pp. 12-13). He further defined dissonance by explaining, ‘These two elements are in a dissonant relation if, considering these two alone, the obverse of one element would follow from the other,’ or ‘x and y are dissonant if not-x follows from y’ (p. 13). There are multiple factors and sources of dissonance such as ‘motivation,’ ‘logical inconsistency,’ ‘cultural mores,’ ‘one specific opinion’ included in a ‘general opinion’ and ‘past experience’ (p. 14). When experiencing dissonance, workers may try to reduce or avoid dissonance. Festinger (1968) explained three directions of reducing dissonance: 1) ‘changing the behavioral cognitive element in such a way that it is consonant with the environmental element’—'change the action or feeling which the behavioral element represents’ (p. 19); 2) changing ‘an environmental cognitive element by changing the situation to which that element corresponds’ (pp. 19-20) and 3) ‘adding new cognitive elements’ (p. 21).

Participants changed their actions when coming across difficulties with their cognition or knowledge of Three-Dimensional Mindfulness. Through the practice, Naphisa used Three- Dimensional Mindfulness when she was irritated by a colleague. She stopped expressing irritation in the workplace because she realized and was aware of its negative effects on co- workers or that irritation is an unwholesome action. The social support participants had in changing their cognition or knowledge about the contradictions at work were not available in the workplace. They were not able to change their external work conditions or environment to overcome the obstacles. As a result, several of them quit or would quit their job in choosing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness over work instead of trying to change external work conditions in the organization or change their perspectives. Some participants were able to replace their contradictory cognition or knowledge with new ones. Benchamat knew that selling beauty products to people might increase their delusions about self. She changed her knowledge or cognition about the purpose of the beauty products from making women look better physically to making them feel more confident. She also donated three percent of her profit to women’s

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charity with the knowledge or cognition that being beautiful was not just on the outside but also the inside. Changing her mindset in this way shows that she chose work over Three-Dimensional Mindfulness, but her dissonance was reduced. Her case might be considered motivated reasoning to arrive at this new conclusion. Other participants who tried to do their best in Three- Dimensional Mindfulness and work did not prioritize either of them and might find other means to reduce dissonance. Participants who did not experience any contradictions might have overcome them or might just be ignorant or not seeing any. Those combining Three-Dimensional Mindfulness with work, such as Lex who started the secular-informed mindfulness training business, did not see any difficulty as a contradiction. By changing his job to mindfulness training management, Lex changed both his cognition or knowledge and work environment to correspond with each other. In fact, it was best to overcome dissonance by changing the behavioural cognition and action, by adding in a new cognition and by changing the environment at the same time. If the worker only tries to change external work conditions, he/she would have to suffer until that environment is changed or accepted. As change was difficult and sometimes stressful in participants’ experience, Three-Dimensional Mindfulness was used as a means. Few existing studies have adopted mindfulness in cognitive dissonance research. For example, ‘mindfulness of past failures’ was used to realize the hypocrisy or cognitive dissonance with the target pro-social behaviours people teach but fail to live up to in order to change their behaviour accordingly (Stone & Fernandez, 2008, p. 1027). Mindfulness meditation was studied to increase cognitive flexibility, which decreases cognitive dissonance (Fröding & Osika, 2015).

The four patterns of handling obstacles had consequences that affected organizations positively and negatively. They reveal the tension between Three-Dimensional Mindfulness and work, which is fundamentally the tension between Buddhist values for the cessation of stress and corporate values for work performance improvement. Prioritizing work and not prioritizing or balancing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness and work led to job retention among Buddhist- informed participants. Participants who decided to take those paths seemed to be resilient and made progress in their work. From the employer’s perspective, Patterns A and C benefit both the practitioners and their organizations. Prioritizing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness and combining Three-Dimensional Mindfulness and work led to mixed outcomes of job retention and, at the same time, turnover depending on how participants handled the external work conditions. Participants who could not embrace, transform or overcome difficulties resorted to quitting their

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jobs. Even participants who combined Three-Dimensional Mindfulness with work by starting a new job as a mindfulness teacher or doing it on the side shifted their attention away from their previous job to the new teaching job. Thus, this pattern may be beneficial at an individual level but not at an organizational level. Seeing the prioritization patterns from a Buddhist perspective, Pattern B is most successful. Work became a part of participants’ Buddhist practice. However, in cases where they could not practice Three-Dimensional Mindfulness on their work, they resisted their work practices and eventually quit their job. This had a negative effect on their organizations. Pattern D can also be considered effective from the Buddhist perspective if the mindfulness lessons teach the Buddhist values. Those who had the opportunity to integrate Three-Dimensional Mindfulness into their current job as a part of work functions benefited the most personally while also benefiting their organization. This integration was made possible through the secular-informed mindfulness approach. However, this was not really a pattern experienced by the participants. It is left to the participants and the organizations for which they work whether the content of mindfulness training is Three-Dimensional Mindfulness or not.

In previous chapters, I have concluded that Three-Dimensional Mindfulness can potentially set workers free from unnecessary stress and enable them to improve work performance to fulfill their economic needs. However, participants have yet to fully overcome obstacles in integrating Three-Dimensional Mindfulness into work due to a lack of effort, reasoning, resistance to stress, challenging external work conditions which were sometimes contradictory to Three-Dimensional Mindfulness. I propose that emancipation requires both a change in wisdom through Three-Dimensional Mindfulness or putting more effort into the practice and change in external work conditions for organizations to succeed. I argue that stakeholders should help one another change external work conditions to align with Buddhist values for the cessation of stress to facilitate the integration. Even though these changes may not always lead to the cessation of stress, they could still lessen the challenges practitioners have to face on their path.

Recommendations

Participants’ recommendations. Buddhist-informed and secular-informed participants made some suggestions on how Three-Dimensional Mindfulness could be integrated

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into the workplace. They took into consideration all the obstacles that they experienced. Participants thought if they had more support from the employer, they and their co-workers could become more mindful. Some of their ideas already existed in other workplaces without their awareness. In this process, Buddhist-informed participants insisted on considering individuality and orientation to mindfulness.

Some of the support participants mentioned were mindfulness programs, mindfulness retreat, infrastructure, facilities, mindfulness breaks, community support, role model and mindfulness policy. Participants thought mindfulness programs could be improved. For example, Kevin found secular-informed mindfulness-based stress reduction programs to be ineffective because it focused more on cognition and convincing people to do things. Instead, he suggested training of universal wisdom such as impermanence for workers to cope with job loss. He critiqued how ineffective the counselling and the stress reduction programs were to helping workers who were losing their jobs:

… Impermanence … is a teaching that can help people flow better together, I think, in the company, because it really teaches people not to attach to any particular moment or situation that … feels like heightened emotion, that feels strong … but I think that up to this point, what the stress-reduction programs are talking about is, well, you have a loss, you just build up a new self, that you … build up a new career, … or figure out, … that was what they were telling us when they had a layoff two years ago, it’s like, prepare to build your career again, or to rebuild, and I think that it’s more useful for people to spend time to recognize that impermanence is always present, that there’s always change happening even when we don’t realize it, and, so we always need to be prepared, in a way, and that takes wisdom, it’s not just about career skills or building a resume rebuilding, like, it’s a different kind of skill.

Another support that participants were asking for were policies on activities for individuals instead of a training program. The activity most participants wished for was a meditation retreat. For example, Panatda mentioned that meditation retreats were informally organized in her department by workers to go in their free time. She wished the employer organized it for everyone, but it should be voluntary and should accommodate the schedule of interested people for it to be effective. In fact, Naphisa’s workplace organized it before just for a

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day, but only around 10 people or 10 percent of the workers joined.

Taking into consideration that not everyone may want to practice mindfulness, both Farung and Yotsaphon wanted the workplace to create mindfulness facilities and health facilities for individual practice. Farung wished her workplace had a meditation room and recreational space for exercise and spa for relaxation because the environmental support helps the practice. In his work experience, Yotsaphon described the nature close to his previous work in Japan where he took refuge in when he was bored with work, saying he wished he could have it at his current workplace:

There was a garden. I love gardens. In the garden, there was an ancient house, a Japanese house, which was like a museum, where nobody entered except for old people. I was the youngest every time. I entered, sat down, and watched the garden alone for half an hour. Yeah, I loved it … a lot!

In this example, Yotsaphon wanted the workplace to create a secluded space outside of the office building as a mindfulness zone which he imagined, ‘If you take shelter in Zone D, there will be no one, just a house at the end of the path in about 1.5 Km.’ Yotsaphon believed that both work policy and environment would be enough to sustain the practice. This policy includes mindfulness retreat leaves as part of work benefits and daily mindfulness breaks. He said it would be possible if the workplace improved time management and included time for mindfulness practice. He commented that Japanese workers’ productivity was not very high even though they worked long hours. One of the reasons was because they spent a lot of time smoking. He thought, if the workplace could afford the time for smoking, they could manage the time for mindfulness breaks. In fact, during her internship, Farung’s workplace had an exercise break every two hours where all computers would play an exercise video clip, and everyone had to stand up to exercise. They also had a gym in the office. Jessica suggested that we could propose it to HR in October, which is a healthy workplace month.

Contrary to the participants’ individual orientation mentioned above, Sinai’s recommendation was a community of practice and support. Otherwise, he thought the process would be lonely and scary. Lex wished his co-workers were deep practitioners of mindfulness. Chance’s primary concern for support was the lack of a role model. His own role models are the

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monks at the monastery in Perth, Ontario. He believed seeing how the monks live is a good example of mindfulness embodiment, but people in Toronto did not have that opportunity:

They … don’t have access to watching a living being … embody what’s possible … or show Eightfold Path and what Right Action might look like in a difficult situation. What does Right Speech look like? Being at a monastery makes it so much easier to ground these ideas into what it actually looks like in a stressful situation.… most of the groups have some kind of a meditation teacher, so they are saying something about role model. I think that’s really important.… I think the problem with the West is it’s too book- focused. I’ve heard the saying that a second-grade meditation teacher is better than a first-grade book and I believe that.

Participants’ recommendations for integrating Three-Dimensional Mindfulness into work apply to everyone at work. It seems Buddhist-informed Thais’ approaches are more independent than those of Buddhist-informed and secular-informed Canadians which lean towards a community of practice. This difference might be because Buddhist-informed Thai participants already had a lot of social support outside of work. Another difference is that both Buddhist- informed Thais and Canadians tried to avoid imposing Buddhism on other people while secular- informed participants did not have this concern. If participants’ recommendations are adopted, I expect that they will ease the integration of Three-Dimensional Mindfulness into the workplace with a focus on concentration. However, these recommendations may not resolve all the obstacles that participants experienced. Regardless of whether any recommendation is fulfilled, participants continued practicing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness and faced obstacles along the way.

I do not intend to generalize recommendations for mindfulness training and practice; however, I make arguments that are useful for understanding, explaining and changing mindfulness training and practice that can be customized for organizations. While I agree with participants’ recommendations, I further address the obstacles to integrating Three-Dimensional Mindfulness into work as discussed previously. These obstacles are internal mental formations/feelings/craving/clinging and external work conditions. By providing what participants recommended to help practitioners to be able to practice more, practitioners can potentially and more effectively embrace, transform and overcome obstacles in integrating

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Three-Dimensional Mindfulness into work. However, external work conditions will continue to co-exist, and practitioners will continue to hold the ordinary view that external work conditions cause stress. Thus, providing what participants suggest may be inadequate for the problem of work stress. I propose that organizational stakeholders also change external work conditions which are influenced by corporate values of efficiency, productivity and competitiveness, which are driven by individualism and self-interest, and attachment to work goals. Organizational members could align corporate values with Three-Dimensional Mindfulness or Buddhist values which emphasize Buddhist virtues of harmlessness, concentration or meditation and wisdom of loving-kindness, compassion and renunciation of desires.

To align organizations with Buddhist values is to prioritize the cessation of stress over work performance improvement in their organizational culture and design: structures, systems, policies, goals and physical environment. For example, the organizational culture of collective compassion and cooperation and organizational justice could be promoted, and the organizational culture of individualistic competition and attachment to goals could be minimalized. This does not mean there are no competition and no goals. The culture should be employee-centred. Organizations can align their policies and procedures at the level of organizational virtue, values, wisdom, benefits and physical work environment to correspond to Three-Dimensional Mindfulness of workers. Some common practices of virtue and wisdom among participants were compassion, kindness, empathy, integrity and Right Speech. A disciplinary policy to prevent workplace harassment, bullying and abuse could be implemented. These might seem reminiscent of standard workplace ethical conduct in a workplace policy handbook. The difference is the implementation of it by establishing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness programs would bring these policies to life. Employee benefits that are supportive of the practice are mindfulness breaks and mindfulness leaves. A physical environment that is supportive of the practice is the environment that offers an option to work quietly and offers facilities for Three-Dimensional Mindfulness such as a quiet space. Having said that, Three- Dimensional Mindfulness is not for every organization but ones that prioritize work stress reduction over work performance.

This thesis ends with a list of these external work conditions that are considered obstacles to the practice as presented in Chapter 6 but how they should be changed to align with Buddhist

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values is a question for future research.

