Shaila Catherine: Mindfulness Sacred or Secular?

(Insight Meditation South Bay - Silicon Valley) Shaila Catherine gave this concluding talk in a guest speaker series that was organized to stimulate critical inquiry about mindfulness and how the teachings about mindfulness are manifesting in western cultures. This talk presents critical thinking, reflection, and discussion as integral elements of Buddhist practice. It refers to the early Buddhist custom of reciting teachings, sharing the Dhamma, and inviting correction and criticism about how the Dhamma was presented and taught. As mindfulness practices become mainstreamed, and applied in corporations and therapeutic contexts, some concern arises that the deep and liberating teachings of emptiness might be ignored as non-Buddhists, and sometimes non-practitioners, assert their own definitions of mindfulness in the media. This brief talk concludes with reflection questions about: 1. the meaning and definition of mindfulness—how is mindfulness different from attention? 2. how are ethics taught in Buddhist and secular applications of mindfulness? 3. how are secular interests affecting the development of western lay Buddhism?