19 papers in the library · 105 citations · publishing 2016-2023
Mindfulness October 1, 2023 Bhikkhu Anālayo
AbstractAn exploration of the relatively rare references to skill in means in early Buddhist texts points to a close relationship to the cultivation of mindfulness, under the overarching aim of establishing the mind in wholesome conditions and preventing the arising of what is unwholesome. At the same time, however, a particular narrative related to the Buddha’s half-brother Nanda and his...
Mindfulness November 1, 2022 Bhikkhu Anālayo, Christiane Steffens-Dhaussy, Fred Gallo et al.
AbstractThe article explores the potential impact of insight meditation and mindfulness practices on the body’s energy system. Basic principles of energy psychology, whose efficacy has been corroborated in current research, are surveyed from the viewpoint of their potential to help in dealing with hypersensitivity resulting from mindfulness practices, combined with presenting a set of specific...
Mindfulness September 5, 2022 Bhikkhu Anālayo, Oleg N. Medvedev, Nirbhay N. Singh et al.
Objectives: Early Buddhist thought clearly recognizes the need for learning how to face one's own mortality, for which purpose mindfulness practice has a central role to play. Fear of death has also been studied in cognitive psychology, leading to what is known as the terror management theory. Actual research evidence in psychology has already shown that mindfulness practice may reduce fear and...
Mindfulness August 1, 2022 Bhikkhu Anālayo
Abstract: Monitoring and acceptance have been identified as key dimensions in mindfulness-based programs, with acceptance in particular being central to their beneficial potential. From an early Buddhist perspective, the notion of such acceptance could be enhanced by adding the qualification “wise.” In other words, it is a wise form of acceptance that is indeed a key dimension of the type of...
Mindfulness June 1, 2022 Bhikkhu Anālayo
Abstract: Various dimensions of the cultivation of mindfulness in its early Buddhist historical setting can be better appreciated in the light of their doctrinal background. One aspect of this doctrinal background is the ancient Indian tetralemma, which differs from the Aristotelian logic that has informed much of Western thought. The tetralemma proposes that, in addition to affirmation and...
Mindfulness April 1, 2022 Bhikkhu Anālayo
AbstractAs the second of three articles, the present essay continues to explore the character of selected aspects of early Buddhism in order to assess its potential relevance as a reference point for those engaged in research on mindfulness in psychology. The exploration, which proceeds in critical dialogue with suggestions made by Donald Lopez Jr. and Evan Thompson, covers the topics of the...
Mindfulness March 1, 2022 Bhikkhu Anālayo
Abstract : As the first of three articles, the present essay explores the character of selected aspects of early Buddhism in order to assess its potential relevance as a reference point for those engaged in research on mindfulness in psychology. The exploration, which proceeds in critical dialog with suggestions made by Donald Lopez Jr. and Evan Thompson, covers the topics of the Buddha’s...
Mindfulness December 1, 2021 Bhikkhu Anālayo
AbstractCriticism of potential drawbacks of mindfulness is crucial for the field to move forward and remain grounded in reality rather than become carried away by the mindfulness hype. At the same time, however, such criticism needs to be reasonable and based on actual facts rather than subjective imagination. The allegation that mindfulness is intrinsically dangerous appears to have been...
Mindfulness November 1, 2021 Bhikkhu Anālayo
AbstractA recent surge of interest in equanimity as an important and transformative dimension of the cultivation of mindfulness can benefit from discerning different types of equanimity recognized in the Buddhist traditions, such as between equanimity as a divine abode or immeasurable and equanimity as the absence of compulsive reactivity by way of likes and dislikes. In order to provide an...
Mindfulness October 1, 2021 Bhikkhu Anālayo
AbstractA perusal of selected forms of early Buddhist tranquility meditation brings to light the complexity of the roles assumed by the Indic term kāya, usually translated as “body,” which corresponds to the domain of the first establishment of mindfulness. The present exploration of such complexity, which proceeds in critical dialogue with positions taken by Eviatar Shulman, covers the...
Mindfulness 2021 Bhikkhu Anālayo
Abstract One of the mindfulness exercises described in the Satipaṭṭhāna-sutta and its parallels concerns the four elements of earth, water, fire, and wind, which stand representative of the qualities of solidity, cohesion, temperature, and motion. Within the ancient Indian setting, the early Buddhist analysis of matter into these four elements can be seen to eschew the two extremes of...
Mindfulness November 1, 2020 Bhikkhu Anālayo
AbstractThe proposal to understand an external application of mindfulness to refer to being objective rather than subjective is not well supported by the relevant sources and fails to be directly applicable to actual meditation practice. The most commonly accepted understanding in Buddhist sources and contemporary research, which considers external mindfulness to refer to being aware of other...
Mindfulness October 1, 2020 Bhikkhu Anālayo
AbstractRacial oppression is a longstanding and widespread problem with significant repercussions and consequences for the health of those impacted. The roots of racial prejudice reach far back into the history of European culture. A contribution to the much-needed change can be found in the cultivation of mindfulness, in particular in its external dimension. This emerges from considering the...
Mindfulness September 1, 2020 Bhikkhu Anālayo
Abstract A case study of the descriptions of the progress of Buddhist insight meditation provided by Daniel Ingram shows how a forceful form of mindfulness combined with high-speed mental noting can result in the construction of meditative experiences to accord with expectations created by maps of the progress of insight, culminating in claims to having reached levels of awakening. The...
Mindfulness August 1, 2020 Bhikkhu Anālayo
AbstractThis article surveys references to mindfulness-related meditations found in Pāli discourses in the first five chapters of the Majjhima-nikāya and their parallels, showing the ubiquity of a concern with contemplative practices in early Buddhist thought. Such concerns were, according to these texts, not confined to monastics, but also included lay practitioners. Overall, the impression...
Mindfulness July 1, 2020 Bhikkhu Anālayo
AbstractDescriptions of the formal cultivation of mindfulness in theSatipaṭṭhāna-suttaand its parallels highlight that such practice has “internal” and “external” dimensions. Later traditions reflect a variety of viewpoints on the implications of these dimensions of establishing mindfulness. Perhaps due to the resultant uncertainty, contemporary research on the potential applicability and...
Mindfulness June 1, 2020 Bhikkhu Anālayo
AbstractThe body is a central object of the cultivation of mindfulness, in the way this has been described in relevant Pāli discourses and their parallels. At the background of such cultivation stands the absence of positing a mind-body duality and a lack of concern with a particular physical location of the mind in early Buddhist thought. Moreover, the various exercises that involve directing...
Current Opinion in Psychology October 9, 2018 Bhikkhu Anālayo
Research on Mindfulness-Based Interventions (MBI) is hampered by semantic ambiguity surrounding the term 'mindfulness'. Understanding the core quality involved in such research could be improved by adding historical depth to definitions of mindfulness, based on more detailed information on mindfulness from text-historical and doctrinal sources in the Buddhist traditions. Particular applications...
PLoS One April 26, 2016 Kirk Warren Brown, Robert J. Goodman, Richard M. Ryan et al. 105 citations
Training in mindfulness, classically described as a receptive attentiveness to present events and experiences, has been shown to improve attention and working memory. Both are key to long-term memory formation, and the present three-study series used multiple methods to examine whether mindfulness would enhance episodic memory, a key form of long-term memory. In Study 1 (N = 143), a...