Conclusion

The approach to working wisely is this thesis is based on Buddhist values. Chapter 1 provides the rationale and research questions for the study that are original when compared against extant literature in Chapter 2. These research questions can be answered using qualitative interview and analysis, as explained in Chapter 3. Findings in Chapter 4 show the outcomes and the goals of participants’ wise practices. Both Buddhist-informed and secular-informed participants acted wisely in some work situations when they were free from stress and free to perform well at work. These results were attributed to the Three-Dimensional Mindfulness practice in both groups of participants, as presented in Chapter 5. Since secular-informed mindfulness participants received positive outcomes from practicing three dimensions, practitioners, trainers and researchers may consider incorporating all three dimensions into their mindfulness application. However, despite being long-term practitioners, participants also experienced negative outcomes due to obstacles to integrating Three-Dimensional Mindfulness into work, as presented in Chapter 6. There remain situations in which participants from both groups could not fully embrace, transform or overcome these obstacles. Key obstacles were the inability to accept stress in direct experience and see internal causes of stress, particularly craving or desires, and the inability to change external work conditions to support their practice. While participants could put more effort into the practice to embrace, transform and overcome the obstacles, the conflicts persisted. In Chapter 7, four patterns of how participants handled these obstacles are discussed. That is, A) prioritizing either Buddhist values for the cessation of stress or B) corporate values for work performance improvement, C) not prioritizing either of them, and D) combining them. It seems prioritizing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness and changing jobs to teaching secular-informed mindfulness sometimes resulted in negative organizational outcomes of resistance and turnover. To address this problem, I propose that organizational stakeholders align external work conditions with Three-Dimensional Mindfulness or prioritizing Buddhist values of the cessation of stress over the corporate values of merely stress reduction for improving work performance. The research questions, answers and arguments are summarized in Appendix B on Thesis Overview.

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In closing, I highlight insights into obstacles to working wisely and approaches taken to handle them. Even though, for the most part, participants achieved stress reduction either initially or subsequently, stress still existed as discussed in the previous chapter and this chapter. There were multiple instances when participants were stressed by obstacles. These experiences are helpful for understanding the conflict between wisdom to be free from stress and wisdom to be free to fulfil economic needs. Work stress experienced through Three-Dimensional Mindfulness helped participants to recognize external problems in external work conditions. Participants either accepted the external work conditions or tried to change them. Their acceptance and external problem-solving show the wisdom that afforded them the freedom to perform well at work. The two sides of freedom are two sides of the same coin. There is no denying that stress continues to persist in the workplace. On the one hand, what Three-Dimensional Mindfulness is trying to get at is replacing ignorance, which causes stress, with the wisdom, which ends stress. On the other hand, Three-Dimensional Mindfulness enabled participants to see external problems with external work conditions. In their experience, these external problems were caused and conditioned by, for example, poor leadership of the supervisor, harmful behaviours of the colleagues, and organizational injustice. These problems required the other side of wisdom to change them. This wisdom involves problem-solving, organizational change or social change. Most participants solved the problem at a micro level using problem-solving strategies such as paying attention to finishing their work tasks and quitting or changing their jobs. Only a few of them tried to make an organizational change or structural social change. For example, Lex had experience working on social movements, but he switched to focus more on Buddhist-informed wisdom as a collective group by running secular-informed mindfulness training programs.

Obstacles to working wisely are specific to participants’ circumstances, but practitioners can still learn from one another. I stated that some internal difficulties, as experienced by both groups—not being able to embrace the internal mental formations, feelings, craving and clinging that cause stress—are similar to secondary reactive emotional responses. Regarding external difficulties, I observed that participants from both groups held an ordinary view of identifying the causes of stress to be external work conditions instead of internal mental formations, feelings, craving and clinging. This identification of external work conditions as the causes of stress can sometimes be viewed as motivated reasoning. In overcoming difficulties in integrating Three- Dimensional Mindfulness into work, instead of focusing on changing external work conditions,

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Buddhism focuses on reverses the cycle of the internal causes of stress led by ignorance. This is the way to end stress.

The other type of external difficulties are contradictions between Three-Dimensional Mindfulness and work. These contradictions are underpinned by the contradictions between Buddhist values and corporate values. Most of the contradictions were experienced by Buddhist- informed participants. Data reveal four patterns of prioritization in their approach to embracing, transforming and overcoming the overall obstacles. Buddhist-informed participants fall within the first three patterns, and secular-informed participants and Lex adopted the last pattern. In Pattern A, some participants gravitated towards prioritizing their work and found a way to reduce their dissonance when work and Three-Dimensional Mindfulness were contradictory. This group of participants was resilient and could succeed in doing their jobs, which benefited their organizations. The results were similar to the third group who tried to balance the two practices—Three-Dimensional Mindfulness and work—and who never experienced the contradictions. The second group of participants prioritized Three-Dimensional Mindfulness. They had mixed results in organizational outcomes of resilience if they were able to embrace or transform the difficulties or integrate the practice into their work, and turnover if they could not handle the difficulties. This was also the result of the fourth group who changed their jobs to mindfulness teaching or training, although it was not always because the fourth group prioritized Three-Dimensional Mindfulness. The thesis did not investigate the content of secular-informed mindfulness that the fourth group taught. It might not necessarily be Three-Dimensional Mindfulness. Some of those in the fourth group did not experience any contradictions but other difficulties in practicing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness. It should be noted that some of those in the fourth group did not change their jobs but made secular-informed mindfulness the content of their jobs. These are the ones that became more resilient and did not lead to negative outcomes for organizations.

Overall, participants from both groups wanted to be able to combine Three-Dimensional Mindfulness with work. The practice made their jobs more meaningful to them and made them happier with the jobs. They recommended changes in external work conditions—facilities and policies to increase the practice—to set aside time and space for the practice at work. Some of their recommendations are for them to practice it alone; others are for collective practice. This

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shows that people have a different orientation to practicing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness. In addition to participants’ recommendations, I suggest that organizational stakeholders align external work conditions with Three-Dimensional Mindfulness. That is prioritizing Buddhist values for the cessation of stress over corporate values for work performance improvement. This strategy will change organizational culture and design to enable participants to be free from stress and free to perform their work. I did mention in Pattern B that prioritizing Three- Dimensional Mindfulness could lead to negative organizational outcomes such as resistance and turnover. These outcomes occurred when participants were not able to integrate Three- Dimensional Mindfulness into their work. If their obstacles are removed, they could become more resilient and maintain their job, which is shown in Pattern 1.1 of accepting stress.

I conclude that participants’ wise practices were being mindful of the stress when they worked and not becoming overwhelmed by work stress. The wisdom that arose from Three- Dimensional Mindfulness was a change in perspective or insight into stress. They accepted the stress, and they were compassionate towards the people they interacted with. They also made changes to their external work conditions or solved external work problems because they saw the need for change and were calm in making changes, not because they were stressed. Three- Dimensional Mindfulness, not stress, drove constructive change in their work situations, as explained in Chapter 5. This was how they worked wisely. This wisdom set them free from stress and afforded them the freedom to fulfill economic needs as elucidated in the wisdom outcomes in Chapter 4. However, it is still unclear whether solving external work problems or changing external work conditions was the wisdom that arose from Three-Dimensional Mindfulness. In other words, it is unclear if Three-Dimensional Mindfulness helped them gain insight into the problem or gained insight into social or organizational justice. Regardless of the type of insight they gained, if the obstacles to working wisely could be further embraced, transformed or overcome, more work wisdom could be realized to achieve both stress reduction towards the cessation of stress and improved work performance.

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Research Limitations

Limitations to these research findings are research methodology, the research method, data collection and theorization. The thesis shares the general limitations of qualitative research. The findings are not generalizable to a larger population but are still transferable to other contexts if used with caution. Since participants have the right to their level and length of participation, 3 out of 21 participants did not complete a follow-up interview. Although the analysis of the data started from data collection, several revisions have been made to the research questions afterwards, but further clarifications of the data or further explanations could not be obtained from participants. Participant recruitment criteria were not targeting a specific social group who might experience more and different forms of stress as a group. The recruitment criteria did not target a specific work industry that might generate different forms of stress that are industry-specific. The interview questions did not explore social and organizational structure in-depth. Therefore, the applicability of critical phenomenology of Sara Ahmed to this thesis as introduced in Chapter 3 is only to justify the use of qualitative interview as a method of data collection and to acknowledge external work conditions as the condition of stress. It was not exactly used to analyze data from the perspective and approach of Sara Ahmed, for example, how she explains emotions. Instead, the Buddhist Four Noble Truths (see Appendix A1 on the Four Noble Truths) were used as a framework for analyzing stress. As these points are not the focus in this thesis, the data collected were sufficient to answer my research questions. However, it would be interesting to explore these points in future research. Finally, there are insufficient data for theory building. The data were not intended to theorize the mindfulness construct or the mechanism of Three-Dimensional Mindfulness. In other words, the thesis provides a list of practices and a list of their outcomes, but the explanation on how the practices lead to the outcomes was insufficiently obtained and presented. Further studies on the Three-Dimensional Mindfulness construct would be valuable.

Implications for Research

This thesis is an interdisciplinary project. It contributes theoretically to the fields of adult education, human resources management and Buddhist studies or religious studies. Research on

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mindfulness and work in any of these fields is rare (Dane, 2011; Glomb et al., 2011; Hede, 2010; Reb et al., 2014). The following are some contributions unique to this project.

First, the research questions add a second layer to the understanding of mindfulness integration into work. The first question on ‘How do Buddhist-informed mindfulness practitioners, and secular-informed mindfulness practitioners reduce work stress and improve work performance through mindfulness practice in work-life?’ is an original question. This question supports the mindfulness research trend in seeking how to improve well-being and performance in the workplace. Work stress and well-being are topics in health and wellness in human resources management. Work performance management is another issue in the same field. Buddhist mindfulness is a teaching in Buddhist Studies that has recently become a topic in other fields, including education. The second question on ‘What obstacles do Buddhist-informed and secular-informed mindfulness practitioners experience in integrating mindfulness into work for work stress reduction and improved work performance?’ is not only a unique question, but it questions the first question or the mindfulness research agenda of well-being and performance. It questions the contradictory positioning of a work culture that wants to reduce stress while continuing to induce stress in stress reduction. This critical perspective on the power structure in the workplace is common in adult education. Insight into organizational justice could lead to organizational change. Most importantly, it contributes to theories on the transfer of training/learning at the level of subject-object integration or connecting workers who practiced Three-Dimensional Mindfulness on their work. Transfer of training is a set of theories in training and development, a topic in human resources management and adult education. This subject- object integration or interconnectedness/not-self is also a topic in Buddhist studies.

Second, the research methods employed are uncommon in mindfulness research. Since mindfulness is heavily researched in the health sciences, the common methods are quantitative or mixed methods. This thesis uses critical methodological philosophies in data collection and analysis. Critical reflexivity (Auerbach & Silverstein, 2003; England, 1994) and critical phenomenology (Ahmed, 2006, 2012) were used to uncover work stress and its situational external work conditions. Data were collected qualitatively using semi-structured open-ended interviews. The groups of participants were unique—long-term mindfulness practitioners from Buddhist traditions from Thailand and Canada and secular traditions from Canada.

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Third, a conceptual category - Threefold Training - has been adopted from Buddhism as an analytical framework for data collection and analysis. Since both Buddhist-informed and secular-informed participants practiced all three categories—virtue, concentration and wisdom, I created a new term—Three-Dimensional Mindfulness—as a broader category than the Threefold Training (see Appendix A4 on Threefold Training) from which it is also modified to serve the secular-informed participants who might also practice other faiths and retaining Buddhism as a religion. This new framework moves beyond Buddhist inclusivism to pluralism.

Fourth, the research findings are ground-breaking. Three-Dimensional Mindfulness is the practice not only for Buddhist-informed participants but also for secular-informed participants that led to reduced work stress and improved work performance. In other words, this new framework brings the two traditions together. Practitioners can choose under which tradition to practice and to teach. However, the goals of the practice were not at the same level. Buddhist- informed participants aimed higher at the cessation of stress or nibbāna, while secular-informed participants wanted to be healthy and happy. The Buddhist-informed goals are the outcomes studied in Buddhist studies while the secular-informed goals are the outcomes studied industrial- organizational psychology, which informs human resources management. The first outcomes are most aligned with the Buddhist values for the cessation of stress, while the latter outcomes are influenced by corporate values for performance improvement and personal happiness. In the process, both Buddhist-informed and secular-informed participants experienced obstacles that caused them stress and obstacles to practicing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness that they found difficult and sometimes even contradictory to embrace, transform or overcome. These obstacles are studied in training and development. Only Buddhist-informed participants found themselves not knowing enough about Buddhism or not practicing enough. Most of the contradictions were also found in the Buddhist group. What the two groups shared were two patterns of identifying the causes of stress as internal in some situations and external in other situations and suffered either way. This was because their realization of stress as being internally caused by their feelings, mental formations, craving and clinging was not instantaneous but in reflection. They did not accept the stress in the moment of stress. When they thought stress was caused externally, they shifted their attention to changing external work conditions and not paying attention to their mind. In other words, their stress drove them to solve external problems. Subsequently, they were no longer stressed from the situations when they either accepted the

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stress or accepted the external work conditions no matter what the outcome. In their struggle, they showed four patterns of prioritization: prioritizing work, prioritizing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness, not prioritizing either work or Three-Dimensional Mindfulness, and combining work and Three-Dimensional Mindfulness. Buddhist-informed participants worked within the first three patterns while secular-informed participants as well as one Buddhist-informed, Lex, adopted the last. Finally, there were times when participants were able to accept the stress or extended compassion to people and not become overwhelmed by stress while working or while changing their external work conditions. This was how they worked wisely. They were free from stress, which empowers them to be free to work to their full potential. The change they made to their external work conditions was not driven by stress but by insight or calmness they gained from Three-Dimensional Mindfulness.

