Mindfulness Within the Full Range of Buddhist and Asian Meditative 4 Practices

Geoffrey Samuel

Introduction traditions of lay Buddhist meditation developed in the Theravāda Buddhist countries of Burma and The interest in mindfulness as a therapeutic Thailand in the early to mid-twentieth century. modality within Western medicine got going in The specific techniques on which MBSR drew, 1979, with Jon Kabat-Zinn’s introduction of the particularly the Vipassanā practices associated Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program with U Ba Khin, S.N. Goenka, Ajahn Cha, and (MBSR) at the University of Massachusetts others, had already been taught widely in Western Medical Center (Kabat-Zinn 2003). There is by Buddhist contexts, in North America and else- now a very substantial literature both on where, from the 1960s and 1970s onward. These Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and on the Southeast Asian and North American approaches family of techniques and therapies that derive already represented what can be called a Buddhist from it, and also a substantial critical literature, modernism, or modernist Buddhism, particularly including a couple of my own contributions in their presentation of Buddhism as a philosophy (Samuel 2014, 2015a). Here I hope to take the or scientific teaching rather than a religion. argument further, but begin with a brief summary Kabat-Zinn and his associates were aware of and of points I made in the two earlier pieces, in influenced by other forms of Buddhism, particu- particular to emphasize the extent to which larly varieties of Ch’an (Zen) Buddhist medita- MBSR and related techniques are already quite a tion, but these too had undergone substantial long way distant from anything that might be rethinking in modern terms, both in their native labeled as ‘mindfulness’ in pre-modern Buddhist context of Japan and in the West. contexts. This ‘modernist Buddhist’ background pro- Firstly, the core techniques of MBSR were vided the basis for a further modernization and derived from recent developments in Buddhist secularization of Buddhism in the form of MBSR practice. They were drawn for the most part from itself and the various associated and derivative techniques, such as Mindfulness-Based Cogni- tive Therapy (MBCT) developed in the UK by Mark Williams and others. Here I am using the This chapter is a revised version of my presentation at term ‘secularization’ to refer to the removal of the conference, ‘Mindfulness and Compassion: The Art and Science of Contemplative Practice,’ San Francisco explicitly religious, spiritual and ethical content State University, June 3–7, 2015. and to the presentation of the practices as ‘sci- entific’ and as explainable in materialist terms. G. Samuel (&) School of Languages and Cultures, University of Admittedly ambivalence persists regarding Sydney, Sydney 2006, NSW, Australia how far MBSR and MBCT should still in some e-mail: [email protected]

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 47 R.E. Purser et al. (eds.), Handbook of Mindfulness, Mindfulness in Behavioral Health, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-44019-4_4 48 G. Samuel sense be seen as ‘Buddhist.’ Jon Kabat-Zinn out new guidelines on depression which ‘rec- himself is a committed Buddhist practitioner, as ommended MBCT for people who are currently were many of those involved in developing and well but have experienced three or more episodes teaching the various Mindfulness techniques. of depression’ (Williams and Kuyken 2012). Kabat-Zinn’s writings tend to play it both ways: However, while the mindfulness-based tech- Mindfulness is not Buddhism, but it also in some niques are certainly being taught, and presum- sense represents the essence of Buddhism, the ably practiced, on a very large scale, there have one significant core message of the tradition. been few other major breakthroughs of this kind, However, it is clear that MBSR, MBCT, and and it is less than clear how good mindfulness most of the derivative techniques have been actually is as a therapeutic technique. intended by their originators to be seen by both For what it is worth, a series of systematic therapists and patients as non-religious, and reviews and meta-analyses have so far been unable indeed to be accessible because of this to demonstrate that mindfulness-based therapies non-religious character to those who might reject are any better than other available therapies. Some an explicitly ‘Buddhist’ approach. In addition, of the problems here are methodological rather while ‘mindfulness’ is an attractive label, its than substantive; despite the large number of meaning in these contemporary contexts is sig- studies, there are not very many high-quality nificantly different from the various meanings of studies of the right kind on the mindfulness-based the Buddhist terms—sati in Pali, smṛti in San- therapies to evaluate their usefulness. Willoughby skrit, dran pa in Tibetan, and so on—which it Britton, herself a significant researcher in this purports to translate.1 field, comments on the latest major systematic The rejection of religion has led to some review, the Association for Health and Research commentators raising the question of whether the Quality (AHRQ)’s 2014 report (Goyal et al. new mindfulness-based approaches represent an 2014), ‘This review—and pretty much every one authentic version of the Buddhist teachings. This before it—has found that meditation is not any question is worth taking seriously, if only better than any other kind of therapy.’ She goes on because it alerts us to the distance between the to say that ‘The important thing to understand Buddhist origins of these practices and their about the report is that they were looking for active present form. However, in many ways the busi- control groups, and they found that only 47 out of ness of origins can be a distraction from the over 18,000 studies had them, which is pretty perhaps more significant questions of what our telling: it suggests that there are fewer than 50 present culture and society is doing with these high-quality studies on meditation.’2 practices, what we are using them for, and what Evidence-based medicine, with its clinical tri- else we might be doing with them. als, randomized double-blind protocols and I think that we can accept that the introduction meta-analyses, is a major minefield in its own of the mindfulness-based therapies has, by and right, and part of the problem is that meditation large, been a good thing. There are certainly does not fit well into this frame. Neither, it might arguments about whether they are as effective as be said, do a lot of other things that are also is sometimes claimed, both in terms of the probably quite good for us. Evidence-based standard and quite restrictive procedures of medicine is primarily a way of making decisions evidence-based medicine, and in more general about resource allocation. It cannot tell what is the terms. In terms of official recognition, perhaps best treatment for any individual person. But it the high point came in 2009 when the UK’s should also be said that if the mindfulness-based National Institute for Clinical Excellence brought techniques are no better than the alternatives in

