When Awareness Becomes the Obstacle: A Yogācāra Diagnosis of the Mindfulness Ceiling in Mindfulness-Based Interventions

The article argues that certain mindfulness-based interventions may hit a ceiling because they inadvertently treat awareness itself as an object to be cultivated, which paradoxically reinforces the dualistic grasping that mindfulness aims to dissolve. Drawing on Yogācāra Buddhist philosophy, the author diagnoses this problem as a subtle form of attachment to the experience of awareness, which can become an obstacle to deeper liberative insight. The paper suggests that recognizing awareness as inherently non-dual and empty of self-nature, rather than as a skill to be perfected, may open a path beyond the plateau often reported in secular mindfulness programs.

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Abstract

When Awareness Becomes the Obstacle: A Yogācāra Diagnosis of the Mindfulness Ceiling in Mindfulness-Based Interventions