From Mindfulness to Right Mindfulness: the Intersection of Awareness and Ethics

Abstract

Monteiro et al. (2015) have raised important concerns regarding the role of ethics in contemporary models of mindfulness interventions. We agree that this is a central and compelling question in the cultural translation of mindfulness and of meditative practice when utilized in Western secular settings. Here, we address some foundational issues relating to the association of mindfulness and secular ethics that we hope will contribute to this discussion. In doing so, we consider mindfulness to be not only a specific set of meditative practices, but also an integral part of the eightfold path in which right speech, right action, right livelihood, etc., are intrinsically linked. Our view involves a broader translation of the term “mindfulness,” in accord with that of Bodhi (2011), in which mindfulness necessarily encompasses ethical speech and action as part of a complex set of interrelated processes, which include discernment, discrimination, remembrance, and imagination. This expanded definition moves us from mindfulness toward “right mindfulness” by incorporation of an ethical foundation that may be explicitly taught or implicitly communicated by the embodiment of such values in a teacher. In this commentary, we do not discuss the second issue raised by Monteiro and colleagues regarding the issue of spiritual materialism, nor their concerns regarding the utilization of meditative techniques in the service of self-advancement, combat, or other more controversial contemporary contexts. However, we share the concerns of the more traditional Buddhist approach that a delimited approach to mindfulness that does not include an ethical foundation is misappropriated and questionable. We also propose that it may be helpful to begin to articulate principles and criteria to (i) draw a clear line to distinguish mindfulness from right mindfulness in secular interventions and (ii) serve as scaffolding for development of an ethical framework.