2Britton’s comments are in a 2014 interview with Tricycle 1For this reason, I generally speak below of ‘mindfulness- (Britton 2014). For an earlier report, see Chiesa and based’ techniques or practices, rather than of ‘mindfulness.’ Serretti (2010). 4 Mindfulness Within the Full Range of Buddhist and Asian … 49 terms of their ability to meet specific therapeutic or transpersonal aspects affect the practice of goals, they may at least be less harmful. The mindfulness-based techniques in the contempo- mindfulness-based techniques have helped to rary world? What sense can we make of these legitimate a substantial reduction in the massive aspects within contemporary scientific contexts? default prescribing of psycho-active drugs for More generally, if the growth of these techniques psychiatric illness. They have probably enabled in their new global context offers us an significant numbers of people who might have unprecedented opportunity, and I believe that it become dependent on such drugs to gain some does, then how do we grasp that opportunity in autonomy, agency, and control over their situa- order to respond to the equally unprecedented tion. If so, we should surely welcome these problems that we, the human population living developments. The mindfulness-based techniques on this finite planet, will have to face over the are also, I would suggest, of value in that they years to come? have allowed psychiatry, clinical psychology, and related disciplines to start taking consciousness and its role in human function seriously once Mindfulness as Panacea and the Range more, and in a new way. I shall say some more of Approaches about this later on. The discussion which follows in this chapter I start, as I said, with the question of ‘mindful- takes the above points more or less for granted. To ness as a panacea.’ If MBSR encodes the sketch the argument I am going to present: I will essential message of the Buddhist teachings, as begin by emphasizing that, while there remains a Kabat-Zinn and others have told us, then it tendency for the MBSR model to be taken as the should be good for everybody, since that mes- default approach, and even to be regarded as a sage is of universal applicability. At least, this kind of panacea, it is far from appropriate for all seems to have been the general orientation of situations and all people. In the following sections many of the early proponents of mindfulness, of my argument I shall note that we have in the particularly of MBSR, which in any case has a Buddhist tradition, and in the various other Asian pretty generic remit. There are few of us who and alternative traditions of knowledge and heal- could not use a bit of stress reduction. ing, a vast range of potential therapeutic tech- The problem here is not that the techniques do niques. Importantly, these do not all operate in the not have effects on a very wide range of people. same way, nor are they expected to have the same It is rather that they do, and these effects are not effects. We need to recognize—and I think that we necessarily desirable or easy to deal with. As are in fact beginning to recognize—the variety of Willoughby Britton among others has pointed resources that are available to us, and we urgently out, a serious engagement with meditative prac- need to start building a fuller awareness of that tice is fully capable of leading to a major psy- range of resources. chological and existential crisis. In fact, such It is not just a question of what techniques are episodes are a frequent and usual part of the available, however, but of how we use them. Buddhist path.3 While, for some of the reasons This brings up the question of the social context already noted, MBSR and MBCT are not the of mindfulness practice, and I shall discuss this same things as a long-term engagement with briefly in the following section of the chapter. In Buddhist meditational practice, they can still the final section, I move to look more directly at have very real and major effects. Arguably the the spiritual, religious, or transpersonal aspects of lack of a spiritual framework to give meaning the traditions from which the contemporary 3 practice of mindfulness derives. What did this See her ‘Dark Night Project,’ discussed in a 2014 mean for the practice of those traditions in their Atlantic article, ‘Dark Knight of the Soul’ (Rocha 2014). See also http://www.buddhistgeeks.com/2011/09/bg-231- non-Western and pre-modern contexts? How the-dark-side-of-dharma/ and its sequel, two podcasts in might the presence or absence of these spiritual which she discusses the finding of the project further. 50 G. Samuel and structure to such experiences, or of a teacher speaks of ‘neurodiversity’ rather than of deficits or therapist capable of handling a major exis- from some supposed normal condition. tential crisis, may leave the patient in a very A key process in MBSR is the encouraging of vulnerable and dangerous situation. In fact, as direct and unmediated awareness of the present, Britton has noted, the vast majority of clinical and one can see why this might be particularly studies of the mindfulness-based therapies do not threatening and difficult for people on the autism even measure negative effects: after all, showing spectrum. In fact, word among the ‘Aspie com- that MBCT has serious side effects ‘is not really munity’ is quite divided on the subject of the going to get you funding.’4 mindfulness-based techniques. The Aspie com- My own doubts about the universal applica- munity consists of people who would now gen- bility of the MBSR-derived therapies initially erally be classed at the high-functioning end of came from a research project at Cardiff Univer- the autism spectrum, and who are well repre- sity with people on the autism spectrum. The sented on the Internet—in fact, for many of them autism spectrum, and even the sub-category of the Internet has been a major boon, since it Aspergers, which has dropped out of the latest allows a much more controlled and unthreatening iterations of the Bible of psychiatry, the Ameri- form of interaction than face-to-face speech. To can Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and quote one comment on the Aspie forum www. Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Ameri- wrongplanet.net, can Psychiatric Association 2013), includes quite Mindfulness DOES NOT help me. It makes things a range of individuals with different kinds of worse; actually: I already have problems with not personal issues. However, a key issue for many being able to shut sensory stimuli out, and I’m of these people is the overwhelming nature of supposed to pay MORE attention?5 immediate everyday experience, and the need to Some of the problems here may be a question deal with the consequent sensory overload both of the need to modify the standard mindfulness by periodic withdrawal and by the building of protocols so as to be more appropriate to the complex ordered structures that make it possible specific situation of people on the autism spec- to see reality as regular and predictable, and so to trum, and there have been moves in this direc- inhabit it without experiencing unbearable levels tion, for example, by Annelies Spek in the of anxiety and threat. People at the high- 6 Netherlands. functioning end of the autism spectrum have generally established reasonably effective per- Specifically, the MBCT protocol of Segal et al. sonal routines for dealing with sensory experi- (2002) was used, but because of the information processing deficits that characterize autism, the ence. Many of these are aimed at creating cognitive elements were omitted. For example, structure, order, and predictability in their lives; exercises examining the content of ones thoughts these are the kind of people who, stereotypically, were omitted. Also, the information processing fi know the bus or railway timetables by heart. In de cits that characterize autism were taken into account. For example, because individuals with some cases, they have achieved very high levels autism have the tendency to take language literally, of ability in mathematics, information technol- the use of metaphors was avoided. Further, words ogy, theoretical physics, and related areas. Thus, or sentences that are ambiguous or that require there are clearly positive abilities associated with imagination skills were avoided. In addition, the eight-week protocol was extended by one week, the high-functioning autism group, many of due to the relatively slow information processing whom used to be classed as having Aspergers, in adults with ASD… For the same reason, the and the language preferred in this area nowadays 5http://www.wrongplanet.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f= 3&t=251820&start=0. She continues, ‘The therapist who 4Britton made this comment at the conference, suggested that and CBT can go f**k herself.’ Similar ‘Mindfulness and Compassion: The Art and Science of comments have been made to me by other people who Contemplative Practice,’ San Francisco State University, have been diagnosed as on the autism spectrum. June 3–7, 2015. 6See also Mitchell (2009, 2013). 4 Mindfulness Within the Full Range of Buddhist and Asian … 51

three-minute breathing exercise was changed into have acquired in order to deal with it. But that is fi a ve-minute breathing exercise (Spek et al. really the point I would like to make more gen- 2013: 249). erally. An important corollary to moving away Spek’s intentions here are surely positive, but from seeing MBSR as a panacea is to start look- a lot of people diagnosed as on the autism ing at a much wider range of approaches, learning spectrum, or who have been involved with peo- what they can do, and building training programs ple on the spectrum, might be unhappy about the for therapists that equip them with a range of phraseology of deficit. What we seem to be different techniques, and alert them to the positive getting is a watered-down version of MBCT with and negative aspects of each approach. the bits that Aspies might find difficult taken out. However, it may also be that MBCT is really not the best technique for much of this community. The Range of New Consciousness We might be better off looking for approaches Techniques that work positively with the abilities of people on the spectrum. In one respect, this is quite straightforward. I am not myself involved in providing ther- If MBSR derives from one specific modernist apy, so I cannot speak with authority here, but I Buddhist tradition, then why not look at the suggested some years ago that Buddhist practices wider range of forms of practice within Ther- such as those of Tibetan deity yoga, with their avāda Buddhism, East Asian Buddhism, Tibetan highly ordered mandala structures, might provide Buddhism, and so on, or for that matter within an easier and more natural way for some of these other Asian religious contexts, such as Hinduism people to move toward higher levels of aware- or Daoism? Many of these practices are already ness and self-control (Samuel 2008). To put it in well-established within Western societies, in rather basic terms, the array of deities of which some cases going back more than a century. In the Tibetan mandala consists provides a very many cases, there is also a substantial body of clearly structured, highly intelligible community research concerning the physiological and/or of positive forces, with a complex philosophical psychological effects on practitioners. In some underpinning and an elaborate liturgical struc- ways, this is precisely what I am suggesting. ture, through which experience can be filtered However, there are some catches here. One is and sorted and by which one can gradually come that, while MBSR went through a self-conscious to terms with the complexity of reality. Rather and deliberate process of ‘secularization’ and than forcing a direct confrontation with sensory was in any case based on a form of Buddhist overload, they provide a structure through which practice that had already been to a significant that overload might be gradually tamed and degree stripped of its religious context, many of integrated. However, we are here a long way these other practices are much more explicitly away from the secularized, simplified, and sci- religious. Do we try to secularize them? Can we? entific world of MBSR and MBCT. Is it even appropriate to do so? Elsewhere I have heard suggestions that To go back to my suggestion of Tibetan deity meditation practices based on loving-kindness yoga and mandala visualization for people at the (Paili metta) were more suitable for the autism high-functioning end of the autism spectrum, community than the standard mindfulness would this practice retain any meaning if one left approaches. That would also make sense, and I out the deities, the progressive approach to the shall have a little more to say about these prac- deities through liturgy and mantra, and the tices later. I suspect however that much depends question of the Buddhist awakening or Enlight- on individuals, on the particular form of their enment which the deities encode and represent? ‘neurodiversity’ and the specific techniques they But is the Buddhist awakening what we are really 52 G. Samuel aiming at here?7 Are we trying to achieve beings’ is Buddhist terminology for all beings enlightenment, or healing? This is not a difficulty possessing consciousness, a class that includes in Tibetan culture, where there are indeed many animals and several classes of spirit-beings as deity yoga practices which aim at healing of well as humans. Both loving-kindness and com- various kinds, but then for Tibetans it is taken for passion are practices that can be seen as fostering granted that the Buddha