A Buddhist Context for Mindfulness

Abstract

Mindfulness meditation has been adopted by Western health practitioners from the Buddhist tradition of seeking spiritual enlightenment. Although general similarities between Individual Psychology (IP) and Buddhism have been noted, there has been no discussion of using meditation in IP interventions. There is, however, a long tradition of mindfulness meditation in Buddhism. It was first described by Siddhartha Gautama (later known as Buddha) in his first teaching after achieving enlightenment (c. 400 BCE). It was described at that time as a part of the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. The IP practitioner considering the use of mindfulness meditation will likely benefit from a knowledge of the context in which Buddha presented it originally and from an understanding of Buddhist strategies for enhancing mindfulness.