I agree that the term mindfulness can be vauge and that it is a recent construction of Western culture. However, that doesn’t mean it lacks any content or that we can’t make accurate generalizations about it.
To be precise, when I say “mindfulness meditation” I have in mind a family of meditation techniques adapted from Theravada and Zen Buddism for secular Western audiences originally by Jon Kabat-Zinn. These techniques attempt to train the mind in adopt a focused, non-judgemental, observational stance. Such a stance is very useful for many purposes, but taken to an extreme it can result in de-personalization / de-realization and other mental health problems.
For research to support this claim I recomment checking out Willoughby Britton’s research. Here are two PDF journal articles on this topic: one, and another one.
I agree that the term mindfulness can be vauge and that it is a recent construction of Western culture. However, that doesn’t mean it lacks any content or that we can’t make accurate generalizations about it.
To be precise, when I say “mindfulness meditation” I have in mind a family of meditation techniques adapted from Theravada and Zen Buddism for secular Western audiences originally by Jon Kabat-Zinn. These techniques attempt to train the mind in adopt a focused, non-judgemental, observational stance. Such a stance is very useful for many purposes, but taken to an extreme it can result in de-personalization / de-realization and other mental health problems.
For research to support this claim I recomment checking out Willoughby Britton’s research. Here are two PDF journal articles on this topic: one, and another one.