and the Buddhist and encouraging social connection.9 One advan- awakening underlies and empowers the entire tage of these practices is that while they have structure of therapeutic applications.8 Within rather more analytical content than MBSR in its Western therapeutic contexts, this assumption is original form, what the patient or practitioner is likely to be quite alien and even unwelcome to a asked to do is fairly easy for many people to take significant number of therapists and patients. on without feeling that they are being drawn into So far, as far as I know, there have been no a complex web of religious assumptions. attempts at the therapeutic use of secularized There have been a number of attempts to versions of the deity and mandala process in the develop clinical interventions based on these Western medical context, though the idea is not Buddhist practices (see Hofmann et al. 2011; implausible. There are certainly analogies to Shonin et al. 2015 for two recent reviews). Most other kinds of therapeutic process on which one attention has been paid so far to LKM, which is might build here, as with the well-known Jungian derived from metta (loving-kindness is one of the use of mandala structures (Jung 1968; Slegelis standard translations of metta). LKM has been 1987). We might though start by looking at some used both as a stand-alone procedure and as an of the practices that have been developed for adjunct to MBSR and related techniques. therapeutic purposes in recent years but involve a This practice, in which one directs compassion and less drastic departure from the assumptions of wishes for well-being toward real or imagined secular scientific thought. others, is designed to create changes in emotion, motivation, and behavior in order to promote positive feelings and kindness toward the self and Loving-Kindness, Compassion, others (Hutcherson et al. 2008: 720). and Mindful Self-Compassion An initial stage of metta and karuṇā practice Meditations as described in Buddhist texts and in modern practice is developing kindness or compassion Loving-kindness meditation (LKM) and Com- toward the self, and the Mindful Self- passion Meditation (CM) are terms which have Compassion (MSC) program developed by been devised for forms of meditation derived Kristin Neff and Christopher Germer builds these from the well-known canonical set of Buddhist stages into a systematic training: meditations known as the brahmavihāras. In fact, In this program…, participants meet for 2.5 h once a these are not exclusively Buddhist practices, but week for 8 weeks, and also attend a half-day silent seem to have been common to the various early meditation retreat. The MSC program teaches a ascetic traditions. Loving-kindness (metta in Pali) variety of meditations (e.g., loving-kindness, affec- is the wish that all sentient beings be happy; tionate breathing) and informal practices for use in daily life (e.g., soothing touch, self-compassionate compassion (karuṇā) is the wish for all sentient beings to be free from suffering. Here ‘sentient 9Whether this was their intention in their original context is perhaps another question. In the Visuddhimagga, metta 7 It might also be worth looking at Navajo sand-painting, and karuṇā appear to be introduced primarily as tech- where mandala-type structures are being explicitly niques for entering the trance-states (Pali jhāna) or deployed for healing. Here too though the religious meditative absorptions (Buddhaghosa 2010: 291–302; identity of the forces involved would appear to be for the jhāna see, e.g., Cousins 1973). However, there is essential (cf. Samuels 1995). no doubt that the socially positive effects of these 8See, e.g., Samuel (2013, 2016 in press), on the longevity practices have been recognized and appreciated by practices. Buddhist practitioners over the centuries. 4 Mindfulness Within the Full Range of Buddhist and Asian … 53

letter writing). Self-compassion is evoked during the moment, neither pushing away such experiences or classes using experiential exercises, and home becoming overly involved in them. This practice practices are taught to help participants develop the improves calmness of mind and provides insight habit of self-compassion. Participants are encour- into habitual mental patterns. aged to practice these techniques for a total of Module III: Self-compassion 40 min per day, either in formal sitting meditation or Using insights from Module II, this self-care informally throughout the day. (Germer and Neff practice examines the basic nature of distress and 2013: 859) dissatisfaction and cultivates more realistic and Practices such as LKM and MSC can be positive approaches to difficult life circumstances. When done with kindness, these practices presented in a relatively secularized form with- strengthen the determination to replace unhelpful out major difficulties. Other compassion- attitudes with constructive ones, leading to realistic oriented practices, such as the Cognitively optimism and greater self-determination. Based Compassion Training (CBCT) developed Module IV: Cultivating Impartiality at Emory University in 2004 with the partici- As humans are innately social creatures, relation- pation of the Tibetan teacher Geshe Lobsang ships are central to well-being. This practice Tenzin Negi, and the Compassion Cultivation examines habitual ways of thinking about others. Seeing that all people, despite apparent differences, Training subsequently developed at Stanford shares a fundamental desire to seek well-being and University in conjunction with another Tibetan to avoid distress and dissatisfaction, this practice teacher, Geshe Thubten Jinpa, remain closer to leads to a greater capacity to see others as similar their religious origins. These practices are both to one’s self on the most basic level, opening the door to a more inclusive compassion. based on a well-known set of Tibetan practices generically referred to as lojong, mind-training, Module V: Appreciation and Affection for fi fi Others or mental puri cation. More speci cally, they By examining how all things that are beneficial include elements from the two classic lojong depend upon others, this module cultivates an texts, by the twelfth-century Tibetan teachers appreciation for this basic kindness, intended or Langri Tangpa, author of the Eight Stanza unintended. Considering the drawbacks of an unrealistic attitude of independence and isolation, Mental Purification text, and Chekawa, author the practitioner reflects on the daily and long-term of the Seven Topic Mental Purification text gifts of the broader society, and a deepening (Sweet 1996). affection is cultivated for others. CBCT is currently taught through six ‘cur- Module VI: Empathy and Engaged Compassion riculum modules’ (Aspen Centre for Living With the perspectives of seeing each person as Peace 2016). The first two are aimed at ‘stabi- equally deserving of happiness and as having great value in their own right, practitioners focus on the lizing attention and developing present-moment difficulties and distress experienced by so many, awareness’; the remaining four modules ‘use which naturally invokes an empathic response. analytical practices to increase well-being and When supported by the inner strength developed in unbiased compassion toward others.’ The indi- earlier modules, this empathy leads to the strong wish to see others free of difficulties and distress vidual modules are described as follows: and to orient one’s core motivation toward the alleviation of the suffering of others. (Aspen Module I: Developing Attentional Stability and Centre for Living Peace 2016) Clarity This initial practice trains attentional stability in order to improve mental stability and clarity; typ- As can be seen, there is much more emphasis ically this is done by placing and retaining focus on analytic thought in this set of practices than in on the unfolding sensations of the breath and by practices such as LKM or MSC: ‘The goal of learning to notice and release distractions as they CBCT is to challenge unexamined assumptions arise. regarding feelings and actions toward others, Module II: Cultivating Insight into the Nature with a focus on generating spontaneous empathy of Mental Experience ’ Still rooted in the present moment, the focus shifts and compassion for the self as well as others. to how mental experiences unfold from moment to (Pace et al. 2013: 294). 54 G. Samuel

What is also evident to anyone familiar with is styled ‘self-compassion’ in CBCT (Module 3 the Tibetan lojong practices is that the arguments in the program structure presented above), cor- employed are closely modeled on those in lojong. responds to the Tibetan ngejung, the renounce- An article on CBCT from 2012 explains that it ment of samsaric life, which is a radical step for incorporates elements from two different ‘styles anyone engaged in everyday secular life in a of practice’ used in Tibetan lojong, the modern Western society. In Tibetan terms, nge- ‘seven-limb cause and effect’ method, ‘which jung marks a serious commitment to something involves principally generating a strong sense of that could be called a spiritual life, and normally gratitude toward one’s mother or another loved coincides with entry to a monastery or other one by reflecting upon their kindness (…), culti- full-time spiritual center. Ngejung is also closely vating that into love and compassion, and then linked to the whole idea of the cycle of rebirth. gradually extending that love and compassion Normatively, in Tibet, it corresponds to the point toward others’ and the method of ‘equalizing and at which someone has realized the pointlessness exchanging oneself and others,’ by reflecting on of continual rebirth and has decided to take on how we are all fundamentally the same in wishing the Buddhist path, which will lead, normally in for happiness and wishing to be free from suf- some future rebirth, to the attainment of Bud- fering; and how oneself and others are equal in dhahood and so transcendence of the cycle of deserving happiness and to be free from suffering. rebirth. It is precisely the cycle of rebirth, asso- One further reflects on the disadvantages of an ciated with everyday secular life, that is being excessive self-centered view and the benefits of a renounced. view that recognizes interdependence and our Ozawa-de Silva noted that the parallel Stan- need for others and then ‘exchanges’ one’s ford program, Compassion Cultivation Training self-cherishing for other-cherishing (…) (Ozawa- or CCT, developed by Geshe Thubten Jinpa, de Silva et al. 2012: 155). tones down this step.11 While it also includes a When asked how CBCT differed from lojong, step called ‘self-compassion,’ this is understood Geshe Lobsang Tenzin responded, more in the sense of developing loving-kindness and compassion toward oneself, rather as is done It’s not different. It’s based on lojong, except that it excludes Buddhist beliefs like reincarnation and in LKM and MSC, and not as a full-on renun- things like that. It is secular so you can practice it ciation of emotional involvement with others. without having to learn in the context of the belief The two programs cooperate with each other, but of rebirth and previous and future lives. Wanting to it seems that the less demanding Stanford pro- be happy and free are universal aspirations. (Hawthorn 2013) gram, which makes more concessions to Western modes of thought and feeling, has so far been While at one level the Geshe is right in noting more successful in training teachers and estab- fi that the speci cally Buddhist concept of rebirth lishing itself. CBCT may omit explicit reference has been omitted, much of the analytic content to rebirth or the Tantric deities, but it would seem reflects Tibetan approaches closely, including the that it is still pushing the limits for an interven- strong emphasis on the kindness of one’s mother, tion that might be taken up on a large scale and the importance of rejecting involvement in within the Western secular context. In part, this is the so-called negative emotions, which in fact because it relies less on imagery or the direct include all forms of attachment. As Brendan training of emotion, and more on analytical rea- Ozawa-de Silva, one of the main teachers and soning, so that the areas of conflict with standard researchers in this system, has pointed out Western modes of thought become more explicit. (Ozawa-de Silva 2015c),10 this rejection, which

(Footnote 10 continued) 10In discussion following his paper (Ozawa-de Silva Therapeutic Approaches to Human Flourishing’), 2015c) at the 5th Annual Tung Lin Kok Yuen Canada University of British Columbia, May 28–30, 2015. Foundation Conference (‘Buddhism and Wellbeing: 11http://ccare.stanford.edu/ 4 Mindfulness Within the Full Range of Buddhist and Asian … 55

Another relatively ‘analytical’ approach focus- The various practices I have been discussing ing on the self-other relation is the Japanese Naikan suggest both some of the possibilities and some therapy, which has been studied by Brendan and of the complexities of introducing further tech- Chikako Ozawa-de Silva at Emory, and also niques and approaches into the Western context. by Clark Chilson at the University of Pittsburgh They are all quite different from the mindfulness- (Ozawa-de Silva 2007, 2015a, b; Ozawa-de based approaches that derive from MBSR, Silva and Ozawa-de Silva 2010; Chilson although as I noted elements of metta or LKM 2015). Naikan (the name literally means ‘look- have been incorporated into some of the MBSR- ing inside,’ self-examination) was developed in derived practices. Japan in the 1940s, again as a somewhat toned- A more extensive study might consider a down and secularized version of a self-examination variety of other practices in some detail, but here practice (mishirabe) within Shin Buddhism. I shall confine myself to listing a few of the other Mishirabe involves fasting and sleep deprivation, possibilities that we might consider: but this element was removed in Naikan. Naikan (1) Focus and concentration practices, using the was originally introduced in prisons, but has breath or other concentration focuses: Thai been developed further and is now seen as appli- and Burmese samatha, Tibetan shiné (Singh cable for alcoholism, addictions of other kinds, et al. 2016; Maclean et al. 2010). and a variety of other disorders, including eating (2) Open awareness practices such as Ch’an/Zen, disorders, mild depression, anxiety disorders, Dzogchen, or Mahamudra—again, classi- compulsive neurosis, marriage and relationship cally practiced in strongly ritualized contexts problems, and individuals interested in self- and frames and/or preceded by substantial exploration or self-discovery (Ozawa-de Silva preparatory practice (Mruk and Hartzell 2007: 414). 