Finally, the research findings have implications for future research. Drawing on findings from this thesis, future research could study 1) Buddhist inclusivism and pluralism in mindfulness program or course development by applying Three-Dimensional Mindfulness to teaching mindfulness in multi-faith communities of work; 2) knowledge and skill transfer between East and West, examining how Three-Dimensional Mindfulness could replace One- or Two- Dimensional Mindfulness in the West for increased effectiveness in the cessation of stress, and how secular-informed mindfulness has or might change the work conduct in Buddhist societies, starting with the healthcare sector; 3) transfer of learning and practice from social life to work life at the level of subject-object integration; 4) insight into organizational justice or social justice for organizational change or social change through Three-Dimensional Midnfulness, or how Three-Dimensional Mindfulness empowers practitioners to problem-solve and make social change at work; 5) transformative learning and practice through Three- Dimensional Mindfulness; 6) the appropriation of Buddhism in the West—how Western mindfulness researchers and trainers oppress Buddhists in the East; 7) a comparative study of Buddhist education systems across countries to learn how Buddhism is cultivated in Buddhist societies and how it could be applied to secular education systems and secular societies as Buddhist-informed mindfulness; 8) the mechanism of Three-Dimensional Mindfulness to explain how the three dimensions of practices lead to three dimensions of outcomes; 9) the effectiveness of Three-Dimensional Mindfulness among Buddhist-informed workers—how practicing three dimensions is more effective than one or two dimensions; 10) the effectiveness of Three-

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Dimensional Mindfulness among secular-informed workers—how it is more effective than One- or Two-Dimensional Mindfulness; 11) the operationalization of Three-Dimensional Midnfulness; 12) How non-Buddhist faith-based virtue and wisdom that secular-informed participants incorporated into Three-Dimensional Mindfulness are compatible with and supportive of stress reduction or the cessation of stress; 13) How mindfulness practitioners can align organizational culture with Three-Dimensional Mindfulness; 14) Under what circumstances Three-Dimensional Mindfulness practitioners would make organizational change, and 15) Explaining Three-Dimensional Mindfulness through sociology of emotions.

Implications for Practice

I hope this thesis motivates and inspires readers to integrate Three-Dimensional Mindfulness into work as a practitioner. The thesis is useful to any Buddhist-informed and secular-informed mindfulness practitioner, mindfulness trainer, mindfulness consultant and organizations interested in adopting mindfulness if they can understand and integrate Three- Dimensional Mindfulness into work. This thesis facilitates this integration by outlining a list of practices that constitute Three-Dimensional Mindfulness as presented in Chapters 4 to 5, examples of the application in participants’ work-life presented in Chapters 4 to 5, their outcomes in well-being and work performance presented in Chapter 4, their obstacles to achieving the full potential of outcomes and their strategies in handling these obstacles presented in Chapters 6 to 7. Those interested in integrating Three-Dimensional Mindfulness into work could use these thesis findings as a guide. Since the scope of practice is broader for Buddhist- informed practitioners, secular-informed practitioners could learn more about the Buddhist teachings from the Buddhist. Since the applications to work activities are more prevalent and direct among secular-informed participants, Buddhist-informed practitioners can learn more about applying the teachings with three dimensions from the secular. These practices are practices in bundles such as mindful leadership, mindful decision-making and mindful communication. However, since the thesis is qualitative, the findings are not generalizable. Those transferring and applying the findings to their practice in a different context must do so with caution and a certain level of flexibility and be open to exploring different outcomes. Three- Dimensional Mindfulness may or may not change established mindfulness training programs,

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especially those in healthcare, but I hope that Three-Dimensional Mindfulness will become a framework for new programs.

Organizations can improve external work conditions such as organizational culture and design—structures, systems, policies, goals and physical environment—to help workers embrace, transform or overcome obstacles to integrating Three-Dimensional Mindfulness into work externally because the integration would otherwise be difficult based on participants’ experience. I maintain that changes at an organizational level need a collective endeavour to realize positive outcomes. Participants’ experience shows that employers and colleagues were unsupportive of the practice. Therefore, I think changing external work conditions is every stakeholder’s responsibility. Most of the participants did not take the initiative to change external work conditions collectively but individually in support of personal mindfulness-work integration. In their recommendations, they thought the employers and HR were in the role of making the change. That is happening slowly but usually for the benefit of the organization. Mindfulness remains a private or personal practice that practitioners must take responsibilities over in reducing their stress and performing work. I understand and agree with some Buddhist- informed participants who would rather keep the practice private and would never want to impose Buddhism on other people. However, with the new framework of Three-Dimensional Mindfulness, Buddhist-informed participants would not have to impose Buddhism on colleagues and clients but encourage and facilitate them to practice their faiths with mindfulness as long as they are aligned with the Buddhist cessation of stress. Three-Dimensional Mindfulness is a new framework for work stress solutions that are ready to be further explored theoretically and practically by the readers of this thesis.

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Appendices

Appendix A

Basic Buddhist Teachings Appendix A1. The Four Noble Truths Phra Pramote Pamotecho said that Buddhists train themselves to obtain insight into the Noble Truths (ariya-sacca) by first understanding the ‘Noble Truth of Suffering (dukkha)’, that is ‘the truth about Mind and Matter/body and mind that they are subject to the Three Characteristics of Existence (tilakkhaṇa): impermanence (anicca), suffering (dukkha) and not- self (anattā)’ (2006, p. 1). Second, they ‘eliminate the Cause of Suffering (samudaya), i.e. craving (taṇhā) for making “our selves” happy and free from suffering’ (p. 1). Through this observation, they will realize ‘nirodha (the Extinction of Suffering) or Nibbāna’ (p. 1). He concluded that ‘Comprehension of the Truth of Suffering (dukkha), elimination of the Cause of Suffering (samudaya) and realization of the Extinction of Suffering (nirodha), constitute the Noble Path (magga)’ to enlightenment (p. 1). I here provide some basic understanding of each of the Four Noble Truths.

The Four Noble Truths.

1. Stress. According to the Setting the Wheel of Dhamma in Motion discourse (Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta), stress in is defined as:

Now this, monks, is the noble truth of stress:[1] Birth is stressful, aging is stressful, death is stressful; sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair are stressful; association with the unbeloved is stressful, separation from the loved is stressful, not getting what is wanted is stressful. In short, the five clinging-aggregates are stressful.

("Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta: Setting the Wheel of Dhamma in Motion (SN 56.11) (Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, Trans.)," 2013, para. 4)

The Buddhist stress is more than physical and mental ill-health but encompasses every entity in life, both positive and negative.

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2. Cause of Stress. The cause or origination of stress was defined as:

And this, monks, is the noble truth of the origination of stress: the craving that makes for further becoming — accompanied by passion & delight, relishing now here & now there — i.e., craving for sensual pleasure, craving for becoming, craving for non-becoming.

("Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta: Setting the Wheel of Dhamma in Motion (SN 56.11) (Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, Trans.)," 2013, para. 5)

The Cause of Stress was explained in some teachings such as Dependent Co- arising/Origination, the cyclic existence (saṃsāra) and the Twelve Nidana. In the Dependent Co- arising discourse (Paticca-samuppada-vibhanga Sutta), the Cause of Stress is explained as follows:

From ignorance as a requisite condition come fabrications. From fabrications as a requisite condition comes consciousness. From consciousness as a requisite condition comes name-&-form. From name-&-form as a requisite condition come the six sense media. From the six sense media as a requisite condition comes contact. From contact as a requisite condition comes feeling. From feeling as a requisite condition comes craving. From craving as a requisite condition comes clinging/sustenance. From clinging/sustenance as a requisite condition comes becoming. From becoming as a requisite condition comes birth. From birth as a requisite condition, then aging & death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair come into play. Such is the origination of this entire mass of stress & suffering.

("Paticca-samuppada-vibhanga Sutta: Analysis of Dependent Co-arising (SN 12.2) (Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, Trans.)," 2013, para. 2)

The world was explained to have originated in the loop of Dependent Co- arising/Origination:

The Blessed One said: "And what is the origination of the world? Dependent on the eye & forms there arises eye-consciousness. The meeting of the three is contact. From contact as a requisite condition comes feeling. From feeling as a requisite condition comes craving. From craving as a requisite condition comes clinging/sustenance. From

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clinging/sustenance as a requisite condition comes becoming. From becoming as a requisite condition comes birth. From birth as a requisite condition, then aging & death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair come into play. This is the origination of the world.

("Loka Sutta: The World (SN 12.44) (Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, Trans.)," 2013, para. 3)

Similar explanations were applied to other sense media as part of the loop. Worlds continue to rise and fall in ‘saṃsāra,’ meaning ‘wandering-on,’ ‘a process: the tendency to keep creating worlds and then moving into them’ (Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, 2010). The causality is explained as ’if x arises because y arises, it will cease when y ceases’ (Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, 2008, p. 34).

While there are multiple causes of suffering as they interdependently co-arise, the most referred to as cause is craving followed by clinging or attachment. Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu explained the connection between craving and clinging to nutriment:

the Pali word for craving, tanha, also means thirst; the Pali word for clinging, upadana, also means sustenance—both the act of taking sustenance and the nutriment that provides sustenance. Thus thirst leads to the act of clinging to nutriment. As §40 points out, any passion and delight—any clinging—for nutriment underlies the growth of consciousness; as §113 points out, consciousness acts as the seed for becoming. Thus, by placing nutriment in the same position as clinging, MN 9 is simply providing more detail on the way in which nutriment, clinging, and consciousness act as conditions for becoming. Only when the mind is freed from craving and clinging is it freed from its tendency to feed. And only then is it freed from the need to keep producing the becoming that leads to suffering and stress.

(Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, 2008, p. 43)

Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu commented:

When you think of all the suffering that goes into keeping just one person clothed, fed, sheltered, and healthy — the suffering both for those who have to pay for these

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requisites, as well as those who have to labor or die in their production — you see how exploitative even the most rudimentary process of world-building can be.

(Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, 2010, para. 3)

Through the experience of worldly stress, Buddhists learn and practice Buddhism to stop wandering on.

3. Cessation of stress. Cessation or extinction of stress or suffering was defined as:

And this, monks, is the noble truth of the cessation of stress: the remainderless fading & cessation, renunciation, relinquishment, release, & letting go of that very craving.

("Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta: Setting the Wheel of Dhamma in Motion (SN 56.11) (Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, Trans.)," 2013, para. 6)

4. The Eightfold Path. The Eightfold Path was defined as:

And this, monks, is the noble truth of the way of practice leading to the cessation of stress: precisely this Noble Eightfold Path — right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.

("Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta: Setting the Wheel of Dhamma in Motion (SN 56.11) (Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, Trans.)," 2013, para. 7)

Brief definitions of each factor are found in the Analysis of the Path discourse (Magga- vibhanga Sutta) as follows:

And what, monks, is right view? Knowledge with regard to stress, knowledge with regard to the origination of stress, knowledge with regard to the stopping of stress, knowledge with regard to the way of practice leading to the stopping of stress: This, monks, is called right view.

And what is right resolve? Being resolved on renunciation, on freedom from ill will, on harmlessness: This is called right resolve.

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And what is right speech? Abstaining from lying, abstaining from divisive speech, abstaining from abusive speech, abstaining from idle chatter: This, monks, is called right speech.

And what, monks, is right action? Abstaining from taking life, abstaining from stealing, abstaining from unchastity: This, monks, is called right action.

And what, monks, is right livelihood? There is the case where a disciple of the noble ones, having abandoned dishonest livelihood, keeps his life going with right livelihood: This, monks, is called right livelihood.

And what, monks, is right effort? (i) There is the case where a monk generates desire, endeavors, activates persistence, upholds & exerts his intent for the sake of the non- arising of evil, unskillful qualities that have not yet arisen. (ii) He generates desire, endeavors, activates persistence, upholds & exerts his intent for the sake of the abandonment of evil, unskillful qualities that have arisen. (iii) He generates desire, endeavors, activates persistence, upholds & exerts his intent for the sake of the arising of skillful qualities that have not yet arisen. (iv) He generates desire, endeavors, activates persistence, upholds & exerts his intent for the maintenance, non-confusion, increase, plenitude, development, & culmination of skillful qualities that have arisen: This, monks, is called right effort.

And what, monks, is right mindfulness? (i) There is the case where a monk remains focused on the body in & of itself — ardent, aware, & mindful — putting away greed & distress with reference to the world. (ii) He remains focused on feelings in & of themselves — ardent, aware, & mindful — putting away greed & distress with reference to the world. (iii) He remains focused on the mind in & of itself — ardent, aware, & mindful — putting away greed & distress with reference to the world. (iv) He remains focused on mental qualities in & of themselves — ardent, aware, & mindful — putting away greed & distress with reference to the world. This, monks, is called right mindfulness.

And what, monks, is right concentration? (i) There is the case where a monk — quite withdrawn from sensuality, withdrawn from unskillful (mental) qualities — enters &

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remains in the first jhana: rapture & pleasure born from withdrawal, accompanied by directed thought & evaluation. (ii) With the stilling of directed thoughts & evaluations, he enters & remains in the second jhana: rapture & pleasure born of concentration, unification of awareness free from directed thought & evaluation — internal assurance. (iii) With the fading of rapture, he remains equanimous, mindful, & alert, and senses pleasure with the body. He enters & remains in the third jhana, of which the Noble Ones declare, 'Equanimous & mindful, he has a pleasant abiding.' (iv) With the abandoning of pleasure & pain — as with the earlier disappearance of elation & distress — he enters & remains in the fourth jhana: purity of equanimity & mindfulness, neither pleasure nor pain. This, monks, is called right concentration.

("Magga-vibhanga Sutta: An Analysis of the Path (Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, Trans.)," 2013, para. 7- 14)

In this thesis, I use the term ‘Right Intention’ instead of ‘Right Resolve.’ The rest of the terms used are the same as presented in the Eightfold Path definitions above. I also capitalize terms used to represent each factor of the Eightfold Path to distinguish them from generic terms.

