Politics of Mindfulness

In recent decades, “mindfulness” has become a catch-all term for Buddhist-derived practices done in corporate, educational, and therapeutic contexts. Mindfulness practices are touted by some as a necessary panacea for modern ills. Critics argue, however, that they have been unduly stripped of an ethical dimension and thus simply reinforce the status quo. In this course we will examine the history of mindfulness practices in Buddhist traditions, beginning with the canonical Satipa??hana Sutta. We will then draw from popular media and scholarly articles in order to assess the principal debates that surround the mindfulness discourse in contemporary American culture.

John Pickens is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Berkeley. His research centers on the rise of the guru in medieval Indian and Tibetan Buddhism./