2003; Harrison 2006; Rosch 2007; Amihai and Kozhevnikov 2015). In a typical weeklong Naikan session, clients stay at the center, which is usually the house of the (3) Mantra practices, ranging from the simple Naikan practitioner. Each day, from early morning and basic mantra practice of Transcendental until night, they review their lives from the per- Meditation to the much more complex fi spective of a signi cant person in their lives, forms used in conjunction with deity yoga usually starting and ending the week with their mothers. This is punctuated every two hours by a in Tibetan practices (Rutledge et al. 2014; mensetsu, or interview, during which they report Amihai and Kozhevnikov 2015). on their self-examination thus far to the practi- (4) ‘Subtle body practices,’ such as kriya yoga, or tioner. The method of recollection is clearly some forms of Tibetan trulkor or Chinese delineated: clients must keep to Naikan’s “three themes”: (1) what the client received from that qigong. These involve internal visualizations person, (2) what he or she gave back to that per- of and exercises with internal ‘flows’ within son, and (3) what trouble he or she caused that the body, often combined with breathing person (Ozawa-de Silva 2007: 414). and/or with simple movements (cf. Samuel In recent years, Naikan practice has been and Johnston 2013; see also Saraswati 2006; made available to some degree in Western Zope and Zope 2013; Chaoul 2013). countries. The scale is relatively small, however, (5) Movement-related techniques (including and as can be seen Naikan is dependent on a those which use breathing in more complex period of isolation and sensory deprivation that ways than simple awareness, and again might be difficult to replicate in a clinically often involving subtle body concepts)— accessible format such as the eight or ten e.g., more complex forms of Tibetan trulkor 150-min group sessions typical of MBSR and (‘yantra yoga’), qigong or taijiquan (Tai similar interventions. The focus on introspection Chi Chuan), aspects of martial arts training and regret for past wrongdoing might also not go (Lu and Kuo 2014; Wei et al. 2014; Li et al. down well with many Western clients. 2002). 56 G. Samuel

I have deliberately included examples of Hindu the conceptualization of meditation as a relaxation and Daoist-associated practices as well as Bud- response seems to be incongruent with Tibetan views of Vajrayana Tantric practices, which do not dhist. In fact, there has been substantial research on presuppose relaxation. Indeed, Vajrayana “gener- both Hindu yogic practices and Daoist practices ation stage practices, such as “visualization of such as qigong, going back many years, and much self-generation-as-Deity”, which are to precede the of this has been sidelined by the current vogue for “completion stage”” practices pertaining to real- ization of emptiness (Rig-pa) are aimed at mindfulness practice. This is something of a achieving a wakeful state of enhanced cognition political issue within the research community. and emotions through the use of visual imagery Rather than focusing on differences that are pri- and the emotional arousal associated with it. marily significant for advanced religious practi- (Amihai and Kozhevnikov 2014: 2) tioners, we should be looking across the full range They propose that ‘Vajrayana and Theravada of material available to us. styles of meditation are correlated with different An important issue here is that, even if we neurophysiological substrates’ (Amihai and fi con ne ourselves to the Buddhist practices, we Kozhevnikov 2014: 14). This is of interest, cannot and should not assume that these practices among other reasons, because relatively little are doing the same thing. Here I think the word research has been done on Tibetan modes of ‘mindfulness,’ as deployed by the originators of practice. the main mindfulness-based therapies, has exer- Another of Kozhevnikov’s papers provides a ted a certain seductive and misleading power. detailed account of the neurocognitive and Who, after all, can be opposed to mindfulness? somatic components of gtum-mo meditation, the But mindfulness as one way of phrasing the well-known Tibetan practice that generates heat ultimate goal of the teachings is one thing, while within the body (Kozhevnikov et al. 2013). Here fi mindfulness as a label for a speci c set of tech- again we are dealing with something that is niques, such as MBSR and MBCT, is another (cf. certainly a meditative or yogic practice, but is Chiesa and Malinowski 2011). It is very easy for clearly very different in both mechanism and the two to become conflated. purpose from the familiar Theravadin practices One of the few studies that has looked at from which MBSR and MBCT were derived. different cognitive and physiological mecha- nisms across a range of meditation traditions is by Ido Amihai and Maria Kozhevnikov (Amihai The Social Context of the New and Kozhevnikov 2014, 2015). This was a Consciousness Techniques comparative study of four modes of meditation practice: samatha and vipassana on the Ther- I have suggested in the last section that we might avāda side, Deity yoga and Dzogchen (rigpa) on look at a much wider range of techniques as the Tibetan. Amihai and Kozhevnikov report that possibly useful in contemporary society. From while both Theravāda practices enhance the this point of view, MBSR, MBCT, and the related activity of the parasympathetic nervous system, techniques represent a significant opening, and I indicative of relaxation, the Tibetan practices would not want to put too much stress on their lead to activation of the sympathetic system, limitations. Their true significance may be less in indicative of arousal. what they are able to achieve in their present This effect overrides the opposition one might versions than in their role in legitimating proce- expect to find between the practices involving dures that work with human consciousness within more focussed styles of awareness (samatha, central areas of contemporary biomedicine. Deity yoga) and those involving more distributed From another point of view, that of the social styles (vipassana, Dzogchen). It