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Appendix A2. Three Marks of Existence This teaching is explained as follows:

All conditioned phenomena exist relationally, contingent and dependent on other things. … To uproot this subtle form of ego-clinging requires a counteractive perception: direct insight into the empty, coreless nature of phenomena. Such an insight is generated by contemplating the factors of existence in terms of their three universal marks — impermanence (aniccata), unsatisfactoriness (dukkhata), and selflessness (anattata). Generally, the first of the three marks to be discerned is impermanence, which at the level of insight does not mean merely that everything eventually comes to an end. At this level it means something deeper and more pervasive, namely, that conditioned phenomena are in constant process, happenings which break up and perish almost as soon as they arise. The stable objects appearing to the senses reveal themselves to be strings of momentary formations (sankhara); the person posited by common sense dissolves into a current made up of two intertwining streams — a stream of material events, the aggregate of material form, and a stream of mental events, the other four aggregates.

When impermanence is seen, insight into the other two marks closely follows. Since the aggregates are constantly breaking up, we cannot pin our hopes on them for any lasting satisfaction. Whatever expectations we lay on them are bound to be dashed to pieces by their inevitable change. Thus, when seen with insight they are dukkha, suffering, in the deepest sense. Then, as the aggregates are impermanent and unsatisfactory, they cannot be taken as self. If they were self, or the belongings of a self, we would be able to control them and bend them to our will, to make them everlasting sources of bliss. But far from being able to exercise such mastery, we find them to be grounds of pain and disappointment. Since they cannot be subjected to control, these very factors of our being are anatta: not a self, not the belongings of a self, just empty, ownerless phenomena occurring in dependence on conditions.

(Bhikkhu Bodhi, 2013a, Para. 253-254)

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Appendix A3.

Right Mindfulness

According to the Buddhist Pali Canon, some discourses on mindfulness are Mindfulness of Breathing (Anapanasati Sutta), demonstrating Mindfulness of In & Out Breathing, the Four Frames of Reference, the Seven Factors for Awakening, and Clear Knowing & Release ("Anapanasati Sutta: Mindfulness of Breathing (MN 118) (Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, Trans.)," 2013); the Foundations of Mindfulness (Satipatthana Sutta), discussing the mindfulness of the body, feeling, consciousness and Dhamma (phenomenon/mental objects) ("Satipatthana Sutta: The Foundations of Mindfulness (MN 10) (Nyanasatta Thera, Trans.)," 2013), alternatively translated as Frames of Reference (body, feelings, mind and Dhamma/mental qualities) ("Satipatthana Sutta: Frames of Reference (MN 10) (Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, Trans.)," 2013); and The Great Frames of Reference (Maha-satipatthana Sutta) extending the explanation of focusing on the body, feelings, mind, and mental qualities with reference to the world ("Maha-satipatthana Sutta: The Great Frames of Reference (DN 22) (Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, Trans.)," 2013). These four frames of reference ‘is the direct path for the purification of beings, for the overcoming of sorrow & lamentation, for the disappearance of pain & distress, for the attainment of the right method, & for the realization of Unbinding' ("Maha-satipatthana Sutta: The Great Frames of Reference (DN 22) (Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, Trans.)," 2013). Aside from mindfulness, there are other mental qualities in Analysis of the Mental Faculties (Indriya-vibhanga Sutta): ‘The faculty of conviction, the faculty of persistence, the faculty of mindfulness, the faculty of concentration, the faculty of discernment’ ("Indriya-vibhanga Sutta: Analysis of the Mental Faculties (SN 40.10) (Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, Trans.)," 2013, para. 4). The faculty of mindfulness is explained:

And what is the faculty of mindfulness? There is the case where a monk, a disciple of the noble ones, is mindful, highly meticulous, remembering & able to call to mind even things that were done & said long ago.

Practitioners may ask how to be mindful. In the Mindful Discourse (Sata Sutta), ‘mindful’ is explained as:

There is the case where a monk remains focused on the body in & of itself — ardent, alert, & mindful — subduing greed & distress with reference to the world. He remains

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focused on feelings... mind... mental qualities in & of themselves — ardent, alert, & mindful — subduing greed & distress with reference to the world. This is how a monk is mindful.

There is the case where feelings are known to the monk as they arise, known as they persist, known as they subside. Thoughts are known to him as they arise, known as they persist, known as they subside. Perceptions are known to him as they arise, known as they persist, known as they subside. This is how a monk is alert.

("Sata Sutta: Mindful (SN 47.35) (Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, Trans.)," 2012, para. 2-3)

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Appendix A4.

Threefold Training

The training is outcome-oriented, focusing on the results rather than the methods. Mindfulness is a concentration training in Buddhism in relation to virtue and wisdom for liberation. When combined with other practices, mindfulness can have a result in three dimensions. In practicing for the Threefold Training, practices such as the precepts, meditation and compassion can be practiced together at the same time for virtue, for concentration and wisdom as they reinforce one another. While Buddhist practices are practiced altogether, some teachings are specific to each component. For example, virtue is cultivated by practicing for Right Speech, Right Action and Right Livelihood under the Eightfold Path such as that found in the Foundations of Mindfulness (Satipatthana Sutta) and its commentaries such as Nyanasatta Thera’s commentary ("The Foundations of Mindfulness: Satipatthana Sutta (Nyanasatta Thera, Trans.)," 2010). Practitioners follow the Buddhist rules of conduct (Pāṭimokkha) such as the Five Precepts to become free from craving and grasping, and eventually liberated from reincarnation or the cyclic existence (saṃsāra). ‘Virtue’ can be used interchangeably with or is close to other translated terms such as ‘moral virtue,’ ‘morality,’ ‘moral principle,’ ‘moral discipline,’ ‘virtuous conducts’ and ‘higher virtue’ (adisila-sikkhā). The difference between Buddhist moral virtue and the general understanding of morality is its goal of ending suffering. Any practice is correct or skillful if it leads to the cessation of stress which is a liberation from the cycle of rebirth. 2) Concentration can be practiced for Right Effort, Right Concentration and Right Mindfulness under the Eightfold Path. Concentration is an object of meditation looking at the six-sense media: ear, eye, nose, tongue, body and mind or intellect. Practitioners enter higher states of concentration (jhana) when they become more skillful. ‘Concentration’ can be used interchangeably with ‘mentality,’ ‘consciousness,’ ‘mind,’ and ‘higher mind’ (adicitta-sikkhā). 3) Wisdom can be practiced for Right View and Right Intention under the Eightfold Path. Wisdom in Buddhism is a realization of insight by meditating and contemplating on the Four Noble Truths and their development towards a realization of the enlightenment. It is usually just referred to as ‘wisdom’ or ‘higher wisdom’ (adhipaññā-sikkhā). By practicing this Threefold Training to overcome the three unskillful and unwholesome roots—lust/greed, hatred/aversion and delusion—practitioners can become enlightened.

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Phra Pramote Pamotecho (2006) summarized the “Threefold Training” (sikkhāttaya) for mindfulness including ‘morality, mind or consciousness (citta)’ and ‘wisdom (pannā)’ (p. 1) as follows:

Training in Morality is training of the mind so that it abides in its natural state -- free from evil and rough defilements and prepared for further training;

Training in Mentality is training of the mind so that it is prepared for development of wisdom to the stage of comprehension of the Noble Truths. At that stage, consciousness must be moral consciousness (mahākusalacitta), associated with mental ability to intuitively see the truth of a condition, and also unprompted because it knows and remembers exactly that condition (of Mind and Matter/body and mind). This type of consciousness is devoid of hindrances, which are moderate defilements, and is firm, light, pliant, proficient and upright in mindfulness of an object of consciousness as it actually is.

Training in Wisdom is practice so that consciousness will get intuitive insight into the Noble Truths. Insight eradicates subtle defilements, i.e. fetters (saṃyojana), including ignorance (avijjā). Consciousness will be able to penetrate the Noble Truths only through practice for insight development (vipassanākammaṭṭhanā). It is the process of discerning the truth of suffering or Matter and Mind/body and mind such that consciousness ceases clinging to Matter and Mind. Then, the mind will be permanently purified and liberated from all cankers (āsava) and the whole mass of suffering. This is the supreme goal of Buddhism. (Phra Pramote Pamotecho, 2006, pp. 1-2)

The terms used in the Threefold Training above are ‘morality,’ ‘mentality’ and ‘wisdom.’ In the thesis, I prefer using the terms ‘virtue,’ ‘concentration,’ and wisdom. There is no difference but a translation preference.

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Appendix B

Thesis Overview

Table B1

Thesis Overview Research questions Findings Arguments 1. How do Buddhist- Reduced work stress and improved work performance were the outcomes of Three-Dimensional Mindfulness is an effective informed mindfulness practicing virtue such as Right Speech, concentration such as meditation and means of reducing work stress with a secondary practitioners and wisdom such as compassion and seeing that stress was internally caused by, for outcome of improved work performance. secular-informed example, thoughts and feelings, in social life and in work-life. Reduced work stress mindfulness was a primary outcome, and improved work performance was a secondary outcome practitioners reduce of Three-Dimensional Mindfulness. work stress and improve work performance through mindfulness practice in work-life? 1.1. How are their Similarities: Both groups practiced three components: virtue, concentration and Both Buddhist-informed and secular-informed approaches and wisdom. mindfulness practitioners experienced reduced experiences similar or Differences: Both groups were informed by different sources of knowledge of work stress and improved work performance by different? virtue, concentration and wisdom. Buddhist-informed participants were informed practicing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness. by Buddhism taught in Buddhist monasteries and Buddhist meditation centres Secular-informed participants can learn more while secular-informed participants were informed by secular-informed about Buddhist teachings from the Buddhist to mindfulness training programs in secular settings such as hospitals and other faith- expand their scope of practice. Buddhist-informed based sources of knowledge on virtue and wisdom. Secular-informed participants participants can learn from the secular on their were inexplicit about practicing or learning Three-Dimensional Mindfulness as a application focus on work which they practice in

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mindfulness framework. Mindfulness to them was mainly practicing meditation bundles such as mindful leadership, mindful with a focus on concentration for relaxation. However, their mindfulness examples communication, mindful decision-making and also involved virtue such as kind speech and wisdom such as compassion which mindful listening. shows that their mindfulness practice implicitly included virtue and wisdom. In addition, I specifically asked them about their virtue and wisdom in the interview to enable them to draw the connection. Another difference between the two groups was their practice goals. Most Buddhist-informed participants were not practicing mindfulness for work but wisdom cultivation towards the cessation of stress, while secular-informed participants’ goals were more aligned with either leadership or well-being, thus the term ‘stress reduction.’ While improved work performance is a secondary outcome for both groups, it was an unintended result among most Buddhist-informed participants while it was more of an intended outcome among secular-informed participants. Finally, only few Buddhist-informed participants were not stressed by work stress even when they faced external problems at work. That was because they could instantaneously see the Three Marks of Existence in the stress or they remained calm and forgave the other person they interacted with. This was how they worked wisely. 2. What obstacles do Obstacles: Participants experienced two types of obstacles: obstacles that caused Despite being long-term mindfulness Buddhist-informed them stress and 2) obstacles that prevented them from practicing Three- practitioners, participants still experienced stress and secular-informed Dimensional Mindfulness in the workplace. As for obstacles that caused them in the workplace because it was difficult for them mindfulness stress, there are two patterns of not being able to accept stress in external work to see stress and accept it, and because external practitioners conditions. In some situations, participants realized that stress is internally caused work conditions were unsupportive of the Three- experience in in their reflection but were not able to accept stress instantaneously. In most Dimensional Mindfulness practice. integrating situations, they thought stress was caused by these external work conditions. mindfulness into work Obstacles that prevented them from practicing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness in

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to reduce work stress the workplace can be categorized into internal difficulties and external difficulties. and improve work Internal difficulties were, for example, a lack of routine practice and a lack of performance? understanding of the teaching. External difficulties were unsupportive external work conditions, the secularization of mindfulness and mindfulness abuse. Some of the external work conditions are considered contradictions between Three- Dimensional Mindfulness and work such as a contradiction between compassion and competitiveness. 2.1. How are their Similarities: In some situations, both groups were stressed by not being able to Both groups experienced obstacles in practicing experiences with the accept stress instantaneously and even when they knew that stressed is internally Three-Dimensional Mindfulness at work. obstacles similar or caused by their feelings, mental formations, craving and clinging. In most different? situations, both groups thought external work conditions caused stress. These conditions were also similar such as work overload and toxic work environment. Differences: Only Buddhist-informed participants mentioned internal difficulties that prevented them from practicing mindfulness, such as a lack of effort, understanding and practice. Most Buddhist-informed participants thought some external work conditions were contradictory to Three-Dimensional Mindfulness while only less than half of the secular informed participants mentioned one contradiction between compassion and competitiveness. 2.2. How do Buddhist- Obstacles that caused stress: As for internal causes of stress, participants tried to When participants were able to align their Three- informed and secular- learn and practice Three-Dimensional Mindfulness more. It was harder to handle Dimensional Mindfulness with work, informed participants the external causes with Three-Dimensional Mindfulness. Instead, participants tried organizations gained positive outcomes such as embrace, transform or to change their external work conditions that they thought of as being the causes of resilience and retention. These outcomes are overcome the their work stress. Once they were able to accept the external work conditions, they aligned with corporate values of efficiency, obstacles in were no longer stressed from that situation. productivity and competitiveness driven by integrating Obstacles that prevented them from practicing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness: individualism and self-interest for organizational mindfulness into There are four patterns with which participants aligned mindfulness with work. effectiveness. However, when participants could work? not embrace, transform or overcome difficulties

