Somatics of Early Buddhist Mindfulness and How to Face Anxiety

In early Buddhist thought, the body is central to mindfulness practice, without assuming a mind-body duality or locating the mind in a specific physical place. The various body-directed mindfulness exercises should be considered together to understand their overall purpose. Among these, awareness of one's own bodily postures is described as a practice the Buddha-to-be undertook while seeking awakening, using it to face fear. This exercise offers grounding in embodied mindfulness, being fully present in the here and now, which is especially relevant to challenges posed by the current pandemic.

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Abstract

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 mindfulness to the body need to be considered in conjunction in order to arrive at a balanced understanding of their overarching purpose. Out of the different possible modalities of cultivating mindfulness in this way, the discourses present awareness directed to one’s own bodily postures as a practice already undertaken by the Buddha-to-be when he was still in quest of awakening. In this particular setting, such mindfulness of postures served as a way of facing fear. The potential of this exercise to provide a grounding in embodied mindfulness, being fully in the here and now, is of particular relevance to the challenges posed by the current pandemic.