is however context of mindfulness practices, the situation is consistent with what the Tibetan tradition itself less promising. A number of recent critiques implies: have suggested that mindfulness practices in their 4 Mindfulness Within the Full Range of Buddhist and Asian … 57 present form can easily be seen as little more de-contextualized forms of mindfulness will sim- than an ‘ethically neutral performance enhance- ply facilitate a more efficient version of business as ment techniques’ (Purser and Milillo 2014: 9). usual. The promotion of mindfulness-based thera- Thus, corporate executives can learn to be better pies lower down in the structure can also be easily at their jobs through mindfulness practices, seen, as Purser and Milillo suggest, in instrumental regardless of the ethical implications of the jobs terms. Their proposed solution is to return to the themselves. Mindfulness practices can also be a Buddhist roots of mindfulness, which have ‘the way of deflecting discontent and unrest among potential of calling into question economic mate- employees. Thus, Purser and his co-author sug- rialism […], acquisitiveness and unbridled con- gest that: sumption’ (Purser and Millilo 2014: 18). If we move from the practice of the mind- corporations have jumped on the mindfulness bandwagon because it conveniently shifts the fulness therapies to the research that provides the burden onto the individual employee; stress is legitimation for it, we find that many of the same framed as a personal problem, and mindfulness- issues turn up again. I suggested in a recent based interventions are offered as means of helping article that the empiricist and individualistic employees cope and work more effectively and calmly within such toxic environments. Cloaked in assumptions of much neuroscience and cognitive an aura of care and humanity, this corporate science allow research in these fields to reinforce takeover refashions mindfulness as a safety valve, the impoverished and decontextualized view of a way to let off steam and as a way of coping and the mindfulness-based techniques (Samuel adapting to the stresses and strains of corporate life. What we are left with is an atomized and 2014). I referred there to the British sociologist highly privatized version of mindfulness training Steven Rose’s comments in a paper called ‘The […]. Mindfulness training has wide appeal Need for a Critical Neuroscience’ (Rose 2012): because it can be utilized as a method for subduing employee unrest, promoting a tacit acceptance of The truth is that in order to approach consciousness the corporate status quo, and as an instrumental as a neuroscientist, one first has to strip the term of tool for keeping attention focused on corporate any of its richer meanings. […] Consciousness in goals. (Purser and Milillo 2014: 16) this neuroscientific sense has been taken out of history and culture; there is no possibility of There is something profoundly uncomfortable understanding the extraordinary transitions in about the adoption of the mindfulness techniques consciousness that have occurred through, for by large corporations, government agencies, and instance, the emergence of the women’s movement even military units whose policies in other respects in the 1970s. Instead, consciousness is simply what happens when you are awake, the obverse of being are far away ethically from the core concerns of asleep. […T]he essential human meanings Buddhism with relieving human suffering. It may embedded in our being conscious have somehow be possible that, as one proponent of mindfulness been lost in this reduction. (Rose 2012: 58–59) workshops for global leaders and corporate man- Rose suggests a move to an ecological and agement, Michael Chaskalson, has suggested, that ‘enactive’ view of consciousness, in which it is as these people practice mindfulness, they will be seen as part of an ongoing process in which both become more considerate, more ethical, and more ‘world’ and ‘mind’ are constituted through responsible.12 This is what Purser and Milillo call mutual interaction. Such an approach, modeled in the ‘Trojan Horse’ argument; Monsanto and simi- part on the work of scholars such as Humberto lar corporations will become better global citizens Maturana and Francisco Varela (Maturana and as a result of institutionalizing such individualized Varela 1980; Varela and Depraz 2003), allows for forms of mindfulness (Purser and Millilo 2014: a variety of different kinds of ‘consciousness,’ 16). It would seem equally or more likely, how- which do not have to be understood simply as a ever, that individualized, de-ethicized, and by-product of neuronal activity within the brain, and which can indeed both reflect the wider social 12In a talk at the Transpersonal Psychology section meeting of the British Psychological Society, University world within which we live and generate a critical of Northampton, September 2014. perspective on how it functions. 58 G. Samuel

The Religious and Transpersonal closely. To begin with, Western science is not in Context of the New Consciousness fact a unitary, mutually consistent body of ideas Techniques that has effectively and finally established the validity of the materialist model. It is a collection Rose’s critique of science, like the autopoetic of separate fields and projects, often based on model of Maturana and Varela, is just about mutually contradictory assumptions. Science does compatible with an expanded materialism, but it not deal in facts, despite the tendency of popular strains a materialist account to its limits. This magazines and other mass media to present it as if suggests a need to confront the whole question of it does, but in theories and theoretical frameworks the religious and transpersonal dimensions within that always retain a fundamentally hypothetical meditation and related techniques. Buddhism and character. Any conviction that science has finally other Asian traditions we are discussing clearly and irrevocably established the truth of a work with understandings of the world that go thorough-going and exclusive materialism is beyond the materialist reduction of conscious- bound to go far beyond the available evidence. ness to an epiphenomenon of neural and physi- In addition, many areas of science are deeply ological processes within individual bodies. invested by large-scale financial interests. Buddhism itself does not arise out of a Evidence-based medicine and its relationship to materialist perspective, and several of its core the pharmaceutical industry is surely a classical assumptions, for example regarding conscious- example (Healy 2012; Goldacre 2013). This is ness and its continuity between lives, are clearly something of which we are all increasingly aware, incompatible with any such perspective. Else- hence the frequent requirements for disclosure of where I have pointed out the difficulties that this relevant financial and other interests in relation to raises for contemporary ‘dialogs’ between