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A. Prioritizing work over Three-Dimensional Mindfulness by changing their including contradictions between Three- perspective to compromise on mindfulness (e.g., withholding truths from customers Dimensional Mindfulness and work, Three- was seen as normal at work.) Dimensional Mindfulness resulted in negative B. Prioritizing Three-Dimensional Mindfulness over work by compromising on outcomes for organizations such as resistance and work (e.g., quitting jobs that created too much craving, which caused stress.) turnover. These outcomes undermine corporate C. Prioritizing neither work nor Three-Dimensional Mindfulness: values. Therefore, organization stakeholders C.a Balancing/doing what they could (e.g., avoiding being unethical, but not being should support practitioners by aligning able to be generous to non-stakeholders.) organizational values with Buddhist values for the C.b Being unaware of contradictions; therefore, not seeing difficulties as cessation of stress. contradictory. D. Combining Three-Dimensional Mindfulness with work by compromising on work (e.g., quitting jobs to become a secular-informed mindfulness trainer) or integrating secular-informed mindfulness into current work content. 2.2.1. How are their Similarities: Most of the participants from both groups could not accept stress even The alignment of organizational values with the experiences of when they knew that stress is internally caused by their feelings, mental formations, Buddhist values should be encouraged at embracing, craving and clinging. They tried to practice Three-Dimensional Mindfulness more organizations implementing mindfulness training transforming or overcoming regularly so that they could handle the stress that arose in these situations. and practice for both groups under the Three- obstacles similar However, in most cases, they did not see the internal causes of stress and attributed Dimensional Mindfulness framework to ensure or different? the causes to external work conditions. They did not handle stress by accepting that positive organizational outcomes of stress external work conditions are stressful but tried to change them first. Mindfulness reduction which is open to the cessation of stress was practiced in the process as a means of coping. Eventually they were able to and work performance improvement. Having said accept external work conditions and were no longer stress in those situations. that, Three-Dimensional Mindfulness may not be Differences: All secular-informed mindfulness practitioners were able to combine suitable for every organizations but those that put Three-Dimensional Mindfulness with work by becoming a secular-informed and effort into changing their organizational mindfulness teacher because secular-informed mindfulness was offered for a fee or culture and design for stress reduction, or the incorporating secular-informed mindfulness into their professional work tasks. cessation of stress. Only one Buddhist-informed mindfulness practitioner, Lex, chose this path, while

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the majority disagreed with it. This choice is shown in Pattern D. Those who disagreed are the majority of Buddhist-informed participants who continued to address their difficulties, including contradictions within the first three patterns. Pattern C is the beginning point, and practitioners start changing their orientation to other patterns over time.

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Appendix C

Outcome Type by Outcome Relevance Table C1 Outcome Type by Outcome Relevance

Note. Reprinted from “Organizational Consequences,” by S. M. Jex and C. D. Crossley, in J. Barling, E. K. Kelloway, and M. R. Frone (Eds.), Handbook of work stress (p. 577), 2005, Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications. Retrieved from http://myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/login?url=http://sk.sagepub.com/reference/hdbk_workstress. Copyright 2019 by SAGE Publishing. Reprinted with permission.

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Appendix D

A Systems Approach to Job Stress

Figure D1. A Systems Approach to Job Stress. Reprinted from “A Systematic Review of the Job-stress Intervention Evaluation Literature, 1990–2005,” by A. D. Lamontagne, T. Keegel, A. M. Louie, A. Ostry, and P. A. Landsbergis, 2007, International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, 13(3), p. 269. Copyright [2019] by Informa UK Limited. Reprinted with permission of Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group www.tandfonline.com.

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Appendix E

ABCs Schematic Diagram of Rational Emotive Therapy

Figure E1. ABCs Schematic Diagram of Rational Emotive Therapy. Reprinted from “The Revised ABCs of Rational-Emotive Therapy (RET),” by A. Ellis, 1991, Journal of Rational- Emotive and Cognitive Behavior Therapy, p. 151. Copyright [2019] by Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. Reprinted with permission.

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Appendix F

Recruitment Protocols Appendix F1. Email Script to Potential Organizations To Whom It May Concern, My name is Suwimon Phaetthayanan. I am a Ph.D. candidate in Adult Education and Community Development at OISE/UT under the supervision of Dr. Jamie-Lynn Magnusson. I am seeking participants who might be interested in participating in my research project on ‘How to Work Wisely: Work Wisdom Arising from Mindfulness.’ I am contacting you because your organization promotes mindfulness practice. I am writing to request your permission to distribute my research information to your organization. The nature and purpose of the research are to explain how individual workers who are mindfulness practitioners learn to integrate mindfulness wisdom into their work process and work-life and how wisdom has transformed their work. This new knowledge of work wisdom will help guide other practitioners to bring mindfulness into their work, and researchers to understand what mindfulness wisdom is like in actual work situations. I am currently recruiting participants to the project under the following basic criteria: 1. Self-identified as an experienced practitioner of mindfulness with at least 150 hours of formal or non-formal teacher-led sitting and walking meditation/contemplation practices (including all hours at retreats, meditation groups and monasteries), and 150 hours of non-formal sitting and walking meditation/contemplation practices at home or in a meditation center, or intentional meditative/contemplative martial art and healing practices (examples: yoga, Tai Chi, Qi Gong, etc), and 200 hours of informal practices in everyday life meditating / contemplating while doing something else (the number of hours is just your estimate, no paperwork or references required); 2. Practicing mindfulness to cultivate wisdom using insight meditation and contemplation as one of their approaches; 3. Trying to connect meditation and contemplation to morality, virtues, values, or social and organizational norms, and aspects of wisdom such as compassion, self-regulation, suffering, importance and interconnectedness, leadership, creativity, etc. 4. Practicing mindfulness when they are working in their workplace; 5. Having at least one year of full-time paid work experience or cumulative part-time work experience equivalent to one year or 1,560 hours, and 6. Volunteering to participate in an initial one-hour individual semi-structured interview on mindfulness wisdom.

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If you are interested in knowing more about the project, please contact me at suwimon.phaetthayanan@xxxxx. If you are uncertain but are interested in distributing the research information, I would be happy to discuss it with you. Participants’ identity and confidentiality will be protected, and participants are able to withdraw from the study at any time. Participants could contact me directly without having to inform you of their participation. In cases where participants may refer to your organization’s name, a pseudonym will be used instead. If you could recommend someone who might fit these criteria by introducing me to them or informing them of my research project, I would really appreciate it. Thank you very much for your interest and support. Best wishes, Suwimon Phaetthayanan suwimon.phaetthayanan@xxxxxx xxx xxx xxxx

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Appendix F2. Telephone Script to Potential Participants Suwimon: “Good morning, Mr. A! My name is Suwimon Phaetthayanan. I am a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate currently enrolled in the Adult Education and Community Development program at OISE/UT. As part of this program, I am conducting a research project on ‘How to Work Wisely: Work Wisdom Arising from Mindfulness.’ Thank you for your message indicating that you said you might be interested in participating in this research project. Do you have a moment to talk?” Mr. A: “…” Suwimon: “The nature and purpose of the research are to explain how individual workers who are mindfulness practitioners learn to integrate mindfulness wisdom into their work process and work-life and how wisdom has transformed their work. This new knowledge of work wisdom will help guide other practitioners to bring mindfulness into their work, and researchers to understand what mindfulness wisdom is like in actual work situations. I am contacting you because you practice mindfulness and I am looking for some expert knowledge on this. The interview questions will be on how to work wisely. Should I send you the detailed questions?” Mr. A: “…” Suwimon: “I hope the interviews will generate some ideas for improvement of mindfulness learning and explain how wisdom could function at work.” The interview will take about 1 hour. I am planning to collect data this spring. Would you consider participating in this project?” Mr. A: “…” Suwimon: “In the meantime, I will be sending you a consent letter for you to consider together with my contact details. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about the form. I would appreciate it if you could have this ready for me before my interview plan this spring.” Mr. A: “…” Suwimon: “Thank you very much, Mr. A, for your help.” Mr. A: “…” Suwimon: “Goodbye” Mr. A: “…”

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Appendix F3. Email Response Script to Signed-up Participants Dear Mindfulness Practitioners, My name is Suwimon Phaetthayanan. I am a Ph.D. candidate in Adult Education and Community Development at OISE/UT under the supervision of Dr Jamie-Lynn Magnusson. Thank you for your message indicating that you might be interested in participating in this research project on ‘How to Work Wisely: Work Wisdom Arising from Mindfulness.’ The nature and purpose of the research are to explain how individual workers who are mindfulness practitioners learn to integrate mindfulness wisdom into their work process and work-life and how wisdom has transformed their work. This new knowledge of work wisdom will help guide other practitioners to bring mindfulness into their work, and researchers to understand what mindfulness wisdom is like in actual work situations. I am currently recruiting participants to the project under the following basic criteria: 1. Self-identified as an experienced practitioner of mindfulness with at least 150 hours of formal or non-formal teacher-led sitting and walking meditation/contemplation practices (including all hours at retreats, meditation groups and monasteries), and 150 hours of non-formal sitting and walking meditation/contemplation practices at home or in a meditation center, or intentional meditative/contemplative martial art and healing practices (examples: yoga, Tai Chi, Qi Gong, etc), and 200 hours of informal practices in everyday life meditating / contemplating while doing something else (the number of hours is just your estimate, no paperwork or references required); 2. Practicing mindfulness to cultivate wisdom using insight meditation and contemplation as one of their approaches; 3. Trying to connect meditation and contemplation to morality, virtues, values, disciplines, or social and organizational norms, and aspects of wisdom such as compassion, self- regulation, leadership, creativity, suffering, impermanence and interconnectedness, etc. 4. Practicing mindfulness when they are working in their workplace; 5. Having at least one year of full-time paid work experience or cumulative part-time work experience equivalent to one year or 1,560 hours, and 6. Volunteering to participate in an initial one-hour individual semi-structured interview on mindfulness wisdom.

Research participation is unpaid. Nevertheless, participants could expect to gain a better understanding and explanation of wisdom at work being shared by fellow mindfulness practitioners. At the end of the project, I will send out a summary of the research findings to all. If you are interested in knowing more about the project or participating, please contact me at [email protected]. If you are uncertain regarding your situation but are interested in the possibility of participating, I would be happy to discuss it with you. Participants’ identity and confidentiality will be protected, and participants are able to withdraw from the study at any time.

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If you could recommend someone who might fit these criteria by introducing me to them or informing them of my research project, I would really appreciate it. Thank you very much for your interest and support. Best wishes, Suwimon Phaetthayanan suwimon.phaetthayanan@xxxxx xxx-xxx-xxxx

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Appendix F4. Recruitment Poster Participants Needed for Research Project on ‘How to Work Wisely: Work Wisdom Arising from Mindfulness’ Do you practice mindfulness meditation and contemplation? I am conducting research on how to help people become more mindful and wise in the workplace. I’m looking for volunteers to participate in a one-hour interview on mindfulness wisdom and to share with me their experience with mindfulness at work. The interview will take place between May 1 and August 15. It is in person at the location convenient for participants (or by phone if preferred) Research findings will be shared with all participants at the end of the project. Participants may meet the following criteria: 1. Self-identified as an experienced practitioner of mindfulness; 2. Practicing mindfulness to cultivate wisdom; 3. Trying to connect meditation and contemplation to morality, virtues, values, or social and organizational norms, and aspects of wisdom such as compassion, self-regulation, suffering, impermanence and interconnectedness, leadership, creativity, etc.; 4. Practicing mindfulness when they are working in their workplace; 5. Having at least one year of full-time paid work experience or cumulative part-time work experience equivalent to one year or 1560 hours, and 6. Volunteering to participate in an initial one-hour individual semi-structured interview on mindfulness wisdom.

For more information, please reach me at suwimon.phaetthayanan@xxxxx. Thank you for your interest. Suwimon Phaetthayanan, BA, MA Ph.D. Candidate Ontario Institute for Studies in Education University of Toronto

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Appendix F5. Consent Letter to Participants

Individual Consent Letter to Individual Participants From Suwimon Phaetthayanan Date April 26th, 2015 Dear Mindfulness Practitioners, Thank you for considering participating in or contributing to my research project. As I noted in our first contact, I am currently enrolled in the Ph.D. program in Adult Education and Community Development at Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto under the supervision of Dr. Jamie-Lynn Magnusson. I am doing this research as part of the requirement for the completion of the program. The purpose of this letter is to provide you with information that you will need to understand what I am doing and to decide whether or not to participate. Participation is completely voluntary, and, should you decide to participate, you are free to withdraw at any time. If you decide to withdraw, you may request to remove any data collected from you. Should you have any concerns about the research, you may at any time contact me at suwimon.phaetthayanan@xxxxx. The name of this research project is ‘How to Work Wisely: Work Wisdom Arising from Mindfulness.’ The nature and purpose of the research are to explain how individual workers who are mindfulness practitioners learn to integrate mindfulness wisdom into their work process and work-life and how wisdom has transformed their work. This new knowledge of work wisdom will help guide other practitioners to bring mindfulness into their work, and researchers to understand what mindfulness wisdom is like in actual work situations. The number of participants is 40 from different workplaces and work experiences. You may forward my research information to practitioners who might be interested in participating. What, essentially, I am doing is I will be conducting one-on-one in-depth interviews with 40 mindfulness practitioners to find out how their mindfulness wisdom functions in their work process and work-life. The reason that I am inviting you to participate is because you are a practitioner who has the knowledge and experience with mindfulness practices, and you are in a position to help improve wisdom at work. Your part in the research, if you agree, is to participate in a one-on-one interview. To give you more information This study involves you participating in one interview with me. The interview will be semi- structured and informal, and it will last for approximately 1 hour.

