As far as lineage goes, Jon Kabat-Zinn was very important for the secular mindfulness that we have as he standardized mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) and thus provided “science-backed” meditation and thus people who wanted to do science-based meditation oriented themselves on what Jon Kabat-Zinn standardized.
I’m not especially familiar with the history of MBSR. What I know more is that when I’ve seen self-described mindfulness practices presented they often rely more heavily on techniques I would associate with vipassana. Also you’re correct that Thien is the Vietnamese lineage of Chan Buddhism (Zen is the Japanese lineage of Chan, Keown is the Korean lineage, and Chan itself being the Chinese version started when Buddhism was brought to China), although each one is divergent enough in the specifics that it’s hard to say they are on-the-ground similar other than pulling from a common set of historical texts and practices. Given the high prevalence of Theravadic practice in south-east Asia, though, it doesn’t seem all that surprising to me that Thien practices might look a lot like the neighboring practices and maybe that’s what I’ve noticed.
As far as lineage goes, Jon Kabat-Zinn was very important for the secular mindfulness that we have as he standardized mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) and thus provided “science-backed” meditation and thus people who wanted to do science-based meditation oriented themselves on what Jon Kabat-Zinn standardized.
Wikipedia says about him:
“Kabat-Zinn was a student of Buddhist teachers such as Thich Nhat Hanh and Zen Master Seung Sahn and a founding member of Cambridge Zen Center.”
According to Wikipedia Thich Nhat Hanh comes from Vietnamese Thiền which is a school of Zen Buddhism.
Do you have a different idea of the history of mindfulness meditation?
I’m not especially familiar with the history of MBSR. What I know more is that when I’ve seen self-described mindfulness practices presented they often rely more heavily on techniques I would associate with vipassana. Also you’re correct that Thien is the Vietnamese lineage of Chan Buddhism (Zen is the Japanese lineage of Chan, Keown is the Korean lineage, and Chan itself being the Chinese version started when Buddhism was brought to China), although each one is divergent enough in the specifics that it’s hard to say they are on-the-ground similar other than pulling from a common set of historical texts and practices. Given the high prevalence of Theravadic practice in south-east Asia, though, it doesn’t seem all that surprising to me that Thien practices might look a lot like the neighboring practices and maybe that’s what I’ve noticed.