Bud- such areas, but it is nevertheless difficult to dhism and science, such as those within the Mind appreciate the massive scale on which it can affect and Life Institute presided over by His Holiness and distort scientific results. This is not simply a the Dalai Lama (Samuel 2014). There are a question of the results of individual studies, but couple of ways in which one can respond to this the wider issue of the procedures by which studies conflict of worldviews, which of course does not are carried out, the fields which receive funding, only occur on the boundary between Buddhism the scholars who are endorsed, rewarded, and and science, but on any number of similar employed, and the areas of knowledge which are boundaries between pre-modern and contempo- seen as legitimate. Even where we can see this in rary understandings of the universe. One is to relation to fields of which we have some direct insist on maintaining the materialist perspective knowledge, we may fail to see it in other areas of at all costs and to erect a hermetic cordon sani- which we know less. taire between scientific and other models of the There is substantial evidence for a more universe. The other is to allow for a mutual complex relationship between consciousness and interaction and cross-fertilization between scien- material reality than the default versions accepted tific and non-scientific models, which might by workers in fields such as neuroscience and generate new understandings that draw from both biomedicine. The complex interrelationship sources. As someone who has been working for between individual, society, culture, and envi- some years on modes of healing in Tibetan and ronment alluded to above already points in this other societies that seem to be efficacious, in direction, as is particularly evident in areas such ways that fit poorly into the canons of as healing (see, e.g., Samuel 2015b). Then there evidence-based medicine but are nevertheless are the bodies of experimental evidence that are real enough for those who practice them, I find routinely ignored or marginalized, such as those myself increasingly drawn to the second option. supporting the continuity of consciousness out- In support of this option, it is worth consider- side a material basis (see, e.g., Kelly et al. 2009). ing the nature of Western science a little more We might also note theoretical assumptions, such 4 Mindfulness Within the Full Range of Buddhist and Asian … 59 as non-locality in quantum mechanics, that are of distance and difficulty of travel are impacting both central to important areas of contemporary directly upon each other, as tens of millions of science but incompatible with conventional people seek to move from impoverished and models of consciousness as a simple epiphe- politically unstable areas of the world to those nomenon of a material reality that can be fully where conditions are more tolerable. Reactive explained within its own terms. nationalisms seek to keep these populations out, All these suggest that a degree of modesty causing human disasters on an increasing scale, might be appropriate in relation to the strident as with the tens of thousands of people dying claims that Western science is the fount of all while attempting to cross the Mediterranean from valid knowledge and that it has established the Africa to Europe, or to travel from Southeast truth of a fully materialist account of the uni- Asia to Australia. All these problems are likely verse. Whether we like it or not, we are all living to get far worse before they improve, and this in an increasingly pluralist world, in which the implies that we are going to have to learn to live dominance of specifically Western understand- together in ways very different from those that ings cannot be guaranteed. All of us, wherever served us in the past. We need to develop modes we might be positioned in relation to particular of knowledge that can aid and facilitate these knowledge-claims, might be better advised to new learnings. accept the limited nature of our partial under- I think that a sense of that wider context is standings of the universe. helpful in looking at the whole question of the If, then, we find ourselves employing thera- Mindfulness movement and what it has to teach peutic techniques whose underlying postulates us. If we regard mindfulness techniques merely conflict with the default assumptions of Western as a way of solving our individual problems, we science, it may be that rather than struggling to are likely to find that the collective problems we elide and remove the offending aspects, we might are ignoring will rapidly undercut our individual be better off to seek to live with them, and see solutions. If we see the mindfulness techniques where that takes us, to ‘stay with the open more as an opportunity to recognize the presence question, and not to seek for resolution or an and significance of collective and social pro- answer,’ as the late Francisco Varela put it in an cesses within the sphere of consciousness, and to interview not long before his death (Samuel explore their relationship to the world of material 2014: 566). reality, we may find ourselves better equipped to Perhaps I can lay the rest of my cards on the create the new forms of knowledge and the new table at this stage by saying that I feel that for all ways of working that might give the human of its massive scale, the ‘Mindfulness movement’ population of this planet a chance of surviving is something which needs to be seen in a far wider the next fifty or a hundred years. context, the ongoing transformation of Western, To put this in slightly different terms: I do not and indeed global consciousness as humanity myself see Buddhism as providing a compre- comes to terms with a rapidly changing world, hensive answer for how to live in what it changing both in terms of human populations and describes as the world of samsara, of eternally in terms of the planet on which we live. The circling around driven by desire, repulsion, and connections between human beings are changing ignorance. In fact, it has never claimed to do so, very rapidly in nature and intensity. New tech- since its fundamental aim has been to motivate nologies are continually changing our sense of us to reject and transcend that world. However, who we are and how we relate to each other. Buddhism, and I would add other non-Western The limits placed upon us by the planetary and pre-modern traditions of knowledge, may ecology are beginning to impact on us in ways indeed be a valuable dialog partner in finding as that we can no longer ignore and push aside. good a solution as we can to live in the everyday Populations that have previously been relatively world. As long as we insist, however, that insulated from each other by massive obstacles these traditions of knowledge be denatured, 60 G. Samuel impoverished, and rewritten so as to be com- Germer, C. K., & Neff, K. D. (2013). 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