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In Appendix C enclosed, please find the questions that I will ask. Once the audio recordings of the interview(s) have been transcribed, the original or raw data will be stored in a password-protected external hard drive. Only I and my supervisor will have access to this raw data. In the transcripts, names and other identifying information about you or your organization will be systematically eliminated. However, if you wish your name to be disclosed, you can state that in the comment section. Identifying codes that could connect you or your organization with pseudonyms provided will also be saved in an encrypted file in a password- protected external hard drive designated above. The timing for the destruction of the recordings or the raw data is December 2030. Within the period of 15 years after graduation, I will continue to work on mindfulness research and the data could still be relevant until then. However, if you do not wish your personally identifiable information to be kept, you could indicate the length of time you would allow in the comment section below. As an interviewee, you will receive a copy of the transcript of your interview(s). Any section which you request to have deleted from the transcript(s) of your interview(s) will be deleted. You are free to withdraw from the study at any time, and you may request that the entire transcript of your interview be destroyed. Additionally, you may choose not to answer any question. I will be sharing major aspects of my preliminary analysis with you, and you will have the opportunity to provide feedback. How I will be doing this is that I will send you my summary report and data analysis by email for review. As is clear from the foregoing, I will be taking measures to protect your confidentiality. Potential limitations in my ability to ensure your confidentiality and privacy are minimal; however, both I and my supervisor will have access to raw data, transcripts and findings. While there will be no compensation, potential benefits that you might derive from participating are new ideas for your professional and personal understanding and improvement. Potential harm if any is negligible as the interviews will focus on everyday professional practice. I will be asking about the experiences of wisdom at work. Participants are also welcome to share if they experience any struggles in their integration of mindfulness into their work if they feel comfortable. Additional information

Below, there is a place for you to sign to give your consent, should you decide to do so. There is also a place for you to add any stipulations. Should you decide to participate, please return one signed and dated copy to me and keep the other for your reference. All participants will receive a summary report of the research findings. Thank you very much. Sincerely,

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(Suwimon Phaetthayanan) Department of Leadership, Higher and Adult Education, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, 252 Bloor Street West, Toronto, ON M5S 1V6 Phone xxx-xxx-xxxx

To Be Completed by People Choosing to Participate

I have read through this document. I understand and am satisfied with the explanations offered, feel that my questions have been addressed, and agree to participate in the ways described. If I am making any exceptions or stipulations, these are: ______

______(Signature) ______(Printed Name) ______(Date

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Appendix G

Participant Recruitment Criteria

Table G1

Participant Recruitment Criteria

Threefold Secular B. or S. Practice Id Mindfulness orientation Country of residence and nationality Training training experience MC1 Buddhism (Mahāyāna, Chan) Canadian, born and raised Yes No B Yes MC2 Buddhism (Theravāda, Thai forest) Canadian, born and raised Yes No B Yes

MC3 Buddhism (Vajrayana, Tibetan, Shambhala) Canadian, born and raised (lived in Yes No B Yes the US for some years) MC4 Buddhism (Theravāda, Burmese and A Canadian immigrant, born and Yes Yes B Yes Nepalese) raised in New Zealand, worked in several countries MC5 Secular-informed mindfulness (chronic pain, Canadian, born and raised No Yes S Yes Dr. Jackie Gardner-Nix) MC6 Buddhism (Mahāyāna, Chan) A Canadian immigrant, born and Yes No B Yes raised in Poland MC7 Buddhism (Vajrayana, Tibetan, Shambhala) Canadian, born and raised Yes No B Yes

MC8 Buddhism (Mahāyāna, Thiền, Thích Nhất Canadian, born and raised Yes No B Yes Hạnh) MC9 Secular-informed mindfulness (chronic pain, Canadian, born and raised No Yes S Yes Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn) MT1 Buddhism (Theravāda, Thai forest) Thai, born and raised (studied and Yes No B Yes worked in Canada for 2 years)

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Threefold Secular B. or S. Practice Id Mindfulness orientation Country of residence and nationality Training training experience MC10 Secular-informed mindfulness (mindful Canadian, born and raised No Yes S Yes leadership, Yoga) MC11 Secular-informed mindfulness Canadian, born and raised No Yes S Yes (psychotherapy) MC12 Secular-informed mindfulness (chronic pain, Canadian, born and raised No Yes S Yes Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn) MT2 Buddhism (Theravāda, Thai) Thai, born and raised (studied and Yes No B Yes worked in Japan for several years) MC13 Buddhism (Mahāyāna, Thiền, Thích Nhất A Canadian immigrant, born and Yes No B Yes Hạnh) raised in Malaysia MC14 Buddhism (Mahāyāna, Japanese Zen) Canadian, born and raised Yes No B Yes MT3 Buddhism (Theravāda, Thai) Thai, born and raised Yes No B Yes MT4 Buddhism (Theravāda, Thai) Thai, born and raised (worked in the Yes No B Yes US for 3 months and worked in YYYa in the Middle East for 3 years)

MT5 Buddhism (Theravāda, Thai) Thai, born and raised Yes No B Yes MT6 Buddhism (Theravāda, Thai) Thai, born and raised Yes No B Yes MT7 Buddhism (Theravāda, Thai) Thai, born and raised Yes No B Yes

Note. B. = Buddhist-informed; S. = secular-informed. aYYY = a pseudonym for a country.

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Appendix H

Other Demographic Characteristics of Participants Table H1

Other Demographic Characteristics of Participants (2015)a

Id Gender Religion/Faith Age Education level Field of study

1 Male Buddhism 40-49 Master of Education in progress English, education

MC2 Male Buddhism 50-59 Graduate degree psychology

MC3 Male Buddhism 60-69 Bachelor of Education or higher education

MC4 Female Catholicism 64 Bachelor's degree or higher unknown

MC5 Female Catholicism 35-65 Bachelor's degree or higher nursing

MC6 Male Buddhism 45-65 college degree IT

MC7 Female Buddhism 60-69 Bachelor of Education or higher education

MC8 Male unknown 40-60 JD-MBA law, business

MC9 Female unknown 60-69 Bachelor's degree or higher mathematics

MT1 Female Buddhism 30-39 professional degree medicine

MC10 Female unknown 60-69 professional degree, 2 masters' degrees law

MC11 Male Judaism 60-69 professional degree medicine

MC12 Female unknown 60-69 Professional doctorate: Ed.D. education

architecture, science, MT2 Male Buddhism 30-39 Ph.D. engineering

international MC13 Female Buddhism 25-45 Ph.D. in progress development, education

MC14 Female Buddhism 30-45 Bachelor's degree Unknown

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Id Gender Religion/Faith Age Education level Field of study

Italian linguistics and literature, English MT3 Female Buddhism 30-39 Master's degree language education

business administration MT4 Female Buddhism 20-29 Bachelor's degree (finance)

Italian linguistics and MT5 Male Buddhism 30-39 Bachelor's degree literature

MT6 Male Buddhism 32-45 Bachelor's degree or higher IT

MT7 Female Buddhism 20-29 Bachelor's degree government Note. aThe demographic information was not directly asked during the interviews. Information presented is based on the interviewer’s observation and relevant contextual data gained from the main interview questions.

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Appendix I

Mindfulness Profile Description

The quality of participants’ mindfulness was assured in the recruitment criteria. In their answers to the interview questions guided by the Eightfold Path, participants showed that they had developed skills in precepts from the Buddhist Five Precepts; concentration from meditation; and wisdom from contemplation of loving-kindness and the Three Marks of Existence. Although most participants indicated that mindfulness practice did not influence their career choice, none worked in a job that was discouraged in Right Livelihood. All participants are long-term and experienced practitioners of mindfulness. Thai participants grew up in Thailand, in the Theravāda Buddhist culture and were raised in a Buddhist family. They identified themselves as a Buddhist from childhood. Other Canadian participants have different faith backgrounds. Canadian participants started learning about Buddhism later in their life, except for Yue who was an immigrant from Malaysia. Two Canadian participants practiced Theravāda Buddhism, seven practiced Mahāyāna Buddhism, and the other five practiced secular mindfulness. Some participants went through multiple faith-based or spiritual learning programs before they found Buddhism. For example, Adela joined many spiritual practice groups. It was not until she learned about the Ageless Wisdom by Alice Bailey who referred to the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path in the book that she learned about Buddhism. From then, she started practicing Buddhism at the same time as astrology.

All participants could not and did not count the hours they spent on learning and practicing mindfulness. The length of the practice cannot be determined because most participants did not remember exactly when they first started learning and practicing it. The interviews with the participants were completed in 2015. All Thai participants first learned about Buddhism from childhood in school but became more serious with it later in life in their teenage years or 20s. That means all Thai participants practiced Buddhism their whole life, or over 25 years, but only became more devoted from a certain period of time, and during a certain period of time.

Everybody practiced mindfulness in everyday life. Yotsaphon started practicing outside of school when he was 10 and kept it constant for 27 years. He went on week-long residential retreats several times. Benchamat and Farung started practicing more during high school.

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Benchamat kept her practice constant since childhood, or over 20 years ago, during her childhood Benchamat went with her grandmother on a retreat for three to five days several times. When she was in senior high school, she attended a seven-day retreat at a meditation centre for youths. After that she kept going on a two to three day retreat. During her undergraduate degree, she went on a retreat every two months. In total, she had gone on a retreat for over 50 days, but there was a short period of time for over a year that she became very devoted and practiced long hours almost every day. Farung had constantly practiced Buddhism for about 10 years and kept a daily practice. She attended multiple residential retreats and took courses on Buddhism. Naphisa, Panatda and Woraphat became more serious during their undergraduate degree. Naphisa became more serious about the practice 12 years ago, and only started her daily practice about six months before the interview. She attended several residential retreats. Yotsaphon and Panatda did not set aside time for daily practice. Panatda started becoming more serious with the practice over 15 years ago after attending a week-long retreat for youths. Woraphat became serious about the practice about 12 years ago. He went to temple to practice over the weekends and went on retreats. Saranyu was the only one who never went on a retreat but practiced informally at home before bed and at temple and practiced with his employees daily for about a year.

Canadian participants started later in their life except for Yue. Yue learned about Buddhism when she was in primary school. She learned about the Buddha’s life history and wanted to be like him, or to release suffering of the world. It was not until 2008 that she started joining the meditation group in Thích Nhất Hạnh’s tradition. She started to practice Buddhism regularly. She volunteered as a facilitator at a sitting group once a week. She did not keep a daily sitting meditation but practiced mindfulness on the go, or when she was walking or taking public transit. Jerzy started practicing over 20 years ago after college before he started work. He joined multiple retreats and had been teaching Buddhism at a Chan meditation group in Canada. David started practicing around the same time he started work, or almost 40 years ago. He learned Buddhism in the Tibetan tradition first in the United States. He teaches meditation at a Tibetan meditation group, and in school. Most participants including Kevin, Adela, Chance, Lex and Suzanna, started practicing mid-career. Kevin started practicing over 10 years ago. He meditated every day, went on multiple retreats, and volunteered at a meditation group every weekend. Adela had constantly practiced it since when she first learned about the Four Noble Truths and started a practice group over 10 years ago. She went on retreat two to six times a year during the

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past 16 years, and sometimes it was for one month at a time. She attended a few meditation groups weekly. Chance had been practicing Buddhism for 20 years since 1995. He first started with Korean Zen for two years before moving to the Thai Forest tradition. He meditated daily by doing sitting meditation for one hour and walking meditation for 30 minutes. From 1997-2003 he attended five- to ten-day intensive retreats once or twice a year, and now he volunteered at a monastery on some weekends and holidays for about 10 percent of his time in a year, or several times a year. Lex had been practicing for 14 years, doing different types of precepts, meditation and contemplation in the Vietnamese Zen tradition of Thích Nhất Hạnh or the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings of the Order of Interbeing, and sometimes the basic mindfulness of Shin Zen Young. He maintained a daily practice inside and outside of the workplace. Beatrice started practicing Tai Chi before joining a Japanese Zen meditation centre. She started meditation training 14 years ago. She joined their intensive practice program yearly. Gena had been practicing Tibetan Buddhism for about 10 years. She did sitting meditation and mindfulness daily, followed the discipline, and conceptually understood the Eightfold Path. She joined a meditation group weekly.

As for secular and non-traditional practitioners, Suzanna started in her mid-career after 15 years of work. Being a secular practitioner, she had the freedom to design the learning and practice of mindfulness for herself. She did a quiet sitting meditation every day. Most of her time spent on the practice was on yoga. Jessica started towards the end of her career. She spent a number of hours on secular-informed mindfulness courses and programs and attended retreats twice a year during the past six years. She started teaching mindfulness as a job towards retirement. She later incorporated Zen into her practice. Alice is the most recent practitioner, starting three years ago. She took the mindfulness-based chronic pain management course and facilitated the course for patients. She practiced daily—15 minutes in the morning and 5-10 minutes during the day or at lunchtime with colleagues. Jane had practiced for 15 years, or since when she read the book Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat-Zinn (2013) and had incorporated it into her teacher teachings for seven years. Sinai practiced secular-informed mindfulness, but it has a deep spiritual impact on him. He was not subscribed to any organized group but was pan- religious and pan-spiritual. Sinai practiced mindfulness all the time he practiced psychotherapy throughout his career, especially in group therapy, but only identified it as mindfulness three years ago. He called his practice ‘mindful knowing’ and ‘mindful communication.’ Outside of

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work, his daily practice was 20-minute lying meditation in the morning and being alert on insights that came to him during the day. He learned widely from multiple religions including Buddhism and went to retreats and temples for over 20 years ago. He identified with none of the religions and wanted to be a free person.

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Appendix J

Descriptions of Participants’ Mindfulness Motives and Goals

Appendix J1. Mindfulness Motives

Thai participants grew up as a Buddhist but became interested in mindfulness or Buddhism later in life. Most Canadian participants were not Buddhists from childhood and explored Buddhism or mindfulness in adulthood. Panatda, Benchamat and Farung became more committed after more exposure to the practice. Kevin was just exploring Buddhism when he first started and wanted to understand wisdom. Similarly, Suzanna was just curious. Sinai was interested in truth and started practicing what he did not know that it might be mindfulness. Beatrice was seeking meaning in life. Benchamat was surrounded by elder practitioners during her undergraduate degree and was constantly invited to practice it by going to temple, going on retreats or even practicing at home. She became very devoted to practicing for nirvana for a while.

