Mindfulness is becoming an increasingly valued resource by different disciplines related to health and education. Many psychologists, psychiatrists and educators are interested in investigating the potential of this tool that has been developed from the principles of vipassana meditation, a practice associated with the Buddhist tradition.

However, unlike meditation rituals that originated thousands of years ago, Mindfulness exists only because of its ability to produce objective changes in people’s well-being, and it does not have religious purposes. It is an effort to develop a series of systematic principles that allow the scientific study of a phenomenon based fundamentally on the regulation of attention focus and states of consciousness.

In this article we will make a brief review of the history of Mindfulness , to help understand how it has developed and how it has evolved.

The origins of Mindfulness: the story behind the practice

Locating the origins of Mindfulness is not easy, since, as with disciplines that start from a very old tradition, there is a wide temporal margin along which we can consider that what we are describing begins. This is something that happens with Psychology, whose seed is attributed by some to the philosophers of 5th century B.C. Greece, and it happens with Mindfulness, which rests on the millennial pillars of meditation practiced in many places in Asia.

The beginnings: vipassana meditation and sati

It is important to note that the pillars on which the history of Mindfulness rests are called vipassana meditation, a practice that forms part of the religious rituals of many areas of Asia including or close to India, and which in turn has to do with a broader philosophical doctrine that has to do with meditation in general.

Much could be said about the tradition of vipassana meditation in Asia, but the main thing is to understand that it is a phenomenon that began with Buddhism about 3,500 years ago. The philosophical root of what would one day become Mindfulness was known in the world of Buddhism as sati , one of the main factors on the path to enlightenment and liberation according to the ideas of Gautama Buddha. In fact, sati can be translated as full consciousness; or, in English, “mindfulness”.

The clash of cultures: the West comes into play

But Mindfulness itself, unlike the vipassana meditation from which it starts, is a product of the mixture of cultures from the West and the regions of the Far East in which Buddhism has taken root.

At first, this contact between different types of societies came through the British colonization of India , at the end of the 19th century. Although the interests of this European empire were basically economic and military, this invasion also had scientific and intellectual implications. The British who settled in these lands were surprised by many of the things they saw there, including the calm and the philosophy of life of those who had dedicated time and effort to practicing certain types of meditation. This motivated a series of investigations that were developed throughout the 20th century.

This type of study received new waves of interest from European academics and researchers, starting with the discovery, in parallel, of many other phenomena alien to European culture that fascinated authors and scientists of all kinds, from thinkers like Carl Jung to anthropologists who set out to learn more about that region of the world, until not so long ago relatively isolated from the rest. As globalization intensified its effects, so did cultural exchanges .

One of the turning points in the development of the history of Mindfulness can be found in the research carried out by Jon Kabat-Zinn. This American doctor is famous for having proposed, since the 1970s, the use of full care in the clinical field, as a tool to achieve therapeutic goals. From that project he started what is known as Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction , with the aim of taking the therapeutically useful elements of meditation, investigating them and enhancing them in the field of applied science, once separated from their role in Buddhism.

The option of spiritual retreats

The connection between Mindfulness and the religious tradition in which it has its roots always generates much debate, since while it is true that it is possible to systematize certain practices that first appeared within the framework of Buddhism, the experience associated for centuries with these rituals also informs us about the nature of this tool.

For this reason it is common to carry out spiritual retreats linked to the practice of Mindfulness in which activities very similar to those that make up the day-to-day life of Buddhist monks are carried out, although without placing faith in a system of religious beliefs.

In this sense, people who want to be initiated in Mindfulness or to practice it in a special way have the interesting opportunity to sign up for the first spiritual retreat in Spain, which will have the presence of Jon Kabat-Zinn himself , as well as other prestigious speakers, such as Dr. Javier García Campayo, one of the main experts in Mindfulness in Spain. The retreat will take place on 19 June 2018, and participation in it is included in the registration fee for the 5th International Mindfulness Congress that will be held from 20 to 23 June at the World Trade Center in Zaragoza.

To receive more information or to register, you can access Dr. Javier García Campayo’s contact details or his website via this link.