Mindfulness - why not in Sri Lanka?

Mindfulness has taken the world by storm.  From Hollywood’s Hugh Jackman to farmers in South Africa call it the new age panacea that heals the mind. That’s more than 2500 years after the practice was originated in the East, with its pioneer, Buddha advocating it to his disciples thus introducing a new psychological tradition to the world.

Today millions across the globe belonging to almost every religion and ethnic community have embraced this tradition without giving up their ethnic and religious identities. In a sense, of late, mindfulness has gained a more secular outlook.  

Thousands of UK teachers trained in mindfulness claim that the practice, while helping them to be better teachers is also helping students to improve their behaviour by incorporating it in their day-to-day lives. It is learnt that mindfulness is especially effective for students suffering from Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder.    Politicians in UK too have found the practice too tempting to resist. In 2014, some 95 UK parliamentarians meditated in Westminster followed by celebrity comedian and mindfulness teacher Ruby Wax.  

Meanwhile, ever since the pioneering research by Dr. Amishi Jha of University of Miami proved that mindfulness had helped US marines to handle trauma better and improved combatting and endurance skills, it has been made part of the military curricula and refresher courses.   

With research results driving home the point that mindfulness helps employees stay more focused on work, corporate sector employers especially in the US and Europe have opted to organize mindfulness retreats to their workers while hundreds of coaches are working in prisons all over the world teaching mindfulness to prisoners which according to authorities has done wonders with the inmate behaviour.   

This renaissance in mindfulness came about following the groundbreaking work of Professor of Medicine Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School Jon Kabat-Zinn. Zinn a founding member of the Cambridge Zen Centre and a student of globally acclaimed mindfulness teacher Thich Nhat Hanh introduced the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) programme way back in 1979 at the Medical school of University of Massachusetts. The programme became extremely popular with MBSR yielding stunning results not only in treating patients but also in improving the mental health of others.

Later in 2007, Canadian scientist Prof. Norman Farb unveiled his study ‘Mindfulness meditation reveals distinct neural modes of self-reference’ giving it a neuroscience perspective, proving that mindfulness creates new grooves in brain putting it on the right track and thus preventing unnecessary rumination that leads to stress, suffering and mental illnesses.  

Today US, UK, France, Germany and rest of Europe boast of hundreds of mindfulness centres, both on research and practice. Leading among them is the Mindfulness Centre of the Oxford University which provides clinical and neuroscience research and develops new approaches to mindfulness-based interventions. 

In Germany, the Institute for Mindfulness-Based Approaches (IMA) offers courses in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) and Mindfulness-Based Compassionate Living (MBCL).   

In France, the village of Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh, the Plum Village, has been attracting political leaders, celebrities, professionals and students all over the world to get first hand instructions from the internationally reputed spiritual leader. Besides Paris, there’s a burgeoning coaching community in South of France as well.   

In the Middle East, teachers like Helen Williams, a founding member of Mindful ME, have made mindfulness a trend with Dubai as its base. In Jordan, mindfulness communities organized programmes for Syrian aid workers to get over the trauma of handling one of the worst and most traumatic crises – the Syrian refugee crisis. Mindfulness Africa network of Rob Nairn, established in 2008, helps thousands in the continent to enhance their mental well-being.

South Africa already has a flourishing mindfulness community.  

In Asian countries such as India, Japan and China which already have a foundation in mindfulness, thanks to Theravada and Zen Buddhism they are witnessing a revival of the tradition in their own land following the west.  It’s high time that Sri Lanka, which has been practising the age-old tradition in temples in small groups made it part of the country’s social culture so that everyone would benefit from it.