While some participants such as Yotsaphon just continued to practice Buddhism after their first lesson because they enjoyed it, the reason other participants started becoming serious about or more committed to the practice was not from the first lesson but subsequent lessons, or a critical incident in their lives.

Woraphat, Naphisa, Adela, Chance, David, Gena, Beatrice, Jessica, Alice and Jane became interested due to stress. Woraphat started going to temple in the last semester of his undergraduate program because he was so stressed that he became ill physically and mentally. He felt, ‘The courses were difficult. I felt I chose the wrong major. I chose the wrong faculty. I didn’t want to study with a lot of smart students like this. I wanted to have an easygoing life with relatively smart peers. I wanted to be in a more laid-back society, not as competitive as this.’ After going to temple for a while, he was able to let go. He said that he surprisingly developed faith and understood the teachings quickly when he was stressed. He gained wisdom from reading a book on empty mind called ‘Chit Wang’ in Thai written by Buddhadasa Bhikkhu and started searching how and where to practice it. Naphisa enjoyed meditation since childhood but was not serious about it until a period in her life when she was stressed during her third undergraduate year and attended a retreat. Adela could not understand why she was suffering and

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how to cope with it. She took many different spiritual lessons until she found the Four Noble Truths. David had self-doubt, self-loathing, anxiety and confusion about what to do in his life. Yue wanted to transform suffering in the world. She started off with wanting to reduce the suffering of others but realized her own suffering was interconnected with others, thus having to transform hers first.

I learned that … it’s really about transforming my own suffering that the world’s suffering can be transformed, … I mean it’s interconnected, … then to do that, I have to have a relaxed body, … enough capacity, and enough concentration, and also enough insights, so I think that’s basically why I want to practice mindfulness, yeah. And of course, enough compassion for myself and for others.

Beatrice was struggling with depression when she first started at the Zen centre. Jessica, Alice and Jane had chronic pain. Jane also had a lot of stress from work.

Farung became a little interested when she was in senior high school at the age of 17-18. She wondered why she was not happy and was searching her self. She became more serious with the practice and was satisfied with its outcomes of relaxation. She described her learning cultivation:

I tried to search my self, and once I tried the Dhamma, I felt I could see the result and started to study it more and more by myself by meditating, praying, or listening, … and reading more, little by little, … when I was studying for the university entrance exam, I felt distracted, so when I did this, I felt relaxed. Nothing much, … after that I liked it, so I continued with it into university, if there were elective courses on Buddhism, I’d take them, because I wanted to know more…. Now, my views on Dhamma have changed … because I have listened more. In the past, I just did insight meditation, concentration meditation and prayer, being with just myself, but now I feel better because I listen to Youtube video clips on Dhamma, because I don’t think I can be enlightened by just doing sitting meditation by myself [laughs].

Many participants practiced because of the benefits they experienced. Panatda was introduced to Buddhism since childhood but was indifferent to it, and only became interested in it from university after she was forced to attend a week-long retreat during her undergraduate

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degree. She did not mention precisely why she continued to practice, but she claimed some proven benefits from the practice that led me to conclude it was due to those benefits. That was the same reason for other practitioners to continue—seeing the benefits. The benefits for Suzanna were about improving leadership at work when she assumed a leadership position later in her career as a mediator and then an arbitrator. Once started she found the benefits were endless, so she kept practicing:

I want to be a calm person, a patient person, a more tolerant person, … disengaged from emotions that could be painful and feel out of control. Sometimes emotions can feel out of control or thoughts can kind of take over in a … distractive way, so just to feel a little bit more detached from the things that can seem out of my control.

Beatrice saw that sometimes Buddhism is a tool for resolving a situation, but that is just part of living life at its fullest:

It’s an amazing tool in trying to stay in the present moment and to clear the mind and to calm one’s emotions and … to focus on the situation at present, … to be able to listen when people are speaking, … to pay attention to tasks, like, all of these are very compelling reasons to practice mindfulness, but really, I think they all boil down to just … to be able to experience life at its fullest, ‘Cause so often … when we’re distracted, and our minds are daydreaming, so we’re just missing out on so much in life.… I remember when I did my very first meditation retreat, and it was lunch time and I was eating a plum and I took a bite out of this plum and … I thought to myself, ‘This is the most delicious plum I’ve ever eaten.’ and then I thought, ‘You know what, I’ve probably eaten many, many, many delicious plums, but I was never there when I was eating them, in the same way, I’m there right now, like really tasting that plum and nothing else,’ and that just opened up a window for me, I suddenly thought, ‘Boy, there’s a lot of life that I’m probably missing ‘cause I’m not paying attention to what’s going on right in front of me. I’m all distracted. I’m someplace else half the time,’ and so that to me is the most compelling reason to practice mindfulness; it’s just there’s so many things; there’s such a—it’s such an incredible world that our lives are so rich and full … and short; we don’t wanna miss any of it.

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Among the Thai participants, Saranyu seemed to be the only person who started practicing Buddhism more seriously for work due to work distractions, or to improve concentration. It is more common among secular practitioners to keep work goals in mind in their practice. However, after practicing for a long time, some participants such as Beatrice, Sinai and Jane just saw mindfulness as a way of life, and they would not know how to live otherwise. Beatrice said, ‘I don’t even know if … it’s … necessarily a situation of having a why, it just is the most natural way to live. And so, it’s not even something that’s … necessarily conscious.’

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Appendix J2. Mindfulness Goals

The original motive for practicing mindfulness or Buddhism, and the reason they continued practicing or their practice goals are not contradictory but may or may not address the motive. These goals are short-term and long-term. The immediate outcomes or short-term goals to which participants aspired are concentration and wisdom:

Participants wanted to discipline themselves. Naphisa prayed every day to keep her practice regular and be self-controlled.

Participants such as Woraphat, David and Jane practiced mindfulness to be present. Woraphat’s immediate goal was just to be present.

Participants wanted to gain concentration. Farung used to set a goal for concentration. Other participants wanted to be able to focus.

Participants such as Gena and Sinai just wanted to be mindful.

In work experience, Kevin used mindfulness to calm and clear his mind before work starts, but he did not have a goal for his Buddhist practice. He was just following the path and focused on the process.

Participants wanted to gain wisdom. Farung now wanted to cultivate wisdom to know what to do in a situation, and what to change in a situation whether it is our own mind, others or something else. Adela wanted to understand how the mind works and see into the reality of the Three Marks of Existence. Sinai wanted the group therapy to see the possibilities for love, meaning, connectivity, harmony and truth.

Participants practiced mindfulness to reduce mental and physical suffering. Alice wanted to be able to live with chronic pain. Jane did not want to suffer all the suffering. Yue wanted to transform suffering in the world. Yue saw a mindfulness goal as overall well-being.

Participants practiced mindfulness to be happy. Woraphat mentioned elsewhere that he practiced mindfulness just to be present, but ultimately, he appeared to want to reach nirvana. In another context, he mentioned that his life goal was just to be happy in the present moment. His life goal and mindfulness goal are aligned, but it seems his mindfulness goal was harder to achieve in this lifetime.

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I understand better that we have a goal, … must not fabricate, and life will be the most normal. That is, if we have work to do, then just do work. When I am mindful, I label actions. Life is just that. It may sound as though I had no goal, but I think this is exactly the goal. That is, how to be happy every day, not stressed. If I work better, that’s just a by-product or result of merit.… This makes me know what the world is up to. It helped me not to suffer. There is a goal, and that is to live my life happily in the present moment every day that arises.

Saranyu also practiced not causing harm and living happily. Jessica wanted to be happy regardless of the conditions. Chance did not explicitly mention what his ultimate mindfulness goal is, but what he wanted was ‘being at peace with whatever is arising, and … having mettā and loving-kindness, … for everybody, no matter how difficult they are.’ He saw that as being enlightened. Adela also wanted to be happy, and that is being at peace. Suzanna said Westerners want to be happy and happiness is dependent on success.

Participants practiced mindfulness to improve themselves. Adela practiced mindfulness and saw her faults and wanted to improve them. Farung and Naphisa practiced mindfulness to prevent mistakes because their jobs were very detail-oriented. Saranyu practiced and trained his employees mindfulness to improve his organization as well as social life and people around them. Benchamat practiced and wanted to become intelligent and smart so that she could have deeper thoughts. David wanted to be kinder to himself and others, more generous to himself and develop more space in his life. Gena wanted to understand her mind and hoped that that would improve other aspects of her life. Suzanna and Jessica practiced secular-informed mindfulness to improve her leadership at work and become a better person.

Yue was supportive of mindfulness regardless of the tradition that leads to the same goal of social justice. She jokingly called this ‘critical,’ as in ‘critical’ compassion.

Workplaces trained mindfulness for general work benefits. Saranyu trained his workers to meditate to be calm, concentrate on work, produce good work results, and reach workers’ life and work goals.

Participants noticed the change of purpose in mindfulness programs that are becoming more secular. Woraphat noticed that mindfulness was used for relaxation and was linked to

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science. He did not think it was a problem except that it diverted the purpose of the practice from nirvana to worldly purposes.

The long-term goal for the practice is deliverance. Theravāda participants such as Woraphat and Benchamat practiced mindfulness to reach nirvana. The other benefits Woraphat gained were just by-products to him. He knew that it is a long path, and he had to practice it continuously until he got there. When Benchamat first started practicing Buddhism seriously, she was very devoted to achieving enlightenment and nirvana, but later on she stepped back and wanted to maintain a balanced life between worldly desires and nirvana. Farung said that ultimately the goal of the teaching is nirvana.

For the modern world, I view it as … ‘arising, existing and dissolving,’ it’s like ‘birth, old age, sickness and death,’ … it’s one of the core teachings that lead to the highest achievement in Buddhism that people seek, that is nirvana, or not-self because it will dissolve. Therefore, ‘birth, old age, sickness and death’ aims at not-self.

Mahāyāna practitioners have a different goal from the Theravadin because of a different understanding of the teachings. Jerzy explained the ultimate goal of parinirvāṇa or Buddhahood in Chan Buddhism:

Nirvana is … extinguishment, right? So, all your … liking and disliking and all these things will be extinguished, but the other thing talks about something even larger, when did these things even come to form, right? But the relations are much trickier because we’re reaching not some kind of phenomenal relationship, so that’s why, … the nirvana itself is … the true mind. So, from this perspective, … you cannot achieve nirvana from the perspective of Mahāyāna, because if you have, you’ll still have … an object and subject, right?—You who are the one achieving nirvana. So, in Mahāyāna concepts and path to the Buddhahood, you do not have the concept of achieving nirvana. And this way, as Mahāyāna explains, is the true, … nirvana, it’s called parinirvāṇa, which is complete nirvana. This actually relates to the Buddha passing, like his nirvana was actually only still with the outflow, this piece, outflows of his body, the moment he passed away, then he entered parinirvāṇa, complete extinguishment of the Buddha, not … the nirvana of the arhat, … even in Theravāda, there’s clear distinguishment between the two, right? So,

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Mahāyāna, a sort of like aiming at … that … completeness of the achievement, which is the Buddhahood or the parinirvāṇa.

Yue practiced mindfulness to be free.

Since Sinai took whatever comes to him that feels right to him as wisdom; during the discussion about the goal, he decided he wanted to become a Buddha:

The only thing I can honestly say is that when you ask that question, what my goal is, the words that came to me were, ‘become the Buddha.’ Which I think is the same as saying my goal is Buddhahood. I don't see it as … likely to happen. [Laughs] Not impossible ... But, … and the fact that—because of my commitment in just … to value what comes in the moment, my non-identifying as a Buddhist does not stop me from valuing the goal that came to me of wanting to become the Buddha. [Laughs]

David wanted to befriend himself. He has achieved that a lot of the time but not all the time. Gena wanted to have unconditional love for everyone.

Some participants, such as Suzanna, did not have long-term goals.

Participants did not have a mindfulness goal. Yotsaphon thought he and most people did not set a goal for their daily mindfulness practice; therefore, they did not set up a daily practice or learning program for it. In fact, the practice blended into daily living. He practiced without an expected result. He knew that mindfulness helped with stress. When he was mindful of his stress, automatically he practiced it to deal with it. Panatda did not state her goal of the practice. Kevin said while working and being mindful; he was not attached to the goal of either work or mindfulness. What was important was the process and learning.

Even though Yotsaphon did not set his own mindfulness goal because he thought it was implicit, he said that in Buddhism, it is fine to be ambitious and have a goal. He gave an example of the Buddha’s ambition and goal in his practice. He said, ‘What if the Buddha did not want to be enlightened? … On Vesak day the Buddha said, ‘Even if all my blood and flesh is parched, if I cannot be awakened, absolutely I shall not leave this seat.’

As for non-Buddhist practices, participants have also set goals for them. Saranyu believed that positive thinking leads to a better life and work.

