Mindfulness: Where It Comes From and What It Means

Shaw (The Spirit of Buddhist Meditation), lecturer at the University of Oxford, offers a helpful introduction to the history, context, and evolution of mindfulness in the Buddhist tradition. Shaw begins by exploring the early uses of mindfulness, noting that Sati, the Pali (the language in which many ancient Hindu texts are written) word now associated with mindfulness (as well as the Sanskrit smrti) were early practices connected to memory and recollection. Moving chronologically, Shaw tracks how the contexts of mindfulness changed due to systems of thought developed through Abhidharma, Mahayana, and Vajrayana reformulations, “bare attention” proponents (an early form of non-Buddhist mindfulness), and, finally, through contemporary secular mindfulness. Mindfulness, Shaw argues, has always been a crucial part of Buddhism, and it has shifted meanings and methods according to the aims of any given project. For instance, mindful attention will be directed differently in a meditation to cultivate calmness than in one structured for insight. In the end, she defines mindfulness as “the capacity to experience each object of the mind with friendliness or neutrality” and situates mindfulness’s status within the larger history of Buddhist cultural adaptation. This accessible, robust exploration will appeal to readers interested in the Buddhist origins of the widely taught practice. (May)