Mindfulness - Part 2

Mindfulness - Part 2

In part 1 we have seen the different aspects of a human being and how these different aspects are governing a human being in accomplishing a task.

In the second part, we will look into the origin or history of mindfulness.

Origin / History of Mindfulness

1. How old is mindfulness? 
2. Who has found it? 
3. Who coined the word mindfulness?

How old is Mindfulness? 
For this question the straight answer is - as old as existence of human beings.

Who has found it?
Many people in western culture started looking at mindfulness as a practice from Buddhism. It is Jon Kabat-Zinn who thought of bringing this into western culture based upon and inspired by the Vippasana practices in Buddhism.

Prior to that Daniel Goleman - the famous author who has expounded "Emotional Intelligence" also did contributed to mindfulness. In one of the talks held by Linkedin with Daniel Goleman and Richard Davidson "LinkedIn Speaker Series with Daniel Goleman and Richard Davidson", Daniel Goleman has shared his introduction into sort of mindfulness, when he visited India and met Neem Karoli Baba. This was way back in 1970's. Another Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh has written books and propagated mindfulness.

Daniel Goleman

Jon Kabat-Zinn

Thich Nhat Hanh

Neem Karoli Baba

Since 1970's lot of research has gone into mindfulness and today based upon the MBSR (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction) technique founded by Jon Kabat-Zinn and many other techniques coined and customized to suit various human beings based on their psychological needs, mindfulness has become a buzz word. Many of the meditation techniques are now being associated with mindfulness as western ideologists are not yet completely ready to accept the eastern philosophy. In one of their latest books "Altered Traits" Daniel Goleman and Richard Davidson have covered extensively the benefits of mindfulness and to what extent one can bring changes at various psychological levels by practicing mindfulness practices on a regular basis and for long periods (the authors reveal the latest data from Davidson’s own lab that point to a new methodology for developing a broader array of mind-training methods with larger implications for how one can derive the greatest benefits from mindfulness practices). There are many western authors, philosophers and psychologists who are inspired by India either directly or indirectly. To name a few: Robert Adams, Sir John George Woodroffe (under the pseudonym Arthur Avalon), Alan Watts, Eckhart Tolle, Gangaji, John Klein, Peter Russell, Robert Thurman, Rupert Spira, Nirmala, Mooji, Adyashanti (born as Stephen Gray), Ram Dass (born as Richard Alpert), Jack Kornfield, Maurice Frydman, Pamela Wilson, Greg Goode, Tami Simon (Sounds True fame), Scott Kiloby, Jeff Foster, Joan Tollifson, Peter Holleran, Paul Brunton, Francis Lucille, etc. Whilst this is the scenario in west, and the authors from west are looking forward towards east for eastern psychology, meditation and yoga; in the east people are looking at west and wooing themselves towards west for the buzzword mindfulness, power yoga, etc.

Who coined the word Mindfulness?
The word initially has been coined somewhere in 16th century.  Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., 2002 mentions that it was first recorded as myndfulness in 1530 (John Palsgrave translates French pensée), as mindfulnesse in 1561, and mindfulness in 1817. Morphologically earlier terms include mindful (first recorded in 1340), mindfully (1382), and the obsolete mindiness (ca. 1200).

Heartfulness
There is also another term coined by Westerners called - Heartfulness. It is the next level of Mindfulness. Is that what they say? However, these are all different words for the sanskrit term Dhāraṇa. Vignana Bhairava Tantra (विज्ञान भैरव तन्त्र) reveals many such practices. The very first technique and its extensions in further verses deals with highest aspect of heartfulness at a very deeper level.

Origin of Mindfulness
Whilst this is historical fiasco in west, it is completely different in India. In Indian scenario, the mindfulness techniques are well documented without any historical pompous. The origin of these techniques dates as back as 20,000 years ago and is expounded in various texts of Kashmiri Shaivism. One of the most authentic reference is that of "Rudrayāmala Tantra (रुद्रयामल तन्त्र)." From this text, a portion (chapter) of it is excerpted as "Vigñāna Bhairava Tantra" (विज्ञान भैरव तन्त्र) in which there are 112 techniques of mindfulness practices. In this world many Gurus and Sadhgurus have come and all have given some or the other techniques to their disciples for their awakening. All those techniques are excerpts from these 112 techniques, may be slightly modified here and there to suit and customized based upon the disciples needs. Gautama the Buddha has got enlightened based upon the very first technique which is now propagated as "ānāpānasati."

Irrespective of who has found it, today it is very well marketed in west and kudos to their marketing techniques. Unfortunately in India, most of the people are still unable to realize the wisdom She has and are wooing towards the west. Many saints and rishis (ऋषि  ṛṣi) have worked extensively on these techniques and some of them have written Upanishads based on some of these techniques. One of such kind is Haṃsopaniśad (हंसोपनिशद्).

The Vigñāna Bhairava Tantra reveals 112 techniques of mindfulness or spiritual practices and are mentioned in the form of a conversation between Bhairava (भैरव) who is also known as Shiva (शिव) and his consort Bhairavī  (भैरवी) who is also known as Parvatī (पार्वती). Shiva is also called as Adi Yogi (आदि योगि) - the first Yogi who has expounded everything about Yoga and shared all the experiential knowledge to his consort Parvatī and among many of his disciples. In this sacred text the techniques have been mentioned as dhāraṇa's (धारण), where a technique mentions on how to focus or concentrate on a particular aspect. Vigñāna Bhairava Tantra consists of 163 verses in which, verses 1 to 23 are in question form from Bhairavī  (भैरवी) and from verse 24 to 138, Bhairava (भैरव) expounds 112 dhāraṇa's (धारण) by which one can achieve the highest realm, liberation or nirvāṇa (निर्वाण). The other verses, from 139 to 163 are slight expansion and talks about some principles that are required to practice these techniques.

112 foot tall Adi Yogi statue at Velliangiri Foothills, Coimbatore, Tamilnadu, India

Whilst it does not matter who has told what, and from East or West, the Truth is available freely for all those who are receptive enough to receive it. The only requirements are honesty and yearning desire to know the Truth. In this inner journey of knowing or becoming aware of one-Self "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few" (Matthew 9:37).

Here, it reminds me the lines from "The Ballad of East and West" by Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936).

OH, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet, Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God’s great Judgment Seat; But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth, When two strong men stand face to face, tho’ they come from the ends of the earth!

Conclusion for part 2
Mindfulness may not solve all problems without enough emotional intelligence. These are the words said by Daniel Goleman in one of his articles on "Harvard Business Review." To practice mindfulness, an individual has to regulate his/her life style. Based upon his/her energy levels certain practices are recommended and some not. This understanding will be bestowed upon only when we understand the nuances of Energy, which we will look in part 3.

For mindfulness practices and a 15 minutes downloadable mindfulness session please read part 1.

For the readers who are more interested to have intellectual knowledge regarding mindfulness can further refer to the link on mindfulness at Wikipedia.

NOTE: All pictures of authors have been taken from the public domain and I don't own any rights for the photographs.

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Ending part 2 with Lao Tzu's words:

"Do you have the patience to wait until your mud settles and the water is clear"?

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