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Chance noticed a difference in the purpose of religious and secular mindfulness. Buddhist mindfulness is practiced not to be caught up in the sensory world, but because the West is ‘in a very doing mode,’ ‘Mindfulness gets translated into, “How can I make this sensory world fit more the way I want to be?”’ He learned from his teacher that we could skillfully be effective at work but also be available to something besides the sensory world; otherwise, we are unavailable to a pure awareness, or an awareness without desire. Yet, he thought because he came from a Western frame of mind, he said, ‘I got into Buddhism and meditation as a way of making this sensory world being more effective in terms of maximizing pleasure and avoiding pain.’ He tried to undo his habit and become more aware. Jerzy shared a similar observation of secularized and Westernized Buddhism that is seeking happiness. The purpose of improving ourselves is secular because there is no self. We should expose ourselves to both pain and pleasure to develop virtues such as patience and endurance which lead to wisdom in future circumstances. We do not have to achieve the goal of the practice but just to ensure we have the right direction:

We’re not aiming at our true mind; we’re aiming at … alleviating the suffering, … alleviating stress, doing something positive on some limited level, and we can be very successful with that, especially with the help of science and help of all other … society as a whole working together, but as we know, society as a whole work together but at some point … in other mechanisms of society like … politics, it would bring out the vicious aspects of the humans. They start fighting despite the wisdom of Buddha was actually two-thousand five-hundred years old. If everyone will truly understand, we wouldn't have any other wars until now. But despite that, millions of people practice in Buddhism, and despite other spiritual paths and teachers, we still have that.… Some people will say, ‘I don't watch news, I don't want to see suffering, … I just take care of my own life, and I’m living this or that,’ but this actually, it divides you from the fact that life is suffering; that's why when we sit in meditation, we did not escape pain. It’s not the right approach to find yourself extremely comfortable. If you find yourself extremely comfortable in meditation, sit longer to experience pain because pain then you’ll learn that pain and pleasure is a part of life.

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Appendix K

Interview Guide 1 (As of 18 Oct 2016) Questions on work:

1. Tell me about your career.

2. How has mindfulness influenced your career path?

3. How has your work experience been?

Questions on the mindfulness construct:

4. What is mindfulness to you?

5. How have you been practicing mindfulness?

6. How is it like to be mindful at work?

Questions on mindfulness learning and training at work:

7. How has your learning experience of mindfulness been compared to the learning of

other practices, and knowledges in the workplace?

8. How are you practicing mindfulness in the workplace?

Questions on wisdom—Right View—insight:

9. How have you experienced suffering, impermanence and not-self/interconnectedness

in your work through mindfulness?

10. Give me situations/instances in which you faced some challenges, how did

mindfulness help you to find solutions, manage and make change in the workplace?

11. Give me situations/instances in which you derive great pleasure and success, how

were you in those situations through mindfulness?

12. Through your mindfulness practice, how have your self-understanding and self-

regulation changed in relation to work?

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Questions on wisdom—Right Intention:

13. When you were mindful, how has it helped you to connect with other people at

work?

14. How has it helped you to connect with yourself, work and work environment?

Questions on wisdom—contradiction and complementarity:

15. What are the virtues, values and principles you are practicing?

16. How does mindfulness help you to practice these virtues, values and principles at

work?

17. In your mindfulness practice, what have you found complementary and contradictory

to work?

Questions on wisdom—transformation:

18. Could you give me a few examples of situations in which you practiced mindfulness, and explain how it impacted or changed your work process and work-life? 19. How has your mindfulness level changed over time? Questions on wisdom—integration:

20. How has your experience been in bringing mindfulness into the workplace?

21. What is the support you have gained or will need in practicing mindfulness in the

workplace?

22. How do you make your practice sustainable in the workplace?

23. How do you make the practice universally accessible to other people at work?

Questions on mindfulness outcomes:

24. How do you assess or evaluate your mindfulness at work?

25. What are the outcomes of your mindfulness practice in the workplace?

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26. What other practices do you do that share similar outcomes with mindfulness?

27. How do you want the research to benefit your practice?

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Appendix L

Data Collection

Table L1 Data Collection Recruitment Interview 1 Interview 1 Interview Interview 2 Total Snowball Id source date details Length 2 date details Length time sampling

at 6.45 pm at a in the evening I met him personally public library, by phone from Yes, not MC1 at a meditation group. 28-Apr-2015 Toronto 1:15:07 5-Aug-2015 Toronto 1:03:54 2:19:01 interviewed

in the evening I recruited him at 1.30 pm in his around 6 pm through a meditation office in by phone from MC2 group mailing list. 29-Apr-15 Toronto 1:00:47 2-Oct-2015 Toronto 0:28:44 1:29:31 No

at 5.30 pm at a I posted a poster on meditation at 1 pm by the notice board at a centre in phone from Yes, not MC3 meditation centre 6-May-2015 Toronto 0:57:59 17-Oct-2015 Toronto 0:17:55 1:15:54 interviewed

at 5 pm at a cafe in Toronto, and I recruited him moved up to her through a meditation office when the 13-Nov- at 3.15 at the MC4 group mailing list. 13-May-15 cafe closed 1:55:00 2015 same cafe 1:02:40 2:57:40 No

I emailed a health centre in Sudbury. Could not They distributed successfully information, and I at 10.30 am by schedule the received a reply from phone from second MC5 the participant. 22-May-15 Sudbury 1:04:07 never interview. 0:00:00 1:04:07 No

267

Recruitment Interview 1 Interview 1 Interview Interview 2 Total Snowball Id source date details Length 2 date details Length time sampling

at 5 pm after work at his at 5 pm at his I met him personally workplace in workplace in MC6 at a meditation group. 5/22/2015, Toronto 2:57:36 3-Sep-2015 Toronto 0:50:49 3:48:25 No

at 12 pm at a I posted a poster on meditation at 12.30 by the notice board at a centre in phone from MC7 meditation centre. 25-May-15 Toronto 1:27:04 17-Oct-2015 Toronto 0:20:50 1:47:54 No

Could not successfully I met personally by at 4 pm at his schedule the attending joining a workplace in second MC8 meditation group. 25-May-15 Toronto 0:51:37 never interview 0:00:00 0:51:37 No

I met her at a mindfulness at 2:30 am at a at 10 am by conference. She was social club in phone from Yes, not MC9 another attendant. 28-May-15 Toronto 1:11:52 17-Oct-2015 Toronto 0:32:25 1:44:17 interviewed

at 10.55 am in her apartment in at 5 pm in her I knew her from Toronto ending 31-Aug- apartment in MT1 before. 30-May-15 at 12.00 1:46:52 2015 Toronto 0:27:50 2:14:42 No

I met her personally at 3 pm at her at 5.45 pm by at a mindfulness house in phone from MC10 sitting group. 2-Jun-2015 Toronto 1:29:55 26-Oct-2015 Toronto 0:12:33 1:42:28 No Could not successfully I met him personally at 1 pm in his schedule the at a mindfulness office in second MC11 sitting group. 3-Jun-2015 Toronto 2:26:14 never interview 0:00:00 2:26:14 No

268

Recruitment Interview 1 Interview 1 Interview Interview 2 Total Snowball Id source date details Length 2 date details Length time sampling

I asked a professor to distribute information at 12 pm by at 4.15 pm by through his group phone from phone from MC12 mailing list. 6-Jun-2015 Toronto 1:10:20 20-Oct-2015 Toronto 0:18:09 1:28:29 No

late at night (Bangkok time) Time not My friend in at my friend's noted, by Thailand referred him apartment in phone from MT2 to me. 17-Jun-2015 Bangkok. 1:46:52 6-Sep-2015 Bangkok 0:26:00 2:12:52 No

at 8.15 pm by at 9.30 pm by I knew her from phone from phone from MC13 before. 19-Jun-15 Toronto 2:27:34 12-Sep-2015 Toronto 0:30:48 2:58:22 No

I emailed a meditation centre to distribute a flyer and Time not called them to follow at 7.50 pm by noted, by up. They posted the phone from phone from MC14 poster at the centre. 25-Jun-15 Toronto 1:26:26 20-Oct-2015 Toronto 0:27:09 1:53:35 No

I posted recruitment information on one of in the afternoon my Facebook groups. at a coffee shop at 9 pm by She was a friend from at a hotel in phone from MT3 school. 30-Jun-15 Bangkok 1:36:29 27-Jul-2015 Bangkok 0:30:54 2:07:23 No

in the evening at My school friend my friend's at 9 pm by referred her to me. It apartment in phone from MT4 was her sister. 30-Jun-15 Bangkok 1:55:38 21-Jul-2015 Bangkok 0:43:14 2:38:52 No

269

Recruitment Interview 1 Interview 1 Interview Interview 2 Total Snowball Id source date details Length 2 date details Length time sampling

I recruited him at night by at 8 pm by through a school phone from phone from MT5 Facebook group. 5-Jul-2015 Bangkok 2:07:06 27-Jul-2015 Bangkok 0:36:58 2:44:04 No

at around 10 am (Bangkok time) by phone from Nakhon Ratchasima Province. I modified interview questions to focus on interview 2 I posted recruitment questions - information on a bringing school Facebook mindfulness into group. A friend of work and the mine referred him to Four Noble MT6 me. 11-Jul-2015 Truths. 2:10:40 N/A N/A 0:00:00 2:10:40 No

270

Recruitment Interview 1 Interview 1 Interview Interview 2 Total Snowball Id source date details Length 2 date details Length time sampling

at noon at a coffee shop near Sam Yan area in Bangkok. I modified interview questions, focusing on questions for interview 2 - I posted recruitment bringing information on one of mindfulness into my Facebook groups. work and the A friend referred her Four Noble MT7 to me. 22-Jul-2015 Truths. 1:12:41 N/A N/A 0:00:00 1:12:41 No

271

Appendix M

Interview Guide 2 (As of 18 Oct 2016) 1. Tell me about your experience of the Four Noble Truths: a. What are the key sufferings you experience at work? b. What cause those sufferings? c. How is it like when these sufferings at work ended? d. How do you end those sufferings at work? 2. How do you evaluate your practice? 3. Why do you practice mindfulness?

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Appendix N

Thesis Completion Timeframe

Table N1 Thesis Completion Timeframe 2013 2014 Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

2015 2016 Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Recruiting Participants Interview 1 Interview 2 Transcription Mindfulness Observation 1 Data Analysis > Finding Draft 1> Data Organization > Thesis Draft 1 > 2017 2018 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan-May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec >Data Organization >Data Analysis >Finding Draft 1 Finding Draft 2 Thesis >Thesis Draft 1 Draft 2> 2019 Final >Thesis Draft 2 Thesis Draft 3 Draft

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Endnotes

i Productivity: ‘The amount of output per unit of input achieved by a business organization, industrial sector, or national economy. In the field of human resource management, the primary interest is in labour productivity; that is, the amount of output per unit of labour input. Labour productivity can be expressed in a variety of different ways, including the volume or value of output per worker, per day, per shift, or per person-hour. Labour productivity can be increased by lengthening working hours, intensifying effort, or improving skills. It can also be raised by investment in labour-saving machinery or by improvements in the system of work and coordination of work activities. Attempts by employers to raise productivity may be resisted by workers, particularly when these involve extending working time or intensifying effort levels’ (Heery & Noon, 2008, p. 65). ii Efficiency: ‘The comparison of what is actually produced or performed with what can be achieved with the same consumption of resources (money, time, labor, etc.). It is an important factor in determination of productivity’ (Efficiency, 2018). iii Organizational effectiveness: ‘The efficiency with which an association is able to meet its objectives. The main measure of organizational effectiveness for a business will generally be expressed in terms of how well its net profitability compares with its target profitability. Additional measures might include growth data and the results of customer satisfaction surveys’ (Organizational effectiveness, 2018). iv Market culture: ‘A results-oriented organization. The major concern is getting the job done. People are competitive and goal oriented. The leaders are hard drivers, producers, and competitors. They are tough and demanding. The glue that holds the organization together is an emphasis on winning. Reputation and success are common concerns. The long-term focus is on competitive actions and achievement of measurable goals and targets. Success is defined in terms of market share and penetration. Competitive pricing and market leadership are important. The organizational style is hard-driving competitiveness (Cameron & Quinn, 2011, p. 247). v Problem-focused coping: ‘problem-focused efforts are often directed at defining the problem, generating alternative solutions, weighting the alternatives in terms of their costs and benefits, choosing among them, and acting.… Problem-solving implies an objective, analytic process that is focused primarily on the environment; problem-focused coping also includes strategies that are directed inward’ (R. S. Lazarus & Folkman, 1984, p. 152). vi Emotion-focused coping: ‘consists of cognitive processes directed at lessening emotional distress and includes strategies such as avoid-ance, minimization, distancing, selective attention, positive comparisons, and wresting, positive value from negative events’ (R. S. Lazarus & Folkman, 1984, p. 150). vii Kamma-patha: ‘'course of action', is a name for the group of 10 kinds of either unwholesome or wholesome actions, viz. I. The tenfold unwholesome courses of action (akusala-kamma-patha): ▪ 3 bodily actions: killing, stealing, unlawful sexual intercourse; ▪ 4 verbal actions: lying, slandering, rude speech, foolish babble; ▪ 3 mental actions: covetousness, ill-will, evil views’ (Nyanatiloka, 1988b). viii Referential reflexivity: promotes ‘understanding degrees of epistemic permeability. It refers to the consequences that arise from a meeting between the reflexivity exhibited by actors within the social world and that exhibited by a researcher as part of a social scientific community. It takes place where the production of accounts meet contexts of reception that seek to render events, conditions and experiences intelligible via a meeting of points of view. The power to ignore or act upon these is variable among and between different groups and that also informs the extent to which production and reception are differentiated, conjoined in various ways or collapsed into the same domain of activity’ (May & Perry, 2011, p. 85). ix Ignorance (avijjā): ‘nescience, unknowing; synonymous with delusion (moha, s. mūla), is the primary root of all evil and suffering in the world, veiling man's mental eyes and preventing him from seeing the true nature of things. It is the delusion tricking beings by making life appear to them as permanent, happy, substantial and beautiful and preventing them from seeing that everything in reality is impermanent, liable to suffering, void of 'I' and 'mine', and basically impure (s. vipallāsa). Ignorance is defined as 'not knowing the four truths, namely, suffering, its origin, its cessation, and the way to its cessation' (S. XII, 4). … As ignorance is the foundation of all life-affirming actions, of all evil and suffering, therefore it stands first in the formula of Dependent Origination (paticca-samuppāda)’ (Nyanatiloka, 1988a).

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